FILED UNDER 'IT'S ABOUT TIME': Channel 7, Samantha Armytage & Prue McQueen will be sued for racial vilification over a 'Sunrise" broadcast in March 2018

14 June 2019

Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA), media release:

The ACMA has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from Channel Seven Sydney Pty Ltd (Channel Seven) following breaches of the Commercial TV Code of Practice in a Sunrise ‘Hot Topics’ segment broadcast in March 2018. 

The segment dealt with the adoption of indigenous children and child abuse in indigenous communities. 

The ACMA found that the segment was inaccurate and provoked serious contempt on the basis of race in breach of the industry’s code. [my yellow highlighting]

 Channel Seven sought judicial review of the ACMA’s findings that the segment provoked serious contempt on the basis of race, but discontinued court proceedings in April 2019. 

Under the court-enforceable undertaking, Channel Seven must conduct an independent review of how and the extent to which relevant production processes on Sunrise ensure code compliance in relation to sensitive and complex matters. 

A report of the review must be provided to Channel Seven’s Board and Audit and Risk Committee within six months. 

The ACMA will verify the independence of, and terms of reference for, the review. 

Channel Seven has also undertaken that Sunrise editorial staff will be trained to identify and deal with sensitive matters within six months and notify the ACMA within five business days that the training is complete. 

If Channel Seven breaches the court-enforceable undertaking, the ACMA can apply to the Federal Court for a number of orders, including directing Channel Seven to comply with the undertaking, and any other order the court considers appropriate. 

MS 21/2019

11 June 2020

Settlement negotiations have broken down and the matter is on its way to the Federal Court on behalf of the eight Aboriginal complainants, including elders, award winners and young leaders .

Quote of the Week

"Alone in the developed world, Australia navigated the last major global financial crisis without going into recession, without mass job losses and without a spike in suicides. Those days are gone. That competent Government is gone. Instead, Australia is now among the global losers. Last Wednesday’s (3 June) quarterly report on the national accounts by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows Australia’s economy contracted by 0.31 per cent in the three months to 31 March….It was not inevitable that Australia’s economy would contract in 2020, despite the impact of the pandemic.” [Alan Austin writing in IndependentAustralia, 8 June 2020]

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison denies slavery ever existed in Australia *WARNING this post contains the names of people who are no longer living*

This was Scott Morrison boldly asserting yesterday that “there was no slavery in Australia”.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 June 2020:

"Australia when it was founded as a settlement, as New South Wales, was on the basis that there'd be no slavery," the Prime Minister told Ben Fordham on 2GB. "And while slave ships continued to travel around the world, when Australia was established yes, sure, it was a pretty brutal settlement."

"My forefathers and foremothers were on the First and Second Fleets. It was a pretty brutal place, but there was no slavery in Australia," he said.

Why did Morrison chose to brazenly lie like this? Probably because he knew his statement would go to print without being immediately challenged by either News Corp, Nine, or Canberra Press Gallery journalists - and once in print with online amplification more than a few people would accept his lie as truth.

Thankfully Justice Garry Downes (President), Deputy President Stephen Estcourt and QC Deputy President Don Muller in an Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia decision on 18 October 2002 entered this into the record:

“Nelly Wanda is said to be a Queensland Aboriginal who was born in 1883 and died in 1903…. It is said that Nelly Wanda was brought to Tasmania from Queensland when she was 9 years old by a ship's captain named Lucas who, it is said, dealt in 'human trade'. Nelly was sold as a house servant and died at the age of 19 in childbirth.”

Newspaper reports found at Trove also mention slavery.

"Aboriginal Slave. Recaptured and Flogged. 
Ill-treatment of an Alleged Slave. 

 Under yesterday's date a telegram was received by the Colonial Secretaryfrom Mr. P. Keiley, lightkeeper at Karomba, at the mouth of the Norman River. Mr. Keiley states that a fugitive female slave (presumably an an aboriginal) who had run away from her master or masters had been recaptured and flogged at that place yesterday. In Mr. Keiley's opinion the case is one which warrants the interference of the Colonial Secretary. A similar telegram has been received from the same source by the Aborigines Protection Society of Queensland. Immediately upon receipt of the telegram the Colonial Secretary wired instructions to the police-magistrate at Normanton to make a thorough and searching inquiry into the matter, and to report to him as soon as possible."

The Telegraph, 18 October 1890

"The Government at least cannot plead ignorance of the iniquities which are openly perpertrated, for an official of its own, Dr. W. E. Both, Northern Protector of Aborigines; testifies to certain abuses which exist in the the treatment of the unfortunate Northern black helots. He tells in his official report of absolute kidnapping, of evasion of the labour regulations, and of the selling of young aborigine to traders. He says he has reported absolute proof that such has been the case, and as no departmental action has resulted the secretary of the Protection Society has good grounds for appealing to a higher power."

The Worker, 8 December 1900

"As regards the capturing of natives on the Descal, this has frequently been done by the notorious Hodgson, who chained men, women and children together and marched them under a broiling sun to the station, where they were detained as shepherds. It seems incredible that the people in the neighborhood of Pilbarra that this man was allowed to leave the country without any investigation being held as to his systematic cruelties. He was universally abhorred, both by blacks and white people. Hicks' black financial statement will have attention yet."

West Australian Sunday Times, 1 September 1901

"Astounding revelations have been made regarding the kidnapping of an aboriginal boy from Port Hedland four years ago The District Magistrate at Karachi, India, has forwarded statements from several people alleging that Jourack, a brother of Dust Mahomet, who was killed at Port Hedland I8 months ago, had taken a black boy named Pidgy, then six years old, to his (Jourack's) 'home near Karachi, where this lad is now held as a working slave."

The Register, 30 January 1911

"MINISTER ADMITS SLAVE TRADING 
 AN ABORIGINE SOLD 

 PART OF A STATION 
The sale of an aborigine as a servant at a station property in northern Australia was admitted by the Minister for Home and Territories, Mr. Marr, yesterday."

The Labor Daily, 18 October 1927

Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has confirmed its major rural and regional insurer, WFI, will join its other subsidiary, CGU, in no longer providing public liability cover if there is "unconventional gas" operations on properties

ABC News, 10 June 2020:

Image: ABC Southern Queensland: Nathan Morris

Australia's largest insurance company says it will no longer cover farmers for public liability if they have coal seam gas (CSG) infrastructure on their property. 

The development has made farmers fearful they will have to cease farming altogether if they cannot get cover. 

Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has confirmed its major rural and regional insurer, WFI, will join its other subsidiary, CGU, in no longer providing the coverage if there is "unconventional gas" operations on properties. 

IAG said for customers who "have operational CSG or shale gas activities or infrastructure on their property, such as a coal seam gas well, we will be unable to provide liability cover as part of their insurance policy". 

IAG said the company does not specialise in mining and resources operations and the change will affect existing customers when their policies come up for renewal. AgForce Queensland said that is as soon as the end of this month. Michael Guerin talks to a man in front of a book shelf. 

AgForce Queensland CEO Michael Guerin says farmers are worried the change could expose them to liability risks..... 

Queensland farmers said they were fearful the change could expose them to liability risks and could extend to other risks associated with CSG, such as the potential for groundwater contamination. 

It is understood the Queensland Government has been holding talks with insurers, mining industry representatives and AgForce, in an attempt to resolve the problem..... 

ABC News has obtained legal advice provided to the New South Wales Government in 2014, warning that insurance for CSG in Australia was "inadequate" and measures were needed to address the potential cost of contamination risks. [my yellow highlighting]

AgForce's Queensland chief executive Michael Guerin said farmers were deeply concerned. 

"Producers, like any business, can't operate without insurance," Mr Guerin said.

Spokesperson for the Lock the Gate Alliance, Rick Humphries is calling on the gas industry to compensate farmers.....

He said while some other insurers were providing cover for now, there was a risk they would pull out of the sector or jack up prices. "All of those dangers are there," he said. 

"There's a danger that insurance premiums will go up [and] there's a danger insurance will be harder to get." 

AgForce Queensland said insurance being withdrawn threatened the coexistence of unconventional gas and agriculture. 

He said there had been a lot of hard work in devising complicated agreements to allow the two industries to work together over the years. 

"If part of the insurance industry starts withdrawing cover, it puts that at risk, and that's the core of the concern at the moment," Mr Guerin said. 

Anti-mining, pro-agriculture group Lock the Gate said the gas industry should be made to compensate farmers. Spokesperson for Lock the Gate and former mining consultant, Rick Humphries, said farmers should not be the ones facing the risk. 

"The onus is on the gas industry to get insurance products that cover their assets and protect the farmer," Mr Humphries said. 

"The farmer shouldn't have to run around and look for insurance products. 

"But the way that the system has worked is that the Government has knowingly allowed gas industry to enter into contracts with farmers that expose farmers to a whole range of business and natural resource risks around water and land contamination." 

He said laws needed to be changed to force the companies to act. "The whole mining and gas model is all about transferring as much risk away from the shareholder," he said. 

"The companies won't willingly step up and do this because it's an additional expense, and they have to take on the risk. 

"Governments have to intervene to force mining and gas companies to take out insurance products, or demonstrate they [have] adequate coverage that will compensate landholders."......

Read the full article here.

BACKGROUND

* Queensland Government Audit Office 2019-20 report on Queensland coal seam gas activities can be found at:
https://www.qao.qld.gov.au/reports-resources/reports-parliament/managing-coal-seam-gas-activities

* ABC News, 30 March 2020:

A leaked expert report shows the Queensland Government was advised to stop further gas fracking in the state's sensitive Channel Country, but a separate department had already extended gas exploration until 2030. 

A confidential report to the Queensland Environment Department prepared by environmental scientists recommended that infrastructure for gas fracking and mining was "unacceptable" in the Lake Eyre Basin floodplains, known as the Channel Country. 

The 47-page report, obtained by ABC News, lists scores of potential risks associated with so-called unconventional gas extraction, (also known as gas fracturing or fracking), including direct impacts on threatened species and water quality. 

As ABC News revealed earlier this year, the Queensland Mines Department in March 2019 had approved Santos to keep exploring commercial gas opportunities in the area until 2030, despite an election commitment to protect "pristine rivers" and work with stakeholders. 

A union of environmentalists, graziers, traditional owners and other stakeholders, known as the Western Rivers Alliance, said the promised consultation did not happen. 

The report, recommending that further fracking for natural gas be stopped, was received by the Environment Department in October last year.....

Is the Morrison Government rushing like a bull at the gate in trying to roll back COVID-19 financial assistance at the earliest opportunity?

There were est. 1.3 million children in childcare and 200,000 staff in the early childhood education and care sector across Australia before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

On 23 March 2020 the Morrison Government announced it would help families with the cost of child care and provide support for child care centres to remain viable and pay staff during enforced COVID-19 closures.

On 2 April it announced the government had suspended its usual childcare subsidies and instead offered to pay 50% of childcare centres’ usual fees based on February enrolments, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison stating that “Around one million families are set to receive free child care during the coronavirus pandemic...This plan complements more than $1 billion we expect the sector to receive through our new JobKeeper payment to help ensure many of the 200,000 vital early education workforce can stay connected to services….The plan means the sector is expected to receive $1.6 billion over the coming three months from taxpayer subsidies”.

This announce meant that child care operators would be receiving in total $300 million more in government funding than they would otherwise receive over a three month period.

Then on 1 May the Morrison Government announced a boost for not-for-profit organisations and educators from family daycare and in home care services which are not eligible for the JobKeeper wage subsidy.

By 19 May it was being reported in The Guardian that:

...an education department report found that a quarter of childcare centres found the free childcare system – due to conclude at the end of June – had not helped them remain financially viable. Education department officials have blocked the release of the full report, claiming cabinet and commercial confidentiality.

Tehan claimed success because 99% of centres are still operating and said the government is consulting the sector “to make sure any changes will see the sector continue to thrive”.

Tehan said “no decision” had been taken on ending free childcare but “if demand continues to increase at the levels we’re seeing it, we have to understand that this system was put in place to deal with falling demand”.

Come 8 June 2020 and Minister for Education and Liberal MP for Wannon Dan Tehan issued a media release which stated in part:

As Australians return to their workplace, businesses re-open and children return to classroom learning, the Government will resume the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) to support families to access affordable child care.

Minister for Education Dan Tehan said the temporary Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package, introduced on 6 April, had done its job and would be turned off on 12 July.

From 13 July, the CCS will return, along with new transition measures to support the sector and parents as they move back to the subsidy. To ensure Government support is appropriately targeted, JobKeeper will cease from 20 July for employees of a CCS approved service and for sole traders operating a child care service.

The Government will pay approximately $2 billion in CCS this quarter to eligible families. The CCS is means-tested to ensure that those who earn the least receive the highest level of subsidy.

In addition to the CCS, the Government will pay child care services a Transition Payment of 25 per cent of their fee revenue during the relief package reference period (17 February to 1 March) from 13 July until 27 September. Importantly, the last two payments scheduled for September will be brought forward to help with the transition and cash flow.

This additional Transition Payment of $708 million replaces JobKeeper and applies important conditions on child care providers.

Until 27 September 2020 child care fees will be capped at 17 February to 1 March levels and there will be an easing of the Activity Test.

So five weeks after this latest announcement there will be no free child care for sole parents or couples anymore and another two weeks after that eligible child care workers will not receive the $1,500 before tax fortnightly wage.

There is no explanation for why child care workers are losing JobKeeper payments eleven weeks ahead of schedule. One has to suspect that being a lower paid, predominately female workforce it is seen as easy pickings by the Morrison Cabinet.

With no employment ‘snapback’ in sight due to an Australian Bureau of Statistics Employment To Population Ratio, Australia Graph like this (left) as well as calls for the abolition of penalty rates and a general wage freeze, one wonders how a return to fee paying child care in July will assist the unemployed and underemployed to get their family finances back to pre-COVID-19 levels, if at the very least the average fee for one child would be in the vicinity of est. $84-$100 a week after subsidy coming out of a family income which for many may be between $388 to $468 a week by the end of September.

It is thought likely under these conditions that the increase in enrolments that Tehan talks about (which in reality has only reached 75% of normal capacity by his own admission) will fall away in the next two months.

In the last 30 days a total of 32 child care businesses were listed for sale at seekbusiness.com.au.

Rex Express walks away from its Clarence Valley airline route trying to blame others for its decision

“Rex will stand by all regional communities that have stood by Rex during this global and national crisis” [Rex Express Holdings Deputy Chairman and former Nationals MP for Hume, the Hon John Sharp AM, company media release, 29 April 2020]

Stirring words in that quote at the top of this post.

The facts on the ground are somewhat different.

It appears that Rex Express Holdings* directors Kim Hai Lim, John Sharp, Neville George Howell, Christopher Hine, Thian Soo Lee, Ronald Bartsch, James Davis and at least one senior company executive David Brooksby are so offended by having their company's begging letters actually answered with increased funding/concessions from Clarence Valley Council that they have decided to remove the Clarence Valley’s only commercial air link with the outside world.

Council’s financial assistance was in addition to Rex Express receiving nearly $24 million from the federal government’s $198 million Regional Airline Network Support Program (RANS) and $53.9 million from the $100 million COVID-19 Regional Airlines Funding Assistance Program.

According to Rex Express on 20 April 2020 the RANS program is to ensure “regional airline carriers will be provided assistance to maintain a minimal weekly schedule to regional and remote ports”. The COVID-19 Regional Airlines Funding Assistance Program is intended to assist airlines "to remain financially viable through the unprecedented downturn in aviationdue to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic".

Under revised RANS guidelines, Rex was eligible to receive funding to operate 2-3 return services a week to all destinations on the Rex Express network for up to six months. Rex’s application for the ports it wishes to provide services to has been approved and was signed off on 23 April 2020.

So it seems that the airline had a government funding offer to fly the Clarence Valley route until at least late September 2020.

So why did Rex Express spit the dummy and pull its Clarence Valley route commencing 3 July?

Admittedly Rex Express as airlines go is only a sprat in the aviation ocean, however it did turn a $17.5 million profit after tax in the 2018-2019 financial year and the board recommended an 8 cents dividend to shareholders.

Perhaps dropping Grafton Airport was because having a leg in again at Ballina Airport since early May 2020, the company board finds that market is more attractive.

Or perhaps it has more to do with the changed financial landscape created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the likelihood that the profit & loss statement it will present shareholders at this November’s annual general meeting - given it stated an expectation of a $10 million a month loss due to reduced flights - will not be welcome.

Total passenger numbers and revenue had been falling in 2019 but the fall was quite marked in January-February 2020 – numbers fell by -4 % in January & -3% in February and revenue fell by -6% in January & -5% in February.

By 17 March 2020 it was reported that Rex Express was anticipating bankruptcy and on 26 March its ASX share price had dropped to 0.400. Share price has since recovered to 1.100 as of Friday 5 June.

The regional airline is also now facing increased competition on some routes from Qantas which is expecting competition from Regional Express in 2021. Rex wants to expand its own operations on competitive/commercially viable routes.

It is possible that Rex Express abandoning its flights into the Clarence Valley will not be the only route it is either jettisoning or downgrading and other low volume regional areas are in the firing line – they just don’t know it yet.

It may be that the fig leaf Rex is hiding behind – alleged hostility during one Clarence Valley Council debate of a motion – is meant to forestall panic in other regions this airline services.

Either way, I have lost count of the times Rex Express has threatened to withdraw or did withdraw its passenger services from airports in the NSW Northern Rivers region. In my personal opinion it is an airline that fails to impress.

Note

* Rex Express is reportedly 58% owned by shareholders in Singapore.

BACKGROUND

The Daily Examiner, 8 June 2020:

Seven-line email to council over ‘hostility’ the reason Grafton stunned by Rex king hit

The words used in a Clarence Valley Council meeting last week are the reason Regional Express airlines will cease flying into Grafton from July 3.

The airline made the announcement to cease flying via a letter to Clarence Valley Council general manager Ashley Lindsay on Thursday afternoon.

A spokeswoman for the airline confirmed to The Daily Examiner that the reason for the cancellation of the route was due to the comments made by councillors in a debate over whether they would provide a credit note for the airline.

When pushed on other reasons for the closure of the route, and whether Rex’s Lismore and Ballina routes would continue, the spokeswoman declined to comment, and said that further questions from The Daily Examiner had been forwarded for consideration.

The motion for providing Rex a credit note of $8908, which was to be used in January 2021, was passed by Clarence Valley Council 7-2 after a debate ensued on whether councillors questioned council supporting the airline.

However in the letter, the company has stated it has rejected the offer, despite asking for it in earlier correspondence.

Written by Rex airports manager David Brooksby, it opens by thanking Clarence Valley Council for offering Rex a rebate of $8908.

“Please note however that given the hostility of the councillors in relation to this matter, and following the call for Rex to ‘pull their finger out’, Rex will reject council’s offer. Full settlement has already been made last week,” the letter reads.

It concludes: “Please also be aware that Rex will cease all services to Grafton with effect from 3 July 2020.” Clarence Valley Council general manager Ashley Lindsay said the decision was “really surprising and disappointing”, and was seeking to talk to Mr Brooksby about the matter.

“Council received correspondence from Rex on March 19 and requested that council provide a 50 per cent reduction of the head tax from April 1 to December 31, 2020,” he said.

“Council in March resolved to give a reduction of 100 per cent unanimously. “We then received further correspondence on April 23 seeking a credit note over landing fees … that could used in January 2021 for their first lot of invoices.

“This was passed 7-2 … and it seems the ‘pull your finger out’ (comment from the debate), that’s what has offended them…..

NSW Labor MLA for Lismore Janelle Saffin speaks out about Nationals support of extensive coal seam gas exploration and mining in New South Wales

Janelle Saffin, Labor MLA for Lismore, media release, 4 June 2020:

Ben ‘Fracker' Franklin should pack up his Byron Bay digs and head back to Sydney: Saffin

STATE Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin today (Thursday 4 June 2020) slammed the NSW Nationals for voting against a Private Members Bill that would permanently protect the Northern Rivers from harmful Coal Seam Gas mining.

“Byron Bay-based Parliamentary Secretary for Energy and the Arts Ben Franklin and his fellow Nationals did a 360-degree turn last night hoping no one would notice and sought to turn the guns on others,” Ms Saffin said.

Ms Saffin said with the bill due to be debated in the Legislative Assembly today (June 4), she would be watching to see whether North Coast-based Nationals MPs Gurmesh Singh (Coffs Harbour), Chris Gulaptis (Clarence) and Geoff Provest (Tweed) would become turncoats as well.

“If these MPs are serious about protecting the Northern Rivers and North Coast they will vote for this bill,” Ms Saffin said.

“In 2015 at the Nationals’ State Conference, Ben Franklin seconded a motion put by Chris Gulaptis, calling for the need to recognise widespread opposition to CSG and to buy back CSG licences.

“Ben Franklin then warned that a solution was needed otherwise the Nationals could lose the seats on the Northern Rivers for a generation, and that ‘if we do not get this right the people of the Northern Rivers will not listen to us on anything else’

“You got that right Ben as you lost another seat, Lismore in 2019 and went backwards, and the people of the Northern Rivers will never listen to you or your Nationals mates again.

“You had the chance to protect the water, the farmers, the agricultural industry in the Northern Rivers and Narrabri, and you ran away from it.

“Ben ‘Fracker’ Franklin should pack up his Byron Bay digs and head back to Sydney, because he has sealed his fate by putting city interests ahead of country people.”

Ms Saffin accused the Nationals of not being serious about protecting our people, our water, our farmlands and our agricultural jobs in the Northern Rivers from the harmful effects of CSG.

“They are only serious about protecting their own jobs, whether it be the Deputy Premier spot or a seat they “claim” as theirs as of right,” Ms Saffin said.

“They only reacted to electoral loss for them -- losing the state seat of Ballina and nearly losing Lismore in 2015. It was not support and protection for us; it was ‘jobs’ protection for them.

“I stood up against Metgasco when I researched and discovered the harmful effects of CSG mining. I took it into the Federal Parliament and advocated hard to get whatever power the Federal Government had in this matter enacted to protect our water.

“I helped secure ‘water trigger’ legislation which was subsequently weakened by the Abbott Government and the Nationals.”

Ms Saffin said the Petroleum (Onshore) Amendment (Coal Seam Gas Moratorium) Bill 2019, has the following key elements:

* It imposes a moratorium on the prospecting for, or the mining of, coal seam gas across New South Wales.

* It applies no-go zones to particular areas deemed off limits, including the local government areas of the Northern Rivers region, drinking water catchments, national parks, residential areas and prime agricultural land.

The Northern Rivers is made up of Tweed Shire, Byron Shire, Ballina, Lismore City, Kyogle, Richmond Valley and Clarence Valley.

Ms Saffin said: “Farmers want the permanent protections of this bill, locals want this, anyone who cares about water wants this -- that is all of us -- the agricultural, fishing tourism sector want this.

“I have advocated for a statewide CSG moratorium to my NSW Labor colleagues and indicated that I would cross the floor of Parliament if I had to,” Ms Saffin said.

“The 2019 bill is similar to (NSW Shadow Minister for the North Coast and Shadow Minister for Climate Change) Adam Searle MLC’s 2015 bill so we (Labor) have a long history of standing up to protect the Northern Rivers.

“I also moved a motion at NSW Labor’s State Conference to create no-go zones here on the Northern Rivers.”