Male
Saturday 28 April 2018
Just because it is beautiful.....(36)
Red-winged parrot
Aprosmictus erythropterus
Male
Male
Native to northern Australia and New Guinea
The male is bright lime green with black back,deep blue rump & yellow tipped green tail
Female .has a smaller wing patch, dark green back and a paler rump
Photograph by David Marle
via @ParrotOfTheDay
Labels:
Australia,
birds,
flora and fauna
Quotes of the Week
“He’s nothing but a pre-Fitzgerald corruption inquiry Queensland
walloper” [An anonymous Liberal MP speaking of
Australian Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton, quoted in The
Saturday Paper by journalist Paul
Bongiorno, 21 April 2018]
“At the same time, returns to the AEC show that these same corporations paid a total of $21,733,192 in political donations to political parties with Westpac standing out with donations totalling of nearly $12 million during the 2014-15 financial year alone.“ [Campaigner Rosie Williams, in “What
can open data tell us about Australia’s major banks?”, 20 April 2018]
“The Liberals
complaining that ASIC is sleep is rich considering who administered the fucking
anaesthetic.” [Journalist Richard Chirgwin, Twitter,
23 April 2018]
Labels:
banks and bankers,
corruption,
right wing politics
Friday 27 April 2018
Nationals MP for Page Kevin Hogan jumps on the bandwagon now royal commission is revealing truths about Australian banking, finance and insurance sectors
There has been some 'emergency' repositioning occurring in Turnbull Government circles since Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry hearings began to reveal the extent of bad behaviour in the banking, finance and insurance sectors.
Former money market and bond trader with State Bank of NSW & Colonial State Bank,
Posting a video clip of what appears to be the one occasion he openly expressed disappointment with a bank during a committee hearing last year.
Even though Hogan
was on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics when it conducted
a 2016-17 inquiry into Australia’s four major banks and the Committee's recommendations clearly showed that the inquiry revealed serious deficiencies in bank practices, he has never been on his feet in
the House of Representatives calling the banks out for unethical behaviour or supporting a call for a royal commission.
He certainly never voted for the creation of such a royal commission in October 2016 or June 2017.
Perhaps
because the National Party of Australia has received over $1.15 million in
political donation from the banking, finance and insurance sectors since the 2012-13 financial year - and MPs probably expect more donations ahead of the forthcoming federal election?
The second
round of Royal Commission public hearings
is currently considering the conduct of financial services entities that provide financial advice to consumers, including the treatment of consumers, compliance with the law and community standards and expectations,and the sufficiency of the current legal and regulatory structure.
Mr. Hogan might allow himself to become a little more animated in his disapproval given some of the evidence involves the actions of independent financial advisers such as the jaw dropping example set out below,
But maybe not. There might be a smidgen of fellow feeling there, because Kevin Hogan just like the hapless Sam Henderson was also an independent superannuation consultant and before that had a regular financial segment on Sky News.
ABC
News, 24
April 2018:
A public servant was
impersonated while receiving financial advice from a high-profile financial
planner, the banking royal commission has heard.
Donna McKenna, who is a
Fair Work commissioner, told the inquiry she went to firm Henderson Maxwell
after seeing its chief executive Sam Henderson in the media.
Ms McKenna said if she
had followed the advice Mr Henderson gave her, she would have lost $500,000.
Mr Henderson followed Ms
McKenna in the witness stand.
The financial planner is
a regular media personality, with a show on Sky News Business channel and
articles published in the Australian Financial Review and Money Magazine.
Mr Henderson's appearance
before the commission did not get off to a good start, when it was revealed he
does not have a Master of Commerce degree, as stated in a 2016 financial
services guide from the firm.
The hearing was then
played a damning recording of a Henderson Maxwell employee impersonating Ms
McKenna in several phone calls to her super fund.
In the recordings, the
employee can be heard giving Ms McKenna's membership number and the State
Authorities Superannuation Scheme (SASS) representative refers to her as Donna….
he inquiry heard up to
six phone calls were made to the SASS super fund by Henderson Maxwell's
customer service officer.
Mr Henderson said the
information his employee had provided him about Ms McKenna's account was
inconsistent with the information given to him by Ms McKenna.
Mr Henderson refunded Ms
McKenna the nearly $5,000 in upfront advice fees she had paid.
The customer service
officer who impersonated Ms McKenna was not fired…..
Ms McKenna made a
complaint to the Financial Planning Association (FPA) about the quality of the
advice.
Despite complaining in
March last year, the complaint is still not finalised.
The inquiry heard Mr
Henderson responded to the complaint in a lengthy letter to the FPA, describing
Ms McKenna as "nitpicky" and her complaint as a "barrage of
aggressive and presumptive accusations".
In March this year, Mr
Henderson proposed a deal with the FPA that would see him admit to multiple
failings in the financial advice he provided to Ms McKenna and agree to
implement a number of changes at the firm.
The deal would have also
required the FPA to agree to not publish Mr Henderson's name in relation to the
proceedings.
The FPA wanted an
additional provision that would prevent Mr Henderson appearing in the media for
a year.
That proposal was not
acceptable to Mr Henderson and the complaint has not yet been formally resolved…..
President Donald J. Trump: We need to go after the reporters
"We need to go after the reporters.....They
spend a couple of days in jail, make a new friend, and they are ready to
talk" [US President Donald, J. Trump, 14 February 2017]
Finally, an indication of the lengths to which US President Donald J. Trump would go in order to find whistleblowers or silence journalists.
Two excerpts from former FBI Director James Comey's confidential memos supplied to the US Congress last week by the Department of Justice:
BACKGROUND
The New York Times, 7 July 2005, Judy Miller Goes To Jail
Labels:
Donald Trump,
Trump Regime,
US politics
Thursday 26 April 2018
Well hoorah, NBN Co is to roll out its inbuilt obsolescence across Yamba commencing in June 2018
It has been
reported in local media that NBN Co
will be commencing the Yamba rollout
of its allegedly high speed broadband in June 2018, with Maclean and Grafton rollouts
to commence in January 2019.
This news is
quite frankly underwhelming.
Whatever
information NBN Co was giving out obviously didn’t include the type of
connection that was on offer, as this important point was not mentioned by
journalists and there is contradictory information on the company's website.
These three urban
areas in the Clarence Valley are yet to hear if households and businesses are
being offered fibre-to-the-curb, fibre-to-the-node or fixed wireless.
Because it is
certain that the best option fibre-to-the-premises isn’t on offer to regional second cousins of the big metropolitan areas.
Personally I
will carefully refuse to look at any construction works taking place in Yamba
come June, July and August.
The sight of
all those water-filled trenches will be too depressing.
Who starts extensive
in-ground construction in winter at the low-lying, high water table mouth of a floodplain, I ask you?
* Image from Hakuri Sad Party
Everytime someone buys a bottle of water in Australia it has consequences for a community somewhere in the world
By November 2017 Tweed Shire's est. 93,458 residents faced a water security trifecta.
Floods in the first quarter of the year had affected water quality and local infrastructure, a tidal anomaly in August had caused saltwater to enter the Bray Park Weir, the following month Terranora Lagoon was contaminated by raw sewerage from the treatment plant and the walls of Clarrie Hall dam still needed raising to cope with urban water needs.
Water sustainability still remains an issue in 2018.
In this case it appears to be Black Mount Pty Ltd and Mt. Warning Spring Water Company's commercial water supply needs which are the main culprit.......
Echo
NetDaily, 13
April 2018:
A call for the halt of
water mining in the Tweed Valley has been made by NSW Greens MP and North
Coast spokesperson, Dawn Walker in state parliament this week and is
supported by the Tweed Water Alliance. Concerns over the
impact on underground water resources, alleged poor compliance with
extraction licenses and the damage caused by heavy vehicles have all been
raised.
‘Water is our most
precious resource and gigalitres of water beneath Tweed Valley are being sucked
up and bottled for commercial profit, leaving the community high and dry with
the impacts. Water mining licences are being handed out by the government without
adequate monitoring and in many cases, water meters haven’t even been
installed,’ said Ms Walker.
Water mining licences
are controlled by the state government while work on the property and
permission for truck movements are controlled by the local council.
‘We certainly support
the ban,’ said Jeremy Tager, spokesperson for the Tweed
water alliance
who believes the water extraction companies are ‘operating lawlessly’.
‘Extracting water is a
lose lose prospect for here and most other places. Water is taken away from
local users; it creates little or no employment as most of the operators are
water transporters. That means the trucks come in and get filled up and then
are taken away to be bottled elsewhere.
‘They only pay a a small
road contribution to drive these big trucks on rural roads that were never
designed for them.’
In December 2017 the
Tweed council voted to amend their LEP (local environment plan) 2014 to remove
the clause that the previous council had put in to allow water extraction for
bottling water in the Tweed shire. This has been sent to the state government
for approval as part of the Gateway process. If the state government decide
that the change can proceed then Tweed council will be able to put the LEP
amendment on public display.
The state government can
also request that a ‘savings clause’ be put in that would allow current
applications that are waring to be assessed to be allowed.
Echonetdaily asked
the state government what the time frame for responding to the Tweeds request
for removing the water mining clause from the LEP was and if they would request
the inclusion of a ‘savings clause’.
A spokesperson for the
department of planning and environment responded stating that; ‘The department
is currently in the early stages of assessing a proposal from Tweed Shire
council to remove the water extraction and bottling clause to the Tweed Shire
2014 LEP.
Local extractor takes
council to court
Larry Karlos, a local
water extractor, is currently taking the Tweed Council to the Land and
Environment court to appeal their decision not to allow them to increase the
size of the trucks they use to transport water from six meters to nineteen
meters.
‘The council refused the
application for 19m trucks because they felt that the road was no suitable for
that size truck,’ said Tweed Mayor Katie Milne.
‘Urlip Road is really
narrow and in some places it is only one lane. There are also areas where it is
very steep on one side and has a steep drop off on the other.
ABC
News, 21
March 2018:
It's the new battle in
the bush — the bottled water wars.
On one side is
Australia's $800-million-a-year bottled water industry and its suppliers, on
the other, rural residents who fear their most precious resource, groundwater,
is being squandered.
"It's dividing the
local community," said Larry Karlos, one of half a dozen water extractors
in the Tweed Valley in northern New South Wales.
He's been pumping water
from an aquifer beneath his property for 16 years.
But his recent bid to
increase the amount he sells to bottling companies has ignited local
opposition.
Fourth-generation farmer
Patrick O'Brien fears his children's future is being jeopardised for the profit
of the water industry.
"If they don't stop
this type of thing then, you know, what's going to be left?" he told 7.30.
“What's going to left
for future generations? No-one was really worried when they were trucking the
water out in small amounts, but then they want more, they want more trips, they
want bigger trucks."
Wednesday 25 April 2018
Did the Australian Bureau of Statistics spy on Telstra customers at one remove in 2016?
“…with
its near-complete coverage of the population, mobile device data is now seen as
a feasible way to estimate temporary populations” [Australian Bureau of Statistics Demographer Andrew
Howe, quoted in The
Australian Bureau of Statistics Tracked People By Their Mobile Device Data
at Medium, 23 April 2018]
Cryptoparty
founder. Amnesty Australia 'Humanitarian Media Award' recipient 2014
and activist Asher Wolf recently reported that in 2016 the Australian
Bureau of Statistics (ABS) without informing or seeking permission from
mobile phone users ran a secretive, publicly-funded tracking program via
signals emitted by the mobile phones of an unspecified number of people, in
order to find out where they travelled over the course of an unspecified number
of days and how long they stayed at each location.
A
presentation of the basic details of this pilot study was made by the ABS
researcher leading the pilot at a Spatial Information Day in
Adelaide on 11 August 2017.
A second
ABS researcher also made a presentation on the day.
Spatial
Information Day (which has the ABS as one of its sponsors) is
characterised by the organisers as
an annual educational and promotional event and was first held just on 18 years
ago.
The
Australian Bureau of Statistics was swift to reply to Asher Wolf's Medium article,
stating that it has only been supplied with hourly agregate data by the telco
(Telstra) which
did not identify individuals.
However, the aggregated data supplied to the ABS was at the second lowest SA2 Level and some of these statistcal areas have populations of well under 3,000 residents according to 2016 Census data. Which makes the task of matching names to some of the tracked population movements just that much easier for a demographer or determined hacker.
However, the aggregated data supplied to the ABS was at the second lowest SA2 Level and some of these statistcal areas have populations of well under 3,000 residents according to 2016 Census data. Which makes the task of matching names to some of the tracked population movements just that much easier for a demographer or determined hacker.
Given recent
less than transparent disclosures by data mining corporations concerning data
collection/retention practices, readers might forgive me for waiting to see if
the other shoe drops in this ABS-Telsta data mining and privacy matter.
One might say
that thanks to Ms. Wolf we are all being educated further about big data and
the ethics of data collection.
This is the
response Ms. Wolf received when she contacted privacy experts concerning the
pilot study:
“I
find this tracking of people using their telephone location data without their
knowledge and consent extremely concerning. The fact that the telecoms company
allowed this data to be handed to a third party, and then for that third party
to be a government agency compounds the breach of trust for the people whose
data was involved,” said Angela Daly, Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow
and Senior Lecturer in Queensland University of Technology’s Faculty of Law,
research associate in the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society and
Digital Rights Watch board member.
“After
the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal this is yet another example of why we
need much tougher restrictions on what companies and the government can do with
our data.”
Electronic
Frontiers Australia board member Justin Warren also pointed out that while
there are beneficial uses for this kind of information, “…the ABS should be
treading much more carefully than it is. The ABS damaged its reputation with
its bungled management of the 2016 Census, and with its failure to properly
consult with civil society about its decision to retain names and addresses.
Now we discover that the ABS is running secret tracking experiments on the
population?”
“Even
if the ABS’ motives are benign, this behaviour — making ethically dubious
decisions without consulting the public it is experimenting on — continues to
damage the once stellar reputation of the ABS.”
“This
kind of population tracking has a dark history. During World War II, the US Census
Bureau used this kind of tracking information to round up Japanese-Americans
for internment. Census data was used extensively by Nazi Germany to target
specific groups of people. The ABS should be acutely aware of these historical
abuses, and the current tensions within society that mirror those earlier, dark
days all too closely.”
“The
ABS must work much harder to ensure that it is conducting itself with the broad
support of the Australian populace. Sadly, it appears that the ABS increasingly
considers itself above the mundane concerns of those outside its ivory tower.
This arrogance must end.”
“For
us to continue to trust the ABS with our most intimate details, the ABS must
maintain society’s trust. Conducting experiments on citizens without seeming to
care about our approval or consent undermines that trust.”
International
privacy advocates also raised concerns about the study.
“Data
the companies, like telcos, collect inevitably becomes very attractive to
government agencies looking to track, monitor, and survey people. Like here,
users are rarely informed, let alone consent to these uses. The impact on
privacy rights is severe: location information (especially combined with other
sensitive data) can reveal startlingly detailed information about your life
(where you live, work), connections (who you talk to or visit), preferences
(what you buy and when), and health (doctors and pharmacies frequented),”
stated Amie Stepanovich, U.S. Policy Manager for digital rights organisation
Access Now.
Read
Asher Wolf’s full article at https://medium.com/@Asher_Wolf/the-australian-bureau-of-statistics-tracked-people-by-their-mobile-device-data-and-didnt-tell-them-16df094de31
Labels:
Australian Bureau of Statistics,
data mining,
ethics,
privacy,
safety
As the federal govenment burns are Turnbull and Co. just tinkering at the edges of banking and finance regulations or are they seriously committed to reform?
Way back in
October 2016 the Australian Securities
and Investments Commission (ASIC) began an Enforcement Review which examined the adequacy of legislation
dealing with corporations, financial services, credit and insurance, with
regard to serious contraventions in the financial sector, including fraud and
criminal activity.
0n 18
December 2017 ASIC handed its Enforcement
Review Report to the Turnbull Government.
It was
probably no accident that four days earlier the same government ceased its
sustained opposition to a highest level inquiry and created the Royal
Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial
Services Industry.
With the extent of bank money laundering becoming an issue and the review report on its doorstep there was nowhere else to turn, given the average voter would not have been receptive to the argument that the big banks were historically a protected species because of their generous political donations.
In April 2018 in the midst Royal Commission revelations concerning a host of bank and financial system abuses
the Turnbull Government finally released
its response to the ASIC review report.
This response "agrees" with or gives "in principle agreement" to all 50 recommendations but has placed 20 recommendations on the backburner.
Knowing that ASIC’s
investigative abilities has been crippled
by funding/staff cuts, that entities with annual profits in the
billions just seem to shrug off large corporate fines, often indemnify executives
in relation to individual fines and are able to play the legal system so that executives
rarely see the inside of a prison, on 20 April the Turnbull Government via the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services revealed
that by legislative amendments it will implement the potential for larger individual and corporate
fines and double potential maximum prison sentences:
The Turnbull Government
is strengthening criminal and civil penalties for corporate misconduct and
boosting the powers of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission
(ASIC) to protect Australian consumers from corporate and financial misconduct.
These stronger new
penalties will ensure that those who do the wrong thing will receive
appropriate punishment.
These reforms represent
the most significant increases to the maximum civil penalties, in some
instances, in more than twenty years. They bring Australia's penalties into
closer alignment with leading international jurisdictions, and ensure our
penalties are a credible deterrent to unacceptable misconduct.
The Government will
increase and harmonise penalties for the most serious criminal offences under
the Corporations Act to a maximum of:
For
individuals: (i) 10 years' imprisonment; and/or (ii) the larger of $945,000 OR
three times the benefits;
For
corporations: (i) the larger of $9.45 million OR (ii) three times benefits OR
10% of annual turnover.
The Government will
expand the range of contraventions subject to civil penalties, and also
increase the maximum civil penalty amounts that can be imposed by courts, to
the maximum of:
the
greater of $1.05 million (for individuals, from $200,000) and $10.5 million
(for corporations, from $1 million); or
three
times the benefit gained or loss avoided; or
10%
of the annual turnover (for corporations).
In addition, ASIC will
be able to seek additional remedies to strip wrongdoers of profits illegally
obtained, or losses avoided from contraventions resulting in civil penalty
proceedings.
ASIC's powers will also
be significantly increased through:
expanding
their ability to ban individuals from performing any role in a financial
services company where they are found to be unfit, improper, or incompetent;
strengthening
their power to refuse, revoke or cancel financial services and credit licences
where the licensee is not fit or proper; and
boosting
ASIC's tools to investigate and prosecute serious offences by harmonising their
search warrant powers to provide them with greater flexibility to use seized
materials, and granting ASIC access to telecommunications intercept material.
The Turnbull Government
is committed to ensuring ASIC is armed with greater powers to effectively
deter, prosecute, and punish those who do the wrong thing, to improve community
confidence and outcomes for consumers and investors in the financial services
and corporate sector.
These reforms come on
top of strong Government action to reform our financial services sector to
better protect Australian consumers over a number of years.
The Government has
already provided $127 million in additional funding to ASIC to bolster its
investigative and surveillance capabilities; implemented an industry funding
model for ASIC to give it secure funding; appointed a new chairman for ASIC, Mr
James Shipton, and announced a new second Deputy Commissioner with an
enforcement focus, Mr Daniel Crennan QC; established a new standards setting
body for financial advisers; and established a new one stop shop for consumer
complaints which is free for consumers, binding on financial institutions and
can order compensation where appropriate.
Today's reforms to
ASIC's powers and penalties follow recommendations made by the ASIC Enforcement
Review Taskforce (The Taskforce). The Taskforce was established in October 2016
to fulfil the Government's commitment to review the adequacy of ASIC's
enforcement regime in response to the Murray Financial System Inquiry, and
provided its report to Government in December 2017.
The Government has
agreed, or agreed in principle, to all 50 of the Taskforce recommendations and
will prioritise the implementation of 30 of the recommendations.
The remaining 20
recommendations relate to self-reporting of breaches, industry codes and ASIC's
directions powers, which will be considered alongside the final report of the
Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial
Services Industry.
The Government thanks
all the members of the Taskforce, including the Panel of Experts, Treasury,
ASIC, Attorney-General's Department, Commonwealth Director of Public
Prosecutions, as well as all stakeholders who participated in the consultation
of the various position papers put forward by the Taskforce.
The Government's full
response to the Taskforce Report can be found on the Treasury website.
Labels:
banks and bankers,
corruption,
financial advice,
fraud,
royal commission
Tuesday 24 April 2018
Repeat after me: Australia is a low-taxing country, a low-taxing country.....
“Australia
is a low-taxing country. While tax debate in Australia tends to focus on tax
rates, with endless comparisons of different countries’ rates of different
taxes, these debates ignore the fact that Australia raises far less tax revenue
than most developed countries.
This is
not a problem in itself. There is no right or wrong level of taxation. However,
the level of tax revenue raised inevitably affects governments’ ability to fund
essential services such as health, education, social security, defence and
infrastructure. Polling consistently shows that the Australian public would
prefer higher levels of spending on public services than lower tax collection.” [The Australia Institute, 17 April 2018]
So Prime Minister Turnbull and Treasurer Morrison will ignore polls like this one, because the only voters with influence are found in the ranks of political donors, big business and industry.
The Australia Institute, 18 April 2018:
Small government has
small support - National poll
A large national poll of
1,557 Australians, released today by think tank The Australia Institute, has
shown 64% of people want more public spending funded by tax revenue. Just 11%
want lower taxes and less public spending.
*
Two-thirds (64%) said they would prefer more public spending, funded by more
tax
revenue, and less inequality.
* Only 11% said they
wanted lower public spending, lower tax and more inequality.
* A majority of voters
for all parties selected the more spending and more tax option:
*
56% of both PHON voters and Other voters;
*
60% of LNP voters;
*
71% of ALP voters;
* 75% of Green
voters.Polling Brief - April 2018 - more or less spending tax inequality.pdf
P521 Australia a low tax country.pdf
Centrelink sends in the debt collectors.....
Forget establishing that an actual debt exists – this is 2018 and come hell or high water the Turnbull Government wants to use Centrelink to prop up its financial bottom line in time for the May 2018 budget papers.
To that end Centrelink management has increased the number of alleged debts referred to contracted private debt collectors working on commission.
On 12 April 2017 The Guardian reported that: Centrelink has used private debt collectors to pursue 43% of the debts raised by its controversial “robo-debt” system, a rate vastly higher than normal.
By the end of the 2016-17 financial year Services Australia/Centrelink had raised 2,384,91 welfare recipient debts with a calculated worth of $2.8 billion, of which $1.64 billion is said to have been recovered - an est. $126,100,000 to $126,280,000 by private debt collectors.
BACKGROUND
The Canberra Times, 9 June 2017:
Centrelink's controversial robo-debt program has been blamed for a huge surge in legal challenges by people facing the welfare agency's demands for money.
Centrelink debt cases at the federal appeals tribunal have soared by more than 50 per cent since mid-2016 and The Greens have laid the blame for the surge, which might take years to work its way through the system, squarely at the feet of robo-debt.
My office has worked tirelessly to assist scores of people who received incorrect Centrelink debt notices. In one case someone received a notice demanding $12,377.93 before we challenged the debt on their behalf & Centrelink conceded that they didn’t owe a single cent (1/2)— Peter Khalil MP (@PeterKhalilMP) February 20, 2018
My daughter got a debt FBT debt, she had no idea about until ATO took it out of her tax— DameJenntheAmazing Research Fellow of Smartarsery (@Jenn1964Hussey) February 21, 2018
She contacted her local MP for help
She got her money back plus an extra 1k due to same errors #robodebt @AustralianLabor please reinstate Social Security where we help not hinder vunerable
After a surprise call from @Centrelink alleging 10k of decade old debt and requesting bank statements dating back to 2008, @Centrelink have the gall to say I’m asking for “too much information” to see written proof of said debt. #notmydebt @not_my_debt Sorry WHAT?!— cam (@cam06056055) April 19, 2018
Update for 10yr old 10k robodebt. Have received NOTHING in writing @Centrelink. Got multiple calls requesting bank info from 10 yrs ago that ANZ can’t provide. 2day I was threatened with final call asking for these unattainable docs before the “algorithm” is applied @not_my_debt— cam (@cam06056055) April 20, 2018
For more examples go to
https://twitter.com/not_my_debt
or
https://www.notmydebt.com.au/stories/notmydebt-stories
Labels:
Centrelink,
government fraud,
robodebt
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