Truth telling matter to everyone - journalists, commentators, tweeters and most especially readers - and every misstep by anyone lowers trust

 

In February 2021 journalist Tom Cowrie wrote an article titled Living for the weekend: infected hotel quarantine worker’s busy itinerary which was published in The Age on Thursday 4 February.

It discussed in great detail the weekend travel of a man who had left his place of work for a three-day break after showing a negative result to a workplace COVID-19 test and had gone about his daily life on days off.

He was doing nothing wrong or unlawful in those three days. However he reportedly became a person of interest because sometime after he returned to work on the Tuesday he began to feel unwell and tested positive for COVID-19 on the Wednesday.

I did not see the alleged responses to this particular article in The Age as I barely registered the piece at the time.

However, it seems that The Age Editor Gay Alcorn and Tom Cowie were very upset by readers’ responses.

Normally I would be most sympathetic to editors and journalists caught up in a sustained negative reaction. Especailly one which allegedly carried death threats.

However, something doesn’t quite compute and the two articles set out below rather explain why.

The first short two paragraph article states that the journalist was taking a short break and implies that the editor is leaving Twitter for good.

Alice Coster writing in the Herald Sun on 6 February 2021 at Page 19:

Age editor GAY ALCORN and reporter TOM COWIE have been badly mauled on Twitter for detailing the travels of the innocent 26-year-old hotel quarantine worker who tested positive for the mutant strain of the virus that could have shut down the city.

Mauled as in a shark attack. Trolls called Alcorn and Cowie “racists and bigots” bent on “going after the working class”. Cowie’s Twitter page says he’s “taking a break” from Twitter and Alcorn says she’s “baffled” and “reluctantly, I’m out of here”.

The reality is that The Age editor’s Twitter account remained active as of 2:27pm on 8 February 2021 and only the journalist has taken a break from his account.

The second longer article implies that The Age editor is removing the newspaper’s Twitter account. 

This was Nick Tabakoff writing in The Australian online on 8 February 2021:

‘Death threats’: Age editor snaps

Who would have thought a story about a worker visiting a kebab store and Kmart could cause such dramas?

The Age editor Gay Alcorn has stormed off Twitter after she revealed to Diary the paper received “death threats” over its much-debated feature about a Melbourne COVID-19 quarantine worker’s weekend moves.

The story traced every after-hours footstep of the COVID-positive quarantine hotel worker through Spencer Street institution Kebab Kingz (even publishing its “4.5 star” reviews on Google), Kmart, Bunnings and other locations.

But after Alcorn tweeted out the story on Thursday, along with a tongue-in-cheek message about the worker’s “busy” social schedule, Twitter erupted into furious criticism and in many cases, abuse.

Some of the milder tweets accused The Age of both “snobbery” towards the worker, and of blaming him for the outbreak. One that we can print came from ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland, who asked: “What are you trying to get at with this story?”. Meanwhile, author and former Age columnist Marieke Hardy sarcastically tweeted: “Fantastic. Great move. Well done Gay.”

After other much less printable messages, Alcorn — in two late-night tweets the same day — finally had enough. She dramatically announced her break-up with Twitter: “(I) am out of here.”

Speaking to Diary on Sunday, Alcorn said her Twitter exit was not an over-reaction, but a response to the fact that the author of the controversial story, Tom Cowie, had received death threats.

“People don’t have to like an article,” she tells us. “They can say it was awful or lacked nuance or could have been done better. But the frenzied and increasingly enraged Twitter reaction was totally disproportionate, ending with vile private messages threatening violence against a reporter, threats we take seriously.”

Alcorn says she had tried since becoming The Age’s editor last year to embrace Twitter, and adopted a philosophy that “we must engage with our audiences and think deeply” about criticism.

“But in the past few years, Twitter has become so abusive and furious it is all but impossible to have those conversations. The usual response that: ‘It’s only a few people, most Twitter users are great’, no longer feels true.

“People have told me that they wanted to respond to the fury but were too nervous to do so for fear of being abused themselves.”

Alcorn is now turning to “ways to speak with our readers and subscribers” that don’t involve Twitter.

“They won’t always be comfortable conversations, but hopefully they won’t end with death threats,” she says.

As of 4:51pm on Monday 8 February – four days after the reaction to Cowrie’s article began – the newspaper's Twitter account was still active.

Quite frankly, given the misstatements of fact in the latter two articles and the tenor of the original story it is hard to call The Age editor’s decision to promote the original article in the manner she did on Twitter. Neither were done in the best of taste as the man involved had done nothing to deserve ridicule.

As for the Herald Sun and The Australian – I have to wonder if before they went to print with this story the newspapers even checked whether these alleged death threats and “vile private messages threatening violence” were reported to the police.

A verified complaint made to police would give readers some confidence that parts of these two articles were indeed truthful.

How the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) sees Australia's national pension scheme

 

It would appear that the Australian Government national old age pension scheme is managing to tread water when in comes to international comparison - predominately because its cash transfers are set roughly on par with the official poverty line adopted by this country and therefore on paper no-one is falling post-retirement into abject poverty.

However, with an ongoing acute shortage of affordable housing/ social housing stock, a large cohort of women bringing little or no superannuation into their retirement and successive federal governments which have failed to introduce and fully fund health and wellbeing support systems for Australian as they enter old age, the national age pension scheme appears to be failing a great many people.

OECD Pensions at a glance 2019, 27 November 2019:

OECD’s biennial report on the pension systems across OECD and G20 countries. Each edition opens with an overview comparing pension policies of OECD countries and recent reforms. This is followed by at least one thematic chapter and a range of indicators including pension projections for today’s workers.

The 2019 edition; reviews and analyses the pension measures legislated in OECD countries between September 2017 and September 2019. As in past editions, a comprehensive selection of pension policy indicators is included for all OECD and G20 countries. Moreover, this edition provides an in depth review of different approaches to organising pensions for non-standard workers…..

How does AUSTRALIA compare?

Key findings

 While contributing to superannuation funds is nearly universal among employees, only 27% of the self-employed made contributions in 2016-17.

 Full career self-employed workers will have a pension equivalent to 90% of that of full career employees despite not having made any pension contributions.

 Relative incomes of those aged over 65 to the total population are low at 72% compared to the average of 87%, while poverty rates for the elderly are very high in Australia at 23%, ten percentage points above the average. As Superannuation funds can be taken as a lump sum, this might skew these figures.

 Replacement rates in Australia are lower than the OECD average. The future net replacement rate for a full-career male (female) average-wage earner is 41% (37%) compared to 59% (58%) for the OECD. With the relatively high value of the Age Pension this improves to 76% (72%) or low earners compared to the average of 68% (68%).

 Five-year breaks in the career for childcare or unemployment lower future replacement rates by 12%, much higher than the OECD average of 4% and 6%, respectively…..

Excerpts from the 2019 document:

Employees are automatically enrolled in theSuperannuation system, although they are not compelled to make any contributions as the base scheme is entirely financed from employer contributions, whilst additional voluntary contributions can be made by employees. The self-employed are thus only covered by voluntary contributions and there is no requirement for them to contribute to the Superannuation scheme.

With near universal coverage of employees the Superannuation scheme has shown its effectiveness in providing a savings mechanism but with no compulsion for the self-employed to enrol their participation rate is much lower, at only 27% in 2016-17.

As a result, the self-employed tend to be solely reliant on the Age Pension, giving them a lower replacement rate at retirement compared to employees……

The average income of current retirees is only 72% of the population figure for the over 65s. There is also considerable variation by age with the 66-75 years age group at 78% compared to only 64% for those aged 76 and over. This age profile partly reflects the building-up of the impact of the Superannuation system, which was only introduced in 1992: those aged over 75 today would have had only limited opportunities to contribute….

Australia is ageing more slowly than the OECD average. Given the relatively limited involvement of the government in pensions and the slower ageing process, there is less of an issue of public finance pressure than in many other OECD countries. Public expenditure on pensions is projected to remain well below half of that of the OECD average. The Superannuation system being defined contribution is not subject to financial sustainability issues and as it will reach full maturity fewer individuals will be reliant on the Age Pension safety-net.

Future net replacement rates for average-wage earners in Australia are low at 41% compared to 59% for the OECD on average. The situation is however much better for lower earners with a net replacement rate of 76%, compared to 68% on average for the OECD, as the Age Pension provides an effective safety net for this group. However, individuals who are taking the  Superannuation component as a lump sum are then able to spend it as they wish. Once the funds start to deplete they can also then become eligible for at least a partial payment from the Age Pension….

In Australia, the impact on pension entitlement of interrupted careers is mixed depending on the absence period. There are no credits for either unemployment or childcare absence within the Superannuation system, unlike most other OECD countries, where in addition childcare absences usually have a lower impact on future pension entitlements than unemployment. For five years out of the labour market the pension entitlement in Australia for an average-wage earner is reduced by 12% compared to 6% on average in the OECD for unemployment and only 4% for childcare.….

The projected working-age population (20-64) will decrease by 10% in the OECD on average by 2060, i.e. by 0.26% per year. It will fall by….. more than 20% in Australia….

Mandatory pension contribution rates differ widely among OECD countries….Contribution rates are the lowest, below 10%, in Australia, Canada, Korea, Lithuania and Mexico.

Recent Pension Reforms

JULY 2018

From July 2018, members with total superannuation balances below AUD 500,000 are allowed to carry forward unused concessional (before tax) contribution-limit amounts for up to 5 years. From July 2019, members can access the unused contribution.

JULY 2019

Superannuation funds have to cancel supplemental life and disability insurance coverage for accounts with 16 consecutive months of inactivity unless participants actively choose to maintain the coverage.

The law caps the total annual administrative fees superannuation funds can charge accounts with balances below AUD 6,000 at 3% of the year-end balance. (Previously, there was no fee cap.) The law also prohibits superannuation funds from charging exit fees when accounts with any balance amount are transferred to other providers.

From July 2019, the Pension Loans Scheme (a voluntary, reverse mortgage type loan providing a fortnightly income stream) was expanded to all Australians who reached the normal retirement age with securable real estate/assets owned in Australia. The maximum fortnightly payment (pension plus loan) also increased from 100% to 150% of the fortnightly maximum rate of pension.

Superannuation funds have to transfer accounts with balances below AUD 6,000 to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) after 16 consecutive months of inactivity. Within 28 days of receiving an inactive account, ATO will combine it with an active account belonging to the same participant if such an account exists and the combined balance would be at least AUD 6,000. If the account cannot be combined, ATO will continue to hold it until it can be combined or issue a lump-sum payment to the participant if he or she is aged 65 or older or the account balance is less than AUD 200.

Around the world tolerance is wearing thin for government who don't live up to their promises to tackle climate change

 

The DeSmog Blog post set out below is likely to be the outcome for an Australian  Morrison Government which tries to adopt 'go slow' or 'Claytons' zero emissions targets for 2050 in the fight to stop climate change from increasing in intensity and severity.

A course of inaction which is almost modus operandi for this federal government.

The first indication that this might be the case came when Prime Minister Scott Morrison failed to fully and formally commit to a strong climate change mitigation policy. Rather stating at the Press Club on 1 February 2021 that; “Our goal is to reach net zero emissions as soon as possible, and preferably by 2050”.

The second warning came six days later when Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said: "There is no way we are going to whack regional Australia, hurt regional Australia, in any way shape or form just to get a target for climate in 2050. We are not going to hurt those wonderful people that put food on our table."

DeSmog Blog, 4 February 2021:

The French state has been found guilty of climate inaction in what campaigners have dubbed “the case of the century”.

Today the Paris administrative court concluded France has failed to do enough to meet its own commitments on the climate crisis and is legally responsible for the ensuing ecological damage.

France is the third European country where legal action by campaigners has highlighted significant failings in state action on climate change and forced politicians to act, after the landmark Urgenda case in the Netherlands in 2019 and the Irish Supreme Court’s decision in the national Climate Case last year.

'Historic win'

Jean-François Julliard, Executive Director of Greenpeace France – one of the four NGOs bringing the case – described the ruling as a “historic win for climate justice”.

“This decision not only takes into consideration what scientists say and what people want from French public policies, but it should also inspire people all over the world to hold their governments accountable for climate change in their own courts,” she said.

“For governments the writing is on the wall: climate justice doesn't care about speeches and empty promises, but about facts.”

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LAffaire du Siècle (case of the century), as it was described by NGOs was brought by Greenpeace France, together with Oxfam France, the Nicolas Hulot Foundation and Notre Affaire à Tous, in December 2018.

The groups filed a legal complaint, saying France was not on track to meet its then target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, its minimum commitment as an EU member. Since then, this target has been raised to 55 percent for all EU member states, but it is not yet clear how President Emmanuel Macron will deliver this given France's track record on cutting emissions.

France’s own High Council on Climate has analysed the country’s progress and found it lacking, with emissions substantially exceeding the first two carbon budgets. France had pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5 percent each year, but they fell by only 0.9 percent from 2018 to 2019. The Climate Change Performance Index also shows France’s climate progress slowing, with limited advances in increasing the share of renewables and in decarbonising transport.

The court judgment ruled that: “Consequently, the state must be regarded as having ignored the first carbon budget and did not carry out the actions that it itself had recognised as being necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

‘Moral damages’

The court said it would not be appropriate to fine the government in this case but would publish measures to fix the problem in two months’ time.

Instead of fines, the French government was ordered to pay one symbolic Euro to each of the four NGOs that brought the case for compensation of “moral damages” – essentially harm to their reputation.

Each of these organisations have worked for years to address global warming through campaigning and advocacy, the judgment noted, and “the faulty shortcomings of the state” in respecting this work “have damaged the collective interests” they defend.

Greenpeace notes that the recognition of ecological damage against a public body in the administrative courts marks a significant moment for environmental law in France…...

When accused of 'porkbarrelling' NSW funding Liberal Premier Berejiklian's response was 'But everyone does it!' While Nationals Deputy Premier Barilaro's comeback was 'Witch hunt!'

 

"People call me ‘Pork Barilaro’, well I’ll wear the title with a badge of honour." [NSW Deputy Premier & Nationals MP for Monaro John Barilaro, tweeting on 28 August 2020]

ABC News, 8 February 2021:

The NSW Deputy Premier will today be grilled over why three areas in non-Coalition electorates didn't receive any funding through the Government's bushfire grant program, despite suffering millions of dollars in losses.

Last year the NSW Government handed out $180 million for projects in communities affected by the 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires without an open application process.

The Blue Mountains didn't receive any money even though Government data found the area suffered an economic loss of $65 million.

The Central Coast also missed out and the hit to its economy was found to be $163 million.

Both are in Labor-held seats.

The NSW Government also didn't provide any funds in the Greens-held seat of Ballina although the Byron economy was found to have suffered an economic impact of $88 million.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro will today front a parliamentary inquiry into Government grants programs that has been extended to investigate the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund.

Chair of the inquiry, Greens MP David Shoebridge, said politics was influencing who got money and who didn't.

"There is no doubt that there were some Coalition held seats that had very real damage from the fires," he said.

"But then equally we saw seats held by the Greens, held by Labor and held by the Shooters Fishers and Farmers party which had very real damage as well... and they did not get a cent.

"Now that's politics."

Deputy Premier John Barilaro defended the program, which he was responsible for overseeing, and said such criticism was a "witch hunt"….

The Deputy Premier is expected to questioned by Upper House MPs at the parliamentary inquiry about how the Government decided to allocate the funds.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has so far refused to front the inquiry.

Last year, when an inquiry investigated the $250 million Stronger Communities Fund, which distributed $141 million to Coalition seats, Ms Berejiklian admitted the Government had engaged in pork-barrelling.

"I think all governments and all oppositions make commitments to the community in order to curry favour," she said.

"But in relation to this program, [the money] went to important projects across this state, yes, more of them went to Coalition seats, but guess what — there are more Coalition seats than any other.

"It's not an illegal practice. Unfortunately, it does happen from time to time by every government."

Great Koala Park study released this month and predictably the NSW timber industry is crying 'the sky is falling!'

The proposed Great Koala National Park will add 175,000 hectares of native state forests to existing protected areas. IMAGE University of Newcastle, Australia

2NUR FM Radio, 2 February 2021:

The University of Newcastle has conducted a study looking at the benefits of what would be Australia’s first large national park dedicated to protecting koala habitat.

The Great Koala National Park (GKNP) would add 175,000 hectares of native state forests to existing protected areas to establish a 315,000- hectare reserve on the NSW Mid North Coast.

The proposed Park stretches across five local government areas – Coffs Harbour, Clarence Valley, Bellingen, Nambucca, and Kempsey, which contain up to 4,550 koalas, or approximately 20% of the NSW koala population.

Findings from the University of Newcastle study showed over 15 years the park would generate $1.2 billion in regional economic output of which $531 million will flow into the region’s economy including $330 million in additional wages.

The research also found the region would benefit from –

• the creation of 9,800+ additional full-time equivalent jobs

• investment in the region of $145 million in capital expenditure over 15 years (mapping, tenure changes and habitat restoration plus construction of visitor centre, visitor infrastructure and tracks and trails)

• investment in the region of $128 million in operating expenditure over 15 years (ongoing construction, habitat management and operation of park-based activities)

• a boost to the visitor economy of 1 million visitors to the region who will spend $412 million.

They found that a total of 675 direct and related forestry full-time equivalent jobs would be phased out over a 10-year state forest native logging industry transition period.

This estimate is based on 2016 census data indicating that there are 180 direct state forest native logging jobs in the five local government areas.

The report notes that, given the significant decline in the koala population as a result of the recent drought and bushfire season, the environmental value of each individual koala is now significantly higher than a decade ago.

“It’s estimated by the NSW bush fire inquiry that about a quarter of the North Coast koalas were lost in the fires,” Professor Roberta Ryan says.

“It’s an extremely important area in terms of koala preservation, its the sort of big move that needs to occur if we’re not going to be in a situation where our government presides over the loss of an iconic species in the wild.”

The full Great Koala Park final report can be found here.

As it has for the better part of the last 75 years the NSW timber industry is up in arms about its ability to access native trees for milling and fights all attempts to save forests or the biodiversity and unique native species they contain. Apparently it believes that a plan for a new national park ‘grossly underestimates’ impact on North Coast timber industry.

Lennox Head protects its community values as Australia enters the second year of the global COVID-19 pandemic

Lennox Head 2010 & 2014

The Guardian, 4 February 2021:

Hosting a world championship tour event is an opportunity most cities, let alone towns, would jump at – even bid large amounts of money for.

But the village of Lennox Head in the northern rivers region of New South Wales is quite happy to skip the glitz and glamour in the time of Covid.

It was offered the chance for surfing legends Kelly Slater, Tyler Wright, Carissa Moore, John John Florence, Gabriel Medina and Stephanie Gilmore to grace its waves as the location of one of four world tour contests.

With the world’s top surfers and a pool of over $1m, the competition holds the attention of hundreds of cameras, and with them, the global surfing community.

However, Lennox Head’s local council prioritised its own community’s concerns – not least among them the threat posed by Covid-19, lack of infrastructure and the fact that locals themselves would be prevented from surfing the waves over a period of 17 days.

An extraordinary meeting of the Ballina shire council was held on Wednesday, in which councillors voted eight to two against the World Surf League’s proposal to hold the tour this Easter.

“People were saying we’re in a bubble here. We’ve been Covid-free we don’t want that to change,” said the deputy mayor, Sharon Cadwallader.

“My concern will always be the pressure on our regional health system if there was an outbreak,” the state member for Ballina, Tamara Smith, told Echonetdaily.

According to Cadwallader, the community also had concerns about infrastructure.

“It’s like the new Byron [Bay]. Lennox is getting loved to death and we are really struggling to keep up with the infrastructure.”

Even without a world surfing competition, “when the surf’s up the cars are banked up”, she said.

Cadwallader said there was a strong showing of Lennox locals at the extraordinary meeting to oppose the proposal. “There were many people outside the chambers and as many as were physically allowed to occupy seats in the gallery of the council chambers.”

Surf magazine Stab reported that Lennox Head local, Nick Mercer, spoke inside the chamber and said that the decision to hold a contest against the community’s wishes could be met with a protest paddle-out by local surfers during the event.

The proposal to hold the competition at Lennox Head had come out of the blue. Mayor David Wright only heard from the CEO of the World Surf League, Andrew Stark, on Tuesday last week.......

Cartoons of the Week

 

Mark David

Peter Broelman