If you live in a NSW rural/regional area or an outer metropolitan suburb with thick tree cover.....

Now is the time to make or update your bushfire survival plan.

Because the fires have come early this year and intermittant rainfall is unlikely to ease the threat for long.

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/rainfall/

Crikey.com.au, 16 August 2018:

NSW has declared its earliest total fire ban on record, with hundreds of South Coast residents forced to flee their homes amidst a massive blaze.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that fire crews battled at least 83 fires across the state, following stronger-than-expected winds, creating fire bans that beat the previous record by two weeks. Compounding problems was the fact that, according to The Daily Telegraph ($), two huge water bombers were not in action because they had not yet arrived from the US ahead of Australia’s summer season.

Weatherzone:

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
New South Wales

Fire Weather Warning for the Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven fire areas.

Issued at 10:37 am EST on Wednesday 15 August 2018.

Weather Situation

Warm, dry and windy conditions over southeast NSW today ahead of a cold front,
which will pass to the south of the state overnight.

For the rest of Wednesday 15 August:

Severe Fire Danger is forecast for the following fire areas:
Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven

The NSW Rural Fire Service advises you to:
- Action your Bushfire Survival Plan now.
- Monitor the fire and weather situation through your local radio station,
www.rfs.nsw.gov.au and www.bom.gov.au.
- Call 000 (Triple Zero) in an emergency.

The Rural Fire Service advises that if you are in an area of Severe Fire Danger:
- If you plan to leave finalise your options and leave early on the day
- Only stay if your home is well prepared and you can actively defend it
- Prepare for the emotional, mental and physical impact of defending your
property - if in doubt, leave.
For information on preparing for bushfires go to www.rfs.nsw.gov.au.

No further warnings will be issued for this event, but the situation will
continue to be monitored and further warnings issued if necessary.

For up-to-date information for your local area see NSW Rural Fire Service’s  Fire Danger Ratings and Total Fire Bans and Fires Near Me.

The words being uttered by many firefighters “what the hell is going on, it’s winter” footage of the #SaltAshFire as it moved towards the Tanilba Bay Golf Club on Saturday night by Dungog Rural Fire Brigade #NSWRFS pic.twitter.com/Kqw4CETANM

— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) August 20, 2018

Watch&Act: Old Glen Innes Rd Fire Buccarumbi (Clarence Valley) Strengthening winds across the fireground has seen fire activity increase. The fire is moving east towards Old Glen Innes Road. #NSWRFS https://t.co/3eIK7kkUj9 pic.twitter.com/tGL7QIN09i

— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) August 21, 2018

Financial Services Royal Commission delivers its Round 5 report

The royal commission that Liberal MP for Cook and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, along with the rest of his government, fought so hard to prevent delivers another damning report.....

Financial Review, 24 August 2018:

NAB and Commonwealth Bank have been lashed in a 200-pagedocument published by the Hayne royal commission that details thousands of breaches of the law including the Corporations Act, the Superannuation Industry Supervision (SIS) Act and the ASIC Act – some of which carry criminal penalties.

Counsel assisting the Hayne royal commission Michael Hodge QC has said it is open to the Commissioner to make these findings against the banks in a blockbuster closing statement published just before 7pm on Friday evening.

The two banks are not alone, with open findings also delivered against AMP for breaches of the Corporations Act and the SIS Act, against IOOF for breaches of the ASIC Act and the SIS Act, against Suncorp for breaches of the Corporations Act, the ASIC Act and the SIS Act, and against ANZ for breaches of the Corporations Act.

Open findings of law breaches have also been delivered in relation to case studies that were not heard in public with Westpac and AON Hewitt sized up for breaches of the Corporations Act.

NAB and Commonwealth Bank have been singled out, however, for repeated and systemic breaches of laws which included NAB's inability to notify ASIC of breaches of licence conditions under Sections 912D of the Corporations Act and CBA's 13,000-fold breach of the SIS Act.

NAB came in for a spectacular serve from counsel assisting the Hayne royal commission, who described the bank's negotiations with ASIC over the fees for no service scandal as "ethically unsound" as it tried to substitute services it promised to provide with services it did provide.

Mr Hodge also said the bank was engaged in unconscionable conduct over the charging of fees and its attempts to weasel out of repayments despite knowing the "fee should never have been charged to members and was not adequately disclosed".

NAB chief customer offer Andrew Hagger was singled out for his dealings with the regulator over the fees for no service scandal which counsel assisting said revealed "disrespect for the role of the regulator and a disregard for the gravity of the events".

Counsel assisting submitted that "no reasonable person would believe that NAB's communications with ASIC" over the matter that would see NAB on the hook for almost $90 millin in refunds were "open and transparent" - despite the bank's attempts to characterise its actions as just that.

In addition, the systems and controls the bank had to monitor the provision of advice were either not adequate, non-existent or ineffective according to the savage take-down……

Much of the bank's offending related to its inability to move more than 13,000 super fund members to low-fee MySuper accounts after January 1, 2014 - leaving them in higher-fee paying accounts instead. The bank's communications with members about the issue was described as misleading by counsel assisting, with the bank's witness accepting the description during the hearings.

CBA's platform operator Aventeos also was the subject of open findings for the charging of dead customers for financial advice, a practice counsel assisting said was in breach of Section 52 of the SIS Act.

The lengthy document will add even more fuel to the fire that has singed the for profit super sector following revelations they have charged customers more than $1 billion in fees they have never provided, including to dead customers, and then lied to regulators about it.

The prospect of criminal charges was first raised by Commissioner Hayne himself when he asked NAB's superannuation trustee Nicole Smith "Did you think yourself taking the money to which there as no entitlement raised a question of criminal law?"

Diversified financial services company AMP - which was excoriated for its dealings with the regulator in the second round of hearings - was exposed for an arrangement that saw its superannuation trustee contracting out services it was meant to undertake to other arms of the business.

During the hearings it was revealed the arrangement, which oversaw $100 billion in retirement savings spread over the accounts of 2.5 million members, meant AMP's trustee was unable to lookout for its members by stopping AMP from gouging account holders or looking for another service provider….

Read the full article here.

Luke Hartsuyker? Luke Hartsuyker? Think I recall that name

Luke Hartsuyker Image: Greater Springfield Daily Record

NSW National Party MP for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker is retiring at the next federal election.

He has been a member of the federal parliament since 2001 and is a clear example of a man rising to the level of his own political incompetence.

Hartsuyker has briefly held one ministerial and three assistant ministerial positions since entering parliament – the last ending in March this year:

Assistant Minister for Employment from 18.9.13 to 21.9.15 (2 years).

Minister for Vocational Education and Skills from 21.9.15 to 18.2.16 (less than 5 months).

Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister from 19.7.16 to 20.12.17 (17 months).

Assistant Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment from 20.12.17 to 5.3.18 (less than 3 months).

Hartsuyker was Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the House of Representatives from 18.9.13 to 18.2.16 (approximately 2 years & 4 months).

By  the time the next federal election rolls around Luke Hartsuyker will have been in the Australian Parliament for 17 years, yet the best his party could say of him when he announced his intention to resign was to list as his achievements work largely done by other politicians.

Never once to date has Hartsuyker crossed the floor to vote against a Howard, Abbott or Turnbull Government policy and vote directly for the interests of his NSW North Coast electorate.

I am sure there are parts of the Cowper electorate where his name barely registers with local residents and one has to suspect it won't take too many years before the only way he is remembered is as an obscure name on weathered building dedication plaques.

A Message To All Liberal Party Politicians In The Australian Parliament

https://youtu.be/m0ufUSVSyUc

Waiting for home care in Australia in 2018

There are now 108,000 older Australians on the waiting list for Home Care Packages.

On this list are individuals who have:

* not yet been approved for home care;

* been previously assessed and approved, but who have not yet been assigned a home care package; or

 * are receiving care at an interim level awaiting assignment of a home care package at their approved level.

Waiting time is calculated from the date of a home care package approval and this is not a an ideal situation, given package approval times range from est. 27 to 98 days and the time taken to approve high level home care packages is now than twelve months - with actual delivery dates occurring at least 12 months later on average.

Labor’s Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health issued a statement which pointed out that “With the waiting list growing by almost 4,000 older Australians in just three months, the 3,500 new home care packages a year committed in the Budget won’t come close to keeping pace with demand”.

With more than half the applications for permanent entry into residential aged care taking more than 3 and up to 8 months to be met, this is not going to be a go-to first option in any solution for this lengthy home care waiting list - even if enough older people could be persuaded to give up the last of their independnce and autonomy.

By June 2017 New South Wales had the largest number of persons on the home care waiting lis at 30,685.

Given the high number of residents over 60 years of age in regional areas like the the Northern Rivers, this waiting list gives pause for thought.

Then there is this side effect of the waiting list and home care start dates identified by Leading Age Care Services Australia (LAGSA):

Consumers with unmet needs and unspent funds

LASA has undertaken an extensive review of the disparity that exists in the current release of HCP assignments, noting that there are substantial numbers of consumers on HCPs with either unmet needs or unspent funds . This bimodal distribution of home care package assignments reflects a mismatch between consumer package assignment and a consumer’s current care needs. The mismatch appears to be a function of the extended lapse of time that exists between approval assessments and package assignments. Until this dynamic is sufficiently addressed by Government, LASA expects that providers will be faced with a unique set challenges in 2018 when providing care to HCP consumers. This is likely to increase the need for regular care plan reviews in the context of unmet needs and unspent funds. This dynamic could be considered more closely within the context of developing a single assessment workforce.

Thus far Australian Minister for Aged Care and Liberal MP for Hasluck  Ken Wyatt is offering no insight into federal government thinking on this issue.

Sources:

https://gen-agedcaredata.gov.au/Topics/Admissions-into-aged-care

https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-statistics/health-welfare-services/aged-care/overview

https://agedcare.health.gov.au/sites/g/files/net1426/f/documents/09_2017/assessor_fact_sheet_-_home_care_package_wait_times_v1.0_0.pdf

https://gen-agedcaredata.gov.au/Resources/Home-care-packages-program-data-report-2017

https://lasa.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/270218-Consumer-directed-care-in-home-care-packages.pdf

The American Resistance has many faces and this is just one of them……(23)

Image: C-Span US television network

Text of open letter to US President Donald J. Trump by William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, who was commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014. He oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Published in The Washington Post on 16 August 2018:

Dear Mr. President:

Former CIA Director John Brennan, whose security clearance you revoked Wednesday, is one of the finest public servants I have ever known. Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him.

Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency.

Like most Americans, I had hoped that when you became president, you would rise to the occasion and become the leader this great nation needs.

A good leader tries to embody the best qualities of his or her organization. A good leader sets the example for others to follow. A good leader always puts the welfare of others before himself or herself.

Your leadership, however, has shown little of these qualities. Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation.

If you think for a moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism, you are sadly mistaken. The criticism will continue until you become the leader we prayed you would be.

Who do we blame as matters go from bad to worse over the next eight months in Australia?

The country is being crippled by the effects of drought and basic food prices will soon begin to rise, while at the same time wages growth remains stagnant. Cost cutting by successive Coalition federal governments is impacting service delivery on everything from health and welfare through to national broadband connectivity.

The federal government is still a policy-free zone with regard to energy and climate change due to toxic infighting between members of the Liberal Party of Australia which, along with its coalition partner the National Party, has an ideological inability to drag itself into the 21st century to face the consequences of ongoing land degradation and water insecurity.

Australia now has a new prime minister, but this situation is unlikely to change as the hard right remains holding the reins of government.

The next federal election is still over eight months away. 

So who do we blame for the situation the country finds itself in between now and the election?

Take your pick.......

According to News.com.au this is the list of federal parliamentary members of the Liberal Party of Australia who voted to bring on the leadership spill of 24 August 2018:

1. Andrew Hastie

2. Tony Pasin

3. Craig Kelly

4. Michael Sukkar

5. Kevin Andrews

6. Tony Abbott

7. Ian Goodenough

8. Nicolle Flint

9. Peter Dutton

10. Jason Wood

11. Ross Vasta

12. Luke Howarth

13. Rick Wilson

14. Ted O’Brien

15. Zed Seselja

16 Greg Hunt

17 Steven Ciobo

18 Angus Taylor

19 Alan Tudge

20. Michael Keenan

21 Andrew Wallace

22 Scott Buchholz

23 Jim Molan

24 Slade Brockman

25 Dean Smith

26 Jane Hume

27 Mitch Fifield

28. John McVeigh

29. David Fawcett

30. Amanda Stoker

31. Jonathon Duniam

32. David Bushby

33. James Paterson

34 Eric Abetz

35. Concetta Fierravanti-Wells

36. James McGrath

37. Mathias Cormann

38. Michaelia Cash

39. Karen Andrews

40. Andrew Laming

41 Ben Morton

42. Sussan Ley

43. Warren Entsch