Thursday, 19 September 2024

ABC presenter David Marr & journalist Rick Morton discuss in depth the cultural rot within the Australian Public Service 2019-2023

 











The #Robodebt Five

via @jmill400



ABC National Radio, Late Night Live, podcast, 17 September 2024:


Robodebt scheme was ‘a failure of government’ – but who paid the price?


A report by the Australian Public Service Commission has found twelve public servants, including two former departmental secretaries, Kathryn Campbell and Renée Leon, breached the Public Service Code of Conduct in their handling of Robodebt. Commissioner Dr Gordon de Brouwer said the inquiry confirmed "a sad and shameful succession of public servants failing to demonstrate the behaviour expected of public service."


Guest: Rick Morton, journalist, The Saturday Paper.


APSC Commissioner Gordon de Brouwer said the Robodebt Scheme saw members of the public service "lose their grounding, feel under pressure from Ministers and senior officials, and caught up in busyness and self-absorption." (ABC News: Lewi Hirvela)


30 minute discussion, focussing on the public service during the Scott Morrison years as Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Social Security, Treasurer and Prime Minister, at:


https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/latenightlive/rick-morton-robodebt/104363362?utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared


Wednesday, 18 September 2024

CLIMATE CHANGE STATE OF PLAY 2024: “Now we are finding that atmospheric CO2 levels are increasing faster than ever. We must recognize that these are clear signals of the damage carbon dioxide pollution is doing to the climate system, and take rapid action to cut fossil fuel use as quickly as we can.”


In a month where Australia is breaking the lowest seasonal temperature records in parts of Australia just weeks after setting maximum temperatures records in another seasonal extreme - while some countries in Europe are either experiencing heatwaves or wildfires at the same time others are experiencing heavy snowfalls or catastrophic flooding - it is no longer being whispered but shouted out that "global warming is now becoming so extreme and non-linear that combined with habitat destruction, pollution, and overkilling of species it threatens collapse in the natural world including human systems within years not decades" [Ben See, climate activist, September 2024].


This is happening because although for decades now global heating of the Earth system has been unequivocal, detected acceleration of Earth heating has never been so sharply evident as it has become in the last two years.


2024 is also the year when evidence suggests that the rapid increase in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere being recorded may now be independent of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions being released into the atmosphere by human activity. In other words, global warming's effect on the Earth may have passed a tipping point from which there is no return to a pre-industrial era global climate for millennia.


16 September 2024:


"The global temperature according to NASA data. Anyone who is still wondering about #ExtremeWeather and flooding has either missed out on several decades of climate research or deliberately repressed it. #Flood" **

Click on graph to enlarge



Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf, (@rahmstorf) Head of Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research & Professor of Physics of the Oceans, Potsdam University


** Text of tweet translated from German to English by Google Translate



U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), News Release, 6 June 2024:


During a year of extremes, carbon dioxide levels surge faster than ever


The two-year increase in Keeling Curve peak is the largest on record


June 6, 2024 — Carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than ever — accelerating on a steep rise to levels far above any experienced during human existence, scientists from NOAA and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego announced today....


From January through April, NOAA and Scripps scientists said CO2 concentrations increased more rapidly than they have in the first four months of any other year. The surge has come even as one highly regarded international report has found that fossil fuel emissions, the main driver of climate change, have plateaued in recent years.


Over the past year, we’ve experienced the hottest year on record, the hottest ocean temperatures on record and a seemingly endless string of heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and storms,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “Now we are finding that atmospheric CO2 levels are increasing faster than ever. We must recognize that these are clear signals of the damage carbon dioxide pollution is doing to the climate system, and take rapid action to cut fossil fuel use as quickly as we can.” ....


Tuesday, 17 September 2024

STATE OF PLAY NSW 2024: On 3 September 2024 the NSW Minns Government released data showing that the state lost 45,252 ha of native vegetation to agriculture, native timber logging & infrastructure in 2022 and a total of 428,594 ha since 2018

 

NSW SLATS Insights Dashboard
Click on image to enlarge














Nature Conservation Council NSW


Urgent interim action needed as NSW clears 570 football fields of habitat each day


MEDIA RELEASE

13 September 2024


The Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), the state’s leading environmental advocacy organisation, has called on the NSW Government to act on its commitment to stop the runaway land clearing that is continuing to decimate NSW bush.


NSW remains in the midst of an extinction crisis which will continue to gather pace until the root cause – widespread and unregulated destruction of our habitat encouraged by the former government – is addressed.


The latest vegetation clearing data shows that clearing continues to devastate large swathes of habitat every year. In NSW, an equivalent of 300 times the Sydney CBD is cleared annually, or 570 football fields per day.


The annual Statewide Land and Tree Study (SLATS) data released today shows, yet again, a shocking amount of habitat was cleared across the state, taking the average to 84,000 hectares of native vegetation (defined as trees, shrubs or woody vines, or understory and groundcover plants that have been relatively undisturbed since 1990[1]) being cleared every year for the past five years.


Habitat clearing is, alongside climate change, the most significant threat to species in NSW[2], the worst ranked state in the country for protecting and restoring trees.


Statements attributable to NCC Chief Executive Officer, Jacqui Mumford:


These new figures still show the urgent need for reform. Every day of inaction means more species are at an ever-growing risk of going extinct.”


Our nature laws in NSW are broken and unable to protect habitat.”


The government has asked the Natural Resources Commission to come up with new options to stop runaway habitat clearing and protect critical species. We are heartened by this process but concerned about the slow timeframe – interim action to protect critical habitat must be taken given the numbers we are seeing today.”[3]


Protecting critically endangered ecosystems is urgent and needs to happen yesterday.”


The existing Native Vegetation Code is an inappropriate regulatory tool for managing impacts on biodiversity in rural areas. It permits a completely unsustainable amount of clearing without any robust environmental assessment or approval requirements. The new data shows that we don’t know the circumstances under which nearly half of the non-woody vegetation clearing happened in 2022. It may be illegal clearing – we just don’t know.”[4]


Clearly the scope of ‘allowable’ vegetation clearing activities is too broad and open to misuse.”


We need urgent interim action to immediately protect critically endangered ecosystems. These precious places and the critters than rely on them cannot wait while the scale of reform we require is nowhere to be seen.”


Statement ends


References


[1] As defined in the NSW Vegetation Clearing Report 2021 https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/native-vegetation/landcover-science/2021-nsw-vegetation-clearing-report


[2] https://www.soe.epa.nsw.gov.au/all-themes/land/native-vegetation#vegcover


[3] See the Government’s NSW Plan for Nature in response to the review of the BC Act and native vegetation provisions of the local land services act here.


[4] In 2022, 46.6% of the total of non woody vegetation clearing is unallocated, and 11.8% of woody clearing is unallocated. Unallocated clearing is vegetation clearing for which the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has not been able to identify a formal authorisation or is unable to presume authorised or allowable using visual cues in the imagery. See here


Further information can be found at

2022 NSW vegetation clearing data

This spreadsheet reports on figures of detected woody and non woody (grasses, small shrubs and groundcover) vegetation clearing that has occurred from 2018 to 2022, statewide and on Category 2 regulated land.

https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/research-and-publications/publications-search/nsw-vegetation-clearing-data-2022


Sunday, 15 September 2024

Four of the seven local governments in the NSW Northern Rivers region directly elect their mayors. Here is a brief look at the voting so far in the 2024 NSW Local Government Election

 

Four of the seven local governments in the NSW Northern Rivers region directly elect their mayors. Here is a brief look at the voting so far.


PLEASE NOTE: No local government election for mayor or councillors in the Northern Rivers region has been officially called.

All numbers and percentages set out below are as at close of counting on NSW local government election night, Saturday 13 September 2024. Counting resumes on Monday 16 September.


Byron Shire


In the Byron Council’s mayoralty election, with 17,660 formal votes counted, The Greens Sarah Ndiaye is in the lead with 6,129 first preference votes & 34.71% of the formal vote. Followed by the ALP's Asren Pugh with 5,363 first preference votes & 30.44% of the formal vote.


At close of counting last night in the Byron councillor elections, with only 7,504 formal votes counted it would appear that 5-candiate The Greens Group led by Sarah Ndiaye held 3,018 first preference votes & 40.22% of the formal vote. Followed by the 6-candiate ALP Group led by Asren Pugh with 2,097 first preference votes & 27.95% of the formal vote.

The full vote count can be viewed at

https://vtr.elections.nsw.gov.au/LG2401/byron/results


Ballina Shire


In Ballina Council’s mayoral election with 16,110 first preference votes counted so far Independent Sharon Cadwallader is in the lead with 7,263 first preference votes & 45.08% of the formal vote. Followed by The Green's Kiri Dicker with 4,154 first preference votes & 25.79% of the formal vote.


There are three Wards in the Ballina councillor elections. The full vote count can be viewed at https://vtr.elections.nsw.gov.au/LG2401/ballina/results


City of Lismore


At close of counting last night in Lismore Council's mayoral election with 18,621 formal votes counted, the nominally Independent Steve Kreig leads with 8,969 first preference votes & 48.17% of the formal vote. Followed by The Greens Vanessa Grindon-Ekins with 3,957 first preference votes & 21.25% of the formal vote.

Big Rob is coming in second to last in the mayoral election with 2,244 first preference votes & 12.05% of the formal vote.


In the councillor elections witn18,621 formal votes counted the 11-candidate Independent Group A led by Steve Kreig held 4,551 first preference votes & 42.39%. Followed by the 6-candidate The Greens Group D led by Adam Guise with 2,874 first preference votes & 26.77% of the formal vote.

The 5-candidate Independent Group C led by Big Rob with 1,180 first preference votes & 10.99% of the formal vote ranked last on election night.

The full vote count can be viewed at

https://vtr.elections.nsw.gov.au/LG2401/lismore/results


Richmond Valley


At close of counting last night in Richmond Valley Council's mayoral election with 7,439 formal votes counted, Independent Robert Mustow lead with 2,896 first preference votes & 38.93% of the formal vote. Followed by Independent Lyndall Murray with 2,021 first preference votes & 27.17% of the formal vote.


In the Richmond councillor elections with 3,305 formal votes counted, the 4-candidate Independent Group D led by Robert Mustow led with 1,369 first preference votes & 41.42% of the formal vote. Followed by the 7-candidate Independent Croup C led by Lyndall Murray with 849 first preference votes & 25.69% of the formal vote.

The full vote count can be viewed at

https://vtr.elections.nsw.gov.au/LG2401/richmond-valley/results


Saturday, 14 September 2024

NSW Local Government Elections are underway across the state today with polling places open between 8am & 6pm, with the online Virtual Tally Room live from 6pm


NSW Local Government Elections are held today, Saturday 14 September 2024.


Clarence Valley Local Government Area Election 2024


Clarence Valley Council was established on 25 February 2004. It holds 41,890^ electors and occupies an area of 10,440 square kilometres. This is an undivided council served by nine councillors including a Mayor and Deputy Mayor.


Voting is compulsory for all residents 18 years of age and older. There is no absentee voting available at NSW council elections. You must vote at a venue in your enrolled council area (or ward if you live in a divided council area). You cannot vote at a venue in another area.


In 2024 the Returning Officer and centralised count centre for the Clarence Valley are both located at Richmond Valley Region RO Office, Evans Head NSW.


There are 26 polling places in the Clarence Valley open between 8am and 6pm on polling day.

Their locations can be found at:

https://elections.nsw.gov.au/elections/find-my-electorate/councils/clarence-valley


The Virtual Tally Room for the 2024 NSW Local Government elections will be live from 6.00pm on Saturday, 14 September 2024.

Initial count results will be published progressively on the Virtual Tally Room from approximately 6.30pm to 10.30pm Saturday, 14 September 2024 and, will continue to be updated as results become available.


Votes Received Before Polling Day

Prepoll votes - 9,624

Postal vote applications - 2,733

Postal votes scrutinised - 1,340

Table data last updated: 10pm Thursday, 12 September 2024


There are 17 candidates standing for election as Clarence Valley councillors.


In ballot paper order they are:


Cristie Jayne YAGER, Ulmarra IND

Peter Francis JOHNSTONE, South Grafton IND

Gregory Paul CLANCY, Coutts Crossing THE GREENS

James ALLAN, Yamba IND

Allison Dianne Elizabeth WHAITES, South Grafton IND

Justin JAMES, Elland IND

Raymond John SMITH, Grafton IND

Andrew Francis BAKER, Harwood IND

Phillip Albie PROVEST, Braunstone IND

Lynette Gay CAIRNS, Yamba IND

Karen Lea TOMS, Iluka IND

Melissa Jane HELLWIG, Yamba IND

Stephen Harper PICKERING, Ulmarra IND

Shane Ian CAUSLEY, Warregah Island IND

Desmond Charles SCHRODER, South Grafton IND

Debrah NOVAK, Yamba IND

Amanda Rose BRIEN, Grafton IND


The NSW Electoral Commission social media account can be found at:

https://x.com/NSWElectoralCom


Friday, 13 September 2024

Talking 'zombie developments' with the NSW Government & Parliament in 2024

 

Excerpt from Tweed Shire Council's 17-page submission to the NSW Parliament, Legislative Assembly Committee on Environment and Planning, Inquiry into Historical development consents in NSW , dated 16 May 2024:


"(a) The current legal framework for development consents, including the physical commencement test.

The current legal framework requires an impact assessment in accordance with the objects and requirements of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (the "Act") prior to granting a consent.

Consents do not expire if they are commenced and for developments approved before 15 May 2020 it is too easy to prove commencement under the Act. This allows a consent approved decades ago and therefore assessed against decades old conditions to remain valid today.

As site conditions change and scientific knowledge advances, the impact assessments for these consents fall further apart from reality. As long as consents can continue to sit on land without expiration, the Act's objects are impossible to meet.


(b) Impacts to the planning system, development industry and property ownership as a result of the uncertain status of lawfully commenced development consents.

In failing to meet the Act's objects, historical development consents fail to achieve ecological sustainable development or consider climate change. The current legal framework requires authorities to explain to the community how such developments are

legally allowed to proceed (subject to procedural requirements) even while causing environmental damage that would be highly unlikely to be approved today. The balance between protecting private interests against confidence in the public planning system

and protection of the environment falls squarely in favour of the former.

Our understanding of disaster risk has improved through experience and is now considered with each assessment. Lacking this assessment in the past, historical development consents can place people and property at risk.

The extent of historic development consents that exist is unknown. Even recent development consents may become historical development consents in the future as site conditions and scientific knowledge change.

Local councils and communities are often unaware of a historical development consent in their backyard until a developer seeks to recommence that consent. Current register searches and prescribed documents for the conveyance of land do not allow for communities to factor potential developments into their purchase. In addition, whether a consent is a danger of recommencing is often beyond the knowledge of even the local council.

Approvals-based reporting faces the same concerns. The ability to effectively landbank and delay indefinitely results in reporting mechanisms being unable to adequately predict or rely on housing and development delivery by virtue of existing approvals


(c) Any barriers to addressing historical development consents using current legal provisions, and the benefits and costs to taxpayers of taking action of historical development concerns.

The barriers to addressing historical development consents and preventing new historical development consents lie primarily with a lack of funding, a lack of legal mechanisms that exist in other jurisdictions and a lack of certainty in the effect of existing legal provisions.

The Act contains a power to revoke a development consent in return for compensation.

No funding exists for this power and having never been tested, the extent of compensation owed is uncertain. Local councils can also acquire land. A similar lack of funding applies here by way of opportunity loss.

It may be possible to challenge a consent on grounds that it was not commenced.

However, before 15 May 2020, works as minor as inserting survey pegs into the ground were sufficient to show commencement. Accordingly, it is unlikely such a challenge would be successful.

Local councils can require developers comply with existing conditions of consent.

Conditions framed to the effect of "to Council's satisfaction" may be of assistance in barring consents from proceeding. Similarly, local councils can notify relevant authorities of developments that require additional approvals subject to savings provisions.

Local councils may be able to utilise the power under the Act to impose conditions on new consents to limit the period that consent may be carried out. This power's reach has not been tested in Court and may not extend to effectively imposing a quasicompletion date for construction and subdivision consents.

The Federal Government has the ability to require an approval for developments if they would harm certain threatened species. It does so by imposing an offence for proceeding without an approval. This requires action on behalf of the Federal Government and only applies to a selection of species set out in the Environment Protection and Biodivers;ty Act 1999 (Cth) (the "EPBC Act").

Zoning of land can be reviewed to ensure land is correctly zoned for development.

Insufficient resources are available to regularly undertake such reviews with sufficient depth and frequency. ......"

[my yellow highlighting]


Tweed Shire Council's full submission can be read at:

https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/ladocs/submissions/86141/Submission%2032%20-%20Tweed%20Shire%20Council.pdf


It is noted that Clarence Valley Council did not make a submission to this parliamentary inquiry. Even though, like many other local government areas having a extensive coastline, it has also been under sustained pressure to continue an historic practice of inappropriately developing floodplain land.


ECHO, 12 September 2024:


The 2022 floods in South-East Queensland and NSW are the costliest natural disaster for insurance costs in Australian history. As of June 2023, the ICA (Insurance Council of Australia) estimates the February-March 2022 floods in South-East Queensland and NSW have caused $5.87 billion in insured damages,’ according to the Australian Treasury. And that doesn’t include all those who were uninsured or the $5 billion that modelling showed the 2022 floods cost the economy.


So why are we continuing to allow developers to build on floodplains using development applications (DAs) that are ten or twenty years old and we know will cause significant future costs to our communities and governments – costs that will be in the billions of dollars and that ultimately we are paying for via our taxes and rates?


This was the question under discussion in Brunswick Heads on September 5 as concerned residents and community groups, CLAI Wallum, Friends of the Koala Inc, MPs and committee members of the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Historical Development Consents in NSW – aka ‘zombie’ developments met.


Zombie developments

A key part of the discussion is how to deal with legacy, or ‘zombie’ developments and their future impacts on flooding, fire and the environment. These are DAs that have been approved and have sat idle for years with only minimal work done in the first five years that then allows the DA to remain active indefinitely into the future. That is, they can be activated and developed under the original DA that does not have to take into account current legislation and learning, like the heights of the 2022 floods, and in the cases of Gales Holding in Kingscliff and Iron Gates in Evans Head they can fill floodplains and build on them with no reference to the impact these developments will have on existing and future housing, businesses and infrastructure.


This scourge on coastal communities along the entire NSW coast, has been very well documented in the report “Concreting our Coast: The developer onslaught destroying our coastal villages and environment” by Greens MP Cate Faehrmann,’ Kingscliff Ratepayers and Progress Association (KRPA) explained in a submission to the inquiry.


Following the meeting KRPA President Peter Newton told The Echo that: ‘Kingscliff and other areas of the Tweed Shire remain under threat from these historic approvals on the floodplain and in ecologically sensitive areas. The association welcomed the opportunity for a full and frank dialogue on the risks we are facing and the potential for planning reforms.’


Some recommendations from those attending the roundtable included potential buybacks or land swaps for these historically-approved DAs.


The financial cost of recovery to communities and governments is eye-watering,’ said KRPA in their submission.


We need to shift the emphasis from spending on flood recovery to spending on flood prevention and mitigation. This may require billions in, for example, compensation/land swaps to acquire such historically approved land from developers, but we need to start somewhere. Governments are spending billions on each flood event – this at least would be a one-off cost. This cost cannot be met by councils (and therefore ratepayers) and needs to be addressed at the state and federal government levels.’


Don’t use it, lose it

Stricter regulations around how long a DA can remain active were also put forward with president of the Evans Head Residents for Sustainable Development Incorporated (EHRSDI), Richard Gates, saying that ‘fixed use-by dates for commencement and completion of DAs’ need to be implemented....


Read the full article at:

https://www.echo.net.au/2024/09/what-can-be-done-about-dangerous-zombie-das/