Australian Minister for Home Affairs & Liberal MP for Dickson still has questions to answer

Peter Dutton. Image credit The Chronicle

In six days time the Senate Standing Committee Legal and Constitutional Affairs will deliver its report on an investigation into then Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's alleged improper use of ministerial powers.

Meanwhile the list of potentially questionable situations appears to be growing........

The Guardian, 30 August 2018:

One of the foreign au pairs Peter Dutton saved from deportation came to Australia to work for the family of a former police force colleague, Guardian Australia understands.

Dutton used his ministerial powers under the Migration Act in June 2015 to grant a visa to an Italian au pair who was intending to work for a Brisbane family.

The couple have worked for the Queensland police service and have two young children. The Guardian has decided not to name them.

The matter is one of at least two au pair visa cases which are now the subject of a Senate inquiry.

Guardian Australia revealed on Tuesday that Dutton had saved another au pair from deportation, intervening after the AFL chief executive officer, Gillon McLachlan, raised the young woman’s case on behalf of his relatives.

An email chain was leaked on Thursday featuring the correspondence of immigration officials, Peter Dutton’s office, an AFL staffer, McLachlan and his second cousin. The emails run over 14 pages and indicate that Dutton overruled border security advice and allowed entry to Australia for the French woman, Alexandra Deuwel, on 1 November 2015.

In the Queensland case, the Italian au pair had her visa cancelled upon arrival at Brisbane’s international airport on 17 June 2015. She was able to make a phone call and soon afterwards Dutton approved a new visa.

There are pictures on her Facebook profile showing she ate Tim Tams and Caramello Koalas on her first night in Australia, after the visa dramas were resolved. “First night in Australia.. FINALLY!” she wrote.

She later visited Surfers Paradise, Brisbane’s agricultural show the Ekka, Australia Zoo, Melbourne, and posed for pictures by the Brisbane River.

The au pair’s case file names the Brisbane family as her hosts, a source told Guardian Australia.

Dutton was a police officer from 1990 until 1999 before being elected to federal parliament in 2001. In 1997 Dutton and the family’s father completed a surveillance course together and were pictured in a group photograph.

Asked if the au pair was intending to work for his family, the policeman told Guardian Australia: “Not confirming, not denying. Just talk to Peter Dutton’s office. It’s well above my call as to what to say.”

The visa status of two au pairs have been in the spotlight since March, when it was revealed Dutton granted them visas on public interest grounds.

Crime and Corruption Commission (Queensland), excerpt from media release, 14 August 2018:

The Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) has tabled a report in State Parliament this afternoon following the completion of its investigation into Ipswich City Council.

The CCC commenced Operation Windage in October 2016 to investigate allegations of corrupt conduct relating to the then Mayor, Chief Executive Officer and a Chief Operating Officer.

The investigation has resulted in 15 people being charged with 86 criminal offences. Of the 15 people charged, seven are either current or former council employees or councillors. This includes two mayors, two CEOs and one Chief Operating Officer.

Queensland Parliament, tabled papers, 8 August 2017:

Since this issue became public Dutton has begun to publicly threaten his critics. 

Revealing he kept files on Opposition members of parliament (and presumably other individuals) who approached him as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and, that he fully intends to use the contents of these files against his critics if he feels the need.

“I’ve got a series of cases that have been put to me by Labor members — and I’ve kept a very good list actually of MPs who have come to me with quirky cases,” Mr Dutton told reporters.

“I will be happy to go into some matters in question time, potentially.”

When parliament resumes sitting next week Greens MP for Melbourne Adam Bandt, seconded by Independent MP for Denison Andrew Wilkie and supported by Labor MPs, will move a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Home Affairs over the visa for au pairs affair.

It will likely fail by a slim margin, as MP for Page Kevin Hogan's faux change from Nationals MP to an independent member sitting on the cross benches (in order to save his seat at the next federal election) will still see him support the dysfunctional Morrison Government and an ethically challenged Peter Dutton.

The Standing Committee Legal and Constitutional Affairs public hearing re allegations concerning the inappropriate exercise of ministerial powers, with respect to the
visa status of au pairs, and related matters commences at 9am today 5 September 2016.

BACKGROUND

House of Representatives Hansard, 26 March 2018:

Shayne Neumann (Blair):  

I refer to concerns raised in the media today relating to the minister's use of his ministerial discretion to grant a tourist visa to an au pair. Was his decision based on departmental advice? If not, what prompted the minister to intervene? And will the minister undertake to provide the opposition with a departmental briefing at the earliest opportunity so the facts can be made clear?

Peter Dutton (Dickson): I thank the honourable member for his question. At last a question from the member for Blair! Well done! Fighting away on tactics each day—finally, you've risen to the top of the pile. It is six past three. You have missed out on television but, nonetheless, it's throw the dog a bone, I guess. There are media reports around today which talk about a decision that I made in relation to a visa. There are defamatory parts of that which I'm going to address with the journalist. Our family does not employ an au pair. My wife takes very good care in my absence of our three children. We have never employed an au pair. I have instructed before that that story is completely false and yet it still continues to be published.

In relation to the matter otherwise, I will release more detail which I'm putting together at the moment. As I say, it is defamatory. I won't tolerate it being printed again. I make decisions—

I won't! I won't have my family—

I won't have false details, as the Leader of the Opposition would appreciate as well, about my wife and my children printed. I won't stand for it. That's the reality.

I make hundreds of decisions each year in relation to ministerial discretion under the Migration Act, as has been the case with many ministers passed. There are cases brought to me by members on the frontbench and members of this parliament on a regular basis. I look at the individual circumstances around each matter. If I determine that there is an interest in me intervening in those cases, I do. In many cases I look at the particular facts. For example, the honourable shadow Treasurer—nodding away—writes to me regularly in relation to matters. If I deem the circumstances to be appropriate, I intervene. In this particular matter—again I'm happy to release further detail—I was advised at the time there were two matters, only one to which you are referring at the moment.

There were two young tourists who had come in on a tourist visa and declared in an interview with the Border Force officers at the airport—I was advised—they were here on a tourist visa but intended to perform babysitting duties while here. The decision that was taken, I was advised, was that the tourist visas would be cancelled, that those two young tourists would be detained and that they would be deported. I looked into the circumstances of those two cases and I thought that inappropriate. I thought if they gave an undertaking they wouldn't work while they were here, I would grant the tourist visas and they would stay, which they did. They didn't overstay; they returned back home. Now if there are facts there you dispute or you think there is another scurrilous point you want to put, put it outside of this chamber.

House of Representatives, Hansard, 27 March 2018:

Mr BANDT (Melbourne): My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Minister, I note your recent statements in relation to your personal intervention to prevent the deportation of two foreign intended au pairs. Can you categorically rule out any personal connection or any other relationship between you and the intended employer of either of the au pairs?

Mr DUTTON (Dickson—Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection): The answer is yes. I haven't received any personal benefit. I don't know these people. They haven't worked for me. They haven't worked for my wife. I repeated all of that yesterday, and I repeat it again today. I point the honourable member to the facts in relation to ministerial intervention. The member for McMahon—we were just talking about his successful record when he was last in government. Remember, he was the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. At one point in 2012, there were 218 cases referred for consideration. In 2013, the honourable member for McMahon was there, along with the member for Watson. There were 228 cases in the year 2013; in 2014, 193 cases.

Berejiklian Government accused of timber fraud on NSW North Coast

North East Forest Alliance (NEFA), 27 August 2018:

 The North East Forest Alliance has accused the NSW Government of fraudulently claiming a shortfall in high quality logs available from State Forests in north-east NSW to justify their wind-back of environmental protections and intention to log oldgrowth forest and rainforest.

NEFA today released a review of timber yields and modelling for north-east NSW over the past 20 years that has identified a number of serious problems with yield estimations and allocations from the region that will be referred to the Auditor General.

"The most significant issue revealed is that the Government has removed hardwood plantations from yield calculations to concoct a yield shortfall to justify removing environmental protections, while apparently intending to reallocate plantation timber to low value products for export" says report author Dailan Pugh.

"According to the Government's data there is absolutely no need to log oldgrowth forests, or to remove other existing environmental protections to satisfy current timber commitments.

"The Natural Resources Commission (NRC) turned an identified surplus of 37,000 cubic metres per annum of high quality sawlogs from State Forests in north-east NSW over the next hundred years into a claimed deficit of 8,600 cubic metres per annum by simply excluding hardwood plantations from their calculations.

"The NRC's claim that 'it is not possible to meet the Government’s commitments around both environmental values and wood supply' is based on a lie. Nowhere do they identify that they excluded plantations. They did this to create the pretence of a shortfall.

"Plantations already provide some 30,000 cubic metres(14%) of high quality hardwood log commitments per annum, with yields projected to increase up to 75,000 cubic meters of high quality logs per annum into the future.

"NSW Taxpayers have spent $27 million just since 2000 establishing hardwood plantations explicitly to provide high quality logs to take the pressure off native forests.

"It is outrageous that the Government has excluded plantations to concoct a shortfall in timber from State Forests in order to justify increasing logging intensity, reducing retention of habitat trees, removing protections for numerous threatened species, halving buffers on headwater streams, as well as now opening up oldgrowth forest and rainforest protected in the Comprehensive Adequate and Representative (CAR) reserve system for logging.

"The Government recently issued an Expression of Interest for 416,851 tonnes per annum of low quality logs from north-east NSW, of which 219,000 tonnes (53%) is apparently to be obtained by downgrading all timber from the 35,000 ha of north-east NSW's hardwood plantations to low quality logs and committing them in new Wood Supply Agreements aimed at the export market.

"Three NSW Environment Ministers (Parker, Stokes and Speakman), along with the Environment Protection Authority, repeatedly promised that the new logging rules (Integrated Forestry Operations Approval) would result in no net change to wood supply, no erosion of environmental values, and no reductions in the CAR reserve system.

"Instead of honouring their promises, in a blatant ploy the Government has changed the wood supply, by surreptitiously excluding plantations, to justify erosion of environmental values and reductions in the reserve system.

"NEFA calls upon the NSW Government to honour their promises by reinstating the intended role of plantations in providing high quality sawlogs to take the pressure off native forests, and to use the resultant timber surplus to reinstate the environmental protections they are intending to remove", Mr. Pugh said.

Port News, 28 August 2018:

I noticed in the report by the NSW Government DPI’s principal research scientist, Dr Brad Law, which was published in the Port News on August 1that he claims recent audio recordings of male koalas in the hinterland of our state forests revealed evidence of up to 10 times the previously estimated occupancy.

Well obviously if this was the first time audio study of male koalas in the breeding season had been carried surely finding any koalas at all would be an increase in findings. The Australia Koala Foundation showed that one male koala 'Arnie' a dominant male occupied a home range of 43 hectares in area so no doubt the study took precautions to not record the same koala in other of the 171 sites.

Each site however did not always record even one or two scats. The evidence proves only 65% of the 171 sites tested held one koala and the scats do not prove in any way a home colony had even once existed at these sites.

Dr Law rejoices that in his study that heavily logged, lightly logged and old growth forest areas showed similar results which seemed to suggest that logging of our NSW State Forests has no effect on koala numbers.

Really?

In a study by the recognised koala expert, Dr Steve Phillips, commissioned by our own PMHC he found that most of the suitably sized koala food trees have already been logged out.

So WTF do they eat?

This no harm heavily logged forest claim by Dr Law will get a real test soon when the NSW Government introduces intensive logging in “Regrowth B” area. A map obtained under GIPA by the North Coast Environment Centre indicates 142,818 ha. of our north coast state forests between Taree and Grafton will be clear-felled.

Any small trees left will be hauled away to the soon be established Biomass Plants at Taree, Kempsey and Grafton and now it seems a new “renewable energy” diesel manufacturing plant at Heron’s Creek. “Renewable” meaning over the next 100 years.

Any regrowth in the intensively logged forests will likely be sprayed and Blackbutt monocultures planted.

Oh, and so no damage is done to the forest populations of koalas and protected animals and plants small clumps of forest will be left.

How a male koala will roam to the next paradise island of the living dead to breed without being attacked by wild dogs or run over by logging trucks is not discussed in the literature.

Even Dr Law did not bother to defend his government’s offset scheme which will according to evidence presented at the PMHC Koala Roundtable result in local extinction of koalas in the Port Macquarie local government area…..

Michaelia Cash gets her just deserts

Once she finished knifing then Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the back, Liberal Party Senator for WA  Michaelia Clare Cash was demoted from Minister for Jobs and Innovation to Minister for Small and Family Business, Skills and Vocational Education.

Then she was further ‘rewarded’ by this leak to the media……

Financial Review, 30 August 2018:

Cabinet minister Michaelia Cash has become the latest target of the payback culture inside the Liberal Party, after allegations emerged that she declined to provide a witness statement to the Australian Federal Police investigating the leaking of a union raid from within her office.

Senator Cash, who was demoted in Sunday's leadership reshuffle after turning on Malcolm Turnbull, rejected any assertion she refused to cooperate.

It is understood she told the officers that she did not need to make a fresh statement because she had been quizzed on the matter many times in Parliament and everything she knew was on the public record.

The AFP was investigating a tip-off to the media about a raid on the offices of the Australian Workers' Union last year.

The raids were conducted by the AFP at the behest of the union watchdog, the Registered Organisations Commission.

Senator Cash had asked the commission to investigate whether two political donations made by the AWU more than a decade ago, when Bill Shorten was the union's national secretary, accorded with union rules.

But the exercise backfired when it emerged a staffer inside her office had tipped off the media about the raid. The staffer resigned and Senator Cash denied having any advance knowledge of the raid nor of the tip-off to the media…..

What voters think of the main political parties in Australia

ABC News, 30 August 2018:

When asked by Essential to say which common statements fit the two major parties, the Liberals outranked Labor on almost every negative statement and were behind Labor on every positive statement…..

What voters think of the Liberals and Labor

Divided

Liberal

79%

Labor

46%

Too close to the big corporate and financial interests

Liberal

67%

Labor

36%

Out of touch with ordinary people

Liberal

69%

Labor

51%

Looks after the interests of working people

Liberal

32%

Labor

55%

Clear about what they stand for

Liberal

33%

Labor

47%

Has a good team of leaders

Liberal

31%

Labor

39%

Understands the problems facing Australia

Liberal

40%

Labor

48%

Have a vision for the future

Liberal

43%

Labor

48%

Extreme

Liberal

40%

Labor

36%

Trustworthy

Liberal

30%

Labor

34%

Have good policies

Liberal

40%

Labor

43%

Will promise to do anything to win votes

Liberal

68%

Labor

70%

Moderate

Liberal

48%

Labor

50%

Keeps its promises

Liberal

28%

Labor

30%

The survey was conducted online from 24th to 26th August 2018 and is based on 1,035 respondents.

Source: Essential Media  Get the data

Essential Report, 28 August 2018:

Are you listening Prime Minister Morrison? This message is for you as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqirmzW4BiU

More evidence of the rot at the heart of the Liberal Party of Australia....

.....a political party dominated by self-important 'entitled' British-Europen white males.

Julia Helen Banks, Liberal MP for Chisholm

56 years of age in September 2018.

Married with two children.

Elected to the House of Representatives for Chisholm, Victoria, 2016 - population 160,000.

One of only twelve women in a federal parliamentary Liberal Party of sixty members.

Committee Service: House of Representatives Standing: Economics from 14.9.16; Social Policy and Legal Affairs from 14.9.16 (Chair from 6.2.18).

Qualifications and occupation before entering Federal Parliament:

BA (Monash), 1984.

LLB (Monash), 1986.

GAICD.

Lawyer, Private Practice.

Corporate Counsel, Hoechst Australia.

General Counsel (Australia/NZ), Senior Counsel (Asia Pacific), Director Corporate Affairs (Australia/NZ, Asia Pacific), Kraft Foods, 1992-2008.

General Counsel and Company Secretary; Head of Compliance and Risk Management, GlaxoSmithKline Australasia, 2009-14.

Chief General Counsel and Company Secretary, George Weston Foods, 2014-16.

The Guardian, 29 August 2018:

The Morrison government has taken another blow in the aftermath of last week’s leadership spill, with Liberal backbencher Julia Banks declaring she will quit Parliament at the next election in a decision that puts a key marginal seat in play.

Ms Banks blasted the “vindictive” behaviour of the Liberal Party’s factional powerbrokers in a thinly-veiled attack on those who pushed for Peter Dutton to replace Malcolm Turnbull in last week’s chaotic spill.

Her decision is a devastating blow for the government because its survival depends on its ability to hold ground like her seat of Chisholm in suburban Melbourne, which she won by a margin of just 1.6 per cent at the last election after leaving a successful career in business.

“I have always listened to the people who elected me and put Australia’s national interest before internal political games, factional party figures, self-proclaimed power-brokers and certain media personalities who bear vindictive, mean-spirited grudges intent on settling their personal scores,” Ms Banks said in a statement.

“Last week’s events were the last straw....

The announcement came after a frantic 24 hours of negotiation as Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg urged Ms Banks to stay in Parliament and fight the next election to hold her crucial marginal seat.

PACIFIC HIGHWAY UPGRADE: Time for the NSW MP for Clarence and Federal MP for Page to front their respective ministers and insist this cost-shifting onto local ratepayers does not occur

Clarence Valley Council, media release, 27 August 2018:

Mayor: Jim Simmons LOCKED BAG 23 GRAFTON NSW 2460

General Manager: Ashley Lindsay Telephone: (02) 6643 0200

Fax: (02) 6642 7647

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 27, 2018

Some highway concerns remain for Clarence Valley Council

Clarence Valley Mayor, Jim Simmons, talks with Ulmarra residents today about their concerns about some of the arrangements that will be in place when the new highway opens.

THE Clarence Valley Council will call on the State and Federal governments to address a range of serious safety, access and cost issues related to the construction of the new Pacific Highway.

Council last week agreed to lobby the Deputy Prime Minister (as Minister For Infrastructure and Transport); the Federal Minister for Regional Development, Territories and Local Government; the Member for Page; the NSW Premier; the NSW Minister for Roads; the NSW Minister for Local Government, and; the Member for Clarence in order to have some proposed arrangements relating to the new highway addressed.

Councillors were told there was a planned exit from the new highway at Eight Mile Lane, Glenugie, but it was not designed to cater for B-Doubles. That would mean many B-Doubles wanting to travel into or out of Grafton would have to use the proposed interchange at Tyndale.

Council’s works and civil director, Troy Anderson, said the planned B-Double route to and from Grafton would result in large numbers of B-Doubles travelling along the existing Pacific Highway and through Ulmarra and Tyndale.

“The communities of Tyndale and Ulmarra and all residences in between will still be subjected to significant B-Double movements through their villages,” he said.

“The residents in those areas have expressed concern about safety and noise.”

A further concern was that the Roads and Maritime Service (RMS) maintenance of Eight Mile Lane.

“Despite a motorway exit and entry being planned at Eight Mile Lane, there are no plans to change its local road classification, leaving funding for maintenance and any upgrade works up to local ratepayers,” he said.

“From a road safety and capacity perspective, it is recommended this road is upgraded prior to thecompletion of the new Pacific Highway and that required works are funded by RMS not the Clarence Valley community.”

Mr Anderson said that once the new highway was operational, RMS planned to change the classification of the existing highway between Tyndale and Maclean to that of a local road, which would leave Clarence Valley ratepayers responsible for the cost of its maintenance and any upgrades.

“A more logical extension would be to extend the Gwydir Highway through Grafton to Maclean so these two major centres are connected via a State road network,” he said.

“The section of existing highway between Maclean and Tyndale is in poor condition and, being adjacent to the river for most of this section, has significant associated risks.

“A section of the existing highway has previously slipped into the river, causing major disruption and costly repairs. This overhanging burden should not be forced onto ratepayers of the Clarence Valley.

“These matters will create considerable cost shifting to council through necessary road upgrades and increased maintenance.

“In addition, a large number of residents will be still subject to B- Double movements close to their residences and through the villages of Tyndale and Ulmarra.”

A group of Ulmarra residents beside the Pacific Highway as a large semi-trailer passes.

Release ends.