The Fight for the Great Australian Bight continues

Patagonia Inc. email, 11 June 2019, excerpt:

Photgraph: Patagonia Inc.

Fight For The Bight

Last month, Patagonia Surf Ambassador Heath Joske  joined an Australian delegation to Oslo, Norway, taking the fight for the Bight directly to Equinor. The delegation was led by Peter Owen from The Wilderness Society and included Aboriginal elder and singer Bunna Lawrie and various local and international environmental groups.

The delegation met with Norwegian Indigenous Sami people to discuss their shared experiences in the fight to protect their oceans and lands from development by the oil industry.

The delegation also found support in the 500-strong crowd of local Norwegians who joined them for a paddle out in the harbour in front of the city’s Opera House. This peaceful protest was one of the largest paddle-out demonstrations held in the country's history and members of the delegation were buoyed by the camaraderie shown by the local community who braved near freezing water temperatures in support of the Great Australian Bight.

“Borders were smashed and countries were united,” said Heath. “Thank you to the people of Norway for supporting our pleas to save our southern seas! You turned up in hundreds and screamed “Fight for the Bight!” with me, and when I stopped, you kept screaming. That was incredibly moving and heartening.”

Taking on Goliath

The delegation also attended Equinor’s Annual General Meeting in Stavanger where they presented a shareholder proposal that the company should refrain from oil and gas exploration and production activities in frontier areas (such as the Great Australian Bight), immature areas and particularly sensitive areas. Heath Joske also spoke at the AGM, taking to the stage to explain his connection to the Bight as both a surfer and fisherman. Following the meeting, he personally delivered over 300 letters from concerned Australian citizens to Equinor’s CEO, Eldar Saetre.

“For the campaign, the AGM is not an end-point in any way,” says Norwegian citizen and Great Australian Bight Alliance campaigner Rune Woldsnes. “It is a step on the way to getting Equinor out of the Bight. There is no question the Board got the message.”

Heath Joske at the Equinor AGM from Patagonia Australia on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/340119190

BACKGROUND

North Coast Voices:

17 April 2019, Norway needs to withdraw its majority-owned petroleum mining company from the Great Australian Bight

4 March 2019,From September 2019 onwards underwater seismic blasts will rock the Great Australian Bight around the clock over a 30,100 sq kilometre area

8 January 2019, Why proposed offshore mining in the Great Australian Bight matters to all of Australia

12 October 2016, Multinational gas and petroleum giant BP withdraws from offshore exploration in the Great Australian Bight - for now.

23 May 2016, Australian Federal Election 2016: which major political party is likely to put brakes on the petroluem industry's risky commercial ambitions in the Great Australian Bight?

The one about the Australian entitled private school twit & political dunce, with a penchant for fishnet and leopard skin, who did the United States of America the favour of the century

ABC News, 24 May 2019:

One rainy night in May 2016, a Trump campaign advisor named George Papadopoulos walked into a posh wine bar in affluent West London.

The meeting at the Kensington Wine Rooms was only meant to be a drink with Australia's High Commissioner to the UK, Alexander Downer.

It is still hard to believe that former Howard Government minister and Liberal MP for Mayo Alexander John Gosse Downer AC, as High Commissioner for Australia in the United Kingdom - a man who once posed like this (left) - actually managed to alert the US  government which triggered the Federal Bureau of Investigation examination of Donald J. Trump's presidential election campaign and Russian interference in US electoral processes.

However, the Mueller Report indicates at a number of points that this is the case.

U.S. Dept. of Justice, Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, Volume I of ll, Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III, March 2019, extracts:

In late July 2016, soon after WikiLeaks's first release of stolen documents, a foreign government contacted the FBI about a May 2016 encounter with Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos had suggested to a representative of that foreign government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. That information prompted the FBI on July 31, 2016, to open an investigation into whether individuals associated with the Trump Campaign were coordinating with the Russian government in its interference activities……

July 2016 was also the month WikiLeaks first released emails stolen by the GRU from the DNC. On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks posted thousands of internal DNC documents revealing information about the Clinton Campaign. Within days, there was public reporting that U.S. intelligence agencies had "high confidence" that the Russian government was behind the theft of emails and documents from the DNC. And within a week of the release, a foreign government informed the FBI about its May 2016 interaction with Papadopoulos and his statement that the Russian government could assist the Trump Campaign. On July 31, 2016, based on the foreign government repo11ing, the FBI opened an investigation into potential coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign…..

In late April 2016, Papadopoulos was told by London-based professor Joseph Mifsud, immediately after Mifsud's return from a trip to Moscow, that the Russian government had obtained "dirt" on candidate Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. One week later, on May 6, 2016, Papadopoulos suggested to a representative of a foreign government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to candidate Clinton…..

Further reading

Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, Volume I of ll

PRESS FREEDOM IN AUSTRALIA: Letting The Light In - Part Two

The Canberra Times, 6 June 2018:

2GB radio host Ben Fordham also revealed this week that he has been contacted by the Department of Home Affairs about his reporting, with the department investigating how he obtained "highly confidential" information about asylum seeker vessels.

Fordham said the department was seeking his co-operation with the probe, which could become a criminal investigation and "potentially" involve a police raid.

https://youtu.be/Tc8Sn6gF6KQ

The original radio broadcast……

2GB Radio, Sydney Live with Ben Fordham, 3 June 2019:

The Department of Home Affairs is investigating reports from Sri Lanka that up to six boats could have recently attempted journeys to Australia.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton admitted last week there could be a wave of illegal vessels headed for Australia after 20 Sri Lankan asylum seekers were sent back.

A senior source in Home Affairs has told Ben Fordham Mr Dutton is currently in Sri Lanka because “there could be up to six boats in play”.

Out of the six believed to be headed for Australia, some may have been disrupted.

Ben says the recent wave of illegal boats could be because of the recent federal election.

“Is there a chance that the people smugglers were able to flog seats on boats… because they thought Labor was going to win the election?”

Full original segment audio can be accessed here.

Further reading

North Coast Voices, 9 June 2019, PRESS FREEDOM IN AUSTRALIA: Letting The Light In - Part One

North Coast Voices,  June 2019, On 4 June 2019 federal police raided home of Newscorp journalist over story detailing an alleged government proposal to spy on Australians

So how is Australian wage growth faring so far in 2019?

If one looks at national averages for wage growth or compensation of employees (COE) in March Quarter 2019 it looks as though no-one has been left behind.

However, first glances can be deceptive. 

Australian Bureau of Statistics, 5 June 2019:

COE increased 1.2% and average compensation per employee rose 0.4%.

Private COE grew 1.4%, while public COE increased 0.7%.

In the March Quarter 2019 there was negative wages growth in Tasmania, Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). 

With a seasonally adjusted  -0.4% total change to pre-tax wages in Tasmania, a -0.3% total change to pre-tax wages in the Northern Territory and -0.4% total change to pre-tax wages in the ACT.

While March Quarter 2019 total percentage changes in pre-tax wages growth for the remaining states was:

Victoria 0.7%

Queensland 0.8%

New South Wales 1.6%

West Australia 1.7%

South Australia 2.0%.

Note: Compensation of Employees (COE) represents total gross (pre-tax) wages paid by employers to employees for work done in March Quarter 2019 accounting period.

Seasonally adjusted there was a 0.5% change in total hourly rates of pay excluding bonuses in Australia between December Quarter 2018 and March Quarter 2019.

Other factors to consider alongside wages……..

According to the ABS the Cost Price Index (CPI) rose 1.3 per cent per cent through the year to the March quarter 2019, after increasing 1.8 per cent through the year to the December quarter 2018.

In March Quarter 2019 CPI remained flat due to reduced costs in automotive fuel and domestic/international holiday travel & accommodation. Although over the last twelve months, food and non-alcoholic beverages group costs rose 2.3% and, in seasonally adjusted terms food and non-alcoholic beverages group rose 1.2% this quarter. While in seasonally adjusted terms this quarter education group costs rose 0.3% and health group rose 0.7%.

Again according to the ABS the trend unemployment rate remained steady in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. It decreased by 0.2 percentage points in the Northern Territory and by less than 0.1 percentage points in Queensland and Western Australia. It increased by 0.1 percentage points in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. Over the year, the unemployment rate fell in all states and territories except for Tasmania, the Northern Territory and South Australia.

Did ABC Radio bow to pressure from the Adani Group?

One of the worst kept secrets in Australia is that the multinational Adani mining group, for reasons known only to its company board in India, wants to build a mine in the Galilee Basin but has no intention of building a financially viable mine.

And Adani really dislikes the media mentioning this fact......

ABC, Media Watch, transcript excerpt, 3 June 2019:

But now let’s come back closer to home to Adani, whose controversial Carmichael mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin gets ever closer to construction, despite this scathing piece in The Sydney Morning Herald by Bloomberg columnist David Fickling:

The numbers on Adani simply don't add up

Comparable projects like Glencore's Wandoan have been mothballed for years.

- The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 May, 2019

Fickling’s op-ed 10 days ago argued that the Adani mine may never be built — even if it does get final approval — because it’s currently much cheaper to buy coal than dig it out of a brand-new coal mine.

And over at ABC Radio, Saturday AM thought that was worth a story.

But after being worked on by Isobel Roe, a young award-winning journalist in Brisbane, it never made it to air.

So, why was that? Well, Media Watch can reveal that Adani complained to the ABC in advance. And the story was spiked.

So how did this all unfold?

Bloomberg has confirmed to Media Watch that David Fickling was interviewed by the ABC on the afternoon of Friday, 24th of May.

And just over an hour later, at 4.20pm, Adani say Roe contacted them for comment.

And not long after that, at 5.50pm, the producer of Saturday AM, Thomas Oriti, told ABC staff he was killing the story.

Now, newsrooms at the ABC are open plan and not very private and four witnesses tell Media Watch that Oriti made it clear Adani had complained.

Indeed, one claims he told Roe:

‘Sorry. It’s nothing to do with you, but we’re not going to be able to run this’.

- Phone interview, ABC staffer, 31 May, 2019

While another claims he said:

‘It’s not my decision, it’s come from on high.’

- Phone interview, ABC staffer, 31 May, 2019

The ABC denies this and maintains his decision was taken entirely on editorial merit, because the story didn’t stack up.

So what can we be sure of?

Well, there’s no doubt Adani did complain, both to the reporter when she rang and, shortly after, to her bosses. A company spokesperson told us:

… we raised concerns with ABC management when approached to comment on a story that contained inaccuracies and was potentially biased ...

- Email, Adani spokesperson, 31 May, 2019

Adani says it told the reporter she should talk to an analyst more friendly to the mining sector.

And when she asked them to suggest someone, Adani’s PR team cracked it and went over her head to ABC management:

Adani complained that it was not reasonable that the onus for ensuring that ABC news coverage was fair and balanced should fall back onto the company and not onto the ABC’s well-resourced newsrooms.

- Email, Adani spokesperson, 31 May, 2019

A key feature of Adani’s complaint was that the ABC had not given it enough time to respond.

But in fact by Friday afternoon Fickling’s work had been up for more than 36 hours. 

And Adani was able to send a statement to the ABC almost immediately.

So, who at the ABC dealt with the company’s complaint?

We’re told Adani went straight to the top — ABC News boss Gaven Morris — who we understand is the person they normally contact.

So to clarify what happened, we asked Morris a series of questions, which included:

Did Adani contact you last Friday afternoon to complain about the story?

What was the nature of the complaint, and how did you respond?

Why was the story pulled, given that it had been commissioned for Saturday AM only hours beforehand?

Was the decision to pull the story taken after Adani’s complaint?

Why was this complaint handled personally by you?

- Email, Media Watch to Gaven Morris, 31 May, 2019

We did not get a response from Gaven Morris or answers to most of those questions.

Instead, an ABC spokesperson told us:

There was no complaint.

- Email, ABC spokesperson, 31 May, 2019

Which is remarkable, because Adani says there was…..

Full transcript here.

BACKGROUND

“The numbers on Adani simply don't add up”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 May 2019 at https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/the-numbers-on-adani-simply-don-t-add-up-20190524-p51qoy.html.

Some Clarence Valley residents with NDIS packages will be forced to find new assistance

The Daily Examiner, 8 June 2019, p.3:

Some local residents with NDIS packages will be forced to find new assistance as service providers downsize in regional Australia.

In the past month two major disability service providers have announced changes in the Clarence Valley, with the Benevolent Society closing its Grafton office and Australian Unity leaving regional NSW altogether.

The move by Australian Unity comes just three years after the company took on more than 4000 staff and 50,000 aged and disability clients from the NSW Government’s Home Care Service of NSW, after winning a tender in 2015.

The organisation would not confirm how many clients it had in the Clarence Valley region.

However Community and Public Sector Union Regional Organiser Asren Pugh said the move by providers was concerning and a direct result of the State Government’s decision to privatise all disability services in 2016.

Mr Pugh said members had approached him with concerns that some NDIS clients would lose workers with whom they had formed strong relationships.

“Some of our members have said they have had the same client for 15 years,” he said.

“Some clients have said they are really distressed about that because they are afraid they will lose the worker who has been looking after them for 15 years.”

In a statement on its website Australian Unity said it would be focusing on provision of aged care services and did “not anticipate the decision to scale down its NDIS business will result in any job losses”.

Meanwhile the Benevolent Society has confirmed it will be closing its Grafton office with Coffs Harbour becoming the “primary hub” for the region…..

Further reading

North Coast Voices, 4 June 2019, The National Disability Insurance Scheme continues a bumbling problem-filled roll out during which its clients suffer

PRESS FREEDOM IN AUSTRALIA: Letting The Light In - Part One

It has been reported that the day this article (set out below) was published by the Australian public broadcaster, the then Chief of the Defence Force and Acting-Secretary of Defence referred said article to the Australian Federal Police.

Six days short of two years after that Defence Force complaint and, after a lengthy investigation by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force as well as the arrest of a whistleblower in September 2018, the AFP decided to raid ABC offices at Ultimo on 5 June 2019.

This raises a suspicion that the two raids conducted over the last 48 hours may have been held back so they did not occur during the recent federal election campaign - thus raising politically sensitive questions the Morrison Government might have been obliged to answer before polling day.

As this is the third instance in which journalists and a radio commentator have been approached in the last few weeks by either the federal police or the Dept. of Home Affairs and questioned over source/s of information contained in articles or on air commentary, one has to wonder what the Morrison Government and its agencies are playing at.

The original article……

ABC News, 11 July 2017:

Hundreds of pages of secret defence force documents leaked to the ABC give an unprecedented insight into the clandestine operations of Australia’s elite special forces in Afghanistan, including incidents of troops killing unarmed men and children.

The ABC can reveal that some of the cases detailed in the documents are being investigated as possible unlawful killings.

The Afghan Files

This is one story in a seven-part series based on leaked documents exposing Australian special forces troops’ role in the Afghanistan war. For context, they are best read in order.

This comes a day after the ABC revealed the alleged cover up of the killing of an Afghan boy and another alleged incident in which a father and son were shot dead during a raid.

The documents, many marked AUSTEO — Australian Eyes Only — suggest a growing unease at the highest levels of Defence about the culture of Australia’s special forces as they prosecuted a bloody, secretive war against insurgents across a swathe of southern Afghanistan.

One document from 2014 refers to ingrained “problems” within special forces, an “organisational culture” including a “warrior culture” and a willingness by officers to turn a blind eye to poor behaviour.

Another document refers to a “desensitisation” and “drift in values” among elite Special Air Service soldiers serving in Afghanistan, while others allude to deep divisions between the two elite units which primarily comprise the special forces - the SAS based in Perth and 2 Commando Regiment based in Sydney.

A large proportion of the documents are reports on at least 10 incidents between 2009-2013 in which special forces troops shot dead insurgents, but also unarmed men and children.

The Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force is investigating at least two of the incidents as part of its inquiry into the conduct in Afghanistan of special forces, which includes alleged unlawful killing…..

Read the full article here.

NOTE

* Details of the first AFP raid on the home of a News Corp journalist on 3 June 2019 and the 2018 article which allegedly prompted that raid is at http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com/2019/06/on-4-june-2019-federal-police-raided.html

* Further ABC stories:

#2 An interrogation, a shooting and no witnesses

#3 What the documents reveal about killings of unarmed Afghans

#4 The spy and the SAS soldier with a loaded Glock#5Who is the enemy? Australia’s secretive rules of engagement

#6 Chaos over severed hands

#7 Relations between Australia’s special forces units on ‘knife edge’

Still waiting on the official report concerning the alleged unlawful killings……

ABC News, 8 March 2019:

A lengthy investigation into possible war crimes committed by elite Australian soldiers in Afghanistan will not be made public before this year's federal election.

Senior military and government figures have told the ABC they are not expecting the long-awaited report by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) to be ready for release until at least the second half of this year, well after voters go to the polls in May.

In 2016 the IGADF began examining "rumours of possible breaches of the Laws of Armed Conflict by members of the Australian Defence Force", but inside the special forces community frustration is growing at how long the process is taking.

One special forces veteran, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the ABC that there were "natural justice impacts" from having the inquiry extended, and that it was "painful" for those involved.

"I can only hope the ultimate findings are of sufficient gravity to justify this extended process," the former high-ranking Commando said.

For almost three years New South Wales Supreme Court Justice and Army Reserve Major General Paul Brereton has been leading the secretive IGADF investigation, which is believed to have uncovered numerous concerns about the conduct of elite soldiers, including several incidents of possible unlawful killings.

Many in the ADF had originally anticipated the inquiry would be completed by 2018, but in a statement to the ABC the Defence Department has confirmed the independent IGADF inquiry is "ongoing"……

Read the full article here.