A lesson in what not to do in Clarence Coast waters

Wooli Bar, Clarence Coast, Northern NSW
IMAGE: svbrahminy 2016

Coastal bars are shallow, shifting sandbanks at the entrance to rivers and coastal estuaries. There are at least nine coastal bars from Wooli to the NSW-Qld border.

Appearances are often deceptive when looking at a bar from the shoreline. Crossing bars can be a dangerous business that will in the blink of an eye turn a planned day's fishing into planning for a funeral.

"Crossing coastal bars can be very dangerous. Channels through the bars can change frequently. Waves can change quickly with the tide and weather. Even in apparently calm conditions, vessels can be swamped, damaged or wrecked, which can result in death." 

This story fortunately had a happy ending..... 

Clarence Valley Independent, 24 August 2022:

Two fishermen, a father and his teenage son, are lucky to be alive after their five-metre runabout overturned on the Wooli River bar on the weekend.

Two runabouts were observed by Marine Rescue Wooli Radio Watch Officer Jackie Taffs attempting to cross the Wooli River bar at around 6:20 on Saturday morning.

The first runabout had to contend with five sets of breaking waves of up to 2.5 metres, becoming near vertical on a few occasions, before making it to deeper water. The second vessel was not so fortunate, overturning and spilling its two crew members into the sea just past the breakwater.

The team at Marine Rescue Wooli instantly swung into action, with Deputy Unit Commander Richard Taffs who was also on duty, running down to the nearby bar with a handheld radio to keep a close watch on the position of the two fishermen so as to guide rescuers, while a rescue crew was quickly assembled for rescue vessel Wooli 30.

Fortunately, the crew of the overturned vessel were wearing lifejackets, and were soon swept into the surf zone and onto the nearby Wooli Beach, where members of Marine Rescue Wooli collected them, returning them to the base for a first aid assessment, dry clothes and a hot drink ahead of the arrival of an ambulance and a more thorough medical examination before they were interviewed by NSW Police.....

The dos and don't of crossing coastal bars in New South Wales can be found at:

https://www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/using-waterways/waterways-and-designated-areas/navigating-coastal-bars/crossing-coastal-bars

How for a total of 1,609 days Scott John Morrison hid his ambition to be a 'president' rather than a humble Prime Minister of Australia

Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 23 August 2022:

Solicitor-General’s opinion

23 August 2022

On 22 August 2022, the Prime Minister received the Solicitor-General’s opinion (SG No 12 of 2022) – In the matter of the validity of the appointment of Mr Morrison to administer the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources PDF 945KB.

Only the validity of one Appointment of a Minister of State by the Governor-General was considered in the Solicitor-General’s investigation – that of then Australian Prime Minister Scott John Morrison to administer the Dept. of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER) from 15 April 2021 onwards.

IMAGE: pmc.gov.au

IN THE MATTER OF THE VALIDITY OF THE APPOINTMENT OF MR MORRISON TO ADMINISTER THE DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY, SCIENCE, ENERGY AND RESOURCES

EXCERPT ONE

1. On 12 April 2021, the former Prime Minister, the Hon Scott Morrison MP, wrote to the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia (the Governor-General) to recommend that the Governor-General “appoint me, as Prime Minister, to administer the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources” (DISER). Mr Morrison advised the Governor-General that this appointment would allow him “to be the responsible Minister for matters within that Portfolio, if and when required”.

2. Mr Morrison enclosed with his letter a document headed “Appointment of Minister of State”, with space for the Governor-General’s signature.

EXCERPT TWO

29. While I consider that Mr Morrison’s appointment to administer DISER was valid, that is not to say that the absence of any notification of that appointment to the Parliament, the public, the other Ministers administering DISER or DISER itself was consistent with the principle of responsible government that is inherent in Ch II of the Constitution. In my opinion, it was not.

(i) Responsible government

30. The provisions of Chapter II are sparse. Nevertheless, the High Court has long recognised that they provide for a system of responsible government – meaning a “system by which the executive is responsible to the legislature and, through it, to the electorate”. Indeed, responsible government has been recognised as a “central feature of the Australian constitutional system”. As a majority of the High Court put it in the Engineers Case, the Constitution is “permeated through and through with the spirit of … the institution of responsible government”.

EXCERPT THREE

(iii) Recent change in practice concerning Ministry lists

42. Apparently since Mr Morrison became Prime Minister in August 2018 (and certainly since no later than 25 January 2019), it has not been possible to infer from the Ministry list that a Minister has been appointed to administer only such departments as fall within the portfolios against which that Minister’s name appears. That follows because, since that time, the footer to the Ministry list has denied the legitimacy of any such inference, by expressly stating that Ministers “may also be sworn to administer other portfolios in which they are not listed”. The impetus for the inclusion of those words is unclear, although it seems possible that they were included so as to ensure that the tabling of the Ministry list did not mislead Parliament. The words contemplate an apparent practice whereby Ministers may be appointed to administer one or more departments of State without those appointments being published (at least in the Ministry list). The point is starkly illustrated by the fact that Mr Morrison’s name did not appear in the Ministry list published in October 2021 with respect to any of the five departments that he was appointed to administer between March 2020 and May 2021.

43. The result of the analysis above is that there was no way the public could discern from the Ministry list, or anywhere else, that Mr Morrison had been appointed to administer either DISER or any of the other four departments that he was appointed to administer between March 2020 and May 2021. There was likewise no way of knowing whether any other Ministers had also been appointed to administer additional departments without that being mentioned in the Ministry list.

(iv) Implications for responsible government

44. The capacity of the public and the Parliament to ascertain which Ministers have been appointed to administer which departments is critical to the proper functioning of responsible government, because it is those appointments, when read together with the AAO, that determine the matters for which a Minister is legally and politically responsible.

45. The pathway to that conclusion is fairly technical. It is the result of reading the AAO together with the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth). The AAO provides that a Minister who has been appointed to administer a department is responsible for administering the legislation listed in the Schedule to the AAO relating to that department. The Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth) then provides that references to “the Minister” in legislation are to be interpreted as a reference to “the Minister, or any of the Ministers, administering the provision”. The result is that the Ministers who are entitled to exercise statutory powers under any Act of the Commonwealth Parliament cannot be identified without first identifying from the AAO which department administers that Act, and then identifying the Ministers who have been appointed to administer that department.

46. The end result is that, to the extent that the public and the Parliament are not informed of appointments that have been made under s 64 of the Constitution, the principles of responsible government are fundamentally undermined. Neither the people nor the Parliament can hold a Minister accountable for the exercise (or, just as importantly, for the non-exercise) of particular statutory powers if they are not aware that the Minister has those powers. Nor can they hold the correct Ministers accountable for any other actions, or inactions, of departments. The undermining of responsible government therefore does not depend on the extent to which Mr Morrison exercised powers under legislation administered by DISER, because from the moment of his appointment he was both legally and politically responsible for the administration of that department, and yet he could not be held accountable for the way that he performed (or did not perform) that role.

47. Separately from the problem of holding Ministers to account, if multiple Ministers have been appointed to administer a single department, those Ministers (or the Prime Minister) are responsible for working out the division of responsibilities between themselves. However, if one Minister does not know that another Minister has been appointed to administer their department, that obviously cannot occur.

48. Finally, an appointment under s 64 of the Constitution is an appointment to “administer” a department. Plainly, however, a department cannot, in practice, be administered by a person whose appointment has not been revealed to the department itself. Failure to inform at least the Secretary of the department of the appointment therefore defeats the purpose of the appointment. It also prevents the department from taking appropriate steps to support and advise that Minister if the Minister decides to exercise powers under any legislation that is administered by that department (unless the appointment is disclosed at that time, as appears to have occurred with respect to Mr Morrison’s appointment to administer DISER). An unpublicised appointment to administer a department therefore fundamentally undermines not just the proper functioning of responsible government, but also the relationship between the Ministry and the public service.

[my yellow highlighting throughout the excerpts]

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on 23 August 2022 announcing the result of the Inquiry and the need to establish a second inquiry:

ABC News, 23 August 2022, on the subject of the mechanics of establishing the first of five appointments of Scott Morrison to administer a department. In this case the federal Dept. of Health, a portfolio of the then Minister for Health Greg Hunt:

A three to four-page protocol was drafted for approval by the National Security Committee (NSC) of cabinet, which comprised Morrison, then-deputy PM Michael McCormack, Hunt, Peter Dutton (Home Affairs), Mathias Cormann (Finance), Marise Payne (Foreign Affairs) and Linda Reynolds (Defence).

And on March 14, the Governor-General signed an administrative instrument that appointed Scott John Morrison to administer the Department of Health.

Four days later — March 18, 2020 — a "human biosecurity emergency" was declared under the Biosecurity Act, giving health minister Greg Hunt sweeping, plenary powers.

Only members of the NSC — and the Governor-General — knew that Morrison also had that authority, which amounted to effective power of martial law.

Commonwealth Ombudsman said to have recommended a review of all government appointments made during the years Morrison was Treasurer and then Prime Minister

 

The Klaxon reported on 23 August 2022:

The Commonwealth Ombudsman has called for a review of hundreds of Prime Minister and Cabinet appointments - including all those by Scott Morrison - over concerns key officials have been illegally appointed to multiple jobs.

A screenshot was included in the article which purports to show excerpts from a 41-page inquiry report by Commonwealth Ombudsman calling for an official review of multiple agencies' appointment practices during the seven years through to the end of 2021.

IMAGE: https://www.theklaxon.com.au/home/ombudsman-pmc-audit

I note that Scott Morrison was Australian Treasurer from 21.9.2015 to 28.8.2018, Prime Minister from 24.8.2018 to 23.5.2022 and Minister for Public Service from 29.5.2019 to 8.10.2021. 

Further, on 30 March 2020 Morrison received an Appointment as Minister of State to administer the Department of Finance  and, on 6 May 2021 he received an Appointment as Minister of State to administer both the Dept. of the Treasury and Dept. of Home Affairs.

As yet no mainstream media outlet is carrying news concerning any formal recommendations by the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

Resolve Strategic voter intention poll was releases on 22 August 2022 and the Coalition & Opposition Leader Peter Dutton lose more ground

 

It has been three months since the federal general election.

The Sydney Morning Herald released its 21 August 2022 Resolve Strategic poll on Monday 22 August.

According to the newspaper; Voters have swung behind Labor with a surge of support to give the new federal government a strong lead in the community with a primary vote of 42 per cent, up from 33 per cent at the election just three months ago. The significant shift has given Prime Minister Anthony Albanese a commanding lead over Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of 55 to 17 per cent as preferred prime minister….

In New South Wales those figures translate as a Primary Vote of:

Labor – 42%

Coalition (Lib-Nats) – 29%

Greens – 11%

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation – 5%

Clive Palmer’s United Australia – 2%

Independents – 8%

Other – 3%

With 77% of NSW survey respondents committed to their choice.

• Across the state male survey respondents were the most impressed with Labor showing 42% support compared to female respondents on 40%.

• Female survey respondents were the least impressed with the Coalition showing only 28% support compared to males respondents on 30%.

According to this survey Labor now leads the Coalition on National Security (by 4 percentage points), Jobs & Wages (by 25 percentage points), and Environment (by 26 percentage points).

On the Preferred Prime Minister question the NSW result was:

Anthony Albanese – 55%

Peter Dutton – 17%

• Across the state male survey respondents were the most impressed with Anthony Albanese at 59% compared to female respondents on 52%.

• Female survey respondents were the least impressed with the Peter Dutton showing only 15% support compared to males respondents on 19%.

Almost singlehandedly the policies and actions of the NSW O'Farrell-Baird-Berejiklian-Perrottet coalition governments have brought the Koala to the brink of extinction

https://youtu.be/w8LiyaMs0xU

This century started with celebrations across the state. 

Twenty-two years in and there is little to celebrate in New South Wales.

The state is at the sharp end of climate change impacts, the sharp end of a pandemic and, the sharp end of the Koala extinction crisis.

In 2019-20 alone over 17 million hectares were burnt or impacted and more than 61,000 koalas killed, injured or impacted by fire in the east coast mega bushfire season.

More than than 5.3 million hectares were burnt or impacted in NSW, including 2.7 million hectares of national parks.

In NSW more koala have also been lost to widespread flooding and the stress of habitat loss as the NSW Government continues to allow an unsustainable level of land clearing.

A total of 646,418 hectares have been approved for land clearing in the state between 9 March 2018 and 1 April 2022. The rate at which native vegetation was being cleared was over 61,00 hectares a year.

In 2020-21 the state-owned forestry corporation logged an est. 13,500 hectares of native forest and, as in the past, repeatedly logged in protected areas or known koala habitat.

Currently it is estimated that Australia-wide there may be as few as 43,000 koala left of the est. 7-10 million koala population calculated to exist in 1788. Almost certainly less than 80,000 koala.

In NSW there is some suggestion that the current number of koala left in the wild could be as low as <11,000 individuals in increasingly isolated colonies. Since the 2019-20 devastation of national parks, many of these koalas are now found on private land.

It should be noted that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison federal coalition governments' support of the continued logging of New South Wales native forests between September 2013 to May 2022 had exacerbated the rate of land clearing/loss of native tree cover and the environmental impacts which flow from the removal of so many mature trees.

Northern Rivers resident & former NSW Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack: "I hadn’t realised the former PM’s capacity to upset ordinary people and destroy their trust in government, until now"

Former Liberal MLA Catherine Cusack, writing in The Guardian, 19 August 2022:

I hadn’t realised the former PM’s capacity to upset ordinary people and destroy their trust in government, until now

The most powerful man in the land exploited a health crisis to extract yet more power.’ Photograph: Steven Saphore/AFP/Getty Images

Scott Morrison still possesses an incredible ability to divide and destroy the Australian polity.

His capacity to upset ordinary people – erode their hopes and sour trust in the institutions they are forced to rely on – was overwhelming during Q+A on Thursday.

Technically I was a panel member – but for me, the audience is always the real panel and it was dismaying to observe their bewilderment, cynicism and anguish on the topic of the former prime minister.

I have personally been so twisted up about him since his dreadful visit as prime minister to Lismore after the floods that I hadn’t fully comprehended his wider toxic impact.

That is, until Thursday – listening to Penrith residents ask simple, legitimate questions, and watching their reactions while the camera was fixed on panellists who could only offer solidarity in lieu of answers. Because there are no acceptable answers. Morrison is relentlessly breaking the heart of Australian faith in democracy. And he seems to find that funny.

I do not believe anyone can truthfully say they “know” Morrison. I can say I have “experienced” Scott for 22 years. I have thought about him, tried to work with him and desperately wanted to understand him as a member of his Liberal “team”.

What a quixotic quest that turned out to be. Initially my concern was for the impact his scheming and power games were having on the Liberal party. When as state director he helped Alex Hawke take over scores of strategic Liberal branches it changed the culture of our organisation.

The scheming escalated to the point of thwarting his own party’s efforts to select candidates for the federal election. It made no sense. On 7.30 Leigh Sales asked “why?” and we were given the ludicrous reply: “I did it to help women.”

Understandably, the ordinary citizen may not care how the NSW Liberal party has been so ruthlessly used and rendered a smoking ruin. But Morrison and his government’s power games have had direct impacts on people’s lives.

I felt that intensely during the Northern Rivers floods. Under his government, victims in a Nationals electorate received cash payments denied to victims in a Labor electorate. The pain inflicted was far more than financial. This nasty political parry crushed a desperate community that needed solidarity and compassionate leadership. Instead, they were made to feel like worthless political pawns.

This was a betrayal of a government’s duty to serve every citizen of this country.

When neither state government nor local government live up to their promise to Lismore flood victims

 

THEN

The Northern Star/Daily Telegraph, 5 June 2022:

The scheme targets thousands of flood affected residents from across all seven Northern Rivers government areas and comes as part of a $40 million package by the NSW government.

Deputy Premier and Minister Regional NSW Paul Toole said ratepayers who’s property had been deemed “damaged” would be eligible, or those who had already successfully claimed through Service NSW.

“Northern Rivers residents have been to hell and back, and receiving a rates notice for a home or business they still can barely access is the absolute last thing they need,” Mr Toole said.

He said the NSW government will continue to support flood victims as fears many are still suffering financially and mentally.

“This rates relief is one less thing they need to worry about as they continue to rebuild their lives – and we’ll continue to stand by their side on that journey in the months and years ahead,” he said.

Local government minister Wendy Tuckerman said anyone in the impacted regions is eligible for the scheme, which include Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Tweed.

“The unprecedented flooding has had a disastrous impact on homes, farms and business premises, particularly in the Northern Rivers, and many people from that region are still doing it tough,” Mrs Tuckerman said.

She said the scheme will address residential, commercial and farm rates for the 2022/23 financial year, with the hope it will “help them get back on their feet and ease the pressure on council.”…...

NOW

The Northern Star/Daily Telegraph, 12 August 2022:

Flood impacted ratepayers in the Northern Rivers are outraged over broken promises to have their rates paid for the year.

In a well-meaning gesture to ease financial burdens on the region, Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg publicly announced council would waive the cost of rates for those directly impacted by the floods during the initial clean-up stages in March.

Community anger was aroused when council found they could not deliver on their promise, taking extra time for legal advice and to start lobbying for financial aid.

In June, the State Government announced a $40 million rates relief package for the region.

But ratepayers are calling the announcements misleading as they did not explain the relief would only cover the land value element of their rates bills.

Lismore resident Binnie O’Dwyer said being a single mother with two teenagers was hard enough.

“I live in the basin on Hindmarsh Street,” Ms O’Dwyer said.

“I just thought rates were rates and everything on the rates notice is rates.

“So, to now be told that only a part of that will be waived is misleading.”

Ms O’Dwyer said she cannot help feeling cynical about government promises.

“And it just adds to the extreme financial burden that I am carrying since the floods’’ she said.

“Having to rebuild and replace things costs a lot and when this announcement was made it was like a small reprieve.

“So, to have that taken away is hard and it just makes me cynical about all their announcements of help which don’t seem to amount to much.”

Lismore councillor Adam Guise said residents were getting their rates notices now with shock and trepidation because their rates have not been waived.

“It is a portion of what they were led to believe,” Cr Guise said. “We told them we would waive rates.

“We had Minister Cooke say eligible ratepayers would not be paying their rates for the next year.

“We need to ask them [state government] to come through on their promise to the community and deliver full rate relief.”

He said flood impacted residents who may be homeless or not living in their homes did not deserve this shock, especially in the light of uninhabitable homes and businesses.

“This is despite the State Government’s $40 million announcement of rates relief across the region and a $20 million ’grant’ to Lismore council that we’re yet to sign,” Mr Guise said.

In a unanimous vote, Lismore councillors agreed to write to the State Government and relevant ministers to call on them to honour their promise to pay rates in full…..

Lismore Council has received an advance of around $6.5 million to cover the rates cost from the state government. “Further payments will be made monthly to councils throughout the 2022/23 financial year,’’ the spokesperson said. 

“Councils can also provide relief to ratepayers experiencing genuine financial hardship through their hardship provisions.’’