NSW Nationals Local Land Services Amendment (Miscellaneous Bill 2020 pulled in NSW Legislative Council after what appears to have been a Liberal revolt

 

There have been new developments in the NSW government's internal war over its koala protection policy this afternoon. https://t.co/TWh1KQgBAw @alexhart7 #nswpol #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/rQp6YVvhdE

— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) November 12, 2020

Local government and community reaction to this bill has seen it removed from the list of Current Government Bills before the Legislative Council on Thursday, 12 November 2020.

The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party lodged amendments yesterday morning which did nothing except confirm the worst features of this bill.

The war to protect both koalas and forests continues.......

A Commonwealth Integrity Commission which cannot burst the Canberra bubble?

 

Well, it is official. The exposure draft of Commonwealth Integrity Commission Bill 2020 released on 2 November 2020 forbids the Integrity Commissioner - or entities acting on his/her behalf - from openly mentioning parliamentarians or their staff in a corruption investigation report.

The Integrity Commissioner has the power to not investigate credible corruption allegations if he/she is so inclined and, can kick the problem over to the Australian Federal Police to investigate and report back or referred to the agency that is the subject of allegations to self-investigate.

The exception to this ability to kick the can down the road appears to be when the Integrity Commissioner is ordered to conduct a corruption investigation by the Minister.

All Commonwealth Integrity Commission hearings are to be held in private session when dealing with corruption in, or the integrity of staff members of, public sector agencies, higher education providers or research bodies.

Public hearings may be held with regard to investigations of alleged corruption in law enforcement agencies.

Witnesses called during hearings have to stay silent about anything to do with an investigation - including that they have been served a notice - under penalty of imprisonment for 2 years or 120 penalty units, or both.

The Integrity Commissioner also has the power to only partially publish the findings of a corruption investigation.

In addition it seems that the Integrity Commissioner can shield from public view an investigated person to whom allegations or adverse findings are attached, solely on the grounds that the commissioner believes it would damage the person's reputation it the corruption allegations or findings became known.

If a final report is prepared (whether by the Integrity Commissioner or another entity), the report may include certain findings and recommendations. However, findings may only be included about whether a person engaged in corrupt conduct if the conduct relates to a staff member of a law enforcement agency.

The final report of another entity (such as the Australian Federal Police) must not deal with any corruption issues that relate to parliamentarians or offices of parliamentarians.

See complete copy of exposure draft at https://www.ag.gov.au/system/files/2020-11/cic-bill-exposure-draft.pdf

Deadline for submissions on the exposure draft is 12 February 2021.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Attorney-General Christian Porter have set aside a grand total of $147 million for the development and operation of the Commonwealth Integrity Commission (CIC), which at first glance appears to be intended to hide corruption on the part of federal politicians, their staff and any person in a federal government department or agency the government of the day wishes to protect.

The NSW Nationals Minister for Nepotism, Double Bay and Killing Koalas, Bronnie Taylor, fails to answer a question concerning the deadly impact of exclusion fencing in northern New South Wales

 

Bronnie Taylor, NSW MLC & Minister in the Berejiklian Government having carriage of the Local Land Services Amendment Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2020 which will remove the Koala Habit Protection SEPP from the bulk of New South Wales land area.
IMAGE: Internewscast

NSW Legislative Council, 10 November 2020, Hansard excerpt:

EXCLUSION FENCING

The Hon. MARK PEARSON (16:16:09): My question is directed to the Minister for Mental Health, Regional Youth and Women representing the agriculture Minister. I have been contacted by concerned wildlife

carers and kangaroo shooters who have observed trapped wildlife being killed or becoming very distressed and dying a long lingering death as a consequence of exclusion fencing being installed in 100-kilometre clusters by landholders in northern New South Wales. Is the Minister aware of the harm being caused by Local Land Services encouraging farmers to construct them under the New South Wales Government's Supporting Our Neighbours fencing funding program?

The Hon. BRONNIE TAYLOR (Minister for Mental Health, Regional Youth and Women) (16:16:52): I thank the honourable member for his question, which is addressed to agriculture Minister Adam Marshall in the other place and whom I represent in this place. It is always distressing to hear about any animals suffering for whatever reason. Local Land Services do a terrific job in this State and they have had a difficult time in recent years with a drought like we have never seen before. I know they would be doing everything they could to ensure that they were doing their job, helping farmers but also ensuring that animals are not suffering. There are really good people on the ground in Local Land Services, who are working hard to do the right thing. As the question contains quite a bit of detail about fences and particular incidents, I will take it on notice and get back to the member as soon as possible.

An example of exclusion fencing being sold in Australia:

IMAGE: Waratah Fencing

NOTES:

Nepotism - see https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/23/nsw-funded-16m-project-run-by-mp-bronwyn-taylors-husband.

Allegations of corruption re protected grasslands - see https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/20/angus-taylors-sister-in-law-asked-if-she-tried-to-influence-endangered-species-listing

This is going straight to the pool room, darl...... WARNING: some offensive language in song

 

HOLY SHIT!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

The end of this video destroyed me.

Thank you, Australia!pic.twitter.com/UID2EBWoKW

— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) November 9, 2020

Christiaan Van Vuuren wrote, sang and created the video. He is a an actor, writer, director and video blogger from Sydney, Australia.

 

NAIDOC Week 2020

 

"Shape of Land" artwork was designed by Tyrown Waigana, a Noongar and Saibai Islander man.

Shape of Land description: The Rainbow Serpent came out of the Dreamtime to create this land. It is represented by the snake and it forms the shape of Australia, which symbolises how it created our lands. The colour from the Rainbow Serpent is reflected on to the figure to display our connection to the Rainbow Serpent, thus our connection to country. The overlapping colours on the outside is the Dreamtime. The figure inside the shape of Australia is a representation of Indigenous Australians showing that this country - since the dawn of time - Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land.

NAIDOC originally stood for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’. This committee was once responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week and its acronym has since become the name of the week itself. Find out more about the origins and history of NAIDOC Week.

"You and your boof-headed party, Mr. Gulaptis, and the appalling anti-environment government which you are part of, will be responsible for the extinction of koalas in our region...."

 

Chris Gulaptis MP, the NSW Nationals & Koalas

Our local State MP Chris Gulaptis, the Nationals’ Member for Clarence, has claimed that he loves Koalas like every other Australian. The Grafton Nannas believe he has a very strange way of showing this recently-revealed affection.

Since 2011, when the Nationals came into government in NSW, they have been pressuring their Coalition partners to weaken biodiversity protection. This has resulted in significant weakening of both native vegetation legislation and State Forest logging regulations. Both of these changes have had serious impacts on biodiversity - including on koalas.

Koalas have suffered from a range of impacts in recent years including climate induced drought and bushfires as well as dog attack, car strike and disease. But a major cause of their decline has been habitat loss. The NSW Nationals have had a big role in recent years in ensuring that habitat loss is accelerating.

In September we had the unedifying “dummy spit” drama where the Nationals threatened to withdraw from the Government because they objected to the Governments’ Koala SEPP (State Environmental Planning Policy) which had come into operation in March after being negotiated in late 2019. This SEPP was a slight improvement on the years-old model which had failed completely as a koala protective measure.

Chris Gulaptis was one of the prime movers in this melodrama.

Shortly after Premier Gladys Berejiklian called their bluff, the Nationals, many of whom did not want to lose their ministerial perks, backed down.

There was considerable speculation about why the Nationals had suddenly found the SEPP so intolerable after it they had had input to its development and it had already been on the books for around six months.

It seemed to boil down to lobbying by certain property developers, Nationals’ supporters who were worried they might have difficulty is pursuing their plans for rural subdivisions or residential development on urban outskirts because they would need to put in development applications to councils. This would then trigger the SEPP. So it appeared Nationals politicians like the prime mover Chris Gulaptis believed these interests should outweigh the protection of koalas which are on track to extinction in NSW by 2050 unless really effective measures are put in place to protect them and their habitat.

Following the Nationals’ backdown, there were behind the scenes negotiations between the Coalition partners that led to significant changes to the Koala SEPP. Unsurprisingly the Liberals caved in and the SEPP was watered down. For example the definition of core koala habitat became more restricted and developing a Koala Plan of Management was made more difficult for councils.

That was bad enough, but the extent of the Liberals’ spinelessness became more apparent with the appearance of the Local Land Services (LLS) Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2020. It further limits any opportunity to protect koala habitat.

This Bill has since been passed in the Legislative Assembly.

The Grafton Nannas held a knit-in protest outside Chris Gulaptis’ Grafton office on Thursday.

In a letter to Mr Gulaptis which was delivered to the office, we expressed our disgust with him and his party.

Below is the text of this letter:

LLS Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2020

“When we wrote to you in September about your party’s koala protection dummy spit, we expressed our disgust at your determination to undermine koala protection at a time when it was urgently needed. At that time the Nannas thought it would have been impossible to be more disgusted with you and your party.

“The changes to the Koala SEPP that followed the rapprochement of your party with the Liberals showed the Nannas just how weak was the Government commitment to ensuring koalas were protected and rescued from their slide towards extinction.

“And then, just to show how unimportant biodiversity protection and the fate of koalas was, the Liberals pandered further to the Nationals with the LLS Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill which has now passed in the Legislative Assembly.

“You and your boof-headed party, Mr Gulaptis, and the appalling anti-environment government which you are a part of, will be responsible for the extinction of koalas in our region, if not in all NSW.”

-------------------------------------------------------

Leonie Blain

Grafton Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed