Tuesday 28 August 2018
Australia's water evaporation levels are running at record rates in 2018
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
22 August 2018:
Australia's evaporation
levels are running at record rates, especially across eastern states,
increasing the misery for drought-hit
farmers and raising bushfire risks as the mercury starts to climb.
While rainfall
deficiencies have drawn much attention, stronger-than-usual winds, abnormally
sunny days and low humidity have combined to push up evaporation levels, Bureau
of Meteorology data shows.
Across the nation,
evaporation last month averaged 145.21 millimetres, well above the 128.6 mm
typical for July, and the most on record for data going back to 1975, said Karl
Braganza, head of climate monitoring at the bureau.
The national tally beat
the previous record in 2002. On a regional level, the evaporation rate was the
highest on record for Victoria, and also smashed previous records for eastern
Australia as a whole.
July
pan evaporation for Eastern Australia
1975-2018
If you live in a NSW rural/regional area or an outer metropolitan suburb with thick tree cover.....
Now is the time to make or update your bushfire survival plan.
Because the fires have come early this year and intermittant rainfall is unlikely to ease the threat for long.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/rainfall/ |
Crikey.com.au, 16 August 2018:
NSW has declared its
earliest total fire ban on record, with hundreds of South Coast residents
forced to flee their homes amidst a massive blaze.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that fire crews
battled at least 83 fires across the state, following stronger-than-expected
winds, creating fire bans that beat the previous record by two weeks.
Compounding problems was the fact that, according to The Daily Telegraph ($), two huge water bombers were
not in action because they had not yet arrived from the US ahead of Australia’s
summer season.
Australian
Government Bureau of Meteorology
New South Wales
Fire Weather Warning for the Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven fire areas.
Issued at 10:37 am EST on Wednesday 15 August 2018.
Weather Situation
New South Wales
Fire Weather Warning for the Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven fire areas.
Issued at 10:37 am EST on Wednesday 15 August 2018.
Weather Situation
Warm,
dry and windy conditions over southeast NSW today ahead of a cold front,
which will pass to the south of the state overnight.
For the rest of Wednesday 15 August:
Severe Fire Danger is forecast for the following fire areas:
Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven
The NSW Rural Fire Service advises you to:
- Action your Bushfire Survival Plan now.
- Monitor the fire and weather situation through your local radio station,
www.rfs.nsw.gov.au and www.bom.gov.au.
- Call 000 (Triple Zero) in an emergency.
The Rural Fire Service advises that if you are in an area of Severe Fire Danger:
- If you plan to leave finalise your options and leave early on the day
- Only stay if your home is well prepared and you can actively defend it
- Prepare for the emotional, mental and physical impact of defending your
property - if in doubt, leave.
For information on preparing for bushfires go to www.rfs.nsw.gov.au.
No further warnings will be issued for this event, but the situation will
continue to be monitored and further warnings issued if necessary.
which will pass to the south of the state overnight.
For the rest of Wednesday 15 August:
Severe Fire Danger is forecast for the following fire areas:
Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven
The NSW Rural Fire Service advises you to:
- Action your Bushfire Survival Plan now.
- Monitor the fire and weather situation through your local radio station,
www.rfs.nsw.gov.au and www.bom.gov.au.
- Call 000 (Triple Zero) in an emergency.
The Rural Fire Service advises that if you are in an area of Severe Fire Danger:
- If you plan to leave finalise your options and leave early on the day
- Only stay if your home is well prepared and you can actively defend it
- Prepare for the emotional, mental and physical impact of defending your
property - if in doubt, leave.
For information on preparing for bushfires go to www.rfs.nsw.gov.au.
No further warnings will be issued for this event, but the situation will
continue to be monitored and further warnings issued if necessary.
For
up-to-date information for your local area see NSW Rural Fire Service’s Fire Danger
Ratings and Total Fire Bans and Fires Near Me.
The words being uttered by many firefighters “what the hell is going on, it’s winter” footage of the #SaltAshFire as it moved towards the Tanilba Bay Golf Club on Saturday night by Dungog Rural Fire Brigade #NSWRFS pic.twitter.com/Kqw4CETANM— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) August 20, 2018
Watch&Act: Old Glen Innes Rd Fire Buccarumbi (Clarence Valley) Strengthening winds across the fireground has seen fire activity increase. The fire is moving east towards Old Glen Innes Road. #NSWRFS https://t.co/3eIK7kkUj9 pic.twitter.com/tGL7QIN09i— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) August 21, 2018
Monday 27 August 2018
Financial Services Royal Commission delivers its Round 5 report
The royal commission that Liberal MP for Cook and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, along with the rest of his government, fought so hard to prevent delivers another damning report.....
Financial
Review, 24
August 2018:
NAB and Commonwealth
Bank have been lashed in a 200-pagedocument published by the Hayne royal commission that details thousands of
breaches of the law including the Corporations Act, the Superannuation Industry
Supervision (SIS) Act and the ASIC Act – some of which carry criminal
penalties.
Counsel assisting the
Hayne royal commission Michael Hodge QC has said it is open to the Commissioner
to make these findings against the banks in a blockbuster closing statement
published just before 7pm on Friday evening.
The two banks are not
alone, with open findings also delivered against AMP
for breaches of the Corporations Act and the SIS Act, against IOOF for
breaches of the ASIC Act and the SIS Act, against Suncorp for breaches of the
Corporations Act, the ASIC Act and the SIS Act, and against ANZ for breaches of
the Corporations Act.
Open findings of law
breaches have also been delivered in relation to case studies that were not
heard in public with Westpac and AON Hewitt sized up for breaches of
the Corporations Act.
NAB and Commonwealth
Bank have been singled out, however, for repeated and systemic
breaches of laws which included NAB's inability to notify ASIC of breaches of
licence conditions under Sections 912D of the Corporations Act and CBA's
13,000-fold breach of the SIS Act.
NAB came in for a
spectacular serve from counsel assisting the Hayne royal commission, who
described the bank's negotiations with ASIC over the fees for no service
scandal as "ethically unsound" as it tried to substitute services it
promised to provide with services it did provide.
Mr Hodge also said the
bank was engaged in unconscionable conduct over the charging of fees and its
attempts to weasel out of repayments despite knowing the "fee should never
have been charged to members and was not adequately disclosed".
NAB
chief customer offer Andrew Hagger was singled out for his dealings
with the regulator over the fees for no service scandal which counsel assisting
said revealed "disrespect for the role of the regulator and a disregard
for the gravity of the events".
Counsel assisting
submitted that "no reasonable person would believe that NAB's
communications with ASIC" over the matter that would see NAB on the hook
for almost $90 millin in refunds were "open and transparent" -
despite the bank's attempts to characterise its actions as just that.
In addition, the systems
and controls the bank had to monitor the provision of advice were
either not adequate, non-existent or ineffective according to
the savage take-down……
Much of the bank's
offending related to its inability to move more than 13,000 super fund members
to low-fee MySuper accounts after January 1, 2014 - leaving them in higher-fee
paying accounts instead. The bank's communications with members about the issue
was described as misleading by counsel assisting, with the bank's witness
accepting the description during the hearings.
CBA's platform operator
Aventeos also was the subject of open findings for the charging of dead
customers for financial advice, a practice counsel assisting said was in breach
of Section 52 of the SIS Act.
The lengthy document
will add even more fuel to the fire that has singed the for profit super sector
following revelations they have charged customers more than $1 billion in fees
they have never provided, including to dead
customers, and then lied to regulators about it.
The prospect of criminal
charges was first raised by Commissioner Hayne himself when he asked NAB's
superannuation trustee Nicole Smith "Did you think yourself taking the
money to which there as no entitlement raised a question of criminal
law?"
Diversified financial
services company AMP - which was excoriated
for its dealings with the regulator in the second round of hearings
- was exposed for an arrangement that saw its superannuation trustee
contracting out services it was meant to undertake to other arms of the
business.
During the hearings it
was revealed the arrangement, which oversaw $100 billion in retirement savings
spread over the accounts of 2.5 million members, meant AMP's trustee was unable
to lookout for its members by stopping AMP from gouging account holders or
looking for another service provider….
Read the full
article here.
Labels:
banks and bankers,
royal commission
Luke Hartsuyker? Luke Hartsuyker? Think I recall that name
Luke Hartsuyker Image: Greater Springfield Daily Record |
NSW National Party MP for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker is retiring at the next federal election.
He has been a
member of the federal parliament since 2001 and is a clear example of a man
rising to the level of his own political incompetence.
Hartsuyker has briefly
held one ministerial and three assistant ministerial positions since entering parliament – the last ending in March this year:
Assistant
Minister for Employment from 18.9.13 to 21.9.15 (2 years).
Minister
for Vocational Education and Skills from 21.9.15 to 18.2.16 (less than 5
months).
Assistant
Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister from 19.7.16 to 20.12.17 (17 months).
Assistant
Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment from 20.12.17 to 5.3.18 (less than 3
months).
Hartsuyker
was Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the House of Representatives from 18.9.13
to 18.2.16 (approximately 2 years & 4 months).
By the time the next federal election rolls
around Luke Hartsuyker will have been in the Australian Parliament for 17
years, yet the best his party could say of him when he announced his intention
to resign was to list as his achievements work
largely done by other politicians.
I am sure
there are parts of the Cowper electorate where his name barely registers with
local residents and one has to suspect it won't take too many years before the only way he is remembered is as an obscure name on weathered building dedication plaques.
Sunday 26 August 2018
Waiting for home care in Australia in 2018
There are now 108,000 older Australians on the
waiting list for Home Care Packages.
On this list
are individuals who have:
*
not yet been approved for home care;
*
been previously assessed and approved, but who have not yet been assigned a
home care package; or
* are receiving care at an interim level
awaiting assignment of a home care package at their approved level.
Waiting time
is calculated from the date of a home care package approval and this is not a
an ideal situation, given package approval times range from est. 27 to 98 days
and the time taken to approve high level home care packages is now than twelve
months - with actual delivery dates occurring at least 12 months later on average.
Labor’s Shadow
Minister for Ageing and Mental Health issued a statement which pointed out that
“With
the waiting list growing by almost 4,000 older Australians in just three
months, the 3,500 new home care packages a year committed in the Budget won’t
come close to keeping pace with demand”.
With more
than half the applications for permanent entry into residential aged care taking
more than 3 and up to 8 months to be met, this is not going to be a go-to first
option in any solution for this lengthy home care waiting list - even if enough older people could be persuaded to give up the last of their independnce and autonomy.
By June 2017
New South Wales had the largest number of persons on the home care waiting
lis at 30,685.
Given the
high number of residents over 60 years of age in regional areas like the the
Northern Rivers, this waiting list gives pause for thought.
Then there is
this side effect of the waiting list and home care start dates identified by Leading
Age Care Services Australia (LAGSA):
Consumers with unmet
needs and unspent funds
LASA has undertaken an extensive review of the
disparity that exists in the current release of HCP assignments, noting that
there are substantial numbers of consumers on HCPs with either unmet needs or unspent
funds . This bimodal distribution of home care package assignments reflects a
mismatch between consumer package assignment and a consumer’s current care
needs. The mismatch appears to be a function of the extended lapse of time that
exists between approval assessments and package assignments. Until this dynamic
is sufficiently addressed by Government, LASA expects that providers will be
faced with a unique set challenges in 2018 when providing care to HCP
consumers. This is likely to increase the need for regular care plan reviews in
the context of unmet needs and unspent funds. This dynamic could be considered
more closely within the context of developing a single assessment workforce.
Thus far Australian Minister for Aged Care and Liberal MP for Hasluck Ken
Wyatt is offering no insight into federal government thinking on this
issue.
Sources:
The American Resistance has many faces and this is just one of them……(23)
Image: C-Span US television network |
Text
of open letter to US President Donald J.
Trump by William H. McRaven, a
retired Navy admiral, who was commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations
Command from 2011 to 2014. He oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that
killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Published in The Washington Post on 16 August
2018:
Dear
Mr. President:
Former CIA Director John
Brennan, whose security clearance you revoked Wednesday, is one of the finest
public servants I have ever known. Few Americans have done more to protect this
country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and
character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him.
Therefore, I would
consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I
can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your
presidency.
Like most Americans, I
had hoped that when you became president, you would rise to the occasion and
become the leader this great nation needs.
A good leader tries to
embody the best qualities of his or her organization. A good leader sets the
example for others to follow. A good leader always puts the welfare of others
before himself or herself.
Your leadership,
however, has shown little of these qualities. Through your actions, you have
embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage
and, worst of all, divided us as a nation.
If you think for a
moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism,
you are sadly mistaken. The criticism will continue until you become the leader
we prayed you would be.
Labels:
Donald Trump,
US politics
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