Another time bomb left behind by a politically & fiscally incompetent current member of the World Wide Speakers Group and sometime Liberal MP for Cook, Scott John Morrison

 

Then Prime Minster Scott Morrison & Treasurer Josh Frydenberg - political mates and housemates before the Liberal-Nationals Coalition sank the ship of state. IMAGE: The Australian, 26 August 2020

 

On 5 July 2018 then Australian Treasurer & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison unveiled his plan to overhaul the Goods & Services Tax (GST) state distribution scheme.

This involved changes which ‘would protect all taxpayers, update the grants commission process and deliver certainty to States and Territories. “This problem has been kicked down the road for too long and it is time we now got on and fixed it,” he said. “A fair and sustainable transition to a new equalisation standard will be ensured, through an additional, direct, and permanent Commonwealth boost to the pool of funds to be distributed among the States."

By 12 November 2018 the Australian Coalition Government now lead by Prime Minister Morrison introduced Treasury Laws Amendment (Making Sure Every State and Territory Gets Their Fair Share of GST) Bill 2018 which was duly passed by Parliament and became law on 29 November 2018.

On 25 February 2019 Treasurer John Frydenberg put his signature to this contentious document.

Thus a political and fiscal time bomb with a relatively long fuse was activated…...

The Age, 14 November 2022, p.3:

A deal put in place to placate Western Australia when its share of GST revenue was tumbling is on track to cost the nation's taxpayers 10 times more than forecast, helping drive up federal government debt and interest payments to record levels.

Originally pulled together by then-treasurer Scott Morrison in 2018 before being put through parliament by his successor, Josh Frydenberg, the deal that expected to cost $2.3 billion is now on track to cost more than $24 billion. [my yellow highlighting]

WA, which delivered four seats to Labor at the May election on the back of a 10.6 per cent swing, is vowing to fight to keep the arrangement, due to expire in 2026-27.

Morrison struck the deal at a time when WA's share of the tax pool had fallen to an all-time low of 30 cents for every dollar of GST raised within the state. Its iron ore royalties were effectively being redistributed among the other states and territories based on a Commonwealth Grants Commission formula that takes into account each state's revenue sources and expenses.

Under Morrison's deal, from 2022-23 WA must receive a minimum of 70 cents in the dollar before increasing to 75 cents in 2024-25. When the policy was put in place, it was expected iron ore prices would fall and WA's share of the GST pool would therefore rise. Instead, prices have soared.

The Morrison government ensured other states and territories wouldn't be worse off, which requires the top-up funding for the deal to come from outside the $82.5 billion GST pool.

It was originally forecast to cost federal taxpayers $2.3 billion over three years, including just $293 million in 2021-22, but the surge in iron ore prices has meant more top-ups and for longer.

The October budget revealed that last year, the deal cost $2.1 billion and is forecast to jump to $4.2 billion this financial year. By 2025-26, the cost of the entire deal is on track to reach $22.5 billion, with another $2-3 billion likely the year after that.

Throughout the entire period, the budget is expected to be in deficit, forcing the extra cash to be borrowed. In percentage terms, the blowout in cost is larger than the NDIS, aged care, health or defence.

Independent economist Chris Richardson said the deal had been ill-conceived from the beginning with the cost to be borne by future taxpayers.

He said all significant spending programs needed to be properly assessed, including the GST deal.

"Yes, the politics of it are difficult. But we have a whole host of other issues, like the NDIS, and the economics of them have to be dealt with," he said…….

The extra borrowing for the GST deal has contributed to the lift in gross debt, which on Friday reached a record $909.4 billion.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the cost of servicing the debt was getting more expensive and was the budget's fastest-growing expense. [my yellow highlighting]

NSW KOALA CONFERENCE - THE VANISHING: Science, Koala Carers and Politicians

 

Koala Conference- The Vanishing
29 October 2022
Group photograph
IMAGE: supplied

The growing community concern about the plight of koalas in NSW and the lack of effective government action to protect them led to an important koala conference being held in Coffs Harbour on Saturday October 29. The conference was organised by former MLC Catherine Cusack, and conservation organisations - NSW Nature Conservation Council (NCC), National Parks Association of NSW (NPA), the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The conference title - “The Vanishing” - highlighted the fact that koalas in this state are sliding towards extinction – an outcome which was a finding in the NSW Legislative Council’s comprehensive 2019-2020 inquiry “Koala Populations and Habitat in NSW”.

Conference Convener Catherine Cusack said, “Our koala populations have been devastated by drought, fire and disease. They are clinging on in fragments of habitat that continues to be reduced by housing development, poorly located infrastructure, logging and land clearing.”

The conference was attended in person by 180 people from around the state with a further 180 or so listening online.

Speakers included local first nations’ representatives (Gumbaynggirr), scientists, representatives from leading conservation groups, local campaigners from koala risk hotspots and state politicians.

Early in the proceedings three scientists provided information on results of their koala research.

Dr Steve Philips, an internationally recognised expert on koalas, who has been involved with their conservation for more than 40 years, discussed the decline in koala numbers in a range of areas he has studied. In these areas this decline occurred over a 30-year time frame and at the same rate in each area. Changing the species’ conservation status did not arrest the decline. He also discussed koalas preferred feed trees and pointed out that if these are taken from the landscape koalas will not exist in those areas. Dr Philips believes that doubling the current koala population by 2050 – a plan of the current NSW Government – is not feasible and will not happen. However, he emphasised that we have the knowledge to bring about a recovery.

Ecologist Dr Kara Youngentob is particularly interested in how plant nutritional qualities and other environmental factors influence the distribution and abundance of leaf eating animals like koalas. Her research has shown that there are differences in nutritional values of trees even of the same species and koalas will be more abundant where the nutritional value is higher. Koalas prefer big tree forests which remain cooler than regrowth forests. This has implications for their survival as climate change impacts grow.

Professor Mark Krockenberger who has worked on diseases of koalas for the last 25 years – particularly on cryptococcosis and chlamydiosis stated that disease drives population decline. He gave the example of the decline in numbers on the Liverpool Plains where Chlamydia is rampant and a major problem with that disease is that it causes infertility.

Koala carers and campaigners reported on their local situations and highlighted the continuing decline in koala numbers in their areas. They included Josie O’Connell (Bega Shire), Patricia Durman (South West Sydney), Sue Ashton (Port Macquarie), Robert Frend (Gunnedah), Lorraine Vass (Northern Rivers) and Paula Flack (Coffs region).

Important contributions were also made by key conservationists - Dailan Pugh (NEFA), Gary Dunnett (NPA), Dr Stuart Blanch (WWF) – as well as Cerin Loane (Environmental Defenders Office) and Dr Sally Townley (Deputy Mayor of Coffs Harbour).

Given the widespread view that there is a need for effective political action, the speeches by the politicians were of considerable interest.

Penny Sharpe MLC, Labor’s Shadow Environment Minister, spoke of the former Labor Government’s record on the creation of national parks and their native vegetation legislation. Unsurprisingly she was very critical of the current government’s policy. Sharpe condemned its failure to take action on the Natural Resources Commission report recommending changes to operations in State Forests which were hit hard by the 2019-2020 bushfires. She also said the Government’s latest koala strategy would oversee further decline in koalas rather than being a plan to stabilise NSW populations. On a more positive note, she stated that that the report from the Legislative Council koala inquiry provided many good suggestions and that if Labor won government, she promised they would act as quickly as possible to implement a recovery plan.

James Griffin MP, Liberal Member for Manly, Minister for the Environment, was the second politician to address the gathering. Predictably his address claimed that his Government’s actions would see an improvement in koala numbers.

Cate Faehrmann MLC (Greens) spoke about the importance of the koala inquiry which she chaired. She believes the money the Government has announced for their koala plan would be much better being directed to saving koala habitat which is a major driver of the species’ decline. Faehrmann supports phasing out logging in public native forests and wants the koala inquiry recommendations to be used to put pressure on candidates in the State Election in March.

The final political speaker was former Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack who was another member of the Legislative Council committee which conducted the koala inquiry. As a North Coast resident, she understands only too well how koalas are under threat in this region. She spoke about her experience as a member of the current NSW Government in trying to get effective action to protect them from extinction. Along with many others concerned about koala survival, she was hopeful that her government would respond well to the koala inquiry recommendations. 

Initially the Inquiry prediction that koalas in NSW were heading for extinction by 2050, put the Government under pressure to improve koala protection. However, the Nationals, the Liberals’ coalition partners, jibbed at placing restrictions on rural landholders and the so-called “Koala Wars” began. Leading players were former Nationals leader John Barilaro and local North Coast Nationals MPs including Member for Clarence, Chris Gulaptis. After initially standing up to the Nationals’ demands, the Government caved in and weakened the legislation. Cusack suspects this was the result of a deal between the coalition partners where the Liberals weakened their legislation in exchange for the Nationals’ acceptance of the Liberals’ climate legislation plans.

Cusack now believes that individual action by politicians will not bring change and what is required is collective action by citizens. If this collective action is large enough, it will force politicians to act much more effectively. The Coffs Harbour conference was held as a way of galvanising this collective citizen reaction in the lead up to the state election on March 3rd, 2023.

As current government action will not save koalas from extinction in NSW by 2050 and, as we have the knowledge to bring about a recovery, the galvanising of community action before the state election is vitally important.

Leonie Blain

Northern Rivers

It seems that people are voting with their feet when it comes to New South Wales - this state experienced an unprecedented exodus of its residents to other states and territories in the last five years

 

New South Wales was home to 8,072,163 men, women and children or 31.8 per cent of the Australian population according to the August 2021 national census.

The state's total population had grown by 591,935 people since the previous census in 2016.

It was also the state that in the five years before the 2021 Census lost the most people to migration to other states and territories, 102,200 to be exact.

The state’s net migration was an unprecedented drop. No other state or territory experience a net migration as large – in fact net migration for QLD exceeded +100,000 people, which was an unprecedented jump.

Click on image to enlarge

When it came to internal migration within New South Wales over the same five years there was a trasfer of population from Sydney to regional areas.

Of all the Australian capital cities, Sydney experienced the biggest net loss (-49,100), which was 0.9% of the city’s population. Unsurprisingly Brisbane showed a rising net gain in population from internal migration.

In Northern NSW.......

Between August 2016 and August 2021 the ABS SA4 statistical area Richmond-Tweed saw 34,527 people arriving and 29,370 leaving, resulting in a net population gain from movement into the area of 5,157 people.

Between August 2020 and August 2021 the net population gain from movement into the area was 558 people.

The ABS SA4 statistical area Coffs-Grafton in that same five year period saw 19,249 people moving into the area and 16,374 leaving, resulting in a net population gain from movement into the area of 2,875 people.

Between August 2020 and August 2021 the net population gain from movement into the Coffs-Grafton area was only 436 people.

Tweet of the Week

 

A Twitter thread on the subject of a NSW local government council which since its first sitting in 2022 has beggared belief.....

via Twitter account @worldzonfire

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.