Why isn't the erosion of our democracy an election issue?

Greg Barns at Independent Australia
Criminal lawyer and spokesperson for the Australian Lawyers Alliance, Greg Barns, looks at the erosion of rights over the course of the past three years by the ALP and Coalition and argues this should be an election issue.

It has had little or no coverage in this interminably long Federal election campaign, but the erosion of human rights – and therefore our democracy – in Australia should be an issue discussed as we head to the polls in a few days.

Over the course of the last three years, the Coalition parties supported generally by the ALP, have eroded the right to freedom of speech, undermined the right to privacy and increased the capacity of security agencies and the bureaucracy to operate without proper independent scrutiny. All of these measures have been legislated in the name of the so-called "War on Terror" or what is termed “border control”.

On their own, each of these measures has provoked disquiet, and even outrage, among those committed to human rights and the rule of law, but when examined cumulatively the assault on democracy since 2013 has been breathtaking.

It is critical that we ask ourselves this question before we cast a vote on July 2: What other draconian measures has the ALP and the Coalition got in mind to legislate over the next three years, and which of those parties and individuals running for Senate spots will support them?

It is worth recalling each of the anti-democratic measures that now sit on the statute books in this country courtesy of the majority of the politicians we elected in 2013.

First, there are the amendments made to the Commonwealth Crimes Act in 2014, which allow ASIO to label an operation a “controlled operation”. This means ASIO agents can commit criminal offences and civil wrongs such as burglaries, assaults, kidnapping and frauds knowing they will not be prosecuted. Only murder, sexual assaults and serious assaults are out of bounds.

These operations are secret, so that any person, including the media, who reveals anything about such an operation faces up to five or ten years imprisonment depending on whether they acted recklessly or intentionally. Only some Independents in the Senate – such as Nick Xenophon, David Leyonhjelm and John Madigan – voted with the Greens to oppose this law.

Similarly, being sheltered from scrutiny through the criminalisation of free speech are those who run the notorious immigration detention centre system. The Australian Border Force Act was passed last year with only the Greens opposing it. As we know this law makes it a criminal offence for any person working in immigration detention, with few exceptions, to reveal what happens in these awful places.

Even doctors are not protected, as revelations about the Australian Federal Police spying on Peter Young, a prominent doctor who worked in the centres and who has publicly aired his disquiet over mistreatment of asylum seekers, shows.

Then there was the extraordinary law that allows the Federal government to know whom it is each and everyone of us communicates with by phone, email, Facebook and any other electronic format over the previous 2 years. The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act was supported by the ALP but not by most of the Independents and Greens.

Stripping Australians as young as 14 of citizenship is now possible, courtesy of our politicians. And worse than that it is done by a minister, not through an independent and rigorous court process. The opposition to this Bill came from Independents and Greens, with even the so called left of the ALP too frightened to stand up for a fundamental tenet of the rule of law in a democracy — that only independent courts should be allowed to decide grave questions such as citizenship.

IFA President Rob de Fegely Appointed Chair of Forestry Tasmania

de Fegely

Logging industry insider and President of the Institute of Foresters Australia (IFA) Rob de Fegely has been appointed chair of Forestry Tasmania (FT). The appointment will be a continuation of the cronyism at FT and also the systematic environmental degradation of Tasmania. FT is a free-form, quasi-government organisation that runs at a loss. FT works to 'sterilise' Tasmania's forests with slash and burn log extraction to supply the Asian Timber Mafia-controlled Ta Ann with immature 'peeler billets'. They also used the worlds best carbon storing forests as wood chips for the insatiable Asian pulp market. De Fegely will continue the corrupt relationships while striving to green wash FT with FSC certification. There could even be 'inducements' for de Fegely from the Taib cartel if he pulls-off full FSC for the Sarawak palm oil crooks. Rob is in creepy company on the IFA board with ex-Forestry Tasmania ancient tree-killer Bob Gordon and his right hand man Hans Drielsma keeping him company.
The IFA's main crime in 2016 is the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef by changing Australia's climate. There is no difference between carbon released from trees and from coal which is just fossilised trees. The IFA were asked to explain the difference but failed to respond.

From the Mercury Forestry Tasmania has a new chairman, Forestry Minister Peter Gutwein announced this morning.
Almost six months after former Forestry boss Bob Annels stepped down, Mr Gutwein has announced Rob de Fegely has assumed the role.
“Mr de Fegely has 36 years of experience in the Australian forestry industry,” Mr Gutwein said.
“Mr de Fegely is a co-chair of the Commonwealth Government’s Forest Industry Advisory Council and national president of the Institute of Foresters of Australia, a past director of VicForests, and was previously the non-executive chairman of Cape York Timber.
“Mr de Fegely is a registered professional forester and has a bachelor of science degree from the Australian National University and master of science (forest business management) from Aberdeen University in the UK.”
Mr Gutwein said Mr de Fegely had extensive project and consulting experience with both Government and corporate clients throughout Australia and New Zealand and had travelled and worked extensively throughout Asia and North America.

Why Does Australia Support Gross Corruption In Malaysia?

How long before Australia wakes-up to the fact we are bankrolling the most corrupt people on Earth?
Case in point: Sarawak potentate Taib Mahumud, educated under the Colombo plan at taxpayers expense. Today Australian taxpayers still subsidise timber for one of Taib's proxy ventures called Ta Ann Tasmania. This company pays no tax but still gets handouts from the Australian and Tasmanian governments.
Take a look at how the Sarawak Mafia live?
From Sarawak Report

This was the nice little prezzie that Taib bought his young wife to celebrate their 5th anniversary and his 80th birthday last weekend.

35 year old Ragad’s 5th anniversary present – a RM1.5 million Bentley

After all, there have to be compensations for having a husband half a century older than yourself and for a certain type of lady a new RM1.5 million Bentley clearly does the trick – even if the family garage is already stuffed with endless other variations on the same theme.

Blatant Political Censorship At The Launceston Examiner

The 'leftist' tag doesn't apply to Fairfax newspaper the Launceston Examiner. The small town rag is blatantly pro-Liberal and appears to be a mouthpiece for Premier Hodgman's spin doctor Martin Gilmour, years after Gilmour left the Examiner. We are used to overt conservative favoritism from the 'Geriatric Media' at News Ltd, where Rupert treats the Australian public like play dough.
Take the Examiner's handling of the Hodgman government's 'workplace invasion' laws? These laws have failed to even reach court. It appears the laws are unusable because they are so poorly-worded. This went unnoticed by mental dwarf Will Hodgman and his team of head nodders when they passed the laws like automatons.

The small-town tire-spinners at the Examiner had about 4 attempts at publishing this story, even opening it to comments - which they then refused to publish.
Check this out?

It's a screen grab from a comment the micro-brained Examiner failed to publish - for no reason. They solicit comments but are too gutless to publish them.
Which is why Inside Tasmania exists. These mentally crippled media manipulators have been holding Tasmania back for too many decades. They need a paradigm shift to bring Tasmania into the 21st Century. Murdoch has created a country with a backwards government buried under a mountain of debt they can never repay, and for the Fairfax media to join this nation-crippling agenda is a crime against journalism and all Australians. Report the news and stop massaging it Launceston Examiner and Hobart Mercury?

Cape Grim Reveals Global CO2 Has Reached The Point Of No Return

Paul Barry from Media Watch thinks this story should have been covered-up.
Get stuffed lost soul Paul Barry. This is our planet, not yours.
By Peter Hannam at SMH
Within the next couple of weeks, a remote part of north-western Tasmania is likely to grab headlines around the world as a major climate change marker is passed.
The aptly named Cape Grim monitoring site jointly run by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology will witness the first baseline reading of 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, researchers predict.
"Once it's over [400 ppm], it won't go back," said Paul Fraser, dubbed by CSIRO as the Air Man of Cape Grim, and now a retired CSIRO fellow. "It could be within 10 days."

The most recent reading on May 6 was 399.9 ppm, according to readings compiled by the CSIRO team led by Paul Krummel that strip out influences from land, including cities such as Melbourne to the north. (See chart below, with the red line showing the baseline CO2.)
Political heat
The approaching global CO2 threshold comes as climate change looks like becoming one of the key issues in Australia's election campaign.
The Turnbull government has made clear it will oppose Labor's proposals for an emissions trading scheme that will again put a price on carbon pollution.
New data out on Tuesday show that emissions from the country's main electricity grid covering the eastern states have risen 5.7 per cent - or 8.7 million tonnes - in the year to April compared with the final 12 months of the carbon tax that the Abbott government scrapped in July 2014, according to energy consultants Pitt & Sherry.

The share of coal in the National Electricity Market has risen to 76.2 per cent - its highest level since September 2012 - from 72.3 per cent during the period since June 2014, the consultants' latest Cedex report said.

Mark Butler, Labor's shadow environment minister, said the Cape Grim landmark reading was "deeply concerning".

"While the Coalition fights about whether or not the science of climate change is real, pollution is rising. And it's rising on their watch," Mr Butler said.

Greens deputy leader Larissa Waters said the Cape Grim result "should act as a global wake-up call and must shock both Australian big political parties out of their blind coal-obsession which is literally cooking our planet and our Great Barrier Reef".

"Our atmosphere cannot take any new coal mines – both the old parties must stop approving them and revoke their approval of the Adani coal mine [in Queensland] at both the state and federal level," Senator Waters said.

A spokesman for Environment Minister Greg Hunt defended the government's climate policies."There is now absolutely no doubt that we will beat our 2020 target" of cutting 2000-level emissions by 5 per cent by then, the spokesman said. "We are playing our part to tackle climate change and our 2030 target [of cutting 2000-level emissions about 19 per cent] is ambitious and significant," he said. "Labor has nothing more than a plan to bring back the carbon tax and hike electricity prices."
Rising 'pretty much all of the time'

Cape Grim's readings are significant because they capture the most accurate reading of the atmospheric conditions in the southern hemisphere and have records going back 40 years.

With less land in the south, there is also a much smaller fluctuation according to the seasonal cycle than in northern hemisphere sites. That's because the north has more trees and other vegetation, which take up carbon from the atmosphere in the spring and give it back in the autumn.

So while 400 ppm has been temporarily exceeded at the other two main global stations since 2013 - in Hawaii and Alaska - they have dropped back below that level once spring has arrived because of that greater seasonal variation.

David Etheridge, a CSIRO principal research scientist, said atmospheric CO2 levels had fluctuated around 280 ppm until humans' burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests set in process rising levels of greenhouse gases almost without pause since about 1800.
"It's been upwards pretty much all of the time," Dr Etheridge told Fairfax Media. "This is a significant change, and it's the primary greenhouse gas which is leading to the warming of the atmosphere."
The following chart, compiled by CSIRO researchers using atmosphere and ice core readings, show how CO2 levels have risen over the past 2000 years.
While the 400 figure is in itself of no particular note, compared with 399 or 401, it was a marker likely to carry important symbolism. "People react to these things when they see thresholds crossed," Dr Etheridge said.

While the fraction may seem small, it is 0.04 per cent of the atmosphere. By comparison, a similar level of alcohol would be close to the legal driving limit in Australia.

"These things act at low concentrations," he said, noting that ozone-destroying chemicals at levels of parts per trillion were enough to damage that important component of the atmosphere.

The Greg Hunt Shame Files

1) Hunt thinks there is no link between coal mines and climate change.
2) Hunt adds 49 species to the threatened and endangered list - on the quiet.

The Guardian -No definite link between coal from Adani mine and climate change
 The federal environment minister has argued in court that coal from Australia’s largest coalmine would have no “substantial” impact on climate change and as a result he did not need to consider whether it would affect the Great Barrier Reef.

The Australian Conservation Foundation challenged Greg Hunt’s approval of Adani’s Carmichael mine, alleging he failed to consider the impacts the burning of the coal from the mine would have on climate change and hence on the Great Barrier Reef.
Scientists have found the current mass bleaching event affecting 93% of the reef was made 175 times more likely by climate change and would become a biennial event within 20 years. After that point, the continued existence of the reef would be in doubt.
In federal court documents obtained by Guardian Australia, Hunt denied he failed to consider the impacts of coal on the reef.

In the outline of submissions filed on behalf of the minister, the Australian government solicitor explains that the minister did not think the burning of the coal “would be a substantial cause of climate change effects” and would have “no impact on matters of national environmental significance”.
The minister’s reasoning was that whether the burning of the coal would make climate change worse depended on whether it would increase the total amount of coal burned globally. But he notes there are a “raft of factors” that could affect how much coal was burned globally, including whether the coal from the mine displaced other coal and whether it was dealt with within various national emissions targets.
He concluded that there “was no requisite relationship between combustion emissions and increases in global temperature”.

Further, the minister argued that since the net impact was “difficult to identify”, there was no need to impose conditions on the mine, such as that climate impacts would be offset.
“Put simply, because any increase in net global greenhouse gas emissions was a matter of speculation, there was no need for or utility in the imposition of conditions.”
The Australian Conservation Foundation was represented by the Environment Defenders Office Queensland. The court case was heard in the federal court in Brisbane on Tuesday and Wednesday and a decision is expected within three to six months.

The Guardian- Australia quietly adds 49 species to threatened and endangered lists
 Nearly 50 new species of flora and fauna have been added without fanfare to the federal government’s list of threatened species, including nine that are critically endangered.
Among the species to be added to the list under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act were the brush-tailed bettong (endangered), the three-toed snake-tooth skink (vulnerable), the swift parrot (upgraded from endangered to critically endangered), and several types of orchid and albatross.
Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Jess Abrahams said 49 species were added on Thursday without notice from the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, or his ministry.
“Normally they’ll put out a press release and talk about all the great work they’re doing to turn this around. This time it just slipped out.”

Hunt’s office and the threatened species commissioner, Gregory Andrews, have both been contacted for comment.
Abrahams noted that no new funding had been put towards the existing threatened species strategy in the budget on Tuesday, meaning programs to bring animals such as the Leadbeater’s possum back from the brink of extinction were unable to be delivered.
Most of the species were threatened due to habitat loss, he said – and commercial activities that contributed to this were ongoing, compounding the problem of inadequate funding.
“What hope is there? ... The logging continues, the habitat loss continues – it’s no surprise that the species ends up on the threatened species list.”

The ghost bat, a late addition with a vulnerable status, has now joined two other threatened species on the list: the large-eared horseshoe bat (endangered), and Semon’s leaf-nosed bat (also vulnerable).
All live in the Melody Rocks near Cooktown on Cape York Peninsula, which fall under a mining proposal under consideration by the Queensland state government.
The limestone karst formations and their associated cave systems are key habitats for the three species, and Abrahams said the only known breeding site in Australia for two of them.
The mining proposal is currently before the Queensland government but has yet to be referred to the federal government for assessment under the EPBC Act. Approving it would only put the bats further at risk, said Abrahams.

The greater glider, found in East Gippsland in Victoria, was also having its habitat destroyed even as it was listed as vulnerable species.
The Goongerah Environment Centre reported that 11 greater gliders were found in a citizens’ survey of 850km of the Errinundra plateau, currently being logged by VicForests, just last week.
In East Gippsland, greater gliders are protected by law when more than 10 animals are found in a 1km long survey.
VicForests suspended its operations after GECO submitted its survey data to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning on 28 April.

Nikolic Enquiry Wants Enviro Groups to Clean-up After Logging and Mining Companies

Surprised to find this in the Hobart Mercury but not surprised an enquiry first suggested by Andrew Nikolic would arrive at this conclusion. It shows the depth of Liberal ecological depravity - the same phuktards that continued coal mining and wood chipping while the Barrier Reef was dying and then tried to cover-up the fact massive coral bleaching had happened on their watch. The problem in Tasmania was a few ENGO groups like the Wilderness Society got far too close to the logging industry during the 'forest peace deal'.  TWS actually traveled to Japan to promote veneers made by Asian Timber Mafia local franchisee 'Ta Ann Tasmania'.

by Helen Kempton
The authors of a report from an inquiry into donations to environmental organisations have been accused of seeking to silence dissent over mining and logging in areas of native forest.

Save the Tarkine said the authors of the majority report from the Standing Committee on the Environment’s inquiry into the Register of Environmental Organisations were seeking to silence advocates for the environment.

The group’s stance has been backed by the Environmental Defender’s Office and the Wilderness Society.

The federal parliamentary inquiry was set up by Environment Minister Greg Hunt last year on the back of Tasmanian MP Andrew Nikolic’s motion that green groups be stripped of their charitable tax status.

In its report, the parliamentary committee recommended environmental groups use at least 25 per cent of their public funds for environmental remediation work in order to qualify as a tax-deductible charity.

“The Liberal and National Party members of this committee seem to think that instead of being advocates and defenders of our natural environment, that we should instead provide janitorial services to those who damage and destroy it,” Save the Tarkine campaign co-ordinator Scott Jordan said.

“This is an attempt to subvert the focus of advocacy groups and silence dissent to native forest logging and mining industries.

“But not only would this recommendation divert time and resources from advocacy, but it would place advocacy groups at the mercy of mining companies and forestry agencies who control the leases and access to many degraded areas where rehabilitation activities might take place, while applying no controls to the tax deductibility of the political campaigning by these same corporates.”

Hodgman, Goodwin To Attend $300,000 Shanghai Lunch

Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman and Attorney General Vanessa Goodwin will attend a $300,000 taxpayer-funded 'Gala Lunch' in Shanghai on Thursday April 14 along with PM Turnbull. Hodgman's itinerary is here and Goodwin's is here.

Hodgman meets minor official

From Adam Gartrell Government contract documents reveal Austrade – and therefore taxpayers – will pay the five-star Grand Hyatt Hotel $284,962 to cater the lunch. That comes on top of a $265,000 bill for venue hire at the Shanghai Expo Centre, although the lunch is only one of a number of events being held there throughout the week.
And it's costing significantly more than the same event in 2014. The first AWIC gala lunch, attended by former prime minister Tony Abbott, cost about $230,000 for venue hire and catering, according to official documents.
The lunch will be attended by about 1800 people, costing approximately $160 a head.
More Aussies than Chinese WTF?
The crowd will consist of a 1000-strong Australian business delegation led by Trade Minister Steve Ciobo and about 800 Chinese businesspeople and government figures.
The menu will "showcase Australian products", an Austrade spokesman said.
Inside Tasmania's view. The picture above shows Hodgman meeting a minor official, the deputy mayor of Shanghai on a previous visit. Most if not all of Hodgman and Goodwins meetings are with minor officials. There are 7 lunches and banquets listed on Hodgman's 7 day China itinerary. While Tasmania struggles to keep the power on after draining it's hydro electricity dams and China struggles to hide the Panama Papers from revealing Communist Party corruption to 1.3 billion people. Does anyone need lawyers Hodgman and Goodwin wasting time at banquets in a totalitarian regime whose out of control population has already changed the Earth's climate?

Panama Papers - Meet Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca

Blake Schmidt at Bloomberg
For decades now, Jurgen Mossack​ and Ramon Fonseca​ have been the go-to guys in Panama for international investors looking to put their money in far-flung places.
But even before the world learnt their names on Sunday – in reports that alleged their firm played a critical role in helping political leaders around the world move money offshore – the lawyers knew their lucrative partnership had begun to fray.

Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca

During a four-hour interview last week, Mossack and Fonseca sounded like two men in retreat: the go-go days of cranking out shell companies en masse for clients was over; the firm's been considering scaling back its international franchising; and Mossack was expressing frustration about how Fonseca's political ambitions were earning them unwelcome scrutiny from regulators and the media.
Just days earlier, Fonseca had stepped down as a special adviser to Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela​, saying he wanted to focus his attention instead on the business.
"We are going to make ourselves the right size – smaller," Fonseca said. For the co-head of a firm that over the past few decades has helped revolutionise the way companies and wealthy individuals structure their investments across the globe – and popularised the British Virgin Islands as a hub – the statement marks a big drop in ambition.

Many of the details of Mossack Fonseca's operations were revealed in a documents leak that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) says showed how scores of celebrities and world leaders have been shuffling billions of dollars through banks and shell companies.
Among those who the ICIJ says used the firm's services to help them stash money overseas are Argentine President Mauricio Macri​, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko​ and associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

How Bees Become Addicted To Caffeine

from Albany Daily Star
Researchers in United Kingdom have found that certain plants actually produce caffeine to attract bees and help in pollination.
Scientists at the University of Sussex said they thought the plants produce the caffeine in their nectar to fool bees into thinking it contains more sugar than it actually does. The insects will repeatedly visit those flowers, helping the plants maximize pollination.
Francis Ratnieks, a professor of apiculture at the university, said bees communicate by moving their abdomens a certain way — or, as he calls it, “dancing.” He said the caffeine increases that dancing.
In their experiments, Ratnieks and his colleagues used two artificial flowers that contained sucrose and water, and one contained caffeine as well. “The one with caffeine attracted more bees,” he said, and “the bees who were foraging made more dances — about four times as many dances.”

Identification numbers were glued to those bees exposed to caffeine, and the bees were then sent back to the hive. Those bees’ dances then influenced the behavior of others in the hive, and many bees were directed to revisit sites where caffeinated nectar had been found, even after the feeder ran dry.

The scientists theorized that plants use caffeine to manipulate bees in a way that is good for the plant, but not so good for the bees. The caffeine, they said, tricks bees into thinking that the nectar is of a higher quality and has more sugar than it really does.

According to scientists studying the phenomenon, plants produce caffeine within their nectar in order to fool bees into thinking there is more sugar in it than it actually has and attract them more. The trick makes bees return to the same plant over and over again and help that particular plant more in the process of pollination.
Francis Ratnieks, a professor of apiculture at the University of Sussex, has explained that bees use a series of specific movement patterns in order to communicate with one another. This dance-like pattern is created by the bee through specific movements of its abdomen and it seems that caffeine enhances it.

Sinodinos Battles On

Sean Nicholls SMH
The fundraising body that has embroiled cabinet secretary Arthur Sinodinos in a campaign finance scandal did not tell NSW authorities it received almost $1 million in donations - including from property developers - the year it gave $693,000 to the Liberal party for the 2011 state election.

The controversial Free Enterprise Foundation (FEF), whose donation to the NSW Liberals is the subject of an escalating dispute with the NSW electoral commission, told the state authority it received no donations in 2010-11.
But it had received $958,000 from companies including Westfield ($150,000), Meriton ($50,000) and Walker Group ($100,000) in the same year - a fact it had disclosed in a separate declaration to the federal Australian Electoral Commission.

photo Andrew Meares

Westfield, Meriton and Walker Group were unable to donate to the Liberals' state election campaign as contributions from property developers are prohibited. However, they are allowed to donate to federal election campaigns.
The revelation sheds new light on allegations the FEF was used by the NSW Liberals to funnel illegal donations to its 2011 campaign.
It suggests the foundation did not want state authorities to make the link between the donations it had received and the money it gave to the NSW Liberals for the state election.

Last week the NSW electoral commission announced it is withholding $4.4 million in public funding to the NSW Liberals until the party formally discloses who donated the $693,000 via the FEF.
In a landmark ruling, the commission found the FEF was not a charitable discretionary trust which could receive "gifts" not classified as political donations.
As a result, it said the names of companies who donated through the FEF to the NSW Liberals must be declared as political donors by the party, which it has so far refused to do.
The ruling also contained the explosive finding that senior NSW Liberal officials had deliberately used the FEF to "channel and disguise donations by major political donors some of whom were prohibited donors".

The commission said to reach the conclusion it had relied on evidence provided to the Independent Commission Against Corruption during its Operation Spicer investigation into Liberal party fundraising.
It said it relied on evidence by officials including party finance director Simon McInnes, state director Mark Neeham and "through them" evidence of the "involvement" of finance committee members including Senator Sinodinos "in the arrangements touching the Foundation".
Senator Sinodinos chaired the NSW Liberal finance committee and was party treasurer at the time, but has insisted he had no knowledge of the FEF being used to channel illegal donations.
The finding has led to calls for Senator Sinodinos to stand aside as cabinet secretary. But Senator Sinodinos has criticised the electoral commission's report as "flawed" and asked that his name be removed.