Intelligence and Security Committee of the Australian Parliament declined to recommend passage of Minister for Home Affairs Dutton's identity matching services bill

The Guardian, 24 October 2019:

Mark Dreyfus, as the most senior Labor member on the committee, also commented on the bill: 

The Intelligence and Security Committee of the Parliament is declining to recommend the passage of the identity matching services bill. 

Instead, Labor and Liberal members of the committee are uniting to recommend that the identity matches services bill be completely redrafted and referred back to the Intelligence and Security Committee for further inquiry when it is reintroduced. 

In taking this step, I congratulate all members of the committee for putting the national interest first and sending a strong message about the value of this committee. 

The identity matching services bill purports to facilitate the exchange of identity information pursuant to the objective of an intergovernmental agreement reached by Coag [in] October 2017. 

But it includes none of the limitations or safeguards anticipated by that agreement. 

The bill includes almost no limitations or safeguards at all. 

As explained in the committee’s report, the identity matching services bill would authorise the Department of Home Affairs to create and maintain facilities for the sharing of facial images and other identity information between government agencies and in some cases, non government agencies entities. 

The bill would also authorised the Department of Home Affairs to develop and maintain to centralised facilities for the provision of what are called identity matching services. 

The first of these two facilities would be called an interoperability hub. 

The Hub would act as a router through which government agencies across Australia could request and transmit information as part of an identity matching service. 

The second would be a federated database of information contained in government identity documents. As discussed in the committee’s report, the potential implications of these two new facilities for the privacy of all Australians are profound. 

Those implications do not appear to have even been considered by the Minister for Home Affairs or by his department. 

While a bill provides for six different identity mentioned services, the service that elicited the most concerned from submitters to the committee’s inquiry is the face of identification service. 

That service would enable authorities across Australia to use huge databases of facial images to determine the identity of an unknown person. 

Using that service, a law enforcement agency could submit a facial image for matching against a database of facial images contained in a in government identification documents, such as a database containing every driver licence photo in Australia. 

In return, the agency would receive a small number of matching or near matching facial images from the database. The agency could then access biographical information associated with those images. 

The potential for such a service to be used for mass or blanket surveillance, such as CCTV being used to identify Australians going about their business in real time was raised by numerous submitters to the inquiry......

Mark Dreyfus: Like my colleagues on the committee, I do not believe that the government is proposing to engage in or to facilitate the mass surveillance of Australians. But I do accept that, given the near complete absence of legislated safeguards in the Identity-Matching Services Bill 2019, those concerns cannot simply be ignored. If there is no intention for the proposed identity-matching services to be used to engage in mass surveillance activities, the government should not object to amending the bill to ensure that those services cannot, as a matter of law, be used in that manner. 

Concerns were also raised about the proposed one-to-many identity-matching service being used to identify people who are engaging in protest activity. This does concern me. It was only this month that the Minister for Home Affairs, the minister responsible for this very bill, called for mandatory prison sentences for people who engage in protest activity; called for the same people to have their welfare payments cancelled; and also called for them to be photographed and publicly shamed. As presently drafted, this bill would not prohibit authorities from using the proposed face-matching services to identify individuals in a crowd who are engaging in lawful protest activity. That would be concerning in the best of times; it is particularly concerning in the light of the authoritarian disposition of the Minister for Home Affairs. 

A raft of other concerns was expressed about the Identity-Matching Services Bill, including in relation to this government’s abysmal record on cybersecurity. 

I do not propose to list all of the concerns here today, but I encourage everyone to read about them in the committee’s report. 

I would like to thank my colleagues on the committee, Labor and Liberal, for their work on this important report. It should not escape anyone watching these proceedings today that, by agreeing to the set of recommendations contained in this report, the Liberal members of the committee have placed the national interest first. For that, I would like to pay tribute to Senators Stoker, Fawcett and Abetz, and the members for Canning, Berowra and Goldstein. I would like to pay particular tribute and extend my thanks to the chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, the member for Canning. I also thank the committee secretariat for their excellent work, both in this parliament and in the last parliament, which underpins this report.

Text of the Identity-matching Services Bill 2019 can be found here.

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, "Advisory report on the Identity-matching Services Bill 2019 and the Australian Passports Amendment (Identity-matching Services) Bill 2019" can be found here.

This is the Singleton Argus article that either the NSW Deputy-Premier or his office alleges is "seditious"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'the offence [sedition] is one if the person urges by force or violence the overthrowing of a government, or interfering with an election, or encouraging other people to use – or groups of people – to use force or violence against other groups' [The Attorney-General, Hon Philip Ruddock MP, Alan Jones Radio Programme, 14 November 2005, quoted in Australian Parliamentary Library, "In Good Faith:Sedition Law in Australia", 23 August 2010]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It appears that NSW Deputy-Premier, Minister for Regional New South Wales, Industry and Trade & Liberal MP for Monaro, John Barilaro, is unhappy with journalists having an opinion about the mining industry, state government agencies or the region in which they live and work......

This statement from the NSW Deputy Premier's office on this week's opinion piece 'There were some arresting remarks made in the article that were as inaccurate as they were seditious.'#RightToKnow

— The Singleton Argus (@SingletonArgus) October 24, 2019

There were two articles published online by The Singleton Argus on 22 October 2019 which dealt with the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption's current review of lobbying activities, access and influence in this state.

The first was a local news article and the second an opinion piece by the same journalist on the same subject.

It was this second piece which is the allegedly "seditious" item that either the Deputy-Premier or his staff apparently decided included content intended to incite violence, public disorder or a public offence:

"Here we go again - the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is hearing evidence about mining approvals - what, haven't we learnt our lessons from the Doyles Creek and Mt Penny inquiries all those years ago?

This time ICAC's Operation Eclipse is not investigating actual corrupt conduct by individuals but rather it is seeking' to examine particular aspects of lobbying activities and the corruption risks involved in the lobbying of public authorities and officials.'

At the same time as ICAC is seeking information about the influence of lobbying on government decision making Planning Minister Rob Stokes announced the terms of reference for the review into the operations of the Independent Planning Commission.

Included in the terms of reference is a question about whether the IPC should exist at all.

Scary when one considers that the former ICAC commissioner David Ipp, QC was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald saying such a move was 'a recipe for corruption'.

The more things change the more they stay the same it would appear when it comes to planning state significant mining projects in NSW.

As an invited witness to this week's Operation Eclipse hearings NSW Minerals Council, chief executive officer Stephen Galilee voiced his strong opinions about the current state of mine approvals in NSW.

He is not happy that Bylong Coal Project was refused, that Dartbrook Underground was only half approved and that United Wambo and Rix's Creek were approved but it took too long so he was still very unhappy.

Mr Galilee is welcome is hold these opinions he works to promote mineral extraction in NSW but his opinions should not over ride due process.

We have seen what happens when mining licences are granted behind closed doors, people made millions often corruptly and the community is treated poorly or not considered at all.

No way should we go back to the bad old days in mine approvals.

We should be planning for our future where we have clean air to breath and new industries for our current mining workforce.

Instead of wasting time and money on the IPC review lets get started with planning for a just transition for our region.

The longer we put off the inevitable transition the harder it will hit our region - want to be part of that Mr Galilee?"

For the life of me I cannot see this as a journalistic call for citizens to man the barricades armed to the teeth and ready to do violence.

Perhaps in the future whichever of the Deputy-Premier's minions crafted that particular email should pause, open a dictionary and a copy of the Crimes Act before choosing his adjectives.

Then when he next rushes to the defence of his minister's 'mates' he won't rashly accuse a journalist of a grave unlawful act.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'as long as the various sedition offences remain, governments will inevitably be tempted to use them improperly, especially when highly unpopular opinions are expressed' [Sydney Law Review,  (1992) Maher, L.W.,"The Use and Abuse of Sedition"]

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Australian Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction & Liberal MP for Hume Angus Taylor is not having a good year

The Guardian, 26 October 2019:

Clover Moore rejects Angus Taylor's explanation of document he used to attack her............ Sydney’s lord mayor has categorically rejected Angus Taylor’s version of how he came to rely on 
inaccurate figures of the council’s travel spending to attack her, saying “there were no alternative versions of the document” on 
the council’s website at any time.

INFOGRAPHIC: Energy Minister Angus Taylor has once again 

repeated a misleading claim on inheriting an "emissions deficit" 

from Labor. (RMIT ABC Fact Check), 24 October 2019

The Guardian at 4:05pm on 24 October 2019 reported that Labor will refer the matter of the alleged false documents used by Minister for Energy Angus Taylor to the police under Sect 253 of the Crimes Act 1900 if the federal government doesn't do so within 24 hours.

The Guardian, 23 October 2019:

Angus Taylor baselessly accused Sydney’s lord mayor of driving
up carbon emissions by spending $15m on travel, a claim that was 
later backed up with a doctored council document provided to the 
Daily Telegraph, which reported the figure.

On 30 September, the Telegraph reported on page three that the 
“City of Sydney Council’s outlay on flights outstrips that of 
Australia’s foreign ministers”.

The story quoted a letter sent by Taylor to the mayor, Clover 
Moore, saying the council’s annual report for 2017-18 “shows 
your council spent $1.7m on international travel and $14.2m 
on domestic travel”, contrasting the spending with Moore’s 
declaration of a climate emergency in June.

City of Sydney’s publicly available annual report shows 
councillors spent $1,727.77 on overseas travel and $4,206.32 
on domestic travel. 

In total, the council spent $229,000 on travel during 2017-18, 
under its $300,000 budget.After the story was published, Moore
vigorously disputed the figures on Twitter. In subsequent emails 
between the Telegraph and Moore’s office, the paper justified the 
figures using a document supplied by Taylor’s office, purporting 
to be the council’s annual report.

But the document provided to the Telegraph shows wildly different 
figures, which appeared in a strange format unlike the one used 
elsewhere in the annual report.

It is unclear who altered the document. There is no suggestion 
that Taylor himself was responsible.

The council is adamant that it did not alter the figures. It said it 
had checked the metadata to establish that the report had not 
been changed on its website since being posted in November 
2018.

The Daily Telegraph & ANGUS TAYLOR ‼️

3 options you could be:

STUPID
DISHONEST
BOTH

No one expects any better from the Murdoch Press then again no expects any better from Angus Taylor just waiting for his next sleazy deal.#Auspol

Link to full story: https://t.co/3mZTUud5oN pic.twitter.com/b6PGDdJfMR

— 💧 Sleeping Giants Oz 📣 (@slpng_giants_oz) October 23, 2019

The Guardian, 24 August 2019:

Angus Taylor did not declare at a meeting with environment 
officials about critically endangered grasslands that he had 
a financial interest in a company that was under investigation 
for poisoning them.

And no notes were taken by the senior department official 
who attended the meeting in 2017, a Senate committee has
heard.

Officials from the environment and energy department gave 
the evidence at a special hearing of the Senate’s inquiry into 
the extinction crisis on Friday....

ABC News, 20 August 2019:

New figures show Australia's carbon emissions are continuing 
to climb despite Federal Government assurances it has the 
policy framework to address climate change.

In the year to March, emissions rose 0.6 per cent on the previous 
year, according to data released by Energy and Emissions 
Reduction Minister Angus Taylor......

The Guardian, 2 May 2019:

The energy minister, Angus Taylor, has denied he played a role 
in structuring the company which received an $80m government 
buyback of its water rights through the tax haven of the Cayman Islands.

Taylor, who was a director of Eastern Australia Agriculture between 
2008 and 2009 and who described himself as a co-founder of the 
company, told ABC Radio National on Thursday morning he was 
involved only in advising on the agricultural side of the investment.

He said he severed all involvement in the company prior to being 
elected to parliament.

EAA was paid $80m for its overland flow water rights without 
tender in 2017 when Barnaby Joyce was agriculture minister......

Cartoons of the Week

Alan Moir

A Costa

Tweets of the Week

Unity message to the government from Australia's papers #mediawatch #rightoknow pic.twitter.com/wuE9ZyGjQx

— Media Watch (@ABCmediawatch) October 20, 2019

Scott Morrison’s arrogant dodging of questions is spreading through his Department - nobody is prepared to reveal the truth on the PM’s attempt to get a White House invitation for Brian Houston. #righttoknow #estimates pic.twitter.com/uBAIRG5ZZR

— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) October 21, 2019

A few facts about the NSW Minerals Council and how it operates as an industry lobbyist in 2019

Stephen John Galilee is currently Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NSW Minerals Council, a private sector lobby group for the mining industry with less than 100 members – not all of which are directly engaged in mining activities.

The council conducts public and policy advocacy on behalf of the mining sector, with a staff of 15 full-time equivalent employees – 6 of whom are primarily engaged in work on policy and 5 or 6 engaged in public advocacy, communications & media activity.

Stephen Galilee’s previous employment was as chief of staff to then Liberal MP for Manly Mike Baird when he was Treasurer in the O’Farrell Coalition Government and, before that he was employed as chief of staff to Liberal MP for Groom Ian Mcfarlane when he was Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources.

On 21 October Galilee gave evidence under oath before a NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry into lobbying practises in this state.

During his evidence Galilee confirmed that the NSW Minerals Council:

• income is derived from annual membership fees which are set at a percentage or proportion of the value of members commodity production;

• annual revenue is between est. $4 million to $8 million;

• is an associate member of the Minerals Council of Australia;

• meets with government officials “on a regular basis” and such meeting are sometimes with government ministers;

• probably has face-to-face meetings with between four or five individual ministers at some point during the year which include council policy directors and/or the CEO;

• has a “regular engagement with the Deputy Premier in his capacity as Minister for Resources”;

• requests to see ministers are generally submitted by letter to their chiefs of staff (with reasons given), then followed up with a ‘phone call;

• shadow ministers are also lobbied on occasion;

• CEO has met with between 8 and 10 NSW Government ministers over the last 2 to 3 years and with 10 to 15 ministerial chiefs of staff. These often involve follow up meetings with ministers' offices, departments or specific policy personnel;

• meets with the Resources Regulator and Environmental Protection Authority “every couple of months” and with the Dept of Planning’s Division of Resources and Geoscience “every two or three months”;

• in the past four years has made “around 150 public submissions in response to government proposals for changes to legislation, policy or regulations”;

• at the moment is regularly engaging with the Department of Planning concerning planning system issues, in particular provisions in the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act;

• does not use the official form required since 2017 to request meetings with the Dept. of Planning;

• has meetings with the Dept. of Planning which are not minuted;

• CEO does not keep records of meeting he attends - often his record comprises only diary entry of meeting date and "three dot points on a piece of paper" to aid memory;

• current focus in relation to policy advocacy regarding planning system issues is to reduce financial risk for mining/commodity investors which has been spurred on by United Wambo determination, Bylong Project decision and actions of the Independent Planning Commission;

• is currently "running a public campaign against the Planning Minister and his planning system".

• states that the government departments “take a lot of industry money to deliver services for us. So we like to make sure those services are being delivered...”; and

• holds "a lot of functions and events for the industry and we invite local MPs, for example, to attend and ministers and shadow ministers from time to time come along to our functions and events".

[https://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/investigations/current-investigations/2019/lobbying-and-the-nsw-public-sector-operation-eclipse/the-regulation-of-lobbying-access-and-influence-in-nsw-a-chance-to-have-your-say-april-2019]

The NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment apparently considers the NSW Minerals Council an organisation containing 'inhouse' lobbyists not a third party lobbyist and therefore doesn't record contact with this group in its Lobbyist Contact Register to date.

Based on the evidence given  on 21 October, it is possible that there may have been times when no other person has been present at a meeting between a NSW Minister and the NSW Minerals Council.

It is also clear from the evidence that the NSW Minerals Council would be unhappy with any new legislation or regulations requiring a greater degree of transparency with regard to its lobbying activities.

At the same time the NSW Minerals Council does not appear to always trust that public officials and public authorities make decisions on cogent evidence in a balanced, detached, informative way - blaming public interest advocacy and "noisy objectors" for what it perceives as skewing outcomes.

As it now stands the NSW Minerals Council as a lobbyist group seems to be minimally regulated with regard to its activities.

BACKGROUND

NSW Minerals Council membership on its official website as of 23 October 2019:

Full Members

Alkane Resources Ltd

Anchor Resources Limited
Australian Pacific Coal Limited
BHP

Bengalla Mining Company Pty Ltd
The Bloomfield Group
Centennial Coal Company Ltd
Chase Mining Limited.
Cobalt Blue Holdings Ltd
China Molybdenum Co
Clean Teq
Evolution Mining
Fortescue Metals Group Ltd
Glencore Coal (NSW) Pty Limited
Gloucester Resources Ltd
Great Southern Energy Pty Ltd T/A Delta Coal
Heron Resources Limited
Hillgrove Mines Pty Ltd
Idemitsu Australia Resources Pty Ltd
Iluka Resources Pty Ltd
Kepco Bylong Australia Pty Ltd
Mach Energy Australia Pty Ltd

Malabar Coal Limited

Newcrest Mining - Cadia Valley Operations
New South Resources Pty Ltd
Omya Australia Pty Ltd
Peabody Energy Australia
Regis Resources Limited
South 32 Illawarra Coal Holdings
Shenhua Watermark Coal Pty Limited
Shoalhaven Coal Pty Ltd
Silver Mines Ltd
Thiess Pty Ltd
Whitehaven Coal Limited
Wollongong Coal Limited
Wyong Areas Coal Joint Venture
Yancoal Australia Limited

Associate Members

Ampcontrol Pty Ltd
ARTC - Australian Rail Track Corporation
Ashurst
Aurizon Holdings LTD
B Marheine Holdings Ltd
Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation
Civeo Pty Ltd
Coal Services Pty Ltd
ElectraNet
Emeco International Pty Ltd
EMM Consulting
EMS Group Pty Ltd
Genesee & Wyoming Australia Pty Ltd
Gold and Copper Resources Pty Limited
Golden Cross Resources Ltd
Helix Resources Ltd
Herbert Smith Freehills
Hunter Business Chamber 
Hughes Mining Services
Hansen Bailey Pty Ltd
Jervois Mining Limited
Sydney Mining Club
Jennmar Australia
Johnson Winter Slattery
Geos Mining
McCullough Robertson
Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd
MRS Services Group Pty Ltd
NuCoal Resources Ltd
NSW Aboriginal Land Council
Niche Environment & Heritage
Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group
Orica Australia Pty Ltd
Pacific National Pty Ltd
Paradigm Resources Pty Ltd
Peel Mining Ltd 
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Port Waratah Coal Services Limited
Hetherington Exploration and Mining Title Services Pty Ltd
Hughes Mining Services
Rangott Mineral Exploration Pty Ltd
Quarry Mining & Construction Equipment P/L
Rimfire Pacific Mining NL
Resource Strategies Pty Ltd
RW Corkery and Company
Sapphire Resources
Seyfarth Shaw Australia
Silver City Minerals Limited
Sparke Helmore Lawyers
UNSW Mining Engineering
TAFE NSW
Thomson Resources Ltd
Umwelt (Australia) Pty Limited
University of Wollongong
XCoal Energy and Resources

Two lives lost and 88 homes destroyed across northern NSW to date in 2019 bushfire season

Bushland and grass fires are still burning across the Northern Rivers region and NSW predominately volunteer 'firies' are still keeping the flames from our doors where and when they can.

Here is the sad toll......

NSW Rural Fire Service, media release, 16 October 2019:

The NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) has confirmed 64 homes were destroyed in last week’s bush fires across northern NSW.

NSW RFS Building Impact Assessment Teams have now completed the bulk of inspections of fire affected areas.

Over the past week, these teams have conducted more than 1000 surveys of homes, buildings and facilities in the area directly impacted by fires.

The assessments have found:

›   64 homes destroyed, 23 damaged

›   7 facilities destroyed, 9 damaged

›   153 outbuildings destroyed, 70 damaged

›   329 homes in the direct area impacted by the fire saved

Of those homes destroyed, 44 were at the Busbys Flat fire.

Nineteen were due to the Long Gully Road fire, and in addition to 24 which were destroyed by the same fire in September. Tragically, two lives were also lost in this fire last week.

One home was destroyed at the Purgatory Creek fire near the Gwydir Highway at Jackadgery last week.

Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said so far this season, there has been more than 5000 bush and grass fires across NSW, which have burnt through more than a million hectares of land.

“We have seen large and destructive fires take an enormous toll on lives, farms, businesses, homes and communities in recent weeks and months, with a loss of 108 homes already this season.

“And while each one of the properties destroyed is a tragedy for those impacted, more than 1200 homes in the direct area of these fires have been saved due to the hard work of firefighters, landholders and residents.

“It’s important to remember that this is no ordinary bush fire season and we can’t afford to have anyone think this is just another year.

“The crippling effects of the drought, unseasonably warm weather and strong winds have seen fires develop quickly and impacted on lives, farms, businesses, homes and communities.

“There will be more fires this season and there’s a high likelihood of more homes being destroyed – so now is the time to get ready, make a plan, and have a conversation with your family.”

Visit www.myfireplan.com.au for advice on making your bush fire survival plan and preparing your property.