PHOTO: The Block's contestants on auction day for the renovated Gatwick Hotel. (AAP: Nine Entertainment) |
Sunday 25 November 2018
I knew there was a reason why I don't watch Channel 9......
Never a fan of Channel 9 programming, this news report has turned my indifference to the existence of this television channel into active dislike.
ABC
News, 21
November 2018:
The lights, cameras and
crowds have finally cleared out of St Kilda following the auctions last month
at the Gatwick Private Hotel, a run-down three-storey rooming house that was
transformed into six multi-million-dollar apartments for this year's season of
the popular home renovation show, The Block.
But as the new owners
collect the keys and prepare to move in to their luxury lodgings, ABC News can
reveal an "alarming" number of women who used to live at the Gatwick
— a place of "last resort" for some of Melbourne's most vulnerable —
are currently in jail.
Channel Nine's purchase
of the 1930s mansion, which in its prime could house up to 120 people, was
welcomed last year by St Kilda residents who blamed the Fitzroy Street boarding
house — one of several to close in recent years as part of the area's
gentrification — for local problems with "rampant" drug-fuelled
violence and anti-social behaviour.
At the time, the local
council and state government worked with housing services in St Kilda to find
new accommodation, mostly outside the area, for its remaining occupants, who
were evicted in time for filming to commence.
But many of those
tenancies were unsustainable and fell through, homelessness support workers
say, and because of an acute lack of crisis accommodation across Melbourne,
dozens were dispersed onto the streets.
This includes at least
32 women who have since been charged and imprisoned for offences lawyers and
support workers say are directly related to their homelessness — an issue that
affects all genders but which leaves women particularly vulnerable.
Now, with the state
preparing to head to the polls after an election campaign dominated by debate
over law and order, advocates are calling on the government to urgently boost
funding for crisis accommodation and homelessness services to break a vicious
cycle that is causing the number of women in Victoria's prisons to soar.
One worker who runs a
program supporting under-privileged women in St Kilda told ABC News that, since
the beginning of 2018, 32 of her clients who were living on or off lease at The
Gatwick have since been incarcerated at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre,
Melbourne's maximum security women's prison.
Though 17 of those women
have been released in recent months, she said, 15 still remain, many of them on
remand.
"There is
absolutely no doubt that The Gatwick's closure has had an effect particularly
on women in the city of Port Phillip," said the worker, who asked not to
be named because she feared speaking out would jeopardise her organisation's
public funding arrangements.
"I'm not
necessarily saying that The Gatwick was the best place for people to live
because there were a lot of issues — there were some deaths there, there was
violence. But everybody needs a place to stay."
The majority of the
worker's clients in Dame Phyllis have been charged with drug-related offences
which are believed to be a result of their homelessness, she said. "Many
women with involvement in the justice system offend to fund their drug habit
and use substances to self-medicate," she said.
"Sleeping rough is
extremely unsafe for women so many use drugs to keep themselves awake at night,
which provides them with a false sense of security."
Forced homelessness is not confined to Victoria,
As the
Pacific Highway Upgrade works its way up the NSW North Coast there are reports
of people couch surfing after their landlords gave them notice in favour of
road worker tenants capable of paying higher rents.
Labels:
homelessness,
housing,
New South Wales
Saturday 24 November 2018
Tweets of the Week
Here’s the moment where the NSW Parliament voted tonight to introduce new laws to fast track children from foster care into adoption. As the Bill passed, you could hear loud jokes from Liberal members about wanting to “hurry up so we can get out of here and enjoy Christmas” pic.twitter.com/WW1p1bTbD1— Padraic Gibson (@paddygibson) November 22, 2018
“These reforms were sprung on the legal, community & Aboriginal sectors with no notice. What limited consultation occurred in 2017 made no mention of many of these reforms, & those that were raised were opposed by a majority of stakeholders,” Leach said” https://t.co/JIkJATdluz— Ray Wilton (@raywilton4) November 23, 2018
Quotes of the Week
“ScoMo’s blue bus is the perfect symbol of the man and his government –
a brash, ostentatious clichĂ©, non-functional and completely phoney.” [Journalist Mungo MacCallum writing in The
Monthly, November 2018]
“Australians often
over-estimate the proportion of the population that is Muslim, with Ipsos
surveys finding respondents believe it is 17 per cent when the reality is 3 per
cent.” [Journalist David
Crowe, writing in The
Sydney Morning Herald, 18 November 2018]
“Later, Fairfax Media went to another publicly-accessible area from where the Cutaway is audible. Mr Turnbull was heard to lament the Coalition was presently "not capable" of dealing with climate change as an issue, despite it being "a profound problem".” [Journalist Michael Koziol writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 November 2018]
“If
they're going to fine everyone who calls Scott Morrison a "fucking
muppet" this country will never be in debt again.” [Richard O’Brien, Twitter,
19 November 2018]
Labels:
climate change,
immigration,
Malcolm Turnbull,
Scott Morrison
Friday 23 November 2018
Water Wars 2018: water mining of the Alstonville aquifer suspended pending government review
BLOCKADE:
Around 100 people were there for the 'Stop water mining rally in Uki' on
Saturday 27 October, where residents stopped water trucks in the main street. Dave
Norris/The Northern Star
Echo
NetDaily, 20
November 2018:
Regional water minister
Niall Blair has requested an independent review into the impacts of the bottled
water industry on groundwater sources in the Northern Rivers.
And local councils have
been advised to suspend approving any new applications for water mining until
the report is complete in mid 2019.
The NSW chief scientist
& engineer will provide advice on the sustainable groundwater extraction
limits in the region, as well as advice on whether the current or proposed
groundwater monitoring bores are sufficient.
Minister Blair said the
NSW Government ‘recognises the pivotal role that water plays in regional
prosperity and long-term growth of communities’.
‘Local community members
and community leaders have made representations to me on behalf of their constituents
and we are taking action,’ he said.
‘I have asked the chief
scientist & engineer to investigate the sustainability of groundwater
extraction in the Northern Rivers for bottling purposes.
‘Water is a finite
resource and we are completing this review to make sure that water remains
available into the future in the Northern Rivers catchment for all purposes
including stock and domestic users and for groundwater dependent ecosystems,’
Mr Blair said.
Labels:
Northern Rivers,
people power,
water wars,
water mining
This was Australia’s faux prime minister Scott Morrison proudly pointing out that he had been fundraising at considerable taxpayer expense
This was
Australia’s faux prime minister Scott
Morrison proudly pointing out that he had been fundraising at considerable
taxpayer expense in order to fill the election campaign coffers of the the Liberal
Party of Australia.....
The Courier-Mail, 19 November 2018, p.6:
While he was on the
Queensland blitz early this month, Mr Morrison confirmed he attended
fundraisers. Many of the donations came from Rockhampton and the Sunshine
Coast.
“I’m meeting with
supporters all around Queensland and I don’t make any apologies for that,” he
said.
“We’re raising funds for
our campaign to make sure Bill Shorten never becomes prime minister in the
country.” Mr Morrison was the special guest at Liberal National Party
fundraising events in several regional towns.
Here is what
he was not boasting about this month……
Seven years before he
was sacked as managing director of Tourism Australia – amid serious concerns
about his management practices – Scott Morrison was the subject of criticism in
a New Zealand audit report examining his activities as head of NZ’s Office of
Tourism and Sport.
A 1999 New Zealand
Auditor General’s report challenged the future Australian prime minister’s
handling of an independent
review of the Office of Tourism and Sport (OTSp) where he was managing
director.
The OTSp was a
quasi-independent body offering policy advice to the New Zealand government and
experienced the loss of a number of board members and officials during Mr
Morrison’s tenure. He finally resigned from the job in 2000 a year ahead of his
contract schedule and returned to Australia….
During Mr Morrison’s
time at the helm of OTSp in the 1990s, New Zealand’s then Tourism Minister,
Murray McCully, praised his input and defended importing him for the job.
“Australia actually
happens to do a bit better than we do out of both tourism and sport,” Mr
McCully said at the time.
But the Auditor General
and the NZ Labour Opposition questioned his performance.
In New Zealand in 1999,
the Auditor General found Mr Morrison had launched a PriceWaterhouseCooper
review of OTSp which precluded contributions from senior staff and the board.
He had said the review
was independent of them, but it seems they were not aware of this.
“Mr Morrison’s
explanation came as a surprise not only to (the office’s CEO and board members)
but also to the Minister himself,” the report said.
“These people had
regarded the PWC report as the review referred to in the purchase agreement.”
The Auditor General’s
report said the board should have been told it had a duty, under the
review arrangements, to commission its own “independent” review.
“It seems that at no
point did Mr Morrison do so,” the Auditor General found.
In June 2000, the New
Zealand Herald quoted the Labour Opposition’s tourism and sport spokesman
Trevor Mallard as blaming Mr Morrison for problems with the OTSp and the
minister.
“And a key reason for
that was that it was run by Mr Morrison, an Australian who was seen as Mr
McCully’s ‘hard man’,” said the report.
“Australian standards of
public sector behaviour ‘are lower than ours,’,” added Mr Mallard.
He was quoted as saying:
“My experience with Australian politicians is that rules and ethics are not as
important to them as they are to New Zealanders.”
Mr Morrison did not
respond to the claims but was supported by the Tourism Minister as “highly
regarded”.
He had lifted the energy
levels and the competence levels substantially above those previously servicing
tourism and sport, said Mr McCully.
Australian Labor is
closely examining the Prime Minister’s career before he was elected to
Parliament in 2007 and the New Zealand experience could be raised.
His next job after New
Zealand was as NSW Liberal Party state director but was linked to the party’s
2003 election failure.
Mr Morrison became
Tourism Australia managing director in 2004 but left in 2006, again ahead of
schedule….
Ever since Scott
Morrison was sacked from his job as managing director of Tourism Australia in
2006, the reasons for his dismissal have been kept secret.
At the time and since,
public speculation has variously attributed the now prime minister’s removal to
a personality clash with his minister, a falling out over changes to the
organisation’s structure, and a dispute over the agency’s contentious “Where the
bloody hell are you?” campaign.
But an auditor-general’s
report completed 10 years ago, which has escaped public scrutiny until now,
reveals that in the period leading up to Morrison’s dismissal, his agency faced
a series of audits and a review of its contractual processes ordered by the
Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, amid serious concerns about its
governance.
The auditor-general’s
inquiry into Tourism Australia – which followed these reviews, and was
conducted after Morrison’s departure – reveals information was kept from the
board, procurement guidelines breached and private companies engaged on
contracts worth $184 million before paperwork was signed and without
appropriate value-for-money assessments.
THE AUDIT REPORT OMITS
THE NEXT EVENT IN THE CHRONOLOGY OF RELATIONS BETWEEN THE MINISTER AND TOURISM
AUSTRALIA – THAT BAILEY SACKED MORRISON THE SAME MONTH.
The Australian National
Audit Office (ANAO) report examines three major contracts that Tourism
Australia signed while Scott Morrison was managing director. It criticises
processes in all three cases but especially the contracts for global creative
development – advertising campaigns – and media placement services.
Ten years since the
audit, and 13 years since the contracts were signed, those two completed
contracts appear not to be listed on the government’s AusTender website, where
all contracts are required to be available for public viewing.
Searches, including by
AusTender staff, have failed to locate them on the site this week. Procurement
rules say they must be reported within 42 days of the contracts being entered.
The 2005 request-for-tender documents announcing the proposed contracts are
listed…..
The audit report
criticises extensively the agency’s processes for drafting, executing and
managing the contracts, the opaque accounting processes involved in aspects of
them and poor communication with the board and regional offices, including by
service providers. It details Tourism Australia’s failures at the time to
adhere to guidelines – the signing of a contract without incorporating
measurable performance indicators and non-existent risk assessments or
value-for-money analysis.
Tabled in parliament on
August 6, 2008, the report was one of more than 40 the Audit Office had
produced in the previous 12 months.
It escaped public
attention at least partly because it was not among the handful that
parliament’s joint committee on public accounts chose to examine further in its
role as chief audit scrutineer. At the time, the committee was chaired by then
Labor MP Sharon Grierson with then Liberal MP Petro Georgiou as her deputy.
When the report was
tabled, Morrison was a member of the public accounts committee, which was
tasked with considering it for review. He resigned from the committee six weeks
after the report was tabled and, it is understood, some months before the
committee formally considered it. The Saturday Paper does not suggest
Morrison influenced the audit’s treatment. Grierson says that as Tourism
Australia had accepted its three recommendations, and nobody on the committee
raised any issues, the report was not officially examined further – standard
procedure in dealing with the volume of audits each year.
The Saturday Paper lodged
detailed questions about the audit report with Morrison’s office but was told
he was not able to answer them in the time available.
Performance reviews of
the two key contracts between 2005 and 2007 – contained in the audit – revealed
Tourism Australia had failed to disclose to its own board that it had
underspent $3.9 million on one of the contracts in 2006-07.
It was found that in one
case invoices had been raised before the contract was signed and that in
another case the price paid in some areas of a contract was “more expensive
than the benchmark”.
The audit report does
not mention then tourism minister Fran Bailey’s sacking of Morrison in July
2006, nor any of the alleged preceding tension between them that has been the
subject of public speculation since.
But The Saturday
Paper understands the events and issues the audit report outlines played a
significant role in Morrison’s removal. Unconfirmed news reports have since
alleged that he received a payout of more than $300,000.
Asked to comment this
week on the report’s contents in relation to Morrison’s dismissal, Bailey would
only repeat the one comment she has made before: “I reiterate that it was a
unanimous decision to get rid of Mr Morrison by the board and the minister.”
She added: “I have
always treated confidential matters as confidential.”……
The
Guardian, 18
November 2018:The Morrison government has extended emergency three-month funding contracts to 16 more financial counselling, legal aid and charity groups to keep them open over the Christmas holiday period after it cut their funding with little warning.
The move was made
without fanfare, logged quietly on the Department of Social Services website on
Wednesday evening.
It comes as the social
services minister, Paul Fletcher, faces continued criticism for his
department’s decision to overhaul funding arrangements for key community
services groups in the lead-up to Christmas.
In some cases, barely
two months’ notice has been given to groups to prepare for dramatic cuts in the
new year – a time of year when thousands of Australian families have
traditionally needed more emergency assistance and financial counselling.
On Wednesday
evening, the Department of Social Services (DSS) released a document on its
website saying it would extend emergency three-month funding contracts –
covering the period 1 January 2019 to 31 March 2019 – to 16 organisations that
had lost their funding in the latest round of grants:
FMC
Relationship Services
EACH
Uniting
(Victoria and Tasmania) Limited
VincentCare
Victoria
Odyssey
House, Victoria
Mallee
Family Care Inc
Anglicare
SA Ltd
Centacare
Catholic Country SA Ltd
The
Trustee for The Salvation Army (NSW) Property Trust
Southern
Youth and Family Services Limited
Vietnamese
Community in Australia NSW Chapter Inc
The
Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (Q.)
C
Q Financial Counselling Association Inc.
Prisoners’
Legal Service Inc
Agencies
for South West Accommodation Inc.
CentreCare
Incorporated
Neither the government
nor the department has drawn attention to the funding extensions……
Thursday 22 November 2018
Update on attempt by water raiders from the Murray-Darling Basin to get NSW Government agreement to dam and divert water from the Clarence River system
The NSW Legislative Council Industry and Transport Committee Inquiry report would not go so far as to recommend damming and diverting water from the Clarence River catchment and, the Berejiklian Government would only go as far as "noting' the fallback position held by the water raiders from the Murray-Darling Basin.
NSW LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, Portfolio
Committee No. 5 – Industry and Transport Augmentation of water supply for rural
and regional New South Wales,
14 May 2018:
Recommendation 40
That the NSW Government
consider establishing a stormwater and/or flood harvesting pilot program for
flood mitigation in the Northern Rivers.
6.89 The committee heard
evidence from some inquiry participants that there may be potential benefits of
diverting the Clarence River to the west. These inquiry participants were of
the view that there is merit to any strategy that seeks to mitigate floods and
flood damage in the Clarence Valley and provide additional water for
agriculture in the Barwon region. The committee acknowledges that stakeholders
were divided on the issue of water diversion. However, some inquiry
participants held strong views against diverting waters from the Clarence River
to the west.
6.90 We also acknowledge the work of local
councils in undertaking repair work for public assets and infrastructure and
the strain that such labour has on council resources, finances and staff. The
committee acknowledges that stakeholders called for the National Disaster
Relief and Recovery Arrangements to undergo a review in order to compensate for
council resources and staff, the committee supports this idea and recommends
the NSW Government pursue this through the Council of Australian Governments.
Government Response - Water Augmentation, 14 November 2018:
Wednesday 21 November 2018
Ulmarra community puts a win on the board concerning Pacific Highway blackspot
The
Daily Examiner, January 2018: "Coffs/Clarence Local Area Command duty
officer Acting Inspector Darren Williams said the collision was between two
Queensland registered B Double trucks at 10.15pm Tuesday night when the
northbound heavy vehicle collided with the other heavy vehicle heading south
while attempting a left-hand bend near the beginning of the 50kmh speed zone."
|
Ulmarra is a picturesque Clarence Valley village which was established in 1857 and which served as a river port in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of its buildings are heritage-listed.
Unfortunately
for the folk who live there the busy Pacific Highway runs through one section
of this village and the lives of residents in that section are dominated by the
movement of heavy road transport vehicles – and will continue to be so since it was revealed that the Ulmarra Bypass (due for completion in 2020) will not remove B-Double trucks and 'semis' from what will then be the old Pacific Highway.
This year
the village successfully campaigned for an extension of the lowest speed limit and a speed camera to slow these big trucks down….
The Daily Examiner, 17 November 2018, p.4:
January 3
Two trucks collide on
the southern end of Ulmarra the night before. From a visit to where one of the
trucks has come to rest within metres of a home, it’s clear how lucky a young
family are to be alive. That afternoon, The Daily Examiner team
decides to launch the Let’s Not Wait campaign.
January 5
Ulmarra residents meet
with The Daily Examiner at the latest crash site to share years of
horror stories from living beside the Pacific Highway. The Daily Examiner Let’s
Not Wait campaign is officially launched.
January 10
Clarence MP Chris
Gulaptis comes out in support of Ulmarra residents and begins discussions with
the Minister for Roads and Maritime Services Melinda Pavey.
January 23
A front-page photo of
Ulmarra resident Ryan Brown holding up a speed radar gun gets the attention of
national media and the campaign is thrust into the national spotlight when
Channel Nine’s Today show visits the village.
January 26
Following increased media
attention, Mr Gulaptis and Roads and Maritime Services representatives meet
with Ulmarra residents to discuss long and short-term solutions.
January 30
A tirade of threats and
vulgarity is directed at Ulmarra residents through both online bullying and rogue
truck drivers intentionally sounding their horns while passing through the
village at night.
February 21
Coffs/Clarence Highway
Patrol increase their patrols in and around the township to keep driver
behaviour in check.
May 14
Clarence MP Chris Gulatpis
announces the extension of the 50km/h speed limit zones following a review
conducted by Roads and Maritime Services.
June 18
Another truck crashes at
the notorious black spot. This time the accident comes within metres of the
Brown family home and causes a power outage from Brushgrove, to Tucabia and
South Grafton.
June 19
Clarence candidate Steve
Cansdell calls on the NSW Government to do more to protect residents and
motorists at the notorious black spot.
June 22
More members of the
Clarence Valley community rally behind Ulmarra, including former ambulance
officer Wade Walker who calls out RMS for failing in their duty of care to the
Brown family.
July 23
Ulmarra resident John
Leask accuses RMS of gross negligence in its handling of the Ulmarra black spot
in a scathing email sent to various government officials.
Another collision occurs
the same day, with two cars and a truck involved, near the southern end. No one
is injured.
July 25
Coffs/Clarence Highway
Patrol stop another potential crash when they find a fatigued driver after
pulling over a southbound truck reported as swerving along the road.
August 17
Residents capture CCTV
footage of a truck driver deliberately sounding their horn while travelling
from one end of the village to the other and this reignites online debate over
who is to blame for the behaviour.
September 5
Two truck drivers are
caught by Highway Patrol, one for speeding, and the other for sounding their
horn for a sustained period of time.
October 5
The truck driver
captured on CCTV footage in August deliberately sounding the truck’s horn while
travelling from one end of the village to the other is identified and charged
by police.
November 16
The speed camera is
switched on by residents of the Ulmarra community.
Labels:
Clarence Valley,
Pacific Highway,
people power,
Ulmarra
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