Morrison Government determined to turn Clean Energy Finance Corporation into a slush fund for the benefit of its fossil fuel industry mates?

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) was established in 2012 to facilitate increased flows of finance into the clean energy sector.

It has been provided with access to $10 billion in capital and

invests directly and indirectly, in clean energy technologies.

These clean energy technologies include: energy efficiency technologies; low emission technologies; and renewable energy technologies.

As of 30 June 2020 CEFC had investment commitments (deployed and contractually committed capital) of $5.95 billion.

The uncommitted $4.05 billion is firmly in the sights of the Morrison Government who would like to see this money go to its major donors in the fossil fuel reliant energy industries.

Commencing with carving our an initial $1 billion to to establish a Grid Reliability Fund to support the largely privatised, heavily coal-reliant, electricity supply corporations.

Clean Energy Finance Corporation Amendment (Grid Reliability Fund) Bill 2020 is back before the House of Representatives today.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 February 2021:

Federal Labor remains opposed to a proposed overhaul of Australia's clean energy fund rules aimed at fuelling investment in gas power plants and grid infrastructure despite a shake-up in its approach to climate policy.

The Morrison government's plans to change laws that stop the Clean Energy Finance Corp from investing in conventional fossil fuels and remove a rule that prevents it from investing in loss-making projects will be debated in Federal Parliament today.

The proposed changes will apply to the taxpayer-funded green bank's $1 billion Grid Reliability Fund, making it responsible for an underwriting scheme to encourage private companies to build new power supply.

New climate and energy spokesman Chris Bowen said Labor would only support the changes it if is successful in amending the legislation, including rejecting the proposed definition of gas as a low-emissions energy source.

"Labor created the CEFC and has consistently protected its integrity," Mr Bowen said yesterday, after he last week replaced Mark Butler after seven years in the portfolio.

"We'll be putting forward sensible amendments to ensure the CEFC won't be turned into a slush fund, and can only invest in economically viable, clean energy projects.

"If the government is able to move past its paralysing internal climate wars and accept these amendments, we will support the bill."….

The CEFC was created in 2012 under a deal between Labor, the Greens and independents with a mandate to invest in renewable energy, low-emissions technology and energy-efficiency projects that would deliver a return. 

Institute of Public Affairs produces yet another dodgy study

 

Pearls and Irritations - Public Policy Journal, 30 January 2021:

The Institute of Public Affairs has scored an epic “own-goal” by calling out the slide in quality of life. A new report by the Liberal Party think tank identifies the drop in home ownership, high incarceration rates, the low level of skills training and debt as the main culprits but declining living standards are a direct result of Liberal Party policies.

It was to much fanfare (at least in some areas) that the Institute of Public Affairs announced the hiring of Tony Abbott to “lead a new movement to defend and revive traditional Australian values”. Such a movement was deemed necessary by the release of the IPA’s report titled “The Fair Go – Going, Gone: The Decline of the Australian Way of Life, 2000 to 2020”. The report and The Australian’s accompanying editorial lamented the “collapse of living standards over the past two decades”.

However, the “collapse of living standards” is the culmination of near two-decades of policy driven by the Coalition and the Institute of Public Affairs and with The Australian as cheer-leaders in chief.

The authors analysed 25 aspects of Australian life that they believe give a representative account of the quality of life of individual Australians, across five major categories: home, work, enterprise, governance and lifestyle. Each measure is tracked across the past two decades in comparison to 2000 standards.

According to the report, major contributors to the fall in living standards include housing affordability, household debt, government debt, underutilisation rate, vocational training, and the incarceration rate.

All part of the Coalition’s plan

But such falls in living standards are all part of the Coalition’s plan. The under-utilisation rate has been driven up, and the vocational training rate down by, in particular, the deregulation of Vocational Education and Training (VET) and TAFE: apprenticeships have fallen from 446,000 in 2012 to 259,000 today……

Housing is less affordable than ever, as the government steadfastly refuses to make key policy changes such as ending negative gearing, introducing the long-promised money-laundering reforms and increasing the capital gains tax…..

Meanwhile, the increasingly punitive justice system of recent years drives the incarceration rate ever higher. In 2018 a Victorian Liberals backbencher even criticised his own party’s “law and order” campaign, warning about the dangers of populist tough-on-crime policies.

Not to mention reductions to penalty rates, and further attempts to strip rights from casual workers through the proposed industrial relations reform, which further contribute further to household debt…..

The report can in fact be summarised as a damning indictment of Coalition policy over the past two decades…...

The report was co-authored by Research Fellows Cian Hussey, Kurt Wallace, and Andrew Bushnell, and Director of Research Daniel Wild.

In research, the title “Fellow” is typically bestowed on employees of university who 1) have a PhD and 2) have a job at the university. None of the four researchers meets the first criteria; the highest degree among them is a Masters, awarded to Bushnell. The highest degree conferred on the Director of Research Daniel Wild, according to the IPA website, is an honours.

Consider the career track for a researcher in academia. It would involve first completing an undergraduate degree, then an honours degree, often followed by a stretch as a research assistant, then applications to PhD programs – which are ever more competitive as government funding falls ever lower. Then comes three years of formal research training completing said PhD, followed by a gruelling search for a job. When successful, only then might one term themselves a “Research Fellow”.

The irony is apparently lost on the Institute of Public Affairs that the Coalition has been the party in government for 14 of the past 20 years during which there has been this “collapse in living standards”.

On this report’s own measures, it makes the IPA’s decision to hire Tony Abbott a strange choice to herald a new movement for “saving the Australian way of life”. 

Read the full article here.

Clarence Valley Council community consultation concerning implementation of policy concerning unauthorised memorials on public land - submissions accepted until 4pm on 12 February 2021

Clarence Valley Council, Public Exhibitions, retrieved 31 January 2021:

Draft Memorials and Plaques on Public Land Policy

The purpose of this policy is to provide a framework for the installation of all memorials and plaques on public lands.

The draft Memorials and Plaques on Public Land Policy was considered at the 15 December meeting of Council, where it was resolved to place it on public exhibition for community comment.

Memorials and plaques to commemorate the life of a family member may not have any significance to the broader community. However, the appearance of such memorials and plaques may also be offensive to other members of the community and can have the effect of creating a cemetery appearance on public land. Council has powers pursuant to the Local Government Act 1993 to regulate the use of its public lands.

The purpose of this policy is to provide a framework for the installation of memorials and plaques on public lands.

Objectives in relation to memorials and plaques on public land are to:

• minimise the occurrence of memorials and plaques;

• restrict memorials and plaques to persons, associations or events of outstanding significance to a place; and

• minimise any perceived public risks and environmental impacts of memorials and plaques.

In order to ensure that this policy meets the needs of the whole community we are seeking your feedback on this matter.

To make a submission, click on the ‘Make a Submission’ button below.

You can also send formal submission by mail to the General Manager, Clarence Valley Council, Locked Bag 23, Grafton, NSW 2460, clearly marked “Draft Memorials & Plaques on Public Land Policy"

Submissions close 4.00pm Friday 12 February 2021.

• https://www.clarence.nsw.gov.au/cp_themes/metro/make-a-submission.asp

 

Australian Prime Minister can't stop people speaking out on the matter of the annual anniversary of the invasion of Australia

One of the reasons why Prime Minister Scott Morrison will fail in his bid to deny Australia's colonial history.......

The Daily Telegraph, 28 January 2021:

Hayley Talbot has long been recognised as a leader, an innovator, and a person with a drive to create positive change within the Clarence Valley.

In the past year, among a myriad of projects she helped drive a revitalisation of koala habitat devastated by bushfire with a program that planted 5000 trees and empowered many in the community who had lost their jobs due to COVID-19.

Along with her team, she also hosts a safe space for young women through her Blanc Space business in Yamba, where they provide an atmosphere to create, learn and converse openly.

It was for these works she was this week awarded the Clarence Valley’s Citizen of the Year.

While Ms Talbot said she was grateful to be honoured, she made the brave decision to use the opportunity to express what she described as an incongruous meeting of both celebration and mourning on Australia Day.

“... in good conscience I have to say, we should be doing this on another day. Ms Talbot said the decision to speak her mind and to receive the award was one she deliberated over, and admitted nerves beforehand, having heard the crowd boo 2019 Citizen of the Year Susan Howland for expressing her views at the ceremony.

“I was concerned at that, but I thought that if I didn’t accept the nomination, and didn’t show up, I would lose the opportunity to speak that truth and add to the conversation that needs to be leading the discourse on Australia Day,” she said.

“I know that conversations were catalysed among new hearts and minds, that was my goal, and I consider that a vindication of my decision to attend the ceremony and accept the award.” Ms Talbot told the hard truths of our history, including the atrocities perpetrated on the banks of the Clarence, and urged the crowd to consider the voices of those most hurt by the day.

“I can’t stand here today wholly with joy in my heart knowing that the neighbours I’m called to love are shattered apart by a day that’s considered a day of mourning by many Aboriginal people,” she said.

“I can’t stand here another white woman in a room of mostly white people pretending that in 2021 we’re all equal when we are governed by a system that still says we’re not.

“There’s a ‘ray’ in Australia, and there’s an us too, but only if we’re brave enough to tell the full story. Even though a date change can’t change it can we at least try?” 

For what it's worth, the first Newspoll of 2021

 

via @Leroy_Lynch

This 27-30 January 2021 Newspoll online survey is based on the answers of 1,512 respondents.

To date only around $120 million in JobKeeper payments appears to have been clawed back from ineligible business and sole trader claimants

 

On 30 March 2020 the Morrison Government announced it would provide a wage subsidy to around 6 million workers who would receive a flat payment of $1,500 per fortnight through their employer, before tax.

The $130 billion JobKeeper payment was expected to help keep Australians in jobs as they tackled the significant economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. The payment was open to eligible businesses that receive a significant financial hit caused by the pandemic and provided the equivalent of around 70 per cent of the national median wage commencing in early May 2020 with payments backdated to 31 March.

The first indication that employers were not going to abide by the rules came in April:

By 21 May 2020 media reports began to reveal that a number of employers had been quick to rort the JobKeeper system.

In June 2020 mention began to be made of ‘pop up’ businesses receiving JobKeeper payments even though these businesses were not created until after the wage subsidy scheme was announced.

By 28 August 2020 more than 15,000 businesses have been removed from the scheme after the Australian Tax Office found them to be ineligible.

In that same month it was revealed that at least 25 companies in the ASX 300 had been paying bonuses worth $24 million to executives and millions more in dividends to shareholders after claiming JobKeeper payments.

Come January 2021 and the Australian Taxation Office is still playing catchup with fraud discovered in the wage subsidy scheme and continues in its attempt to retrieve the hundreds of millions in wage subsidy payments it believes have been paid out in fraudulent employer and sole trader claims.

ABC News, 29 January 2021:

Dodgy employers have signed up jailed criminals, people living outside Australia and even the dead to receive $1,500-a-fortnight JobKeeper payments.

These fictitious employees are among thousands of people being pursued by an Australian Taxation Office (ATO) investigation into rorts of the $130 billion wage subsidy program.

"Client is in jail" is one of the categories being scrutinised as a red flag in around 6,000 cases where employers may have created fictitious employees to take advantage of the JobKeeper scheme, hurriedly launched at the end of March last year to keep the economy afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

Documents obtained using a freedom of information (FOI) application show that, by the end of September, the ATO was investigating 5,974 cases of "inflated employees" in applications for the wage subsidy.

"The reality is you cannot check every application," said lawyer and corporate investigator Niall Coburn.

"So certain things may have been overlooked, but that doesn't stop the Government from now being able to go back and look at the applications in more detail, and that's what seems to be the case here."

Paying the dead

By the end of September, the ATO had 5,974 cases under investigation, with almost a third found to be ineligible. The majority were ineligible because they "involve employers applying under the wrong ABN (business number)".

It noted there "have also been instances of putting spouses 'on the books'," as well as people overseas ("has a valid visa but … out of the country").

A further category of fictious employees were the dead. "Employee in their JobKeeper application that is deceased," the report observed…..

Fraud prevention efforts

In July, the ATO told ABC News 3,000 staff would be doing ongoing reviews of JobKeeper applications.

"At any particular time, we are reviewing between 2 and 3 per cent of JobKeeper applications," an ATO spokeswoman said.

"We will identify those who are intentionally defrauding the system and we will use the full force of the law [to punish them]."

More than 6,500 applications were rejected for a range of reasons, from people making genuine errors to fraudulent behaviour.

In December, the ABC revealed the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) was pursuing criminal investigations into fraud and had issued fines to program applicants who had made false or misleading statements.

BACKGROUND

ABC News, 9 December 2020:

The Australian Taxation Office has 19 active criminal investigations into fraud against the $101 billion JobKeeper scheme.

It has also issued fines to another 19 applicants to the wage subsidy program who have made false or misleading statements, and is considering penalties for another 24.

Since JobKeeper was launched in March, the ATO has clawed back $120 million in payments to applicants who made it into the system but were later found to be ineligible.

"While most businesses and employees are doing the right thing, we have identified concerning and fraudulent behaviour and claims by a small number of organisations and employees," the ATO said in a statement.

The agency declined to comment on whether the criminal investigations relate to employers or employees and would not provide details about any of the businesses involved or when the investigations began.

However, ABC Investigations understands employers and individual workers are being investigated over fraud and abuse of the scheme.

Applicants could face a prison sentence or fines if found guilty of defrauding the scheme……

The fraud investigation revelations come as the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) considers its own probe into the scheme.

According to its website, the ANAO has flagged JobKeeper for a potential audit next year that would include an "examination of the implementation of integrity measures designed to protect the scheme against fraud and other abuse."

The ATO fraud hotline has received more than 10,000 tip-offs about fraud against JobKeeper, including claims that some employers have not been passing on the full subsidy to their employees.

ABC Investigations has also spoken to workers concerned that their employers may have artificially suppressed their revenue in order to qualify for the scheme, for example by delaying invoicing customers or removing popular items from sale in retail stores.

The ATO says it has initiated 14 of the fraud investigations using its powers under the Taxation Administration Act and has referred a further five cases to the Australian Federal Police's Serious Financial Crimes Taskforce.

Smart Company, 10 December 2021:

A marketing company has been made to repay $22,500 in JobKepeer funding, after the Australian Taxation Office received a tip-off the business was misusing the stimulus payments.

The ATO said the tip-off alleged the marketing company had incorrectly claimed JobKeeper for its employees, which came to a total of $12,000 per month.

The ATO’s investigation found two of the company’s four employees were ineligible for JobKeeper, because one was on work experience and not receiving any wages, and the other was hired after March 1, 2020.

The two remaining employees were eligible for JobKeeper, however, the ATO said their employer did not pay them the full $1,500 per fortnight in some periods.

“We determined that it was not an honest mistake and required the employer to repay $22,500,” the ATO said.

The ATO says it is closely tracking the misuse of pandemic support.

The global COVID-19 pandemic appears to be increasing food insecurity & child hunger - even in OECD countries

 

Across the globe widespread food insecurity is a millennia-old enduring problem. It was said to affect an estimated 800 million people worldwide by 2001, with malnutrition in small children being a significant factor.

Action Against Hunger defines hunger thus:

• Hunger is the distress associated with lack of food. The threshold for food deprivation, or undernourishment, is fewer than 1,800 calories per day.

• Undernutrition goes beyond calories to signify deficiencies in energy, protein, and/or essential vitamins and minerals.

• Malnutrition refers more broadly to both undernutrition and overnutrition (problems with unbalanced diets).

• Food security relates to food availability, access, and utilization. When a person always has adequate availability and access to enough safe and nutritious food to maintain an active and healthy life, they are considered food secure.

By December 2020 UNICEF was warning that millions of children in crisis hotspots were ‘on the brink of famine’, highlighting the need of 10.4 million children in Democratic Republic of the Congo, northeast Nigeria, the Central Sahel, South Sudan and Yemen wiho are expectedb to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021.

The African continent and Middle East are extreme examples of the world’s failure to equitably distribute food in times of crisis.

The Global Hunger Index 2020 indicates 33 counties experiencing alarming to serious levels of hunger in their populations and another 26 countries having moderate levels of hunger.

However, although the Index shows that by comparison OECD countries were the least affected by hunger, the COVID-19 global pandemic is increasing hunger, including child hunger, in these countries.

By way of example…………..

According to CNBC Make It in December 2020:

Millions of Americans are facing hunger as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic — and many of those are children. An estimated 17 million children could go without enough to eat this year, according to Feeding America, a leading national nonprofit food bank network.

Nearly 12% of Americans, or 25.7 million people, reported not having enough to eat over the past week, according to the latest Household Pulse Survey released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Dec. 2. Nearly 14 million households with children report they sometimes or often do not have enough to eat.

In June 2020 iPolitics reported:

One in seven Canadians lived in a household where there was food insecurity in April and those living with children are more likely to be impacted from food insecurity resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study from Statistics Canada.

The survey, which was part of the Canadian Perspectives Survey Series (CPSS), collected data from May 4 to 10 from 4,600 respondents in all 10 provinces. Of the participants, 14.6 per cent indicated that they lived in a household where there was food insecurity in the past 30 days.

The survey was based on a scale of six “food experiences” ranging from food not lasting until there was money to buy more, to going hungry because there was not enough money for food. Most Canadians reported only one negative experience, but 2 per cent reported the most severe food insecurity, with five or all six experiences reported.

Canadians who were employed during the week of April 26th to May 2nd, but absent from work due to business closures, layoffs, or other personal reasons related COVID-19, were more likely to be food insecure (28.4 per cent), compared to who were working during that period (10.7 per cent). The rate of food insecurity for those who were not employed during the reference week was in between these two, at 16.8 per cent.

The Guardian also reported in September 2020:

New data from the Food Foundation [UK charity] shared exclusively with the Observer has revealed that almost a fifth of households with children have been unable to access enough food in the past five weeks, with meals being skipped and children not getting enough to eat as already vulnerable families battle isolation and a loss of income…...

A reported 30% of lone parents and 46% of parents with a disabled child are facing food insecurity and finding it difficult to manage basic nutritional needs at home. With schools no longer providing a reprieve for children reliant on free breakfast clubs and school lunches, poorer families are at crisis point…..

The Borgen Project, September 2020:

Food insecurity, fortunately, has reduced to about 10% of New Zealanders in 2019. But with the outbreak of COVID-19, the Auckland City Mission estimated that that number had rocketed to 20%. Between citizens losing jobs, panic-buying at grocery stores and other factors, the pandemic is threatening more widespread food insecurity in New Zealand. Emergency food assistance services have seen large spikes in demand. Additionally, many essential workers may be working full-time but are still not making enough to put food on the table….

Food insecurity in New Zealand remains an important problem. In the face of the COVID-19 outbreak, these problems are becoming harder to ignore. Recently, CPAG released a paper about its ideas to solve food insecurity for New Zealand’s youth, including food programs in schools. It showed that with awareness and advocacy, people can begin to find solutions to these problems. In fact, the 2020 budget plans to expand an existing school lunch program to ensure that by the end of 2021, 200,000 students will receive a healthy lunch every day at school, up from the 8,000 currently receiving aid from the program. This sort of increase is a promising step to reducing the amount of food insecurity for New Zealand’s children.

Additionally, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Auckland City Mission has gone from supporting 450 families to over 1,200 and expect that number to stay high throughout the winter. Thanks to the 2020 New Zealand budget, Auckland City Mission will be able to continue helping those in need.

It is an unprecedented time for food insecurity in New Zealand, especially on top of existing challenges lower-income families have been facing. However, with help from the government and organizations like Auckland City Mission, the country is beginning to put more focus on providing food to those who need it most.

In late 2020 Food Bank Autralia released its Food Bank Hunger Report 2020 which revealed that:

While COVID-19 has made life even more difficult for already-vulnerable Australians, it has launched others into food insecurity for the first time. Almost a third of Australians experiencing food insecurity in 2020

(28%) had never experienced it before COVID-19.

Charities have seen two newly food insecure groups emerging as a result of the pandemic: the casual workforce and international students…..

Government assistance such as JobKeeper and JobSeeker, has been a means of survival for businesses and individuals. For the most vulnerable people in our communities, however, even with these lifelines, it has been anything but smooth sailing. Of those who are in

need of government assistance, only 38% suggest this assistance has helped their situation, whereas 62% are not receiving the help they need (37% needed additional assistance, 21% were ineligible, 4% found it

too difficult to apply)…..

“WE STARTED TO SEE ANOTHER

LAYER ON TOP OF OUR REGULAR

CLIENTS, OF PEOPLE WHO

HADN’T ACCESSED FOOD RELIEF

BEFORE AND WERE DOING OKAY

BEFORE THE PANDEMIC. SOME

HAD TWO WORKING PEOPLE

IN THEIR FAMILIES AND THEN

THEY NO LONGER HAD JOBS…

BECAUSE THEY WERE THROWN

INTO THAT SITUATION, THE

LEVELS OF ANXIETY AND

FEAR ROSE, PEOPLE WERE

VERY WORRIED…PEOPLE LIVE

TO THEIR INCOME. YOU RENT

PLACES YOU CAN AFFORD ON

YOUR INCOME SO WHEN YOU

HAVE NO INCOME, THE FIRST

THING THAT GOES IS FOOD.”

Angie, Reservoir Neighbourhood House.

“THE DEMAND FOR FOOD RELIEF HAS

BEEN VERY UNPREDICTABLE THIS YEAR.

WE’VE HAD TO TAKE EACH WEEK AS IT

COMES. ONE WEEK WE ACTUALLY ENDED

UP GOING STRAIGHT DOWN TO THE

SUPERMARKET AND SPENDING $600 TO

GET EXTRA FOOD JUST BECAUSE THE

DEMAND THAT WEEK WAS FAR GREATER

THAN WE HAD ANTICIPATED. WE HAD

109 FAMILIES COME THROUGH IN THAT

WEEK ALONE WHICH WAS 20 MORE THAN

WE WERE AVERAGING. WE SAW PEOPLE

COMING MORE OFTEN THAN PRE-COVID

UNTIL THE JOBSEEKER PAYMENT

INCREASE AND JOBKEEPER PAYMENTS

CAME. SOME PEOPLE WERE COMING

MORE OFTEN AND SOME WERE COMING

LESS OFTEN DEPENDENT ON WHAT THE

GOVERNMENT WAS DOING AT THE TIME.”

Peter, Kingborough Family Church, Hobart.