Warning to Canberra: British MPs here to listen and act as they arrive in Norfolk Island on fact-finding programme

Medianet Release
29 Aug 2016 1:21 PM AEST - Warning to Canberra: British MPs here to listen and act as they arrive in Norfolk Island on fact-finding programme Media Release 29th August 2016 Warning to Canberra: British MPs here to listen and act as they arrive in Norfolk Island on fact-finding programme On arrival tomorrow in Norfolk Island, a delegation of British Parliamentarians will begin a three day fact-finding programme in response to Canberra's annexation of Norfolk Island.  The delegation, led by Foreign Affairs Select Committee member, Andrew Rosindell MP (Conservative, Romford) will seek to gain further understanding about the key issues and to hear first-hand the views and opinions of Norfolk Islanders. Hosting the delegation is Andre Nobbs, Technical Advisor to the Council of Elders and former Norfolk Island Chief Minister, who first proposed a visit of UK Parliamentarians to Norfolk Island after receiving positive soundings from MPs during his visit to London last November.  Mr Nobbs states that the purpose of the delegation is to highlight that the process to remove self-government was based on misleading and flawed data and the process was enacted against the wishes of the majority of the people of Norfolk Island. An invitation to visit Norfolk Island was sent towards the end of 2015 and during June this year a report was provided to MPs in Westminster and the invitation to visit the island was discussed in detail culminating in an agreed timing and commitment to a neutral evaluation of the Island's situation. On behalf of the Council of Elders, the Norfolk Island People for Democracy and the majority of Norfolk Island people as identified in official referendum, Andre Nobbs states: "Upon my return from London, we identified that Norfolk Island has many friends who are keen to listen and act, this week's visitation and engagement with the community is testament to that fact.  We are pleased to welcome Mr Rosindell and his two colleagues, Ms Paula Sherriff MP and Mr Daniel Kawczynski MP. "So let this be a warning to Canberra - the people of Norfolk Island want a different constitutional arrangement - and that means self-determination and self-government.  There was and is still room for a collaborated, successful and productive outcome and we would like the opportunity to engage - with an independent oversight body to ensure all parties do the right thing."
	© Australian Associated Press, 2016

Just because it is beautiful.........(14 )

ADAM HOURIGAN, Country Women 2016

Quote of the Month

As one of the 21 candidates in the upcoming local government elections in the Clarence Valley I attended the Maclean meet the candidates night last night with 17 other candidates. The question was asked "If you support the Yamba Mega Port put up your hand?" Not one candidate's hand was raised. End of story. [Dr. Greg Clancy, 26 August 2016]

Policy Platforms of Candidates in the Clarence Valley Local Government Elections, Saturday 10 September 2016 - Part Three

North Coast Voices contacted as many Clarence local government election candidates as was possible and issued an invitation to supply their policy positions for our readers.

Here are the third post in this series.

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SUE HUGHES

Sue Hughes

I have been a Councillor since 2008 and my vision for the next term of Council is for unity and financial sustainability. I want to see Councillors work together for the betterment of our community, for the entire Clarence Valley and not just in their own backyard.   I have lived in Yamba, Grafton and on the banks of the Mann River and I currently work in Maclean, Gulmarrad, Lawrence and all over the Clarence Coast. I believe I am a true representative of the Clarence Valley. I feel privileged to represent you the ratepayers and residents and treat my role seriously and with a professional manner and always with the highest integrity.

Being a Councillor isn’t just about attending Council Meetings, it’s about working within our community, representing our community and being a leader in the community.  Councillors should be advocates for the broader community and make decisions based on what the majority of the community want and not what the minority want.  It’s about keeping the community’s best interests in mind and listening, engaging and being active with our residents and ratepayers.

During the past term of Council, we have had to make some very tough decisions around rates and budgets etc. And our role can be very difficult as we try and balance the expectation from the community with the financial and budgetary constraints that we are faced with.  It is very much an ongoing challenge. All the financial indicators demonstrate that Council needs to increase the level of funding it has committed, to the renewal and maintenance of its building and infrastructure assets.

I want to continue with the hard work that has been undertaken in the past term of Council, continue to make those challenging decisions whilst listening to our community AND finding that balance I mentioned earlier.

I strongly believe that Council is heading in the right direction for long term sustainability, we just need to ensure that those decisions we make have an impact on our long term not just the short term. 

During my term on Council over the past 8 years I been involved with the following committees, the Saleyards Committee, the Tourism Advisory Committee, Clarence Roundtable, Clarence Valley Business Advisory Committee, the Gallery Advisory Committee, the Sports Marketing Australia Committee, Australia Day Committee and have Chaired the Environment, Economic and Community Committee of Council.

I may be the least outspoken Councillor on Council but I sure as heck have the community’s best interest at heart.  I demonstrate this daily by my involvement with voluntary roles such as President, Yamba Chamber of Commerce, President, Light up the Darkness (Mental Health Advocacy Group), and I, MC at events and festivals when invited to do so. I also have volunteered with the Gallery Foundation for the Grafton Regional Gallery, Art in the Paddock and Gate to Plate events. In addition I’m an inaugural member of the Surfing the Coldstream Festival and inaugural member of the CV Business Excellence Awards.  I also created and manage five different Facebook pages dedicated to promoting our lifestyle and showcasing our natural beauty around Yamba, Maclean and Lawrence.

I am passionate about the Clarence Valley, passionate about business and economic growth, passionate about tourism, arts and culture and I’m passionate about making a difference where I live.

The next 4-5 years are critical in the Clarence Valley, with the Pacific Highway upgrade, the Grafton Gaol, the Bridges and the Blueberry Industry we need to not only take advantage of the economic boom but put strategies in place for when the projects are completed and there is a nose dive in activity.

We need to continue to foster existing businesses and help grow and encourage new businesses to our region and most importantly keep them here.

Should you vote for me on 10th September, I promise to continue to work hard and represent you the ratepayers and residents of the Clarence Valley to the best of my ability, it is indeed a privilege. 

Text and photograph supplied by Sue Hughes

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KEITH BATES

Flyer supplied by Keith Bates

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URSULA TUNKS

                                                                     Ursula Tunks

We are facing a dire financial situation, the new council needs to face this issue head on; with integrity. If elected I will advocate for the new council team to immediately contract an independent Auditor to undertake a thorough internal audit of the Council’s finances. Should that auditor recommend that the new council be removed and replaced by an administrator I will support this recommendation. My aim is purely to ensure that the CVC survives the current fiscal crisis without inflicting the absurd SRV on our community.

Should an auditor find that the new council can continue operating my priorities are:

 Approaching the State Government for support in rectifying their ill thought out amalgamation process and establish their liability to our community for the resulting chaos, seeking their commitment to contributing to the recovery of the CVC to a functional and viable local government body.

 Work with the CVC Management, as part of the team, to rein in spending and to include all staff in an urgent analysis of areas where cost savings can be achieved.

 Work with the newly elected council to establish a strategy and subsequent plan to achieve a positive cultural change in the CVC’s organisational identity. CVC staff and ratepayers MUST insist on an organisational culture which focuses on the support of the staff and community and immediately removes the fear and control management style that has been permitted to flourish without check for the past few years.

There will be a need to focus the CVC on the ‘core’ service delivery over the term, an obligation that it MUST meet. I will advocate for cuts, which will be unpopular, however popularity isn’t our answer. If we are truly committed as a community to improving our local government governance and service delivery then we must brace for a four year period of reigning in spending. To this end I will be advocating that a process be established to support those groups which may be subject to funding cuts, to identify new income streams, private and government funding. My commitment will be to ensuring that where CVC is unable to continue to support groups that we assist those groups in identifying new support and funding sources.

My voting preferences are:

1. Ursula Tunks

2. Ian Saunders

3. Margaret McKenna

4. Brett Tibbett

5. Peta Rogers

6. Andrew Baker

7. Joy de Roos 

Text and photograph supplied by Ursula Tunks

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Ian Saunders                                        

Ian Saunders

VOTE 1: IAN SAUNDERS

To build a fairer, more equitable, more inclusive and more humane Council that is a part of our community rather than behaving like its ruler. 

• ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS: Bachelor of Engineering; Master of Engineering Science; Graduate Diploma in Management - electives in Project Management, Contract Law, Public Finance.

• RELEVANT EXPERIENCE: 40 years of professional experience in Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, and The Seychelles including 14 years of Local Government experience with Brisbane City, Logan City and 4 years with The Clarence Valley Council

• EMPLOYER & CLIENT ORGANIZATIONS: Snowy Mountains Engineering Corp., AusAid, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Queensland Electricity Commission, Water Resources Commission, Queensland Alumina Ltd., Munro Johnson & Assoc (later Parsons Brinkerhoff).

• TASKS FOR THE NEW COUNCIL: Independent internal audit of Council, particularly the Trust funds; Review the role and authority of the GM and HR Manager; Public disclosure of employment contracts for executive staff and amounts paid in out of court non-disclosure agreements; Mandatory project review for all CVC projects that over run budget and completion dates.

Changes to the Local Government Act to bring it into line with State and Federal governments regarding issues such as Council meeting procedures and the protocols and conventions observed in Westminster Democracies; The pre-election "caretaker mode" to prevent the awarding of contracts like the Tyson St Depot contract, immediately prior to elections; An immediate moratorium on public assets sales. No SRV, in fact rates reductions should be possible after a complete overhaul of Council operational strategies; Finally, a reconstitution and restructure of the Tourism Advisory Committee and its funding.

I'm not into election time motherhood statements and I’m not trying to be an apologist for the last Council, particular the majority five Councillors who so frustrated the minority four. But trying to do one full time job guarding the chickens from the foxes as well as working another to earn a living is “Mission Impossible”!  That said, Root Cause analyses of almost ANY of the issues confronting Clarence Valley Council keep returning the same result: Clarence Valley Council is the product of a hopelessly bungled amalgamation. It’s one thing to merge a bunch of little country Councils into a multi-million dollar public corporation, but to then walk away leaving them floundering under the Legislation designed for the little country shire is reprehensible. The State Government caused the problems and it’s the State Government that needs to sort them out starting with the $127M debt. The Minister will need to bring out the cheque book he used for the recent bout of forced amalgamations; the one that CVC didn’t see in 2004.  Successive Ministers sat back in Sydney for 12 years and watched this disaster unfold and they did absolutely nothing! It’s time to “pay the piper”. Then there needs to be a new Local Government Act Mk 2 that will fit the needs of the big amalgamated Councils. We don’t want another 9 elected mushrooms and a despotic CEO with a watering can and a bucket of manure running the entire circus. A skills audit to identify the glaring gap between what we need and what we have now in Councils executive, management and staff, and a strategy to fill that gap would also be helpful. Maybe then, a new debt free Council might have a slightly better than even chance at delivering some stability, economic sustainability, some semblance of a representative democracy, and the prosperous future the Valley people deserve. 

Text and photograph supplied by Ian Saunders

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Previous posts in the 2016 Clarence Valley local government election candidate profile series:

http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/policy-platforms-of-candidates-in_26.html

http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/policy-platforms-of-candidates-in_30.html

ASIO wouldn't be asking for these extensions to its coercive powers if Australian Attorney-General George Brandis hadn't already given the nod

If Labor and the crossbenches agree to this demand then there is little hope left that Australians will have adequate protection under law.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 August 2007:

ASIO has proposed scrapping the need for judge-approved warrants to detain and question Australians for up to a week without charge in terrorism investigations, in a watering down of safeguards that has alarmed lawyers and rights advocates.

The power to grant the security agency a controversial "questioning and detention warrant" would rest instead with the Attorney-General – a situation the Law Council of Australia has branded "unprecedented".

The changes being requested by ASIO would also remove a current separate requirement that an independent legal authority, such as a retired judge, is present when a person is being questioned. Rather, oversight of questioning would rest with the intelligence watchdog, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.

Under laws passed in the wake of the September 11 and Bali bombing attacks, ASIO has the power to hold someone for up to seven days and question them if it may "substantially assist the collection of intelligence that is important in relation to a terrorism offence", even if the person isn't a terrorism suspect themselves…..

Currently ASIO needs an "issuing authority" in the form of a serving judge to approve the warrant.

The laws include both "questioning warrants", which make it an offence to refuse to answer ASIO's questions and also "questioning and detention warrants", which allow ASIO to have the Australian Federal Police arrest and hold someone so ASIO can question them…..

Police and intelligence agencies say that terrorism plots in the Islamic State era are increasingly rudimentary and fast-moving, which means processes such as obtaining warrants need to be streamlined as much as possible so authorities can swoop to protect the public.

But the detention warrants have never actually been used in the 11 years they've been in place. Questioning warrants have been used 16 times since 2004, though not since 2009.

The Attorney-General already has the power to approve intelligence-gathering methods such as phone intercepts and surveillance.

But Law Council of Australia director Arthur Moses, SC, who also gave evidence to the inquiry, told Fairfax Media: "We're talking here about persons being detained in custody and deprived of their liberty. That takes it to an entirely different level."

"Western democracies have always taken the position that we do not in effect have a situation where a politician can give that authority … Usually people have the protection of a judicial officer … In my view it's unprecedented.

"We accept and understand that in respect of an evolving security threat environment, sometimes legislation and procedures need to be amended … but we are not aware of any issue that has arisen where ASIO has attempted to obtain a detention warrant and it has not been able to."…..

Australian Census 2016 stumbles on.....

The Australian reports on the desperation of the Australian Bureau of Statistics to achieve the numbers required to legitimize census results, 29 August 2016:

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ grand experiment with digital technology has entered a new phase, asking more than 25,000 census collectors to use their own smartphones and tablets in a blitz of 3.5 million households that have failed to return their questionnaires.

In one of the world’s largest “bring-your-own-technology” enterprises, more than 500 varieties of smartphone and tablet have been registered to track which homes have been visited and what hazards collectors should expect when they arrive.

The initiative is part of an ABS effort to match the 98.3 per cent coverage achieved by the census in 2011 — a target the federal opposition suspects is now out of reach amid public panic over privacy concerns and website outages in its early stages.

Census chief Duncan Young said the census field collectors had been equipped with Apple iOS and Android applications instead of the hefty bound books issued to census collectors in previous years. Mr Young downplayed the system’s vulnerability to cyber attack, saying collectors faced strict security hurdles before being allowed access to the system……

If this exchange is correct in its details then something is seriously wrong with the attitude and actions of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Turnbull Government and, with  Australian society if it tolerates this behaviour.

          1.    Amy Gray ‏@_AmyGray_  Aug 22

Census collectors came to my place last week. They knocked on and then tried to OPEN my door. Another #CensusFail

          2.   kelloveslife ‏@kelloveslife  Aug 26

@_AmyGray_ I came home Sat evening to find a card ON MY DINING TABLE that the census person had left!

          3.    Amy Gray ‏@_AmyGray_  Aug 26

@kelloveslife No one had let them in?

          4.   kelloveslife ‏@kelloveslife  Aug 26

@_AmyGray_ no one was home except the dog & cat

          5.    Amy Gray ‏@_AmyGray_  Aug 26

@kelloveslife Just to confirm: no one who lives in your home took materials from or let in a census worker?

;          6.  kelloveslife ‏@kelloveslife  Aug 26

@_AmyGray_ AFAIK no, there was nobody home all day

          7.  Amy Gray ‏@_AmyGray_  Aug 26

@kelloveslife Have you asked the other people in your house? Sorry, just trying to confirm and edge out any potential deniablity from them.

       kelloveslife‏@kelloveslife

@_AmyGray_

9:21 AM - 26 Aug 2016

Literally millions of Australians in the firing line as Treasurer Scott Morrison continues his assault on the poor

On current settings, more Australians today are likely to go through their entire lives without ever paying tax than for generations. More Australians are also likely today to be net beneficiaries of the Government than contributors - never paying more tax than they receive in government payments.

There is a new divide – the taxed and the taxed nots. [Australian Treasurer & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison, Bloomberg address, "Australia must take action to strengthen our economic resilience", 24 August 2016]

John Passant* writing in Independent Australia on 29 August 2016 is not impressed by Scott Morrison:

THE one sided class war continues. Only the words have changed.

Under Abbott and Hockey it was "lifters and leaners" and "ending the age of entitlement".

The "logic" behind this rhetoric gave us the horror Budget of 2014 and its proposed $80 billion in cuts over time to public health and public education.

Public opposition to that Budget was widespread, and angry. The Abbott Government never recovered and the 18 months of negative polls and the prospect of a Liberal wipe-out at the election, saw Malcolm Turnbull take over and win a bare one seat House of Representatives majority and an unpredictable Senate in the July 2 election.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has found some new weasel words to try to disguise the class war he is leading against the poor, pensioners, the sick, the unemployed and low paid workers.

After years of denying it Morrison has admitted we have a revenue problem, although he called it an "earnings" problem. According to Morrison, the great divide in Australian society is between the taxed and the taxed-nots.

In ScoMo world it is "the taxed" who have been bearing the burden of Budget repair while "the taxed-nots" have been bludging off us. Time for the taxed-nots to pull up their socks and start contributing to fixing the Budget problem.

Just who do Morrison and Turnbull have in mind as the taxed-nots? Could it be the 676 big businesses (36% of the group) which, according to the Commissioner of Taxation’s corporate tax transparency report, paid no income tax in 2013-14? Not on your life.

Could it be the likes of Don Argus – former Bank of America chairman – and his wife with their tax free pension of $1.2 million a year? Not on your life.

Could it be the 56 millionaires who pay no income tax? Not on your life.

Morrison’s prescription for the earnings problem is not to tax big business and the rich but to cut welfare payments to those who most need them — the sort of people he and others claim pay no tax.

As Duncan Storrar, in replying to one accusation that he pays little or no tax, said on ABC's Q&A:

“I pay tax every time I go to the supermarket. Every time I hop in my car.”

In fact, as I have written previously for IA:

Analysis from NATSEM, contained in the ACOSS report on inequality, shows that Australia’s tax take (including GST as well as income tax) across various income quintiles fluctuates around 25%, with those on lower incomes as a generalisation a bit below and those with higher incomes a bit above that figure. However, it gets worse when we compare the two ends of the income spectrum. The bottom 5% pay 34.2% of their income in taxes while the top 5% pay 30.1% in tax.

In other words, Australia does not have a progressive tax system.

Morrison also argued that there were millions on ‘welfare’ who paid no net income tax. By this he means that the government payments they receive are greater than the tax they pay.

Let’s be clear about this. The sort of people Morrison has in mind – and in his sights – are pensioners, the unemployed, students, the disabled, the homeless, those women fleeing domestic violence, the low paid and the list goes on.

Among these groups, the main people who pay little tax and receive much more in payments and other benefits from government are pensioners — all 2.4 million of them….

Read the full article here.

* John Passant is a former Assistant Commissioner of Taxation in charge of international tax reform in the ATO.

New Matilda, 30 August 2016:

“The new divide – the taxed and the taxed nots”

Here was an opportunity to state categorically that we need to increase our taxes, and to make those who are well-off pay their share. Instead we have been presented with a rambling discourse, dominated by his claim that there is a large proportion of Australians who “go through their entire lives without ever paying tax”.

That is plain wrong.

This year the Commonwealth is budgeted to collect $59 billion in GST, and $25 billion in excise and customs duty on tobacco, fuels and certain imports. That’s around $9,000 a household, in taxes that are practically impossible to avoid. Not even a Carmelite nun can avoid the GST.

And that’s before we consider state taxes such as drivers’ licences and car registration fees, and state and local government property taxes paid directly by homeowners or by tenants through their landlords.

Most of these taxes are regressive. The lower one’s income, the higher is the proportion of that income devoted to consumption and therefore to paying the GST, and the registration fees for a Corolla and a Porsche are pretty much the same.

That’s not to mention road tolls, private health insurance, fees at government schools and higher co-payments in health, all of which are high-cost privatised means of paying what we could be paying more fairly and efficiently through our taxes.

Morrison reluctantly admits that Australia has a public revenue problem, but he fails to acknowledge the yawning gap between what we presently collect in taxes and what we should be collecting if we are to fund adequately the public goods and a social security system appropriate for a high income country.

Our tax collections, as a percentage of GDP, are close to the lowest of all OECD countries – among prosperous developed countries only the USA collects less tax, and contrary to partisan spin, our taxes are falling.

Over the early years of this century Commonwealth taxes were around 24 per cent of GDP, before plummeting to 20 percent during the GFC and recovering to only 22 per cent now.

Read the rest of the article here.

NOTE

The Australian Goods & Services Tax (GST) taxes the final consumer of a good or service. Most unprocessed and raw foods as well as most education, childcare and medical services are GST exempt. The current GST rate is 10 per cent of the retail cost of goods and services and this tax is paid by est. 23.96 million people living in an est.10 million households. This tax is not included in government calculations of how much net tax is paid by any individual after government pensions/benefits/tax concessions received are deducted. Low income individuals/households pay proportionally more GST that middle and high income individuals/households.

[The Conversation, 24 July 2015]