Australian Government admits that it has acted unlawfully since July 2016 with regard to the treatment of debt under its Centrelink income compliance program

On 27 November 2019 the Federal Court of Australia ruled in Amato v The Commonwealth of Australia that the use of data matching between Centrelink and Australia Taxation Office (ATO) records was not capable of providing proof that a debt exists under the Dept of Human Services/Centrelink Income Compliance Program ('robodebt') if that data matching was the only method used to establish such a debt. Therefore the debt was invalid.

The court also ruled that it followed that the garnishee notice given to the ATO was invalid and that the necessary preconditions conditions for imposition of a 10 per cent debt recovery fee were not met.  

The Federal Court made these orders, agreed to by both parties, after the Australian Government conceded that the averaging process using ATO income data to calculate the robodebt was unlawful.

Victoria Legal Aid has posted an explainer of this robotdebt case and its implications for other people who received a debt notice from July 2016 onwards.

Faced with three court cases, including a class action, on 19 November 2019 the Morrison Government finally admitted that automated data matching was a flawed tool, after mainstream media discovered and published the details of departmental email admissions to compliance staff. 

However, the Minister for Government Services has stated that government has no intention of abandoning this data matching scheme entirely. So welfare recipients must wait on the outcome of the class action in the hope that the Morrison Government will finally end its war on the poor and vulnerable.

The question remains as to how long has the Morrison Government has known it was acting unlawfully given it has finally admitted to receiving legal advice to that effect.

Even though bushfires are still burning across the Clarence Valley support and recovery planning has begun

Since 5 September 2019 the Clarence Valley Local Government Area has been affected by major fire activity.

At the Clarence Valley Council ordinary monthly meeting on Tuesday, 26 November 2019, councillors gave this mayoral motion unanimous support.

SUMMARY 

This Mayoral Minute aims to acknowledge the community loss from the bushfire emergency and provide further assistance from Council to help the Clarence Valley community recover in the fire effected areas which have been impacted since Friday 8 November. These fires are unprecedented in our area, like nothing we have seen before and as I write this Mayoral Minute fires are threatening the communities at Tullymorgan, Ashby and surrounds, Woombah and Iluka. 

The message to our community is that recovery is going to take a long time. Not all recovery work can start in all areas as we need to think about safety around fires that are still going. Don’t expect things to be fixed as fast as you might expect. We have to be patient. We need to look after each other and make sure that everyone in our community is safe.....

COUNCIL RESOLUTION – 05.19.006 
Mayor Simmons 

That Council 

1. Convey our deepest sympathy to the fire affected communities who have recently lost houses and other buildings and the large financial impact the fires are having on our farming community especially the beef industry. 

2. Again acknowledge the amazing ongoing efforts of the RFS, Community Services and other emergency agencies, including our own Council staff, response to the fires and thank all the volunteers both locally, nationally and internationally who have come to the Clarence Valley’s aid, and also acknowledge the ongoing State and Federal Government recovery support. 

3. Subject to public notice in accordance with Section 356 of the Local Government Act provide $16,500 to the Nymboida Canoe Centre to support its role as a community driven recovery hub (which they are currently funding from their resources which are fast running out), with this funding to particularly help with power, their water treatment facility (supplying emergency water to the Nymboida community), dust suppression on the canoe centre internal road network ($5,000) and will enable a booster antenna to be fitted at the centre ($1,500). 

4. Arranges to supply for free a one off potable water replenishment to fire affected households in the RFS mapped fire zones capped at 7,000 litres (estimated to be one months normal household water supply at a cost of around $180 a load) with residents to register for the water delivery and Council allocate $60,000 from accumulated general fund surplus for this purpose. 

5. Lobby the State and Federal Government, local members, the local and state recovery committees to reimburse Council for the water tank refill in 4 above. 

6. Work with the Canoe Centre to establish a Blaze Aid camp (note the State Government has already indicated that funds will be made available for Council to help fund the camp) and the Blaze Aid Vice President Christine Male has indicated a camp will be established shortly. 

7. Work with Coffs Harbour City Council on a possible Blaze Aid camp at Glenreagh or Nana Glen. 

8. Liaise with Blaze Aid with regard to possible activities and potential other sites in the Clarence Valley. 

Voting recorded as follows: 

For: Simmons, Kingsley, Baker, Ellem, Clancy, Novak, Williamson, Lysaught, Toms 

Against: Nil

BACKGROUND 

Council at the October meeting allocated $6,000 to both the Ewingar Hall Committee and the Dundurrabin Community Hall Committee to fund community driven recovery in these areas. At Ewingar a booster antenna was installed, $2,000 given to the community to help run the Ewingar Rising event and it was arranged to refill the water tanks. In addition a Blaze Aid camp has been established at Ewingar with $40,000 support from the NSW Office of Emergency Management- Council has arranged out of these funds for food supplies and cooking, a generator and fuel to power RV air conditioning, water tank refilling and shortly porta loo hire. 

No similar request has been forth coming from the Dundurrabin community, although this is likely to be coming shortly. 

KEY ISSUES 

Filling of water tanks emptied to fight individual house fires by house owners (note not RFS) has fell through the assistance cracks. Many in the fire affected areas who were able to save their house only did this by exhausting their tank water supplies, which now not only provides issues around living in the house but the ability to fight future fire’s. My minute is seeking Councillors support for Council to approve a one off free 7,000 litre replenishment paid by Council (estimated as one months supply). 

The Nymboida Canoe Centre has become the local community recovery hub ably led by Gray Stride and a team of local volunteer co-ordinators for different recovery areas. The Nymboida community has suffered major house (over 80 destroyed) and grazing land loss due to the fires. These fires are like nothing we have ever seen before. It will take an incredible effort from everyone to work together to rebuild our community and this minute aims to support this community led process. The addition of a mobile booster antenna, help with the power bills and running the water treatment plant at the centre (supplying emergency potable water), dust suppression on the canoe centre internal road network, as well as other incidental costs is needed urgently as the canoe centre’s resources are rapidly being exhausted. The booster antenna is needed to improve the Telstra reception at the centre which will also be used by Blaze Aid and the Office of Emergency Management etc for outreach. 

I also will be asking for State and Federal Government assistance under the disaster provisions to fund the water tank supply initiative and reimburse Council. I do note on this RFS will refill tanks (and dams) when they used them to fight fires and Local Land Services supply emergency water for stock. 

The minute also aims to obtain Council’s endorsement to set up a Blaze Aid camp at Nymboida and alerts Council to another possible one at Glenreagh. The State Government has indicated they will give funding support to help establish the Blaze Aid camp at Nymboida, they gave Council $40,000 for Ewingar.

l'état, c'est moi: Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison is acting more like an autocrat every day

"Until this week, I’ve felt that comparisons between Morrison and Donald Trump have been way overblown. Now, I’m not so sure."  [Journalist Katherine Murphy writing in The Guardian, 28 November 2019]

In which it is revealed that Scott Morrison made a 'perfect' phone call à la Trump......

Crikey Worm: For the early birds, 28 November 2019:

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is coming under increasing fire over his phone call to the NSW police commissioner, with a former top judge calling it an inappropriate use of his position.

Former ICAC commissioner David Ipp said the call appeared to have been made in the interests of political decision-making, rather than in the interest of the state, telling The Guardian “an ordinary citizen would not be able to get that information from the police … so what is it about the prime minister that entitles him to that information?” Ipp joins former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and Labor leader Anthony Albanese in condemning the call. The prime minister has refused to release notes from the call with the police chief, despite differing accounts of what was discussed, The New Daily reports.

THEY REALLY SAID THAT? 

“	Being blunt about it, it is a call I would not have made. — Malcolm Turnbull

The former prime minister offers his two cents on his successor’s decision to ring the NSW police chief.

So who do Australian trust the least these days?

Between 20 July and 29 July 2019 fifty-four thousand nine hundred and seventy (54,970) Australia Talks National Survey respondents were shown eleven professional categories and asked to rank them by level of trust.

The online survey question was; "How much do you trust each of the following?"

This was the result based on the proportion of respondents supporting each political party who answered "somewhat" or "a lot".

ABC News, 27 November 2019

It seems that the least trusted professions are:

1. Celebrities - 8%
2. Politicians - 19%
3. Corporate Exectutives - 20%
4. Religious Leaders - 29%.

The most trusted professions are:

1. Doctors & Nurses - 97%
2. Scientists - 93%
3. Police & Law Enforcement - 84%
4. Judges 80%.

When a frontpage montage goes horribly wrong

The Daily Examiner, Page One, 28 November 2019

Ghostly onlookers to an unfolding environmental and societal disaster - transparent bodies and a missing head turns this unacknowledged montage into a mockery of the current emergency.

Cartoons of the Week

David Rowe

Morrison Government's union busting 'Ensuring Integrity Bill' defeated in the Senate

Prime Minister Scott Morrison's pride and joy, the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019, intended to weaken and perhaps even destroy registered unions in Australia was negatived in Committee of the Whole by the Senate.

The vote was tied at 34-all, with One Nation's two senators along with Senator Jacqui Lambie voting with the Greens and Labor.

It took 147 days for political commonsense to prevail but on 28 November 2019 the Senate politely told the prime minister and his hard right cronies where to go.

Another bill Morrison is reportedly hoping to pass before the parliamentary Christmas break is the Migration Amendment (Repairing Medical Transfers) Bill 2019 which removes provisions for asylum seeker detainee medical transfers to Australia from Manus Island and Nauru ('medevac').

BACKGROUND

Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), media release, 26 November 2019:

In a blow to the Morrison Government’s arguments for the Ensuring Integrity Bill currently before the senate the Federal Court has ruled the union regulator, the Register Organisations Commission (ROC) investigation into the AWU was invalid. 

Justice Bromberg has ruled that the ROC did not have grounds to order an AFP raid on the offices of the AWU and has ordered the return of the documents that were seized on behalf of the regulator in their first act after being established by the Liberal Government in 2017. 

The decision comes as the Morrison Government attempts to pass the Ensuring Integrity Bill in the Senate which would give the ROC the extreme power to determine which unions are deregistered and which officials are disqualified under the dangerous and hypocritical new union-busting law. 

Under the EI Bill the ROC would have the power to begin deregistration proceedings against a union which had made a handful of paperwork mistakes over a period of 10 years. 

Quotes attributable to ACTU President Michele O’Neil: 

“The Morrison government has been telling Senators that the ROC is an impartial body which can administer the extraordinary powers granted under EI. The Federal Court has just found it conducted an illegal raid on a union office. 

“Giving union busters more power to drag unions into courts over minor paperwork breaches, some that would only cost a company an $80 fine, Will cost members and the taxpayer millions in legal fees. This is before accounting for the cost of not being able to campaign for higher wages, better working conditions and safer workplaces. 

“To defend themselves from the ROC’s harrassment the AWU was forced to expending significant resources over two years to get justice. If the Ensuring Integrity Bill passes, all unions could face this harrassment over paperwork breaches. 

“Questions also need to be asked of the ROC who is continuing to waste tax payer’s money to challenge this finding. “This ruling gives the crossbench senators a stark example of how the Morrison government targets unions and will stop at nothing to try and bust unions. Ensuring Integrity will become another tool for union busters and should be rejected. 

“The Federal Court decision is a vindication for the AWU but also a warning for the Senate crossbench who weighing amendments which would give this discredited body even more power.”

BACKGROUND

On 20 October 2017, Mr Chris Enright, the Executive Director of the Registered Organisation Commission (ROC) and a delegate of the Commissioner decided to conduct an investigation.

Judgment in Australian Workers’ Union v Registered Organisations Commissioner (No 9) [2019] FCA 1671 was delivered on 11 October 2019. The judgment concluded that; "the decision to conduct an investigation as to whether ss 285(1), 286(1) and 287(1) of the RO Act had been contravened was affected by jurisdictional error and is invalid."

Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019 was introduced by the Morrison Coaltion Government in July 2019 and was currently before the Senate for the second reading debate when the ACTU penned the aforementioned media release.

*Images of ROC document come from the published Federal Court judgment.

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

The Migration Amendment (Repairing Medical Transfers) Bill 2019  is apparently scheduled for a second reading before 5 December 2019.

This bill removes provisions in Schedule 6 of the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Act 2019. These provisions (commonly referred to as the medical transfer, or medevac, provisions) established a framework for the transfer of transitory persons from regional processing countries to Australia for the purpose of medical treatment or assessment. The Bill also amends the Migration Act to allow for the removal of people brought to Australia under the medical transfer provisions back to a regional processing country once they no longer need to be in Australia.

On 27 November 2019 a nonconforming petition was tabled in the Senate asking for medevac provisions to be saved. It contains 51,299 signatures.

On the same day Professor David Isaacs, Clinical Professor, Paediatrics & Child Health, Fellow, Royal Australasian College of Physicians was joined by doctors in Canberra urging senators to reject the medevac repeal bill. Professor Isaacs carried an open letter signed by 5,040 doctors urging Senator Jacqui Lambie to save medevac.