Terania Creek Rainforest needs saving again - this time from climate change

https://youtu.be/0KbkMJXjvgw

In November 2019 wildfire burnt into the World Heritage Listed rainforests of Terania Creek. The community stood up to protect these rainforests from logging 40 years ago, now they need to stand up to protect them from global heating.

Gondawana Land formed around 250 million years ago and began the slow process of breaking up to form South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Antarctica, and the Australian mainland an est. 165 million ago.

Australia split off est. 65-75 million years after the land mass break up began with Tasmania the last piece to break way from the continental remnant which became Antartica and that occurred around 45 million years ago. 

Inside the remnants of ancient Godwana rainforests in Australia can be found plant species that are direct decendants of plants that existed before Gondwana Land ceased to be.

The toll on New South Wales as of 1 December 2019 flowing from the Morrison Government's refusal to take meaningful action on climate change

If one looks at media records the year 2019 commenced with the odd isolated bushfire fire and continued in the same manner through to July when fire outbreaks began to increase. 

By early September major fire activity was occurring in the Clarence Valley and, by October it was obvious that northern NSW was going to go up in flames.

When November came along many other regions were also battling huge unprecedented bushfires.

The state toll as of 1 December 2019 was:

It is hard to calculate accurately - but at this time it appears that at least 36% to 38% of the 10,441 sq. km Clarence Valley Local Government Area has experienced bushfires, with est. 100 homes and two irreplaceable lives lost.

I hope that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, every member of his Cabinet, each and every Liberal and Nationals MP and Senator are proud of what their negligence over the last six years of Coalition rule has brought about.

The bushfires continue with no sign of stopping.

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.