Cartoons of the Week

 

Cathy Wilcox

David Pope

Mark David

Sometimes in 2023 humour is all you have left if you live on one of the many once-sealed Northern Rivers roads

Google Earth snapshot, March 2023
Click on image to enlarge

ECHO, 18 April 2023:

I moved to the Byron Shire in 1986, the year this great little paper started expressing the views of our community. I remember back then the complaints about the state of our roads… It’s like this paralysing brain fog descends at the mere mention of our roads, and this has now been going on for decades. Throw in a couple of ‘once in a lifetime weather events’ and now we’ve got 200 road projects in waiting. Is mine one of them?

Yankee Creek Road is only 1.4 kilometres and is a dead end (in more ways than one). Last Monday night I had to tow my friends out after they tried to avoid the craters.

So far this year four different friends have said they cannot visit me anymore because they don’t feel confident negotiating the road.

There are now four sections where you have to drive offroad to avoid the potholes and craters that remain unfixed in the road.

It was really bad before the 28 February and 30 March 2022 floods, but now it’s atrocious.

The repair work to my car last week cost me $1,570; that entailed replacing the strut mounts, shock absorbers, bump stop boot kits, and of course I’m constantly visiting my mates down at Tyre Power!

So, I thought I should wave my feeble hand in the air, and I wrote to the Mayor and all councillors with photos and a detailed description of how bad things are. I did get a response from Sarah Ndiaye and Duncan Dey that the matter had been forwarded on to Byron Shire Council (BSC) staff, but no other confirmation.

Like Navaya Ellis (Echo, 29 March) I would like questions answered. These are: when will someone come and take a look at Yankee Creek Road? What classifies a ‘bad’ road versus a ‘dangerous’ one? What designates a high priority? Is there anybody out there? Yoohoo, drowning not waving!

Gosh, a courteous reply saying my letter had been received would be a good start.

I think I’m experiencing what I’ll coin FF: ‘futility fatigue’. It certainly took me out last year after nine months enduring the endless fob offs from insurance companies.

Yes, I have a beautiful new home, albeit, now a leaky one. Here, I have to thank Byron Council for giving me a ‘Completion Certificate’ when parts of my roof had no flashing – my insurance company sure loves you dudes.

Sorry, I digress… you see FF is insidious because there are so many other people with way worse war stories; I don’t have the right to winge and complain about insurances and roads when others are so much worse off.

Then FF inertia sets in and the paralysing brain fog returns, making any attempt for resolution and clarity feel like crawling across cut glass… best just give up, right?

Nup! Maybe we can generate some income to help BSC, perhaps a new reality TV show called Survivor on North Coast Roads, city dwellers can pay an exorbitant amount to be given four bald tyres and a road map of our worst roads; an experience of a life time! Spine tingling action with search and rescue at the ready.

Mishaela Simpkins, Mullum Creek 

Partial eclipse of the Sun fully visible in Yamba sky at 2:41pm AEST today, Thursday 20 April 2023

 

 With the Australian Bureau of Meteorology forecasting partly cloudy sky with a high chance of showers in the Northern Rivers region today, it is probably not the best of days to observe the Moon passing in front of the Sun. 

For Yamba this will only be seen as a partial eclipse covering est. 19 per cent of the Sun, as the full eclipse shadow will only be seen in part of coastal north-west West Australia near Exmouth.

Stages and times of the local view of this eclipse are outlined below. All times are local time (AEST) for Yamba.

GRAPHIC: www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/@11828511?iso=20230420

Search for partial eclipse times and details for your Australian region or town at:

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2023-april-20

Iluka community plans for emergency management during adverse weather events, including storm and flood, progressing thanks to local ICOPE

Clarence Valley Independent, 12 April 2023:

In a community first for the Clarence Valley, ICOPE – Iluka Community Organisation Planning for Emergencies has been approved to run a Community Managed Evacuation Centre in the event of wild weather or disasters isolating locals.

ICOPE President Cheryl Dimmock said the group had been working with the Clarence Valley Local Emergency Management Committee LEMC since October 2022 to have a Community Managed Evacuation Centre CMEC in Iluka, which would take in residents from Woody Head, The Freshwater, and if access is available, Woombah.

Ms Dimmock said the group was motivated to act to establish the CMEC by the predicted increase in wild weather induced by climate change and the fact Iluka can be isolated for several days in times of flood.

“We had to put an action plan together to present to the LEMC and we’ve had it approved that we could have a Community Managed Evacuation Centre CMEC,” she said.

“ICOPE will be allowed to run the CMEC if it is activated by the Local Emergency Operations Controller (high ranking local police officer).

“The CMEC would be at the Iluka Community Hall in Spencer Street, in the event that it was safe to evacuate to the community hall.

“The reason why we have been so proactive in doing this is because we get cut off, there is only one road in and one road out, we get cut off for days, and we don’t want to see the community in a situation like what has happened in Lismore.”

In addition to the CMEC, Ms Dimmock said ICOPE plans to transform the Iluka Community Hall over the next year.

“We are hoping to work with council to get grants and make improvements to the hall and we’re hoping to have Iluka Community Hall as a hub where the community can actually come…say on a Saturday morning where they can come and have cuppa and a chat about disaster preparedness and community events,” she said.

“We want to encourage the community to prepare for disasters, we don’t want it to be scary, but we want them to prepare and be ready in the event that something happens, that they will know what to do, where to go, and the communication they receive comes from one central place, so they are getting information that is current and from a reliable source.”…..

Coastal Emu: glimpse of a disappearing species in 2023

 

A Coastal Emu in the paddock outside Wynyabbie House last week. Image: Facebook Cody Pepper.
Clarence Valley Independent, 12 April 2023

 

Still commonly sighted in the Richmond and Clarence Valleys up to the 1980s, Coastal Emu numbers had markedly declined by the turn of the century. 

Since commencement of NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service annual surveys in 2000, the number of Coastal Emus is estimated to have declined from approximately 140 individuals to just 40 of these unique endangered birds in 2017. 

Whilst gaining accurate estimates of small populations ranging over a large area can be difficult, opportunistic sightings between 2018 and 2019 suggest that there are around 26 adults and 20 juveniles left in the area (CVC 2020). The current best estimate is under 50.

What sighting there are in the Lower Clarence are possibly more common in Bundjalung National Park in Iluka and Yuraygir National Park south of Yamba. 

However sighting are now rare along the road between Maclean and Yamba. 

So this bird spending time in paddocks alongside the Palmers Channel section of Yamba Road is pleasing locals.

Tweed Shire Council and Pottsville residents have managed to keep more residential housing and/or a seniors living estate off local flood prone land

In the first half of 2019 during the last days of Northern Rivers innocence or ignorance of what large scale climate change impacts meant, local governments wrote paragraphs like this in their planning documents based on flood data in some cases already ten years out of date.

‘“low island” means an area that is above the FPL and surrounded on its entire perimeter during and 100 year ARI event, but is inundated by the PMF. When flood levels exceed the FPL, in events up to the PMF, low islands become totally inundated, posing significant risk to isolated residents without flood free access to high land or shelter. Local examples include filled residential estates in Banora Point, West Kingscliff, and Pottsville, and raised dwellings in Chinderah, South Murwillumbah and Rural Villages.…..

A3.2.3 Urban Areas

Levees at Murwillumbah and Tweed Heads South provide structural protection against flood inundation to varying degrees. In other areas, planning controls are used to contain future flood damage. In 2009, a levee was retrofitted along Cudgera Creek to protect the Seabreeze Estate at Pottsville. In the event of a flood exceeding the levee height, the protected areas will flood quickly with little warning time and very rapid rises in water levels.

Council's design flood is based on the 100 year ARI event; that is a flood with a 1 in 100 (or 1%) chance of occurring in any one year.’  [Tweed Development Control Plan SECTION A3 - Development of Flood Liable Land VERSION 1.5 (DRAFT)]

Behind mentions of levee banks and need for early evacuation in flood prone areas in such documents, found in the planning files across seven regional local governments, there still lurked the thought that new housing estates and residential complexes could go ahead because floods could simply be managed by levees, land fill and residential floor heights.

Although at state level there remains environment & planning legislation which hasn’t caught up with life as it is experienced in a changing climate, there are signs that at local government level the new realities associated with the many river systems and coastal floodplains in north east NSW are slowly beginning to sink in.

Even if it apparently hasn't even begun to sink in with Newland Developers and Altitude Lifestyle, given plans for Lot 1747, DP 1215252 Seabreeze Boulevard Pottsville anticipated 6.3 ha of landfill to a height of 3.1m AHD. 

A large-scale landfill height within a range Yamba residents living approx. 155km to the south of Pottsville can attest is very likely to cause flood and storm waters to find new destructive paths though long established residential streets.

Vacant land bounded on all four sides by Seabreeze Boulevard, Tom Merchant Drive, Cudgera Creek and Sawtell Circuit, Pottsville NSW.

Echo, 13 April 2023:

The 6.3ha of vacant land at 1 Seabreeze Boulevard, Pottsville which is earmarked in the Tweed Development Control Plan 2008 (DCP 2008) as a potential school site has once again been saved from being developed as housing.

The developers Newland Developers Pty Ltd have had two previous development applications refused for DAs for residential developments at the site in 2017 and 2020. The Land and Environments Court (L&EC) once again dismissed the deemed refusal on 31 March, this time for a seniors housing development.

The developers had taken the Tweed Shire Council (TSC) to the L&EC on appeal for their proposed 93 lots for seniors housing as part of a community title subdivision making this the third time TSC had to defend the site for a future school.

Flooding a key issue

A second matter heard by the LEC, to carry out water and sewer supply works on the property, was approved by the Court, subject to certain conditions.

In its ruling on the current Concept DA, the primary finding of the L&EC was that the Concept DA failed to adequately address provisions for emergency response in situations such as flooding.

Mayor of Tweed Shire Chris Cherry said this was a good outcome for the Pottsville community who have long lobbied for a high school in the coastal village.

‘We welcome the judgement in the LEC on this issue,’ Cr Cherry said…..

‘Ensuring flood safety for our Seniors living communities is paramount and the decision found that this Concept DA did not provide the certainty needed for safe occupation of the site by our most vulnerable of residents.

‘This is the third time Council has had to go to the LEC to defend this piece of land, promised for education purposes when the Seabreeze Estate was formed in 2000. Each time Council has won these cases.

‘Council appealed to the NSW Government to rezone the land to infrastructure zoning so these repeated attempts could be avoided and the promise to the community could be honoured but the State Government did not support it.

‘With the recent change in State Government, and the promised support of a Pottsville High School by the new government, it is fantastic that this determination has come in now and kept this land available.’

Services Australia can no longer off its own bat crack welfare recipients' PC, mobile, email & social media passwords in order to spy - since 13 October 2015 its been obliged to use the Australian Federal Police, an even more indiscreet Commonwealth agency.

 

On 17 July 2015 Deputy Secretary of the Dept. of Human Services (now Services Australia) Malisa Golightly, of ‘Robodebt’ notoriety, wrote to the Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Criminal Justice Group in the Attorney-General’s Department, seeking the department's continued inclusion as an enforcement agency under the Commonwealth Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979.

At that time the Dept. of Human Services employed 295 investigators and 89 intelligence analysts who typically conducted 3,000 criminal investigation per year – using the full range of powers available to an “enforcement agency” in the 1 July 2015 version of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act.

Here is a potted history of what happened after that.

ITNews, 4 April 2022:

Services Australia is using telecommunications metadata and password-bypassing software to investigate welfare recipients suspected of claiming single payments while in relationships.

The Centrelink administrator told the Attorney General’s Department (ADG) that metadata is used to detect “people who receive payments as a single person while in a marriage-like relationship,” according to documents obtained by iTnews.

Submissions to AGD in 2015 and again in 2022 [pdf], obtained through a freedom of information request, list types of fraud the agency uses welfare recipients’ telecommunications metadata to detect.

A Services Australia spokesperson told iTnews that both telecommunications metadata and password-bypassing technology from Israeli vendor Cellebrite are only used when fraudulent claims trigger criminal investigations.

This contrasts with the more common non-compliance investigations, which prevent and recover debts resulting from over-payments, such as the notorious robodebt scheme.

However, the spokesperson would not say how much money a person needs to be suspected of being overpaid before a non-compliance investigation is tipped into a criminal investigation, making it hard to estimate the extent to which the technologies are used to determine relationship-status.

Moreover, welfare recipients told iTnews, while Services Australia has said that Cellebrite is only used for criminal investigations, data may be extracted from their devices before charges have been laid; and Services Australia may continue to pursue the debt as a non-compliance investigation even if the suspect is not prosecuted…...

Metadata and relationship-status

It is not clear what types of metadata are used to glean if welfare recipients are single, however criteria listed on Services Australia’s website for “how we assess if you’re a couple” includes: “financial aspects of your relationship, the nature of your household, social aspects of your relationship, [and] if you have a sexual relationship.”

The Services Australia spokesperson told iTnews that "the key metadata we request enables us to identify records linked to telephone numbers or IP addresses to support criminal investigations.”

The spokesperson did not answer whether it includes geolocation data on a device’s connection to the internet or the sender-recipient records of a user's communications.

Services Australia was cut off from directly asking telcos for metadata in late 2015, after having had the power since 2009.

It now makes requests for metadata, "where required", through the Australian Federal Police.

Services Australia has asked the government at least twice to have its powers back.

According to the FoI, Services Australia requested AGD declare it an 'enforcement agency' under Section 176A of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act (TIA) in 2015 and made the same request seven years later during a current review of electronic surveillance laws…...

In response to its 2015 application, AGD suggested “joint investigations arrangements with a criminal law-enforcement agency” as an “alternative means of accessing historical telecommunications data.” The welfare provider took the advice.

Since Services Australia started accessing telecommunications metadata indirectly through the AFP, it is unclear how many investigations involved fraud claims based on relationship-status.

According to its most recent annual reports, in 2021–22 Services Australia conducted 709 criminal investigations, 988 administrative investigations and made 203 referrals to the CDPP.

A quick look at the Commonwealth Ombudsman' views on the often erratic response of the Australian Federal Police to its requirement to comply with telecommunication data law:

https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/112476/Report-into-the-AFPs-use-and-administration-of-telecommunications-data-powers.pdf

There were several important factors that informed my decision to commence an investigation, including:

• the covert and intrusive nature of this power

• the duration and potential scale of non-compliance with the TIA Act as a result of ACT Policing accessing telecommunications data outside the AFP’s approved process

• the omission of the affected records from our Office’s regular compliance inspections

• previous recommendations our Office has made to the AFP about non-compliance with the TIA Act. 

Like law enforcement Services Australia is not eager to advertise the shortcomings of its own errant staff, but the character of this bureaucracy which uses covert surveillance on welfare recipients is not above interrogation. 

Services Australia is a federal government department which includes Centrelink.

A brief Internet search reveals for the most part sparsely worded information. The following is a compilation from government and media sources.

In a two year period covering 2005 to September 2006 Centrelink investigated 790 APS Code of Conduct complaints, with 766 referred for investigation and 585 staff found to have accessed the private information of welfare recipients or entered into a conflict of interest situation in breach of the code. Sanctions for these breaches reportedly ranged from 19 dismissals, 92 resignations and, more than 300 salary reductions or fines. Another est. 134 staff were demoted, reprimanded and warned. Five cases were referred to the AFP or Director of Public Prosecutions.

In 2006–07 Centrelink staff breached the information privacy principal in 367 instances, including 108 unauthorised access, 4 unauthorised disclosure and 10 unauthorised use. Another 17 new cases were opened with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, bringing the total to 20 cases for the year. Centrelink finalised six cases with the office and as at 30 June 2007, 14 cases were still open.

By the next financial year 2007-08, Centrelink recorded 355 privacy breaches of which 100 were unauthorised access, 13 unauthorised disclosure and 1 unauthorised use. The remainder of breaches said to be primarily mailing errors.

In 2008-09 Centrelink found 368 proven privacy incidents of which 85 were unauthorised access of information, 14 were unauthorised disclosure and 1 was unauthorised use.

Financial year 2009-10 saw Centrelink admitted to 465 proven privacy incidents and it appears to have undertaken 286 staff code of conduct complaints investigations in which 187 staff member were found to have breached the code of conduct.

The following financial year 2010-11, Centrelink undertook 197 staff code of conduct complaints investigations, including 25 investigations of improper use of internet or email, and 67 investigations of ‘improper access to personal information’. The latter occurring when employees accessed records either without a business reason, or despite being directed not to do so, for example if the records belonged to themselves, family or friends. A total of 128 Centrelink staff members were found to have breached the code of conduct.

In 2011 Centrelink & Medicare were integrated into the Dept. of Human Services.

In 2011-12  the Dept. of Human Services finalised 205 staff breaches of the APS Code of Conduct, including:

• 68 instances of improper access to personal information;

• 5 unauthorised disclosure of information;

• 10 conflict of interest;

• 48 inappropriate behaviour other than bullying or harassment;

• 17 harassment and/or bullying;

• 8 fraud other than theft;

• 1 theft;

• 8 improper use of resources other than email;

• 25 improper use of internet or email;

• 8 inappropriate use of government vehicles;

• 7 improper use of position or status;

• 4 behaviour of the employee outside of work;

• 2 misuse of drugs and/or alcohol, and

• 2 other.

The next year 2012-13 the Dept. of Human Services finalised 165 matters involving 214 breaches of the code of conduct - across the gamut of human behaviour displayed in the workplace including 82  instances of improper access to personal information, 5 unauthorised disclosure of information and 26 conflict of interest. 

In 2013-14 the Department of Human Services reported there were 472 matters involving staff breaches of code of conduct of which 234 were finalised, including 118 improper access to personal information, 4 unauthorised disclosure, 181 conflict of interest and 66 fraud. 

The next financial year 2014-15 saw reports of 1,939 substantiated privacy incidents from which there were officially 268 findings of staff breaches of the code of conduct.

In 2015-16 there were 368 findings of a breach of the code of conduct.

Note: From 21.9.2015 to 18.2.2016 Stuart Robert was the Minister for Human Services.

In 2016-17 there were a reported 304 staff breaches of the code of conduct.

NOTE: From 21.9.2015 to 18.2.2016 Stuart Robert was the Minister for Human Services.

In 2017-18 a total of 235 staff code of conduct investigations were completed and 224 findings of a breach were made.

In 2018-19 the Department of Human Services reported a total of 249 staff code of conduct investigations were completed, with 241 findings of a breach of the code.

NOTE: From  29.5.2019 to 30.3.2021 Stuart Robert was Minister for Government Services, which included the Dept. of Human Services in his portfolio.

In May 2019 the Dept. of Human Services had a name change, becoming Services Australia.

From July 2017 to end June 2019 almost half of the breaches arose from unauthorised access to information, where staff had inappropriately accessed customer records. Almost a quarter of all breaches allegedly related to incorrect reporting of income by staff who were also in receipt of Centrelink benefits.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman's Report of 2019-20 mention that;  We received more complaints about Services Australia than any other agency (11,222), although this was a decrease of 3.7 per cent compared to last year. 

In one case; A complainant’s disability support pension (DSP) was cancelled as a result of a staff error and while seeking a review of this error they received an inheritance.

A trustee acting on behalf of the complainant contacted Services Australia however was unable to have the DSP payments reinstated, despite payments not being made in excess of 12 months.

As a result of the Office’s engagement with Services Australia during an investigation, the complainant’s circumstances were reviewed and they were back-paid over $45,000 for the entire period since their DSP was cancelled. Additionally, Services Australia provided feedback to the officer who made the initial error to improve future service.

In his following 2020-21 annual report the Commonwealth Ombudsman placed Services Australia in; the number of disclosures assessed meeting the criteria under s 26 of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 and alleged kinds of disclosable conduct to which the disclosures relate. 

This involves 8 instances of:

• Contravention of a law of the Commonwealth, state or territory (5)

• Maladministration (2)

• Abuse of public trust (2)

• Wastage of public money (2)

• Conduct that results in, or that increases, the risk of danger to the health or safety of one or more persons (3)

• Abuse of public office (3)

• Conduct that may result in disciplinary action

(6) 

In 2021-22 the Commonwealth Ombudsman reported that 52% of complaints it received from the public involved Services Australia-Centrelink.