CLARENCE VALLEY CONSERVATION COALITION'S VOICES FOR THE EARTH "EARTH MATTERS" SESSIONS START AGAIN ON 18 MARCH 2024

 

Clarence Valley Independent, 6 March 2024:

VOICES FOR THE EARTH

EARTH MATTERS SESSIONS START IN MARCH

The Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition (CVCC) is restarting its Earth Matters environmental information sessions on March 18 after a break in 2020 following the advent of covid.

These public events, introduced in 2004, were held every two months between March and November and were conducted by a range of people from the community, or from government or local environment groups. Sometimes the goal was acquiring information about an issue while at other times it involved exploration of an idea, the seeking of a solution or celebrating the wonders of the natural world.

The range of subjects over the years has included sustainable farming, climate change, the impact of light at night, flying fox ecology, cane toads in the Clarence Valley, Grafton’s tree heritage, riparian vegetation on the floodplain, native bees, waste management and recycling, inspiration for your town garden, conservation in north-west Tasmania, national parks in India and Bhutan, and restoring rainforest.

Recently the CVCC decided to restart these public information sessions. The new venue is the Joan Muir Community Centre in Turf Street, Grafton. Sessions will be held between 6 and 8 pm on the third Monday of the month in March, May, July, September and November. The events will generally consist of a presentation by one or more speakers for an hour, followed by a short question and discussion session and light refreshments. Those attending will be asked to contribute a gold coin to assist with expenses.

The first two presentations have been arranged and the CVCC is looking forward to providing the community with information on a range of important environmental matters from March onwards.

Proposed Mineral Mining in the Clarence Catchment is the subject of the first Earth Matters session on March 18. Shae Fleming, Clarence Catchment Alliance Coordinator (CCA), will discuss the current situation on mining in the Clarence Catchment, CCA's role, the community campaign's aim and progress to date, the threat of mineral mining to our local water, species, environment, social, cultural and economic wellbeing and how you can help.

• Leonie Blain

NSW Minister for Finance Courtney Houssos has written to 128 councils urging those who use ticketless parking fines to address shortcoming in their approach. Requests councils to provide an on the spot, written notification to drivers

 

9 News, 11 March 2024

ECHO, 11 March 2024:

The days of receiving ticketless council parking fines in NSW are to end thanks to new directions from the Labor state government.

Half of all fines processed by Revenue NSW are reportedly council parking fines, with 48 councils issuing ticketless fines including the Tweed, Ballina and Lismore local government areas (LGAs).

Some councils have abandoned the use of on-the-spot paper fines altogether.

The former coalition state government introduced the ticketless scheme as a trial in May 2020 before expanding it to more councils in December 2020.

Local governments included in the scheme can lodge parking infringements directly with Revenue NSW, along with photographic evidence, rather than by leaving a ticket on the offending car.

Drivers are in most cases unaware they’ve received a fine until it arrives by mail or the Service NSW app.

NSW Minister for Finance Courtney Houssos says the scheme has eroded trust in the state’s parking fine system.

Minister pushes for photographic evidence in parking fines

The minister on Sunday issued a media release saying she’d written to all 128 councils across the state asking them to return to the practice of issuing on-the-spot written notifications, such as small pre-printed cards left on the windscreen.

While leaving a note isn’t mandatory under state regulations, the minister says drivers who know they’ve been booked may want to collect evidence such as photos and details of where they parked in case they want to seek a review.

‘This note does not necessarily need to form part of the infringement notice but at a minimum it should inform the driver they will soon receive an infringement notice via post or the Service NSW app,’ Ms Houssos wrote in her letter, included in Sunday’s media release.

The minister also requested councils using ticketless fines to review processes to make sure photographic evidence is captured and sent to Revenue NSW.

Lismore council issues nearly $130K in ticketless parking fines

Concerns were also raised about the timeliness of notifications to drivers, with some people said to have received multiple ticketless fines before being told.

The scheme is further accused of having a reduced impact in terms of immediate parking offence deterrence and driver behaviour influence.

On the Northern Rivers, the Lismore City Council is recorded as issuing the most ticketless parking fines in 2023 at 898, followed by the Ballina Shire Council at 473 and the Tweed Shire Council at two.

Ticketless fines in the Lismore LGA were valued at more than $127,000.

The local figures paled in comparison to some metropolitan councils, where fines in the tens of thousands were recorded.

The North Sydney Council issued 52,251 ticketless fines, for example.

The Byron Shire Council wasn’t included in the list.....

NSW Government, Minister for Finance, 10 March 2024 media release at:

https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/ticketless-parking-fines-must-meet-community-expectations

STATE OF PLAY AUSTRALIA 2024: anti-corruption agencies with runs on the board & the new kid on the block

 With corruption perceived as thriving around the world and Australia showing a worsening corruption level with a 10 point change in the wrong direction since 2012, according to Transparency International, it would be nice to see some improvement on the horizon.

In its 2023 report it seems Australia is not showing any such improvement on CPI results in the previous 2022 report. Although in all fairness, on a global scale the nation is not ranked as a high range offender.

Nevertheless, on the Australian east coast alone, four states and one territory published reports on a combined 73 corruption/integrity investigations in the 18 months between 1 July 2022 and 31 December 2023. [See "BACKGROUND"]

So I'm hoping that the slow progress of the first seven months of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) only indicates a new anti-corruption agency finding its way and, next year the general public will begin to see at least a hint that some of its 13 current investigations are nearing conclusion. Most especially, I'm hoping that Commissioner Brereton publishes the results of all completed investigations which found corrupt conduct.

Because I can see no good reason why the misdeeds of federal public officials/public servants should be afforded a total secrecy not afforded to their state and local government counterparts or any ordinary citizen.

On 5 March 2024 NACC released its regular weekly update for the reporting period: 1 July 2023 to midnight Sunday, 3 March 2024.

Overview

The National Anti-Corruption Commission:

• has received 2594 referrals

• has 376 referrals currently under assessment including 13 under preliminary investigation

• is conducting 13 corruption investigations

• is overseeing or monitoring 25 investigations by other agencies

Referral and assessment

At the end of the reporting period, the Commission had:

• received 2594 referrals

• excluded 2009 referrals at the triage stage because they did not involve a Commonwealth public official or did not raise a corruption issue

• 160 referrals awaiting triage

• 216 triaged referrals under assessment including 13 under preliminary investigation

• assessed 233 referrals, in respect of which the Commission:

  • decided to take no further action in 213 cases. Typically, this is because the referral does not raise a corruption issue, or there are insufficient prospects of finding corrupt conduct, or the matter is already being adequately investigated by another agency, or a corruption investigation would not add value in the public interest.

  • referred 5 corruption issues to agencies for investigation or consideration.

  • decided to investigate 9 corruption issues itself.

  • decided to investigate 4 corruption issues jointly with another agency.

BACKGROUND

In New South Wales out of the five investigation reports published by Independent Commission Against Corrupt Conduct (NSW ICACC) in 2023, four found seriously corrupt conduct involving members of state parliament, elected local government officials, public authority employees or property developers. While in 2022 four out of five investigation reports published found seriously corrupt conduct involving members of state parliament, political lobbyists, public servants, legal practitioners or land council employees.

In 2022-23 the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) received 3,931 corruption complaints and assessed 3,686 corruption complaints. Finalising 39 corruption investigations, resulting in two criminal charges and seven recommendations for disciplinary action.

In 2022-23 the Victorian Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) began 11 investigations and 18 preliminary inquiries into public sector corruption and police misconduct. It also completed 14 investigations and 12 preliminary inquiries, with 18 investigations and preliminary inquiries still in progress at the end of that financial year.

Also in 2022-23 the ACT Integrity Commission worked on 13 investigations, including two new investigations. It also referred 9 matters:

• six referrals to the Public Sector Standards Commissioner

• one referral to ACT Corrective Services

• one referral to ACT Health

• one referral to the Justice and Community

  Safety Directorate.

In 2023 the Tasmanian Integrity Commission released two reports on the potential for bias and conflict of interest in local government hiring practices.

El Niño persists and although it is likely to disappear by May 2024 it may become harder to reliably predict what will follow in the future

 

Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), 5 March 2024

Neutral ENSO likely during autumn

El Niño persists, although a steady weakening trend is evident in its oceanic indicators. Climate models indicate sea surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific are expected to continue declining and are forecast to return to ENSO-neutral in the southern hemisphere autumn 2024.

Atmospheric indicators are mixed but are consistent with a steadily weakening El Niño. Cloudiness near the equatorial Date Line has decreased over the last fortnight, returning to the climatological average. The 30-day Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) is currently less than -7.0, characteristic of an El Niño state, but indicative of ENSO-neutral conditions over the 60- and 90-day periods. Temporary fluctuations of ENSO atmospheric indicators are common during summer and are not an indication of El Niño strength.

International climate models suggest the central tropical Pacific Ocean will continue to cool in the coming months, with four out of seven climate models indicating the central Pacific is likely to return to neutral El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) levels by the end of April (i.e., neither El Niño nor La Niña), and all models indicating neutral in May. ENSO predictions made in autumn tend to have lower accuracy than predictions made at other times of the year. This means that current forecasts of the ENSO state beyond May should be used with caution.

Based on the historical record from 1900, around 50% of El Niño events have been followed by an ENSO-neutral year, and 40 to 50% have been followed by La Niña. However, global oceans have warmed significantly over the past 50 years. The oceans have been the warmest on record globally between April 2023 and January 2024. These changes may impact future predictions of ENSO events, if based solely on historical climate variability.

The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is neutral. IOD events are typically unable to form between December and April. This is because the monsoon trough shifts south over the tropical Indian Ocean changing wind patterns and preventing the IOD pattern from forming.

The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is currently neutral, as of 3 March. Forecasts indicate SAM will remain neutral over the coming fortnight.

The Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) is currently in the eastern Indian Ocean. The MJO is forecast to move into the Maritime Continent in the coming days and progress eastwards towards the Western Pacific over the coming fortnight. When the MJO is in the eastern Indian Ocean, increased cloudiness tends to occur over the eastern Indian Ocean and western parts of South East Asia. As the MJO shifts into the Maritime Continent, increased cloudiness tends to occur over parts of the far north of Australia and the islands of South East Asia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

The annual global mean temperature for the 12 months from February 2023 to January 2024 was the highest on record, with Copernicus reporting that it was 1.52 °C above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial average. However, this does not mean that the 1.5 °C target referred to in the Paris Agreement has been exceeded as the magnitude of global warming is assessed using multi-year averages, and this is only one 12-month period.

Australia's climate has warmed by 1.50 ± 0.23 °C between 1910 and 2023, leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events. In recent decades, there has also been a trend towards a greater proportion of rainfall from high intensity, short duration rainfall events, especially across northern Australia during the wet season. April to October rainfall has declined across southern Australia in recent decades, due to a combination of long-term natural variability and changes in atmospheric circulation caused by an increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.

[my yellow highlighting]

Cartoon of the Week

Cathy Wilcox

 

Tweet of the Week

 

When you grow up surrounded by perpetrators who think they’re always victims because of past mass trauma you know exactly what they’re capable of https://t.co/sQ3WZwWUQn

— Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) March 5, 2024

International Womens Day 2024: So how is female suffrage getting along in Australia?

 

United Nations banner

So how is female suffrage getting along in Australia?

After federation came into effect and the Commonwealth of Australia began its life in January 1901, the first federal parliament contained no women as elected representatives.

It wasn't until 1902 that Commonwealth Franchise Act established equal suffrage at a federal, allowing adult women the right to vote in federal elections and elect members to the House of Representatives and the Senate.

By 1903 women began to stand for federal election - as independents or as candidates for minor parties as neither the forerunners of the Liberal Party of Australia or the Australian Labor Party would support woen candidates.

It took another forty years before the first two women were elected - Enid Lyons, the Liberal MP for Darwin (Tas) and Dorothy Tagney Labor Senator for West Australia.

Both women entered a Parliament House which since its erection in 1927 had been totally devoid of toilets set aside for female members of parliament. [National Museum Australia, "First women in parliament", 2024]

For another forty years between 1946 to 1986 another 6 women MPs and 26 women senators came and went in the federal electoral cycles. A woefully small number. [Australian Parliament website, "Women parliamentarians in Australia 1921-2020", December 2020]

In May 2010 first federal Labor elected & then in August the national electorate endorsed the first female prime minister of Australia. In the federal government ministry, as at the end of June 2010, there were nine female ministers and parliamentary secretaries (representing 23% of ministers and parliamentary secretaries), including the Prime Minister The Hon Julia Gillard MP and a further three who were Cabinet members. Around 17% of shadow ministerial and parliamentary secretary positions were held by women [ABS, Measures of Australia's Progress, 2010]

However, it took until 2014 before women made up 26.7 per cent of the House of Representatives and 38.2 per cent of the Senate.

Now in 2024 the gender landscape in the Australian Parliament stands thus......

A total of 37 of the 78 Labor Government MPs in the Australian House of Representatives are women. That number represents 47.53 per cent of all those sitting on the government benches in the Lower House and 63.79 per cent of all federal women MPs in 2024.

A total of 17 of the 25 Labor Government senators in the Australian Senate are women. That number represents 68 percent of all those sitting on government benches in the Upper House and 40.7 per cent of all women senators in 2024.

Women in the Albanese Labor Government make up a combined total of 24 per cent of all MPs and Senators in the Australian Parliament. While women of all political persuasions comprise 44.44 percent of all parliamentarians sitting in the Australian Parliament in 2024. [Australia Parliament website, March 2024]

By December 2023 17,721,975 Australian citizens over the age of 18 years were enrolled to vote and the enrolment rate was 98 per cent. Historically overall voter turnout at elections is high. However, if the trend since 1996 holds, slightly more female registered voters are likely to turnout to vote than male voters at a federal general election.

In June 2023 the Australian estimated resident population numbered 26,638,544 individuals of which est. 50.35 per cent were female. [ABS, National state and territory population, June 2023]

It has only taken women 123 years to get to less than half the elected political representation their population demographic suggests they are entitled to expect.