Cartoons of the Week

Cathy Wilcox

Matt Golding

 

The rape of north-east New South Wales continues

 

Linnaeus Estate, Byron Bay
IMAGE: http://linnaeus.com.au/

Echo, 7 November 2022:

Mayor, I agree, let’s set the record straight. Here’s a fact: the community was denied the right to know about the Linnaeus Estate rezoning to Mixed Use Development. The 25 August 2016 Council agenda reveals that there was no report to Council to endorse the change from Education, as required, and doesn’t include any information about the Linnaeus Estate zone change.

In September 2015 Council resolved to change the zone label from Education Establishment to Private Education Facility. It had been zoned restrictively for Education since 1990. So why was it exhibited with the broad term, ‘Multi Use Development’ in 2016? It’s not a fact that Parliamentary Counsel recommended the change, and if so, why wasn’t that reported? In April 2020 a further report admitted a ‘fundamental error’ that the zone allows Community Title (CT).

All in, a massive increase in development potential without the community knowing.

This represents a lack of procedural fairness, a denial of the community’s right to know about the changes for this significant land.

Recently, a further poor process for the Ecotourism development application (DA).

Who benefits? Not the community and not the environment.

Who’s to blame? Perhaps a council that fails to question the processes we rely on. Byron community Deserves Better.

Jan Barham, Broken Head, Former Byron Shire mayor

BACKGROUND

ECHO, 10 May 2021:

Community concern over the current development application (DA: 10.2021.170.1) for Linnaeus Estate in Broken Head has led to detailed analysis of the DA.

A key point of contention is the impact of the proposed development on the Nationally Critically Endangered Ecological Community (EEC), Littoral Rainforest at the site.

According to the Broken Head Protection Committee (BHPC), the DA seeks to clear an area of Littoral Rainforest as identified in the Biodiversity Assessment.

They point out that the 2019 Federal Government Recovery Plan under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) for the EEC has not been referenced in the application.

As a result the BHPC are calling for ‘the proposal to be referred to the Federal Government owing to the likely impact on the EEC due to the proposed change of use for the site and the associated intensification of impacts.’

However, the clearing of littoral rainforest has been disputed by one of the Linnaeus Estate representatives Brandon Saul, who told The Echo, ‘The Biodiversity Assessment you refer to clearly indicates the project has been carefully planned so as to avoid all mapped rainforest on the site. Put simply, no SEPP (State Environment Planning Policy) mapped rainforest will be cleared.

Mr Saul acknowledges that there will be an area of 0.44ha cleared, but stated that ‘The calculated compensation planting for this impact is 1,670 trees, but we will be planting a lot more.’

Around eighty objectors to the project rallied on the beach in front of the proposed site Friday morning….

ECHO, 27 February 2020:

A public meeting to discuss a ‘low-scale wellbeing retreat’ development proposal, at a gated beachside estate, situated between Byron Bay and Lennox Head will be held at the Broken Head Community Hall on Sunday March 1, from 4pm.

Council staff have told Echonetdaily the Linnaeus Estate DA will go before the Northern Regional Planning Panel.

While a DA is yet to be lodged, it has stirred neighbours into action.

According to the owners, ‘The 111.2 hectare property is covered by a combination of special activities – mixed use, environmental, private education and some rural zonings. While the zoning allows for tourism, the property is currently only approved for private education.

‘The application will seek to continue with current uses, as well as establish a low-scale eco-retreat, incorporating the existing facilities – pool, communal buildings and tennis court. The pool area would be upgraded with wellness facility (spa), toilets and showers and an evacuation building, back of house (office space, staff amenities and parking), bin and storage area and garden shed would be constructed.

‘The application proposes that 11 approved, but unbuilt, units with a combined floor space of 2,388m2 not be erected. That instead, 33 new two-person cabins/treehouses with a combined floor space of 1,862m2 be constructed for eco-retreat guests’.

Former Greens mayor and NSW MLC, Jan Barham, has flagged her concerns, which range from climate change impacts, foreseeable risk of future erosion and liability of Council.

Barham said, ‘It is unbelievable, with the coastal problems Council has been dealing with for decades, that in 2020, Council would create new lots in a coastal risk area, especially when they have declared a climate emergency.

‘There is also the likelihood of a repeat of historical events such as cyclones and east coast lows that could ravage this section of coast, and with Council supporting the new zonings in the risk area, there are serious consequences.

‘Disturbingly the proposal has identified as per the staff report: “15 lots in the coastal erosion zone,” but states that this will be dealt with by conditions of consent for any of the structures to comply with the relocatable provisions of the LEP and DCP.’

Developer replies

One of the developers, Brandon Saul, has hosed down what he says are misunderstandings about the proposal and process.

He told Echonetdaily that the proposal will not increase the number of people staying onsite ‘above what has already been adopted in the Rural Land Use strategy’.

Responding to queries as to expected numbers, he says ‘I suspect we’d be lucky to get 20 people at a time interested in the type of things we’d be looking to present’…..

Echonetdaily also asked, ‘Presumably this rezoning can be a catalyst for expanded operations in the future – ie a thin edge of the wedge?’

Saul replied, ‘We are not asking Council to re-zone the property. Tourism is already a permissible use on the land we propose to use for our retreat. That said, the “thin end of the wedge” argument represents a valid concern.

‘On that point, I’d encourage those that are concerned to take a closer look at the site and our proposal. While Linnaeus is a large parcel of land, most of it is not suitable for development and never will be. Much of it has already been voluntarily earmarked for ecological preservation under the council’s new “e zone” process and much of it is low lying grassland, not suitable to development…..

Note: Property developer Brandon Saul describes himself as "Serial entrepreneur with an interest in music, art, architecture, finance, technology, event management, social marketing and property development". He is currently a director of North Byron Parkands and Principal & Managing Director of The Mixed Media Group according to his Linkedin entry.

Tens of thousands of older Australians will now be able to access cheaper healthcare following the relaxation of income tests for the Commonwealth Seniors Healthcare Card

 

SBS News, 4 November 2022:

The Commonwealth Seniors Healthcare Card is changing. Here's what you need to know

HIGHLIGHTS

• The income threshold for senior healthcare cards has been increased to allow more people to access cheaper healthcare

• Singles earning up to $90,000 will now be able to access the scheme, as will couples earning up to $144,000

• The move will benefit an extra 44,000 seniors and cost the federal budget $69.4 million over four years.

Tens of thousands of older Australians will now be able to access cheaper healthcare following the relaxation of income tests for the Commonwealth Seniors Healthcare Card.

The changes were an election promise by the Albanese government, and mean higher income earners will now be able to qualify for subsidised treatment and medicines.

"We want to create a better Australia where no one is left behind and no one is held back, and this is particularly true for older Australians," Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said.

Here's what we know.

Who can access the concession card and what are the benefits?

The cards are open to anyone over 66 and six months and not receiving a social security pension or benefit.

Recipients must be living in Australia when they receive the card, and have either Australian citizenship, permanent residency, or a Special Category visa.

Newly arrived residents may face waiting periods of up to four years.

Health card holders can get discounted prescriptions through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and bigger refunds for health expenses than what's usually offered through Medicare.

GPs are also encouraged to bulk-bill for cardholders……

The seniors health card bill passed the Senate last week, and comes into effect from Friday.

It follows reductions in the cost of medicines, with the government reducing the maximum co-payment under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) by $12.50 earlier this year…...

Billionaires declared to be bad for the planet - especially those who send C02-e emitting rockets into space

OXFAM, Policy and Practice, Briefing Note, 7 November 2022, excerpt:

Carbon Billionaires: The investment emissions of the world’s richest people

Overview

The world’s richest people emit huge and unsustainable amounts of carbon and, unlike ordinary people, 50% to 70% of their emissions result from their investments. New analysis of the investments of 125 of the world’s richest billionaires shows that on average they are emitting 3 million tonnes a year, more than a million times the average for someone in the bottom 90% of humanity.

The study also finds billionaire investments in polluting industries such as fossil fuels and cement are double the average for the Standard & Poor 500 group of companies. Billionaires hold extensive stakes in many of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations, which gives them the power to influence the way these companies act. Governments must hold them to account, legislating to compel corporates and investors to reduce carbon emissions, enforcing more stringent reporting requirements and imposing new taxation on wealth and investments in polluting industries…...

Investments billionaires make help shape the future of our economy, for example by backing high carbon infrastructure, locking in high emissions for decades to come. Our study found that if the billionaires in the sample moved their investments to a fund with stronger environmental and social standards, it could reduce the intensity of their emissions by up to four times.

The role of corporates and investors in making cuts to carbon emissions that are needed to stop global warming of more than 1.5°C will be a hot topic at the upcoming 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Egypt. Yet despite the corporate spin, their actions fall far short of what is actually needed to stop catastrophic climate breakdown.

Governments should tackle this issue with data, regulation and taxation. They must systematically report on the emissions of different income groups in society, instead of relying on averages which obscure carbon inequality and undermine effective policy making….

In 2021, research conducted by Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) revealed that the richest 1% (around 63 million people) alone were responsible for 15% of cumulative emissions and that they were emitting 35 times the level of CO2e compatible with the 1.5°C by 2030 goal of the Paris Agreement.⁷ Similar findings have been reported by economists Thomas Piketty and Lucas Chancel.⁸ Another study drew on public records to estimate that in 2018 emissions from the private yachts, planes, helicopters and mansions of 20 billionaires generated on average about 8,194 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2e).⁹ By contrast, any individual among the poorest one billion people emits around 1.4 tonnes of CO2 each year.¹⁰

More recently, Twitter accounts tracking private jet travel have brought the issue of carbon inequality to public attention with revelations that, in a matter of just minutes, billionaires are emitting more CO2 than most people will emit in a year.¹¹…..

The billionaire space race has highlighted how a single space flight can emit as much CO2 as a normal person will in their lifetime.¹²12 Adding fuel to the fire, this same group of people have the resources to avoid the consequences of climate change, which will be felt most heavily by the poorest people….

Every person on earth emits carbon, but the sources of these emissions change the further up the income scale you move. A person’s total carbon footprint can be divided into personal consumption emissions, emissions through government spending and emissions linked to investments.

For the majority of society, people’s emissions from investments are minimal. But for the richest in society this is reversed, with emissions from investments becoming the biggest source – for the top 1%, between 50% to 70% of their emissions, according to one estimate.¹⁴ This mirrors income inequality, where the majority of people derive their incomes from work but the richest derive most of theirs from returns on their investments.

This paper begins with the world’s very richest people and examines the scale of their investment portfolios in order to make an estimate of their investment emissions…..

The 35-page paper can be read and downloaded from here.

Australia is seeing mortgage stress and other cost-of-living pressures rise, but we can avoid the financial impact being felt in the UK and US, says a UNSW Business School real estate expert

A perspective on the national economy, inflationary pressures, interest rates, house prices, household budgets and cost of living......

UNSW, media release, 7 November 2022:

What happens to the economy if you can't pay your home loan?

Australia is seeing mortgage stress and other cost-of-living pressures rise, but we can avoid the financial impact being felt in the UK and US, says a UNSW Business School real estate expert.

For economists – and indeed, anyone else with an interest on how much they spend at the supermarket – cost-of-living and housing prices have been hot topics in 2022. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has been trying to combat rising inflation with interest rate raises (read how that works here).

The latest rise was announced by the RBA last week on November 1, with the official cash rate rising to 2.85 per cent.

This process has contributed to a fall in house prices in some areas, as well as fears from mortgage holders that they won't be able to make payments on the now larger amounts.

“Australians have been fortunate to see sustained house price growth for a while now,” says economist and expert in real estate markets, Dr Kristle Romero Cortés Associate Professor in the School of Banking & Finance, UNSW Business School. “But they need to know, house prices can come down too.”

But while data from the Domain Group (shares of which are majority owned by Nine Media) might have recently shown the sharpest quarterly decline in house prices since 1994 across the country’s biggest capital cities, Dr Romero Cortés isn’t unduly concerned about house price falls.

“Commentary on the housing market is quite sensationalised in the media.”

But when it comes to not being able to pay the mortgage, and the impact higher loan repayments might have on the economy? That’s a bit more complicated to predict.

Why Australia may not follow other countries into financial disaster

Australians only have to look over to the United Kingdom to feel nervous when witnessing the impact of high inflation and interest rates on the economy and the day-to-day lives of financial situation of its citizens.

Like Australia, the UK’s central bank (the Bank of England) has introduced a series of interest rate hikes that have had a limited effect. Unlike Australia, the UK economy is still reeling from Brexit, plus a post-pandemic recovery, high inflation and energy costs, and levels of wage stagnation that have seen various sections of the working population strike.

The country has also just experienced the effects of a disastrous set of economic policies and extensive tax cuts for the wealthy implemented by Liz Truss as prime minister, which would have put money into in an already inflated economy (where the idea is to usually ‘cool’ things by encouraging people not to spend).

This spooked the financial markets to such a degree that investors quickly sold off British assets, including government bonds. The value of the pound plunged, forced the Bank of England to take an unprecedented step and pledge 65 billion pounds worth of bonds to stop pension funds from failing and stabilise the market … and caused Liz Truss to resign after just 44 days.

For the average Briton, this situation has led to a greater threat of recession: something which could lead to loss of jobs, higher unemployment, higher inequality, wage growth that is too low to match price increases, and issues meeting costs, such as regular mortgage payments that have already risen because of interest rate hikes.

But does the UK situation foreshadow D-R-A-M-A for the Australia’s own economy and housing market? Dr Romero Cortés says no – for several reasons.

Australians are fans of variable rate loans - unlike in the UK

As well as not experiencing a Brexit-like crash or an energy price crunch to the same degree, a big point of difference is that Australians are more likely to have opted for the more flexible variable rate mortgages, than in the UK, where homeowners are more likely to have picked fixed rate mortgage.

In the UK, 74 per cent of homeowners have a fixed rate mortgage for their home loans, and 96 per cent have chosen this option since 2019, according to data from UK-based trade association, UK Finance. AMP Capital data shows that Australia has a higher share of mortgage holders with variable rate mortgages. Just 10-15 per cent picked fixed rates before 2020 (although this rose to 40 per cent in 2020-2021).

While variable rate mortgages can be a great option when interest rates are low in the short-term, fixed rate mortgages can be more predictable over the long-term, as they are less impacted by interest rate rises that can raise overall home loan repayments.

“What we see in the US or Europe is not necessarily what we will see here,” Dr Romero Cortés says. “The US Federal Reserve (Fed) or the Bank of England are also effectively trying to slow down the economy, but when they raise their rates, they can't reach a large portion of homeowners that have a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.

“The Fed and the Bank of England can raise cash rates all they want – they are not reaching these homeowners.

“In Australia, our increases from the RBA pass through the banks almost instantaneously to the consumers,” she explains. “There is a slight delay because banks want to give borrowers as much time as possible to budget in an increase, but that rate does flow through almost automatically in a way that's much faster here than you'll see in countries like the US and UK.”

This means, faster possible cooling impacts on the economy with the RBA puts interest rate hikes in place.

Another big factor is that the big four Australian banks are highly capitalised.

“They are flush with cash,” explains Dr Romero Cortés. “I study the financial network in Australia, and it is very sound. We won’t see the kind of crisis that we saw in the US in 2008, where the banks were holding assets that they didn't understand the underlying worth of.”

What does that mean for mortgage stress and the Australian economy?

Dr Romero Cortés say that while lifting of interest rates might mean Australia will see mortgage stress rise faster than in other places, it is this situation that helps the RBA prevent the economy from “running red hot” and collapsing in on itself.

“Like any central bank, the RBA wants to ensure price stability, and they will do whatever it takes to prevent us from losing this. They don’t want consumables like bread and eggs to suddenly be seven times as much the next day. If that happens people will revolt, effectively.

“We're nowhere near there. But that's why we don't want to get anywhere near there. So, the RBA stay very much on top of this, and their role is to keep this issue as front and centre of the Australian public for as long as they need, so they are more cautious with their spending over a longer period of time.”

It’s in this way that the RBA plays a psychological stabilising role, not just a financial one.

“You know, ‘Okay, the RBA is on this: so, I don't need to freak out’,” says Dr Romero Cortés. “Because if you as a member of the financial public start freaking out, you’re more likely to make poor financial decisions which have more of a domino effect on the wider economy.”

Having said that, there is a limit to how much financial stress homeowners can undergo.

"There could be a point where homeowners and others can't withstand the raising of monthly repayments any longer,” she says. “This is not yet the case.

“Long term, you would expect some sort of horizon where things settle around 4 or 5 per cent cash rate. Australia is highly leveraged (meaning it has an on average high level of debt to equity), so more than that would be difficult to sustain.”

Banks don’t want to see mortgage defaults

At the end of the day, lenders don’t want homeowners to default on loans or to proceed with a repossession. It’s costly, in time, effort and capital for them, says Dr Romero Cortés. They would much rather work with the borrower before they get to that point of extreme financial difficulties.

“A homeowner in financial stress would contact your bank, who would require some documentation of financial hardship, and then would work with you either in a payment plan or deferral plan, refinancing or making interest-only payments.”

Remember: you're not getting out of it. You still pay it, the interest is still accruing, and it could lengthen the loan term. All this means that borrowers are going to consume less in other places, and therefore is supposed to lead to a ‘cooling’ of the economy.

What happens if cost of living doesn’t come down?

But if living here gets too hard and expensive with inflation or higher mortgage repayments, you could see Australia reputation as ‘a good place to live’ take a hit, pushing down the number of people who want to live here, and putting further pressure on an already tight labour market, says Dr Romero Cortés.

For example, a portion of all the Australians with overseas heritage might decide Australia is too hard and expensive to live in and move to their other country of citizenship. That’s when it might start to get uncomfortable.

"Australia has an economy that's built up by people wanting to come to Australia, and we’re constantly growing in that fashion,” explains Dr Romero Cortés. “There's demand for housing, education, and we currently have people willing to come here.

“So, the government can say whatever they want about the RBA [and their decision to raise rates] so they will get voted in again. But the RBA doesn’t have a choice: one family defaulting on their mortgage, compared to everyone not being able to afford bread, is what they are envisioning.”

Does all this mean house prices will come down more?

Higher mortgage repayments could pressure homeowners to accept lower sale prices than they might have expected from their property, investment or otherwise; nudging down overall prices on the property market over a period of time, as well as the occasional ‘fire sale’.

“Are you going to see a massive crash of house prices where you see a Bondi four-bedder going for $500,000? No.

“But we could see a small depression in prices where 5 to 10 per cent of the price is cut. Even if you cut off 10 per cent from a $2 million home, that's $200,000 less. This means unless they have to, sellers are not going to want to sell.”

All this means it is true you're going see some very high mortgage payments and additional cost of living pressures as homeowners prioritise their mortgage repayments, Dr Romero Cortés points out.

“It’s also true that politicians (who are complaining about the RBA’s approach) may be among those who own a lot of investment properties themselves.”

Dr Kristle Romero Cortés is an Associate Professor in the School of Banking & Finance in the Business School at UNSW Sydney, an expert in real estate economics and formerly worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

Three years and seven months after making the commitment, Perrottet Government reluctant to transfer responsibility for 15,000km of regional roads back to state now many of these roads are wracked by flood damage?

 

Clarence Valley Independent, 4 November 2022:

Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Sam Farraway has been forced to admit that not one single kilometre of a promised 15,000 kilometres of regional roads has been transferred from local councils to State ownership.

Under questioning by John Graham MLC during a recent Budget Estimates hearing, Minister Farraway could not bring himself to say the words “it is zero”, despite it being clear that zero roads have been transferred under the program.

The Minister dashed the hopes of regional motorists and cash-strapped regional councils that the glacial roll-out of the program would be sped up, saying the Government’s key 2019 election commitment is “not a burning topic” amongst regional councils.

The Minister also cast doubt on whether the full complement of 15,000 kilometres promised would be transferred, repeatedly stating that the policy was “up to” 15,000 kilometres.

Shadow Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Jenny Aitchison said the Minister’s evidence confirmed that the promise was a cynical attempt to pork barrel regional communities.

“This was a “magic pudding” election promise; every Nationals and Liberal candidate could point to a potential road in their electorate which could be eligible for reclassification or transfer, and the Government still, nearly four years later, hasn’t transferred a single one of them,” Ms Aitchison said.

The Labor candidate for Clarence Dr Leon Ankersmit said the promise clearly is a burning topic amongst locals whose tyres and cars are being wrecked by our potholes that are voluminous and crater deep … it is burning holes in their pockets.

“We’ve got priority regional roads in the Clarence Valley and Richmond Valley Councils that have been put on the back burner by this city-centric Government,” Dr Ankersmit said.

“When this policy was announced it was 15,000 kilometres of regional roads and then the dissembling started with ‘up to’.

“That is the whole problem with this particular election commitment; it has been short on action, vague on detail and has left local councils and locals in limbo land.”

“Clarence Valley Council is seeking to have a number of regional roads transferred to State ownership and management, but importantly, with council keeping state funded maintenance contracts to protect local outdoor jobs. Roads identified for transfer include Grafton to Yamba Road, Eight Mile Lane, Armidale Road, Orara Way, Wooli Road, Big River Way and Ulugundahi View; Iluka Road, Clarence Way, Tyringham Road, and Goodwood Island Road.

“Council is also seeking to have the following local roads reclassified to regional roads and transferred to the State: Angourie Road, Brooms Head Road, Gardiners Road, Amos Road and Palmers Channel South Bank Road, Coaldale Road, Rogans Bridge Road, Pringles Way, Ashby-Tullymorgan and Ashby-Jackybulbin Road, Old Glen Innes Road, Coldstream Road and Tucabia Road, and Sherwood Creek Road.”

Dr Ankersmit confirmed Clarence Valley Council wants to hand back all 378km of regional roads under its control or 15% of its total road network to the State Road network, also keeping maintenance contracts, with some relevant applications done in collaboration with neighbouring councils.

“This includes the full length of the Clarence Way.” Dr Ankersmit said.

“Richmond Valley Council is seeking to have Casino to Woodburn Road transferred to State ownership and what will be the Old Pacific Highway from Boundary Creek Road to South Woodburn Interchange to be a State asset with the State assuming responsibility for its maintenance.”

“However, at this point Richmond Valley Council has only been contacted about transferring the Broadwater to Evans Head Road from local to regional road. The issue about additional funds to Council to maintain the newly classified regional road has not been addressed.”

“Richmond Valley Council also nominated Naughtons Gap Rd (via East Street) from Bruxner Highway in Casino to the Lismore Kyogle Road to be re-classified from local to regional road, whilst remaining under Council control to protect local jobs.”

“Council also supported Kyogle and Lismore Councils in their proposal to have the Lismore Kyogle Road, as well as Lismore Coraki Road, and Wyrallah Road returned to the State.”…..