Friday 18 June 2021

Thus far in 2021 Australia appears to be averaging one woman dying a violent death at the hand of another person every 8.73 days

 

As of 15 June Destroy The Joint's Counting Dead Women project has recorded 19 women violently killed in 2021.














This project relies on media reports for its data and at the moment these 2021 reports show that violent deaths are averaging one every 8.73 days.


On 9 July 2020 the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia covering the calendar year 2019, with data based on police records. 
This is the latest release available to date. ABS data for 2020 should be released on or about 24 June 2021.


In 2019 there were 416 homicides, manslaughters and attempted murders recorded in Australia. Up 39 victims on 2018 figures.


An est. 125 of these victims were female and the majority of the violent deaths and near deaths appear to have been the result of family and domestic violence.


In that same calendar year Counting Dead Women recorded 61 women who died violently at the hands of another person..

Thursday 17 June 2021

G7 Summit June 2021 confirms aim to eliminate unabated international thermal coal power generation from global power generation mix by 2030


Recognising that coal power generation is the single biggest cause of greenhouse gas emissions, and consistent with this overall approach and our strengthened NDCs, domestically we have committed to rapidly scale-up technologies and policies that further accelerate the transition away from unabated coal capacity, consistent with our 2030 NDCs and net zero commitments. This transition must go hand in hand with policies and support for a just transition for affected workers, and sectors so that no person, group or geographic region is left behind. To accelerate the international transition away from coal, recognising that continued global investment in unabated coal power generation is incompatible with keeping 1.5°C within reach we stress that international investments in unabated coal must stop now and we commit now to an end to new direct government support for unabated international thermal coal power generation by the end of 2021, including through Official Development Assistance, export finance, 14 investment, and financial and trade promotion support. This transition must also be complemented by support to deliver this, including coordinating through the Energy Transition Council. We welcome the work by the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) and donors plan to commit up to $2 billion in the coming year to its Accelerating the Coal Transition and Integrating Renewable Energy programs. These concessional resources are expected to mobilize up to $10 billion in co-financing, including from the private sector, to support renewable energy deployment in developing and emerging economies. We call on other major economies to adopt such commitments and join us in phasing out the most polluting energy sources, and scaling up investment in the technology and infrastructure to facilitate the clean, green transition. More broadly, we reaffirm our existing commitment to eliminating inefficient fossil fuel subsidies by 2025, and call on all countries to join us, recognising the substantial financial resource this could unlock globally to support the transition and the need to commit to a clear timeline.” [CARBIS BAY G7 SUMMIT COMMUNIQUÉ, Our Shared Agenda for Global Action to Build Back Better , 13 June 2021, excerpt]


Wednesday 16 June 2021

Alleged 70 per cent hazard reduction burn over two days planned for the biodiverse Billinudgel Nature Reserve in June 2021


Echo NetDaily, 11 June 2021:


Local Minjungbal Indigenous leaders are asking the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to consult with them over a planned hazard reduction burn at Billinudgel Nature Reserve but a scheduled meeting was cancelled by NPWS. 

Billinudgel Nature Reserve where the hazard reduction
burn is planned by National Parks and Wildlife Service.




The hazard reduction burn was originally scheduled for the Billinudgel Nature Reserve on 3 June with neighbours being informed by letter on 2 June.


We got notification that Billinudgel was going to have a hazard reduction burn which gave me time to get in touch with NPWS to discuss some options and ask them to sit down with traditional owners to look at cultural issues in the reserve,’ said Rachael Cavanagh, a Minjungbal woman and traditional owner that covers the Billinudgel Nature Reserve.


Rachael said a meeting was originally set up but was then cancelled by the NPWS who said that they would only speak to the Tweed Byron Aboriginal Land Council (TB ALC).


They are not the traditional owners,’ Rachael pointed out. ‘Everyone deserves a voice. We are on the Native Title claim for the Five Rivers and the Tweed Bundjalung people. We are the traditional owners who hold the cultural knowledge on the land values. We still have fire law that has been continued in our family,’ she told The Echo. 

Billinudgel Nature Reserve.



NPWS legislation states that they need to engage with traditional owners and knowledge holders. By their own legislation they are supposed to meet all registered parties.’


Rachael has been a fire fighter for 20 years with the Queensland National Parks and Forestry Corporation and is engaged with the Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation.


I am in a senior leadership team for National Fire Sticks Alliance. We support and build capacity with Indigenous groups nationally to support cultural fire practices and traditional land management for people on country. We look at the whole picture.’


Having been denied the option to meet with NPWS Rachael told The Echo that their lawyer has now sent a letter to NPWS to seek a meeting between the traditional owners and NPWS in relation to the burn.


Pretty much our family are fighting to be at the table and be part the discussion,’ she said.


They are planning to for a 70 per cent hazard reduction burn over two days which means it will be very hot, raging and overall health of the forest and the cultural values will be at risk, the understory will be and the canopy will be scorched, the animals will have nowhere to go to.


Regardless of whether it is Billinudgel or Cudgen. I will be fighting to have a say over the management of Minyungbal Country.’


Regardless of whether it is Billinudgel or Cudgen. I will be fighting to have a seat at the table.’…... 



BACKGROUND


Billinudgel Nature Reserve was created in April 1996. It's current size is 789 ha. Approximately 75% of the Reserve is within Byron Shire with the remainder in Tweed Shire in the NSW Northern Rivers region.


The Reserve protects the following features

· a large tract of natural lowland coastal vegetation, a significant remnant in an otherwise highly modified environment; 

· an extensive wetland containing Melaleuca swamp forest; 

· a diversity of habitat which supports a wide range of fauna and flora including rare, threatened, significant and migratory species; 

· Aboriginal sites and landscapes of significance; and 

· features of scientific interest. 


In the 2016 Byron Coast Comprehensive Koala Plan of Management the North Byron Koala Management Area encompasses an area of approximately 2,814ha located to the north of the Brunswick River and includes the Billinudgel Nature Reserve along with the localities of South Golden Beach, Ocean Shores and Billinudgel.

localities of South Golden Beach, Ocean Shores and Billinudgel as indicated by Figure 3 of the


Northern Rivers Region Billinudgel, Marshalls Creek, Jinangong, and Brunswick Heads (north) Nature Reserves Fire Management Strategy (Type 2) 2016 at:

Tuesday 15 June 2021

Former Australian Attorney-General and current Minister for Industry, Science and Technology & Liberal MP for Pearce Christian Porter's campaign to rehabilitate his reputation


Crikey 7 June 2021:


After months mired in historical rape allegations, Christian Porter is trying to focus on the fight for his political survival. To do so, the senior Coalition minister is spending more money on social media advertising than any other Australian politician.


Since Porter outed himself as the subject of a letter sent to the prime minister and other MPs accusing him of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in 1988 — allegations he strenuously denies — attention on him has been through the lens of the accusations.


The sudden end to Porter’s defamation action against the ABC, and NSW Police ruling out reopening the case, means this could be the end of formal proceedings — unless an inquiry into the allegations is called.


But Porter’s not out of the woods yet. His hold on the seat of Pearce is looking less than certain. The once blue-ribbon Liberal seat is set to be redistricted in August, removing many of the traditionally conservative rural voting areas. The ABC’s Antony Green expects this cuts about 2.5% off Porter’s 7.5% margin.


Faced with a reduced margin and months of negative media attention, Porter’s use of social media reveals how he is using digital tools to try win his seat.


Porter has regularly used Facebook advertising to promote Facebook and Instagram posts about his ministerial portfolios and electorate matters. This advertising suddenly stopped on February 28, two days after the letter’s existence was reported.


After a three-month break, just before he entered into mediation with the ABC over the defamation case, the minister’s Facebook began running more than a dozen advertisements.


Last week he was Australia’s eighth largest spender on Facebook ads about social issues, elections or politics. He spent $8627 between March 26 and June 1, more than any other Australian politician or political party. This weekly spend is a third of his total spend on Facebook advertising since it began being recorded in August 2020. Unlike other government ministers advertising on Facebook, each one of Porter’s advertisements were targeted to Western Australian Facebook users — many specifically mention Pearce or policies specific to it.


All but one of the promoted posts don’t feature Porter all. (The sole post depicting him was by far his most promoted, with half the money spent on a video on May 28 featuring him talking about Australian Made Week and his electorate. It cost somewhere between $3500 and $4000 to show the video to more than 90,000 people in WA……


What this shows is that after going to ground, Porter is back with a near singular focus: convincing West Australian voters to vote him back in. And he’s willing to spend like he’s never spent before to change the topic away from allegations that — despite the end of formal proceedings — still haunt him.


Monday 14 June 2021

That "massive failure in public administration" of Australia's social security scheme, by way of the creation of the unlawful 'Robodebt' automated data matching program, has to date cost the Morrison Government: (i) est. $8.4M in Federal Court applicants' awarded legal costs; (ii) approx. $751M in debt repayments to applicants; (iii) a further $103.6M in settlement distribution costs; (iv) the forced abandonment of recovery of up to $1.01 billion in debts claimed by Centrelink but not yet realised; and (v) government having to absorb its own legal costs as well as the former unlawful program's multimillion dollar administration costs.

 

ABC News, 11 June 2021:


A Federal Court judge has delivered a withering assessment of the unlawful Robodebt recovery scheme, calling it "a shameful chapter" and "massive failure in public administration" of Australia's social security scheme.


He also ordered the Commonwealth to pay costs of $8.4 million to Gordon Legal, which brought the class action against the Commonwealth on a no-win, no-fee basis.


"This has resulted in a huge waste of public money," he said.


Justice Murphy's judgement gave legal effect to a settlement reached between the Commonwealth and people wrongly pursued for debts last year.


The Commonwealth agreed to fund compensation, pay back wrongly raised debts and drop debt recovery actions, but has not admitted liability.


Robodebt was an automated debt collection system in place between July 2015 and November 2019 that used data-matching in an attempt to identify the overpayment of social security benefits.


More than $750 million wrongfully recovered


The court heard that as part of the scheme, the Commonwealth had unlawfully raised $1.73 billion in debts against 433,000 people.


Of this, $751 million was wrongly recovered from 381,000 people.


"The proceeding has exposed a shameful chapter in the administration of the Commonwealth social security system and a massive failure of public administration," Justice Murphy said.


Justice Murphy said he "could not help but be touched" by the "heart-wrenching" stories of people who had suffered as a result of the scheme.


"One thing … that stands out … is the financial hardship, anxiety and distress, including suicidal ideation and in some cases suicide, that people or their loved ones say was suffered as a result of the Robodebt system, and that many say they felt shame and hurt at being wrongly branded 'welfare cheats'," he said.


He said ministers and public servants should have known the method of using taxation income records to estimate a welfare recipient's average income was flawed.


"However, it is quite another thing to be able to prove to the requisite standard that they actually knew that the operation of the Robodebt system was unlawful," he said.


"There is little in the materials to indicate that the evidence rises to that level….


In settlement of Prygodicz v Commonwealth of Australia the Morrison Government made no admission of legal liability with regard to any aspect of the unlawful Centrelink debt collection program.




BACKGROUND


Prygodicz v Commonwealth of Australia (No 2) [2021] FCA 634 (11 June 2021)

Sunday 13 June 2021

Under a future Labor federal government the Indue Cashless Debit Card (aka Cashless Welfare Card) will be scrapped


IMAGE: Inbox News
NBN News, 10 June 2021:


Federal member for Richmond, Justine Elliot, has declared she will not be silenced, after her office allegedly received a call from a senior government staffer, demanding she remove a Facebook post claiming pensioners will be forced onto the cashless welfare card.


The Labor MP says the post will not be taken down – adding under a future Labor government the controversial card would be scrapped.


Minister for Social Services, Anne Ruston, has fired back – ruling out ever requiring aged pensioners to use the card.


BACKGROUND



Combined Pensioners & Superannuants Association, 28 October 2020, article excerpt:


CPSA is very concerned that CDC is going to be rolled out gradually to everyone on a Centrelink payment. There are several dead give-aways for this.


First, the current Minister for Social Services was reported as saying that for CDC “to be a mainstream financial literacy tool for Australia it does need to be rolled out away from just rural and regional communities, and that’s the conversation we need to have with the Australian public…”. She added: “It does need to have a broader application than perhaps the social harm reduction that the original policy was designed on”.


A letter by CPSA asking the Minister for Social Services to specifically rule out extending Income Management to Age Pensioners has received no response.


State Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin is encouraging Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands residents to nominate local champions for the 2021 Community Achievement Awards for Regional NSW and the ACT

 

Office of NSW Labor MLA for Lismore Janelle Saffin, media release,

10 Jun 2021:



Bring out your best Northern Rivers, Northern Tablelands!



STATE Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin is encouraging Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands residents to nominate local champions for the 2021 Community Achievement Awards for Regional NSW and the ACT.



Everyone knows of someone who really puts in for their local community but for whatever reason may not have received the public attention or accolades for their volunteer service,” Ms Saffin said.



This year’s Community Achievement Awards are a chance to recognise, celebrate and thank our unsung heroes as we have faced off challenges such as drought, bushfires, floods and the COVID-19 pandemic.”



Nominations can be made in the following categories:


  • Department of Planning, Industry and Environment Individual Excellence in Crown Land Management Award


  • Department of Planning, Industry and Environment Crown Land Manager Excellence Award


  • Ricoh Australia Customer Service Award


  • TransGrid Leadership Award


  • Awards Australia Connecting Communities Award



There are prizes for each of the category winners, who will also be presented on stage with a trophy. Every nomination receives a certificate of achievement.



To submit a nomination, simply go online to https://awardsaustralia.com/community-achievement-awards/nsw and select ‘Nominate Now’. Alternatively, make the process that much easier by calling us on 1300 735 445 and passing on their details.



Nominations close Wednesday 11 August, 2021. For assistance, call the Awards Office on 1300 735 445 or email nswactraca@awardsaustralia.com.