The fact that Minister for Home Affairs & Liberal MP for Dickson Peter Dutton is always lurking in the shadows during national crises continues to be a worry

"I’m going to keep going until I get the numbers. I’m not stopping" [Minister for Home Affairs & Liberal MP for Dickson Peter Dutton on the subject of his desire to be Australian prime minister, quoted in "The Bigger Picture", April 2020]

It has become notable that since September-August 2018 when Peter Dutton's bid to topple then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull succeeded but his bid to become Australian prime minister failed - primarily because he and Turnbull were both outfoxed by a duplicitous Scott Morrison - Dutton disappears into the shadows during the worst phases of national crises or major political scandal.

One suspects he does so as he doesn't want voters to negatively associate him with either crises or scandal, because he hasn't given up his ambition to be prime minister after the next federal election.

As Dutton's worldview is as much a threat to democratic processes as is the worldview of current prime minister Scott Morrison, voters would do well to keep in mind what Dutton would like to impose on Australian society.

Sydney Criminal Lawyers, 20 April 2020:

Peter Dutton Proposes Prison for Refusing to Provide Passwords

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has been absent from the media spotlight in recent times, ever since he contracted coronavirus.

And many are asking where the man at the helm of curtailing civil liberties on a federal level has been in the midst of the current pandemic.

The man at the helm of the surveillance state

Mr Dutton has been credited with proposing a wide range of laws designed to increase the power of authorities at the expense of individual liberties.

Perhaps most recently, Mr Dutton proposed laws which would result in prison time for those who fail or refuse to hand over their passwords or PINs when requested to do so by authorities.

Peter Dutton has said the laws are needed to help police catch criminals who are hiding behind encryption technology – a line we have heard many times before as the country’s law makers put in place draconian measures to grant police and other authorities surveillance powers that encroach upon our privacy.

Under the proposals, which is currently on hold, people who are not even suspected of a crime, could face a fine of up to $50,000 and up to five years’ imprisonment for declining to provide a password to their smartphone, computer or other electronic devices.

Furthermore, anyone (an IT professional, for example) who refuses to help the authorities crack a computer system when ordered will face up to five years in prison. If the crime being investigated is terrorism-related then the penalty for non-compliance increases to 10 years in prison and/or a $126,000 fine.

Tech companies who refuse to assist authorities to crack encryption when asked to do so, will face up to $10 million in fines. What’s more, if any employee of the company tells anyone else they have been told to do this, they will face up to five years in gaol.

Under the legislation, foreign countries can also ask Australia’s Attorney General for police to access data in your computer to help them investigate law-breaking overseas.

Australia’s hyper-legislative response to September 11

Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, the Australian parliament has responded to the threat of terrorism here and overseas by enacting more than 80 new laws and amending existing laws – many of them with wide-reaching consequences, such as the terrorism laws used to conduct raids on journalist Annika Smethurst’s home and the ABC’s head offices, as well as charge former military lawyer and whistleblower David Mc Bride with offences that could see him spending the rest of his life in gaol.

Controversial metadata laws too, introduced in 2015, seriously impact our personal privacy requiring telecommunications companies to retain metadata including information on who you call or text, where you make calls from, and who you send emails to.

The problem is that once these kinds of extraordinarily heavy-handed powers are legislated, they are very seldom retracted or rescinded. In many cases, over time, they are expanded. Australia’s oversight body the Australian Law Reform Commission can review laws that are already in place, but it has limited powers which only enable the commission to make recommendations for change, not to actually change the laws themselves.

Police already have the power to seize a phone or laptop if you have been arrested.

Border Force has even more extensive seize and search powers.

The extensive powers of border force

In 2018, Border Force made headlines after intercepting an British-Australian citizen travelling through Sydney airport seizing his devices.

Nathan Hague, a software developer was not told what would be done with his devices, why they were being inspected or whether his digital data was being copied and stored. He believes his laptop password was cracked.

Australian Border Forces have extensive powers to search people’s baggage at Australian airports. These are contained in section 186 of Customs Act 1901 (Cth). These include opening baggage, reading documents, and using an X-ray or detection dog to search baggage.

The Customs Act allows officers to retain an electronic device for up to 14 days if there is no content on the device which renders it subject to seizure. And if it is subject to seizure, the device may be withheld for a longer period.

ABF officers have the power to copy a document if they’re satisfied it may contain information relevant to prohibited goods, to certain security matters or an offence against the Customs Act. A document includes information on phones, SIM cards, laptops, recording devices and computers.

222 economists advise that lifting COVID-19 restrictions too soon will not help the Australian economy. But will Scott Morrison listen?

The Conversation, 20 April 2020:

In recent weeks a growing chorus of Australian commentators has called for social distancing measures to be eased or radically curtailed.

Some have claimed the lives saved by the lockdowns are not worth the damage they are causing to the economy.

Others have claimed the case for easing is strengthened by the fact many of the hardest hit by COVID-19 are elderly or suffering from other conditions.

Some might expect economists, of all people, to endorse this calculus.

But as economists we categorically reject these views, and we believe they do not represent the majority of our profession.

We believe a callous indifference to life is morally objectionable, and that it would be a mistake to expect a premature loosening of restrictions to be beneficial to the economy and jobs, given the rapid rate of contagion…..

Open Letter from Australian Economists

19 April, 2020

Dear Prime Minister and Members of the National Cabinet,

The undersigned economists have witnessed and participated in the public debate about when to relax social-distancing measures in Australia. Some commentators have expressed the view there is a trade-off between the public health and economic aspects of the crisis. We, as economists, believe this is a false distinction.

We cannot have a functioning economy unless we first comprehensively address the public health crisis. The measures put in place in Australia, at the border and within the states and territories, have reduced the number of new infections. This has put Australia in an enviable position compared to other countries, and we must not squander that success.

We recognise the measures taken to date have come at a cost to economic activity and jobs, but believe these are far outweighed by the lives saved and the avoided economic damage due to an unmitigated contagion. We believe strong fiscal measures are a much better way to offset these economic costs than prematurely loosening restrictions.

As has been foreshadowed in your public remarks, our borders will need to remain under tight control for an extended period. It is vital to keep social-distancing measures in place until the number of infections is very low, our testing capacity is expanded well beyond its already comparatively high level, and widespread contact tracing is available.

A second-wave outbreak would be extremely damaging to the economy, in addition to involving tragic and unnecessary loss of life.

Sincerely,

Professor Alison Booth, Australian National University

Professor Jeff Borland, University of Melbourne

Professorial Research Fellow Lisa Cameron, Melbourne Institute, University of Melbourne

Professor Efrem Castelnuovo, University of Melbourne

Professor Deborah Cobb-Clark, University of Sydney

Assistant Professor Ashley Craig, University of Michigan

Professor Chris Edmond, University of Melbourne

Professor Nisvan Erkal, University of Melbourne

Professor John Freebairn, University of Melbourne

Professor Renée Fry-McKibbin, Australian National University

Professor Joshua Gans, University of Toronto

Professor Jacob Goeree, UNSW Business School

Professor Quentin Grafton, Australian National University

Professor Simon Grant, Australian National University

Professor Pauline Grosjean, UNSW Business School

Distinguished Professor Jane Hall, University of Technology Sydney

Assistant Professor Steven Hamilton, George Washington University

Professor Ian Harper, Melbourne Business School

Professor Richard Holden, UNSW Business School

Professor David Johnston, Monash University

Professor Flavio Menezes, University of Queensland

Professor Warwick McKibbin, Australian National University

Assistant Professor Simon Mongey, University of Chicago

Professor James Morley, University of Sydney

Professor Joseph Mullins, University of Minnesota

Professor Abigail Payne, Melbourne Institute, University of Melbourne

Professor Bruce Preston, University of Melbourne

Emeritus Professor Sue Richardson, Flinders University

Professor Stefanie Schurer, University of Sydney

Professor Kalvinder Shields, University of Melbourne

Professor John Quiggin, University of Queensland

Associate Professor Simon Quinn, Oxford University

Economic Advisor James Vickery, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Professor Tom Wilkening, University of Melbourne

Professor Justin Wolfers, University of Michigan

Professor Yves Zenou, Monash University

Full list of signatories available on the economists open letter website.

2GB radio shock jock Alan Jones and unrequited political love

Excerpt from A Bigger Picture by former Australian prime minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, April 2020, p.237:

These bad polls made Abbott’s media backers go in harder. After days of demented denunciations from Alan Jones, I agreed to go on his program. On 4 June, the night before the interview, at 5.59 pm, I called him up. We spoke (mostly he spoke) for 31 minutes. I wrote in my diary that night: 

I tried to persuade him to stop this mad jihad against me on the basis that it was (a) utterly baseless and (b) very damaging to the Government, creating issues of leadership all at a time when we were behind in the polls and thus vulnerable. Jones was totally hysterical, screaming (literally) at me. He kept on accusing me of being ‘a traitor, a treacherous schemer’. He said again and again, ‘I love Tony Abbott and I will stand between him and anyone who tries to undermine him and that means you Malcolm Turnbull … You don’t love Tony Abbott.’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I am quite fond of him –’ ‘But you don’t love him, like I do,’ screamed Jones. ‘Not like you do, Alan, that’s true,’ I replied. At one point, he started screaming, ‘Don’t you know, everybody hates you, they hate you, everybody, everybody hates you …’ At another point he said, ‘Why aren’t you out there every day selling the Medicare Co-payment?’ I said that it might be because I wasn’t the Health minister. ‘That’s just an excuse!’ said Jones.

Covid-19 testing in the Clarence Valley in February to April 2020

As of 20 April 2020 there were 56 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Northern Rivers region.

Eight of these cases were found in the Clarence Valley.

Image: Clarence Valley Council

By 20 April 2020 records show testing had been undertaken in a number of Clarence Valley post codes:

• 21 COVID-19 tests had been conducted in postcode 2453, which covers Dundurrabin, Tyringham, Clouds Creek, Wild Cattle Creek and 16 other locations.
• 13 COVID-19 tests had been conducted in postcode 2469, which covers Woombah, Tabulam, Ewingar, Moraro, Paddy's Flat and over 40 other locations.
• 13 COVID-19 tests had been conducted in postcode 2466, which covers Woody Head, Iluka and The Fresh Water.
• 5 COVID-19 tests had been conducted in postcode 2465, which covers Harwood Island.
• 109 COVID-19 tests had been conducted in postcode 2464, which covers Yamba, Woolowyah, Angourie, Freebirn Island, Micalo Island and Yuragir.
• 110 COVID-19 tests had been conducted in postcode 2463, which covers Maclean, Townsend, Gulmarrad, James Creek, Brooms Head, Palmers Island, Ashby, Tullymorgan and 10 other locations.
• 22 COVID-19 tests had been conducted in postcode 2462, which covers Wooli, Minnie Waters, Ulmarra, Tucabia, Coldstream and 7 other locations.
• 0 COVID-19 tests had been conducted in postcode 2461, which covers part of South Grafton.
• 340 COVID-19 tests had been conducted in postcode 2460, which covers Grafton, Nymboida, Coutts Crossing, Copmanhurst, Jackadgery, Baryugil, Lawrence, and over 30 other locations.

The Clarence Valley had a resident population of 51,662 people in 2019 and testing up to 20 April 2020 does not appear to have exceeded est. 1.2% of this population.

NSW Department of Health guidelines are that testing only occurs when a person presents with upper respiratory symptoms, such as a fever, sore throat, dry cough, breathlessness. Therefore any asymptomatic virus carriers slip through the net.

Despite the limitations of the 'flattening the curve' public health response to COVID-19, there has been no new cases in the NSW Northern Rivers region for the last 6 days and none in the Clarence Valley for the last 21 days.

I'm not exhaling yet, but this is a hopeful sign.

Morrison's insistence that NSW public schools are safe places during the pandemic is not an accurate claim

On 9 April 2020 NSW public schools began the school year's Easter holidays.

By that time school attendance was thought to be as low as 30 per cent of all enrolled students in state schools.

Even the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had withdrawn his children from a NSW private school sometime between 9 March and 2 April 2020 and moved his family into The Lodge in Canberra.

Yet he continues to harangue the states and teachers for the distance learning policy put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

These teacher expressed her frustration at his attitude and comments.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 April 2020, p.20:

I find Morrison's comments that parents are doing home schooling offensive. What they are doing is assisting their children in understanding detailed, highly formatted lessons that are linked to the curriculum in a way to make it interesting for students. This is not home schooling as parents did not plan and link the work to the curriculum. As a teacher I spent 12-hour days combing the internet for interesting activities and tying it all to the curriculum, as well as running video classrooms, answering student questions and emails. When students were still having difficulties I was calling home to speak to the children to see how to fix the problems. That's not child minding: that's delivering quality remote learning for our students. Give us the protective wear, cleaning products and non-contact thermometers to screen children and teachers will be happy to go back to classrooms. 

 Jennie Kidd, Campbelltown

Coronavirus: PM won't send his kids to school while it's just childminding ⁦⁦@ScottMorrisonMP⁩ stating the online learning we, as a profession, have been busting our nuts preparing & delivering for a month, amounts to childminding is a total insult https://t.co/fyc9n9jfxD

— Vicki Lodge (@Vickster762) April 16, 2020

Morrison continues to insist that public schools are safe places for children to be during a pandemic.

NSW schools that have no hot running water, frequently no additional cleaning equipment and a limited ability to impose social distancing.

Under those conditions teachers were rightly worried about the risk to their own health and that of their pupils.

On 17 April 2020 there were est. 121 COVID-19 cases in NSW where individuals' ages ranged between 0 and 19 years.

This is an excerpt from a NSW Dept of Health media release dated 9 April 2020 at which point est. 112 individuals in that age range were infected with COVID-19 in the state:

This is another excerpt from a NSW Dept of Health media release dated 4 April 2020, at which point est.101 individuals in that age range were infected with COVID-19 in the state:

People still moving about unnecessarily in NSW Northern Rivers region

NSW Public Site - NEWS, 16 April 2020:

About 6.20pm yesterday (Wednesday 15 April 2020), officers from Tweed/Byron Police District attended Florence Street, Tweed Heads, after receiving information about a man who had arrived in a car acting aggressively. The man returned a positive roadside breath test, before being taken to Tweed Heads Police Station, where he allegedly refused a breath analysis. He was charged with breach of bail, refuse breath analysis, drive unregistered vehicle and unlicensed driver. The man had been issued with a $1000 PIN on 7 April 2020 for failing to comply with a ministerial direction. He was also charged with not comply with noticed direction and refused bail, to appear at Lismore Local Court today (16 April 2020).

Two women have been issued infringement notices after travelling to a caravan park at Broadwater. Officers from Richmond Police District were notified the two women, aged 19 and 29, had travelled to the caravan park from Taree. About 10.20am the pair were spoken to by police and were issued $1000 PINs for non-essential travel.

About 5pm yesterday (Wednesday 15 April 2020), officers from Tweed/Bryon Police District stopped a vehicle at Fawcett Street, Brunswick Heads, and spoke to the three occupants. The 20-year-old driver failed to provide a reasonable excuse for travel, telling officers he answers to a higher authority. He had previously been issued a warning under the Ministerial Direction and was issued with a $1000 PIN. The other two occupants, men aged 46 and 56, were given warnings.

Jump in Australian online gambling during COVID-19 shutdown

The Northern Star, 17 April 2020:

The new isolation measures bought on by the coronavirus pandemic are being linked to an increase in online gambling. 

There was a 67 per cent increase in online gambling from a survey of 250,000 Australian consumers, according to a recent study by Australian credit bureau Illion in collaboration with analytics firm Alphabeta. 

Professor Matthew Rockloff, Head of Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory at CQU, said the increased spare time could be a trigger for gamblers or introduce new people to the habit. 

“People may try online gambling as a way to gamble because they can’t gamble in-venue anymore … they might try overseas sites, which puts them at increased risk because most of the time these sites don’t have consumer protection measures.....