Kevin Hogan still pretending he went to the May 2019 federal election as an Independent now surfaces as the Nationals MP he always was

MP for Page Kevin Hogan while remaining a member of the parliamentary National Party of Australia, while still the Party's Whip in the House of Representatives and the Liberal-Nationals Coaltion Government's Deputy Speaker, attempted for over 8 months to pass himself off as an Independent sitting on the cross benches.

During those 8 months Hogan routinely voted with his government.

He used this political deceit in order to hold on to his chance for re-election on 18 May 2019, when he like many other government MPs and Senators thought it was likely that they would lose government.

Of course ahead of the federal election being declared he still sought and received National Party preselection as its candidate in the seat of Page.

The Murdoch media assisted this deceit by referring to him as sitting on the cross benches.

Now that the Coalition has been returned to government at the recent election and is preparing to sit on the right hand benches of the 46th Parliament, Hogan has finally abandoned his pretence and announced that voilà! he is a National Party MP once more and will sit once more on the government benches.

Government benches which in fact he was mostly found on even when pretending to be a cross bencher.

The flim flam man Scott Morrison knew when he dissolved the Australian Parliament that he wouldn't be giving anyone a new tax cut this financial year

In June 2018 the Australian Parliament passed the first year of this 2018-19 Budget item:

Step 1: immediate tax relief for low and middle income earners

The first step will deliver tax relief to low and middle income earners to help with cost of living pressures.

The low and middle income tax offset will provide tax relief of up to $530 to low and middle income earners for the 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 income years. 

The offset will assist over 10 million Australians and around 4.4 million people will receive the full $530 benefit for 2018-19. The benefit is in addition to the existing low income tax offset, and will be available on assessment after a taxpayer lodges their tax return.

With regard to this tax relief Australian Taxation Office stated:

A new low and middle income tax offset applies for 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21 and 2021–22 income years.

Australian resident individuals (and certain trustees) whose income does not exceed $125,333 are entitled to the new low and middle income tax offset. Entitlement to the new offset is in addition to the existing low income tax offset, and is available on assessment after you lodge your income tax return.

If your income:

·         does not exceed $37,000 you are entitled to $200

·         exceeds $37,000 but does not exceed $48,000, you are entitled to $200 plus 3% of the amount of the income that exceeds $37,000

·         exceeds $48,000 but not $90,000, you are entitled to $530

·         exceeds $90,000 you are entitled to $530 less 1.5% of the amount of the income that exceeds $90,000.

It would appear that Morrison then changed the details of this tax offset* and the wording in the 2019-20 Budget papers reads:

Immediate tax relief for low- and middle‑income earners of up to $1,080 for singles or up to $2,160 for dual income families to ease the cost of living.

While remaining silent on the fact that this change no longer specified that this new offset amount would be legislated by 30 June - letting the media and voters assume that he was still intending to deliver the second tax offset by end of June 2019.

On April 8 (three days before Morrison called the election) The New Daily reported that: The Australian Tax Office has warned the government it will not deliver planned $1080 tax cuts from July 1, unless they can be rushed through Parliament before the end of the financial year.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison via @iborgward  

As a politician who obviously believes no lie is too big or too small to utter to secure his political leadership, the statements above are another instance to add to the list.

When Scott Morrison appeared to promise workers on up to $125,00 per annum to be delivered by 30 June 2019 as a tax offset he knew that the timetable for any federal election is a set one. 

This means that no later than 110 days after the election writs are issued they have to be returned.

Only after that can the 46th Australian Parliament begin its deliberations and legislate election promises.

In the 2019 federal general election the writs were issued on 11 April 2019. This was Morrison's personal choice as he called on the Governor-General the day before.

That means writs have to be returned by 20 July 2019.

At the 2013 federal election the writs were returned in 100 days and at 2016 federal election writs were returned in 84 days.

Morrison is now saying that the 2019 writs will probably not be returned until around 28-30 June 2019.

There is no way that during the election campaign when he was repeating his promise of an immediate cash tax offset that he had not calculated that the election writs wouldn't be returned in under 74-76 days.

The seventy-fourth day is Friday 28 June 2019. There is no way that the Australian Parliament can convene before the start of the next financial year.

Those who expected to see a $1,080 to $2,160 reduction in their tax liability anytime soon may well be waiting a full twelve months until 30 June 2020 to see the promised tax offset land.

Meanwhile Morrison and Frydenberg with an 'Ooops! Sooo sorry' probably see this move as cleverly saving money at workers' expense in order to help their government's fiscal bottom line in the face of a slowing economy.

Morrison's new 'promise' as of 21 May 2019 is that he will deliver the promised tax offset sometime in the 2019-20 fiscal year. 

All of which confirms his lack of political integrity.

Note

* A tax offset reduces the amount of tax payable on an individual's annual income. It doesn't necessarily result in an Australian Taxation Office cash refund.

The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Federal Government still hasn't made personal health data secure

Since about 2014 it has been known that the personal details of Medicare cardholders has been for sale on the dark web.

Despite an April 2014 report by the Australian National Audit Office that the Consumer Directory - which contains all Medicare customer records - was not secure and that cardholder details were for sale, the federal Liberal-Nationals Coalition Government does not appear to have comprehensively acted act on the issue of database security.

It was not unknown that Medicare cardholder details were being used fraudulently.

In 2016-17 Twenty notifications, involving 123 separate breaches, resulted from findings under the Medicare compliance program. In these instances, certain Medicare claims made in the name of a healthcare recipient but not by that healthcare recipient were uploaded to their My Health Record.

When contacted by the mainstream media in July 2017 the Liberal MP for Aston and then Minister for Human Services Alan Tudge denied any prior knowledge of cardholder details being offered for sale.

It was not reported that at the time if he was asked about instances of Medicare cardholder details being used to commit fraud or identity theft.

In August 2017 eHealth Privacy Australia was telling the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee that:

• There are fundamental weaknesses in both the HPOS (Medicare card data) and My Health Records systems, which make them vulnerable to illegal access.

• Those weaknesses mean that fraudulent users of the systems can assume the identity of legitimate users to gain illegal access.

• It is not sufficient to mitigate these weaknesses in the My Health Records system.

By 1 January 2019 IT News was reporting that Medicare cardholder details fraudulently obtained had been used to access an individual’s My Health Record:

The number of data breaches involving the My Health Record system rose from 35 to 42 in the past financial year, new figures show.

The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) said in its annual report [pdf] that “42 data breaches (in 28 notifications) were reported to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner” in 2017-18.

As with previous years, the agency said that “no purposeful or malicious attacks compromising the integrity or security of the My Health Record system” were reported in the period.

Of the 42 breaches, one was the result of “unauthorised access to a My Health Record as a result of an incorrect Parental Authorised Representative being assigned to a child”, the agency reported.

A further two breaches were from “suspected fraud against the Medicare program where the incorrect records appearing in the My Health Record of the affected individual were also viewed without authority by the individual undertaking the suspected fraudulent activity”, ADHA said.

In addition, 17 breaches were the result of “data integrity activity initiated by the Department of Human Services to identify intertwined Medicare records (that is, where a single Medicare record has been used interchangeably between two or more individuals)”, the agency said. [my yellow highlighting]

Despite this knowledge the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has still not grasped the nettle, because on 16 May 2019 The Guardian reported:

Australians’ Medicare details are still being illegally offered for sale on the darknet, almost two years after Guardian Australia revealed the serious privacy breach.

Screenshots of the Empire Market, provided to Guardian Australia, show the vendor Medicare Machine has rebranded as Medicare Madness, offering Medicare details for $US21.

Other vendors charge up to $US340 by offering fake Medicare cards alongside other fake forms of identification – such as a New South Wales licence.

The Medicare Madness listing suggests the Medicare details “of any living Australian citizen” have been available since September 2018.

Guardian Australia first reported patient details were on sale in July 2017, verifying the listing by requesting the data of a Guardian staff member and warning that Medicare card numbers could be used for identity theft and fraud.

The revelation prompted a review lead by former secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Peter Shergold.

The report did not identify the source of the Medicare data leak but suggested that people could use publicly available information about healthcare providers – including their provider number and practice location – to pass security checks and obtain a Medicare card number through the Department of Human Services provider hotline.

The review panel warned the “current security check for release of Medicare card information provides a much lower level of confidence than the security requirements” for Health Professional Online Services, the portal that allows providers to make rebate claims.

An IT industry source, who refused to be named, said the re-emergence of the data breach brings into question government assurances around the privacy of medical data “when those responsible cannot even manage the security of Medicare cards”.

The source said there is a “concerted effort at the moment by law enforcement to curtail darknet market activity”.

“In reality the darknet markets, while disrupted momentarily when their sites are brought down, easily relocate and continue business.”

Darknet markets can simply private message existing clients with a new link to resume business elsewhere. [my yellow highlighting]

Thus far the federal government has failed to recognise where Medicare cardholder details may be being accessed unlawfully, as this 2 August 2018 ABC online article indicates:

Privacy experts have warned that the system opens up health records to more people than ever before, thereby increasing the threat surface — the number of vulnerabilities in a system — dramatically.

Dr Bernard Robertson Dunn, who chairs the health committee at the foundation, says once the data is downloaded into the health system, the My Health record system cannot guarantee privacy.

"Once the data has been downloaded to, for instance, a hospital system, the protections of the hospital system apply, and then the audit logs apply to the hospital system — not to My Health record.

"So there is no way the Government would know who has accessed that data, and it is untraceable and untrackable that that access has occurred."

A NSW Northern Rivers perspective on the 18 May 2019 Australian federal election results

A political and social perspective in thirteen tweets........

Yes, this is the #Australia #trump or #brexit moment. But not in the way talked about in this piece.

This is about the manipulation of our electoral system by wealthy and powerful individuals to achieve a specific multi-billion dollar outcome.

This is not a conspiracy theory. https://t.co/DoANEoxeV9

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

The entire #UAP campaign was about grabbing 4% of the vote and directing it to the LNP. It worked spectacularly well in Queensland.

These will turn out to be highly disengaged voters, the undecideds from a week out. Excluded from polls (explaining how the polls were so wrong)

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

If Clive spent $50 or even $80 million, don’t you think he spent some of that on analytics.

On targeting messages to the most receptive.

He was never trying to win seats, just keep #Labor out.

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

Clive’s pay-off is a Government and a group of very grateful Parliamentarians already keen to do his bidding.

So his #Galilee Basin mine isn’t rendered worthless. So a new #coal fired power station is built in North Qld.

It’s worth Billions to him.

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

Why did it work?

The LNP played its part. The Presidential style campaign was designed to focus everything on Bill Shorten.

Labor was vulnerable. Bill Shorten, even after My Mum and Hawkie, never became likeable Bill.

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

Like the #trump campaign, it was proceeded by years of tearing down the most likely challenger.#Hilary was damaged goods in the same way as #Shorten

Nothing like a sham Royal Commission to make your opponent appear shifty.

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

#Trumps win was based on suppressing the vote in key states in a voluntary voting system.

Here, it was capturing the vote of the people that didn’t want to be there in our compulsory system.

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

As to the links to #brexit

I’m assuming a man throwing $millions to influence an election is going to hire people with some experience in this endeavour.

I’m sure this mining magnate & former Liberal Party Treasurer has got the right connections.

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

And yes, like #brexit and #trump our largely supine media simply watched the shells and forgot all about the peas.

The show was everything.

And the chorus from the Murdoch stable was deafening.

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

It’s #GameOfMates writ large.

The same dynamic that drives the destruction of the #MurrayDarling and rewards the Nationals in NSW and Qld is working for the coal barons in North Qld.

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

It’s a system that preys on the disengaged. To get them to vote against their interests.

It relies on the belief that they’re all bastards...and then seeks to tell them who their true enemies are.

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

The point of this rant, however is not about how we was robbed.

As Bill Shorten put it, we didn’t get enough votes. Simple.

The question is, how do we reach the disengaged?

How do we leave ourselves less vulnerable to this attack in the future?

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

Because ranting about stuff on twitter does didly squat.

— Keith Williams (@Captainturtle) May 20, 2019

Australia's hard right prime minister runs to Trump for a 'good dog' pat on the head

From The Daily Examiner on 19 May 2019:

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have welcomed Australia’s surprise Liberal-led Coalition election win.

With 75 per cent of the vote counted yesterday, Scott Morrison’s Liberal Nationals were two seats short of the 76 needed for a majority in parliament but will be returned to government.

“Congratulations to Scott on a GREAT WIN,” Trump said on Twitter.

The White House said he and Morrison had spoken by phone and “pledged to continue their close co-operation on shared priorities”.

Dystopia 2019

Australian Federal Election Results 2019 at 
https://tallyroom.aec.gov.au/HouseDefault-24310.htm.

Yamba rock pool reopens

Yamba Rock Pool, May 2019

Clarence Valley Council, media release, 16 May 2019:

Yamba ocean rock pool repairs get the thumbs up

BARRY Cribb well remembers teaming up with half a dozen of his mates, arming themselves with brooms and shovels and cleaning out the Yamba ocean rock pool by hand.

That started about 40 years ago and only finished when the then Maclean Shire Council offered to take over the maintenance.

It was a big relief for Barry and his team, but the Yamba resident retains a strong interest in the pool and still swims there regularly – daily when conditions suit.

And he’s pretty chuffed about the latest work Clarence Valley Council has done there.

For the past few years the pool has leaked and in the past 12 months had to be closed on several occasions because the water had fallen to a level that meant it was unsafe for swimming.

Council completed repairs to the pool more than a month ago and there appear to be no signs of leaks.

“It looks and feels nice and clean now,” he said.

“I’ve been swimming in there every day since it re-opened and everyone reckons it is great. It’s not losing any water now.”

Despite some interruptions to the work from Cyclone Oma, the work was completed on time and substantially under budget.

The savings have allowed the council to undertake further improvements at the pool site, including the replacement of ageing timber railings with stainless steel and the widening of concrete paths.

Project manager, council’s Justin Menzies, said working in a marine environment in sometimes unpredictable conditions provided plenty of challenges, but thorough planning and having contingencies meant they could be resolved with little impact on the project.

“We put a lot of effort into project management to make sure we deliver projects on time and within budget and we couldn’t be happier with the result,” he said.

“We’ve got pool users giving us the thumbs up each time we go there and that is really rewarding. That’s what you do it for.”

Mr Menzies said observations since the work was complete suggested the pool would stay clean for much longer following the works.

He said that before the repairs started, holes in the pool allowed sand to penetrate the base and the pool would be dirty with sand and decaying seaweed within a few days after cleaning.

“That’s not happening now and the only sand getting into the pool is coming over the top,” he said.

“That means it’s clean much longer and is much more attractive for users.

“It is a great result for pool users and Yamba.”