Student protests: Police clash with student Fascists at Liberal Party event at Sydney University

Police clashed with demonstrators who tried to storm a Liberal Party debate at Sydney University being adjudicated by Education Minister Christopher Pyne last night.

Senators George Brandis and Mitch Fifield, along with Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson, were on the guest list for the John Howard Debating Cup at the university's St John's College.

At 7:00pm, about 45 minutes before Mr Pyne arrived, up to 30 protesters tried to enter the building but could not get in.

Police then arrived at the scene at which point there was a confrontation, described by ABC reporter Ben Worsley as "quite forceful", as a number of students were pushed to the ground.

"Within two or three minutes a heavy police presence arrived, probably a couple of dozen police approached the protesters," Worsley said.  "A number of the protesters were pushed to the ground quite forcefully but the group has refused to leave."

About 50 police from the NSW Public Order and Riot Squad remained on the scene until after the debate finished.

Student Liberals condemn 'riot' outside debate

The protest appears to have been attended by members of the Socialist Alternative and the National Union of Students, who coordinated nationwide protests yesterday against the Coalition's plans to deregulate tertiary education.

The Sydney University's Liberal Club released a statement on Facebook, saying Thursday's debating event was "subject to a violent riot by a fringe group of students on the extreme left".

"I'm sure all Australian students stand with me in condemning this unprovoked and violent riot," the statement quoted the club's president, Alex Dore, as saying.

"This riot was organised by the usual suspects from Sydney University's extremist rent-a-crowd, who have nothing better to do than to disrupt civil debate with their militant tactics."

The federal budget included plans to deregulate university fees from 2016, allowing universities to charge what they like for courses.

The interest rate on student loans will also increase and the income threshold for when students need to start paying the money back will be lowered.

Mr Pyne made it clear earlier on Thursday that despite protests from students there will be no changes to the education reforms.

"I don't swallow the argument that students are somehow being mistreated or burdened," he said.

"That doesn't change the government's mind. We have to do this for the county, and we have to do it for the students."

He rejected calls from Universities Australia for a delay to the start of deregulated fees in 2016 so universities could have more time to set fees.

"Delaying it is simply the easy way out because Universities Australia can't agree amongst themselves," he said.

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Copper network switch-off begins as Telstra hands over infrastructure to NBN Co

Telstra will begin switching off services delivered over its decades-old copper today, marking the first time it has relinquished control over telecommunications infrastructure to NBN Co.

The switch-off will be undertaken progressively in the first 15 areas to have received fibre, with exemptions for customers who have signed up for the NBN but are yet to receive it.

NBN Co was urging those who had failed to sign up to the NBN in those sites to do so by close of business yesterday or risk losing access to their copper-based landline and internet services and having to rely on mobile-based communications services.

At the start of the month, 750 premises of the 19,000 with active copper lines in the first test release sites were yet to request the NBN.

As part of an $11 billion deal, Telstra agreed to disconnect its copper network within 18 months of the NBN being delivered to an area to ensure NBN Co did not face competition from services delivered over the copper network.

The first 15 sites where copper will be progressively switched off are:

    New South Wales - Armidale, Minnamurra and Kiama Downs
    Victoria - South Morang and Brunswick
    Queensland - Townsville, Aitkenvale and Mundingburra
    South Australia - Willunga
    Tasmania - Deloraine, George Town, Kingston Beach, Sorell, St Helens and Triabunna

Connecting to the NBN in those sites has not been smooth sailing for all. Kiama resident Andrew Seamons says it has been a frustrating experience.

"In 2013 we went down to readjust our internet plan to find that it was no longer available and that we were going to have to be forced onto the NBN. It's a move we didn't want to have to make," he told ABC Illawarra.

"We were quite happy with the service we were receiving, but due to the fact that it was going to be switched off, we had no choice. It's taken them nine to 10 months to actually change us over."

Measures to protect vulnerable customers

Telstra says it and other internet service providers will take steps to ensure vulnerable customers, such as those who have a copper-based medical alert service, are not left stranded by the switch-over.

"We will review communications sent to each customer to ensure they have been contacted a minimum number of times and are well informed about the changes," a Telstra spokeswoman said.

"A phased withdrawal of services will then commence starting with those customers who have already connected to the NBN or have confirmed to us that they do not wish to move to the NBN."

The construction of the NBN has been beset by delays, but telecommunications consultant Chris Coughlan says that is likely to benefit Telstra, at least initially.

"They will continue to earn better margins on existing ADSL and PSTN services than services provided via NBN Co," he said.

But Mr Coughlan says it could be a problem down the track.

"Telstra will start to become concerned when the number of services that can't be disconnected through some failure or delay of NBN Co impacts their ability to capitalise on the sale of assets, such as unneeded local exchanges," he said.

"Operationally, if the revenue from these few services does not meet the fixed costs of managing and maintaining the assets that facilitate them, then Telstra will also become concerned."

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Nauru detainees informed about refugee resettlement in Cambodia

Some asylum seekers at the Australian-run immigration processing centre on Nauru have been advised they will be sent to Cambodia if they are found to be refugees.  The advice preempts the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Australia and Cambodia.

The ABC understands some family groups among the more than 1,100 asylum seekers on Nauru have been told their future is in Cambodia.

"No agreement has been reached with Cambodia," said a spokesperson for the office of Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison.

"The Minister has been advised no such messaging has been provided by the Australian Government to transferees at Nauru."

A statement from a Nauru government spokesperson said "asylum seekers have been told that if granted refugee status, they will be temporarily resettled on Nauru for up to five years, after which they will be settled in a third country".  "No one has been told that they will immediately be sent to a third country."

Australia 'not rushing' refugee deal

Cambodia's prime minister Hun Sen announced on Facebook this week that his nation will accept refugees processed on Nauru.  "[The] MoU with Australia will be signed soon to take refugees deemed to be genuine," he said.

Mr Hun Sen says those who are resettled will have the same opportunities to study and work like locals without discrimination.

Meanwhile, Mr Morrison says Australia is not rushing the refugee resettlement deal with Cambodia.  He says there is more work to do on the deal.

"You would have heard the comment made by Hun Sen. I think the reaction has been very positive, but we still have details to work through and we are not rushing this."

The resettlement advice has caused tension at the Nauru facility, with detainees understood to be hoping the deal will not go ahead.

Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Asia, and relies heavily on foreign aid. In the 1970s and '80s, large numbers of its citizens fled war and starvation.

The Cambodian opposition has slammed the asylum seeker deal as a disgrace and unrealistic, saying the country is not equipped to take refugees.

First refugees released

The first group of asylum seekers to be processed on Nauru as refugees has been released into the community.

The Nauru Government handed down 20 refugee status determinations yesterday and is due to make another 21 tomorrow.

The first group of refugees includes nine people in three family groups and four single adult males.

Seven people who received negative refugee determinations remain in detention on the island.

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Cory Bernardi on the budget

Bernardi thinks the budget was not tough enough.  Below is a Q & A about it

Q. I have noticed that the bulk of the new Medicare co-payment goes towards a medical research fund. Why doesn’t this revenue go to paying off our sovereign debt?

That’s a valid point, considering the enormous level of debt that the Labor Party left the country with after just six years in government. Personally, I would prefer to see the co-payment directed to debt reduction but the government decided otherwise.

Q.Why wasn’t more funding cut from the ABC?

An excellent question. As our budget is in a parlous state, the government needs to consider reining in expenditure across the board.

Yet the ABC has seen a measly 1% reduction in their budget of over $1 billion a year. If it was up to me I’d limit the ABC’s public funding to current radio stations and two television channels. Other than that they should have to compete on commercial terms. This could save the taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

Q. Why is the Coalition introducing a debt levy when it promised no new taxes?

As I’ve written before, the way to reduce our debt is to shrink the size of government while growing the economy. The best way to do this is to reduce taxes across the board.

But for better or worse, this is what the government decided. What Australians can do is make sure that this does in fact remain a temporary levy.

Q. Isn’t this six month exclusion period for under 30s from Newstart unfair to those who have just lost their job?

Encouraging young Australians to help themselves, to take opportunities and build a better life for their families is more rewarding for all involved rather than letting young people get stuck in a cycle of welfare dependency.

For the unemployed who are fully able to work, those first few months without a job are crucial. We need to make sure they are fully motivated to get back into work as soon as possible.

Q. Why is it that some climate change related bodies have been abolished while others have not?

It’s good news that the Budget abolishes the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and that the Government is still committed to abolishing the Climate Change Authority and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. There is probably scope and justification to abolish more of these bodies established through AGW alarmism but this is a good start.

Q. Why are you targeting families with your changes to Family Tax Benefit B?

Family Tax Benefit was designed to help out those families on a single income and the income threshold for support has been lowered. Personally, I think a better way of supporting families is through the tax system- income splitting, tax free thresholds and so forth.

Taking taxes and then giving it back (minus a bureaucracy fee) seems inefficient to me.

Q. I read that the foreign aid budget won’t be increased over the forward estimates. As a wealthy country, shouldn’t Australia be contributing more to help the world’s poor?

Australia does have an international role to play in offering assistance to those who need help.

But this has to be considered in the context of our national interest and the government’s duty to its own citizens. Why should we pay billions of dollars in borrowed money to other nations when we have pressing issues at home?

Q. Why is the pension age being raised to 70 and when will this take effect?

With Australians living longer, the age we work until must increase. Pension eligibility will rise up to 70 years of age in the year 2035. Everyone born before 1965 will not be affected by this latest change.

If we do not make these changes Australia will be setting itself up to have an unsustainable welfare system.

Via email

ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG depicts the sex worker who called Tony Abbott slimy

Blogger faces fine over letter post

A 47-YEAR-OLD blogger from Mount Gambier claims he will be the first person in South Australia to be charged under the state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption laws.

But the blogger, whose name cannot be published under the state’s ICAC legislation, will not be charged with corruption.

Anti-Corruption Branch officers from South Australian police raided his home on May 8 and seized his laptop computer for breaking the first rule of ICAC — talking about it on his blog.

The Australian has obtained a copy of the receipt police gave the blogger when they seized his ACER laptop and power cord, which are now classified as police “exhibits”.

In what could be a test case for the new laws, the blogger says police advised him he would be the first person in the state to be charged under section 56 of the ICAC Act — Publication of Information and Evidence — for blogging about an investigation.

He faces a $30,000 fine for breaching the act. “I was told, ‘Expect to be charged’, and that it was specific to that section,” he said.

“Obviously, I a m fairly concerned. I asked them what it was all about, and they said it’s about something you said on your blog about ICAC, but they wouldn’t tell me what. I have got no idea what is going on at this point.”

The man said he had since sought advice from community legal services, but lawyers were unsure of his rights given the charges had not yet been laid.

“My legal advice is that they don’t know, because no one has ever had this enacted against them.”

His blog, which is still active, publishes a letter from ICAC Commissioner Bruce Lander that reports on the outcome of an investigation launched after the man made a complaint to his local member of parliament. The letter said “No evidence has been located to substantiate any of the allegations” that were made by the man, and the file had been closed.

The blogger admitted he was critical of ICAC’s probe, but said he believed he should have a right to express an opinion about the authority.

“I put it to them (the ACB detectives) politely that I wished I lived in a state where two anti-corruption detectives had nothing better to do than come and get (me) for talking about ICAC,” he said. “It is just outrageous. The ICAC legislation is completely farcical.”

Attorney-General John Rau is considering changes to the same section of the act after Mr Lander criticised the legislation as too prohibitive.

“The act is so tightly drawn that it is an offence to publish information to anyone that a person is, or may be, reported to the ­Office of Public Integrity or the identity of the person who has been reported,” he said.

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Qld solar tariffs under threat

QUEENSLAND homeowners who use solar panels could be worse off under laws that will no longer guarantee them a feed-in tariff of eight cents.

Laws due to be passed tonight will mean the responsibility for paying the tariff will switch from government-owned distributors to retailers after June 30.

And consumers will have to negotiate directly with their retailer for the price they are paid.

The Queensland Competition Authority will set a tariff rate for Ergon Energy customers in the immediate future, given the very limited competition outside the southeast corner.

Energy Minister Mark McArdle says the changes will lift the cost burden from the network businesses, making the scheme fairer for all Queensland consumers.

"It will put downward pressure on electricity prices," Mr McArdle told parliament.

"Feed-in tariff payments will not be cross subsidised by consumers, making the arrangement far more sustainable over the long term."

Electrical Trades Union state organiser Stuart Traill says the 40,000 consumers on the eight cents feed-in tariff will have little to no bargaining power with large energy corporations.

"They will be worse off, and a lot of them will be pensioners," he told AAP.

"And there will be job losses in the solar industry because there will be less incentives to move to solar now."

Mr Traill added the plan was ill considered, and the returns would be minuscule compared to how much could have been saved if the 44 cent feed-in tariff had been reformed.

The 44 cent tariff, paid to some 284,000 people who were first to sign up to the scheme, will remain unchanged.

Shadow Treasurer Curtis Pitt said the Opposition would not oppose the bill but said the Newman government had broken an election promise.

"The LNP promised the scheme would be safe and kept at the same rate," Mr Pitt told parliament.

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Solar panels ‘are time bombs’

THE Coalition has likened the spate of house fires caused by allegedly faulty rooftop circuit-breakers to the pink batts fiasco, claiming Labor ignored warnings that subsidies for solar power would create a similar honey pot for dodgy operators.

As revealed by The Australian, Advancetech, the Queensland company that imported and sold 27,000 solar power DC isolators, went into receivership last Friday, leaving tens of thousands of homeowners to replace them in their rooftop arrays or risk a ­conflagration.

The Queensland and NSW governments have issued recall notices for the Avanco isolators after 70 of them burnt out, in some cases causing minor house fires.

Also recalled is a PVPower branded isolator imported and sold by Swiss electrotechnical products supplier DKSH, though that began in March at the instigation of the company.

Describing solar panels as “ticking time bombs”, Nationals senator Ron Boswell said there would be “possibly thousands” of other dangerous breakdowns.

The Queensland senator said the Labor government’s subsidy to encourage home owners to install solar panels, the Small-scale Renewable Energy Certificates scheme, led to an overheated market in which shoddy operators and cheap imports thrived.

“The flaws and waste associated with this scheme have been largely under the radar because of the scale of the personal tragedies associated with the pink batts fiasco, but as an exercise in silliness, waste, and maladministration, the solar scheme has been its absolute equal,” Senator Boswell said.

“It has a long way to go before it plays out, as systems installed age.

“Fire-prone isolators in rooftop solar arrays in Queensland and NSW are just the sort of problem Labor was warned about, and ignored, as it ramped up demand for its solar program in 2010.”

He quoted several experts who had given evidence to a Senate committee on the topic that year, including the chief executive of environmental credits trader Greenbank Environmental, Fiona O’Hehir, who said the subsidy gave rise to possible dodgy and dangerous installations.

“You would actually have DC generation on your roof, which can be as high as 120V DC. A flood of cheap imports into Australia could mean that we have significant risk,” she said at the time.

“If it continues at this rate, we will soon end up with a situation along the lines of the insulation program, which would be a disaster for the renewable energy industry.’’

The SREC scheme is still in place, though at a much reduced rate of subsidy, and is under review pending the outcome of the inquiry into renewable energy by businessman Dick Warburton.

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Subsidies for clean energy to hit $21bn

SUBSIDIES for renewable energy schemes such as rooftop solar panels and wind farms will cost electricity consumers up to $21.6 billion by 2020, a new analysis has found.

A submission by the Minerals Council of Australia also warns that more gas- and coal-fired power stations could be mothballed or permanently closed as the renewable energy target puts pressure on the electricity market and slashes their revenues.

If this happens, retail electricity prices “can be expected to increase”, according to an economic analysis commissioned by the council which represents mining giants including BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Glencore Xstrata.

The analysis also hits back at fresh claims by the clean energy sector that the RET will create up to 18,400 jobs by 2020, declaring “the most immediate effects” from subsidising the renewable sector are job losses as cheaper forms of energy are crowded out.

“Additional job losses can be expected to arise from the drain on economic activity as a result of higher electricity prices,” it finds.

Former Queensland treasurer Keith De Lacy — now one of the nation’s best-known company ­directors — declared it was “plain crazy” to have schemes such as the RET, solar feed-in tariffs and carbon tax that were driving up power bills.

“The Australian public keep complaining about the increases in the costs of living and this has become even more so since the budget,” Mr De Lacy told The Australian yesterday.

“But one of the biggest increases in cost has been the price of electricity ... It’s the most fundamental of services to the Aus­tralian public … These kind of things just make some people feel good but don’t achieve anything.

“They’ve got no place, I believe, in a modern economy.”

The comments add to pressure on the Coalition, given it is split over what to do about the RET.

According to the Principal Economics review commissioned by the Minerals Council, the RET scheme has an opportunity cost (money that could have been invested elsewhere) of more than $36bn by 2020-21.

The analysis finds that subsidies that are recovered through the sale of renewable ­energy certificates, which are ­directly passed on to consumers, could reach between $19.3bn and $21.6bn by 2020-21, covering part of the cost to build the ­infrastructure.

The miners are wielding the figures in a bid to convince the government-appointed RET review panel that the scheme is ­excessively costly for households and industry, and cannot continue the way it is.

“These are the additional costs paid by energy consumers: households, domestic firms and exporters such as the mining sector,” the council’s submission says.

The submission also warns that the RET will encumber business with “uncapped and high costs for subsidies”, particularly for the scheme for rooftop solar PV panels, “because of poor ­design and a series of inchoate policy shifts”.

In 2010, then federal minister Martin Ferguson said the RET was a “bonus to the renewable sector of the order of another $20bn to $30bn in commonwealth government support”.

The Australian Industry Group has called for the RET to be maintained, despite demands by some businesses that it be scrapped because it is expensive.

The AiGroup says that while the cost of building wind farms and solar panels is passed on to customers, extra energy from wind farms and solar panels has pushed down wholesale prices.

This has also been a key pillar of arguments by the Clean Energy Council, which is wielding its own research by ROAM Consulting that finds household energy prices would be $50 a year lower by 2020 with the RET, and that leaving it alone would create 18,400 jobs.

The Minerals Council has told the panel lower wholesale prices are not a “function of competitive forces but of government intervention”, are likely to be short-lived and undermine investments in coal- and gas-fired power stations needed for reliable electricity supplies.

The analysis points to power station retirements including the permanent shutdown of the Munmorah black coal power ­station in NSW and temporary closure of South Australia’s Playford.

“Overall retail price rises have therefore been lower than they otherwise would have been,’’ the analysis says.

Wholesale electricity prices are “likely to increase” if power generators that become unprofitable close. Minerals Council chief executive Brendan Pearson said access to cheap, reliable energy had been a “source of economic strength” for Australia. “This is no longer the case,” he said.

The analysis draws on previous modelling. It quotes estimates by SKM MMA for the Climate Change Authority in December 2012 that put the cost for buying certificates for large-scale renewables at $15.9bn by 2020-21 and for small-scale renewables at $3.4bn — totalling $19.3bn.

Like most of the figures cited in the new analysis, these are based on an assumption of no carbon price — which the analysis says is appropriate as the Abbott government has announced its plans to repeal it.

To get to the $21.6bn figure, the analysis cites modelling by ACIL Tasman for TRUenergy (now EnergyAustralia) — which wants the RET scaled back — that puts the subsidy for the small-scale scheme at $5.7bn.

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ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG is disgusted at the ALP attitude to the national debt

Incompetent Canberra police

A Civic nightclub owner has described a single punch assault outside his venue as "sickening” and "brutal”, while expressing surprise at how long it took police to go public.

Police were still hunting for the attacker on Tuesday, almost a month after he fractured a man’s skull and caused bleeding to his brain outside Academy on Bunda Street.

Confronting CCTV footage shows the man appearing to argue with a group outside the club, before the victim appears to walk away. The man follows and levels him with one forceful punch. The victim was knocked down and smashed his head on the pavement, leaving him unconscious and with serious injuries.

Despite the attack occurring on April 21, police only notified the public on Monday, when they released images in a bid to track down further witnesses.

Academy nightclub owner Frank Condi condemned the violence said the offender should face the consequences of his actions.

"When you see an attack like that...in other situations it could turn into an all-in brawl," he said.

Staff handed over CCTV footage of the incident within 24 hours and Mr Condi said he was "very surprised" police waited so long to publicise the attack and call for witnesses.

"Having said that, I wasn't there on the evening and I didn't see what happened and I don't know police procedures," he said.

His condemnation of the attack was echoed by the ACT’s Victims of Crime Commissioner, John Hinchey, who said reforms were needed, including trading-hours restrictions, before a young Canberran was killed.

"I’m worried that one day we’re going to find a young man dead because of these assaults in Civic late at night,” he said.

Police are yet to arrest the man, and CCTV vision appears to show the man was allowed to leave the scene. Mr Hinchey said that was a real concern.

But Mr Condi defended the actions of the nightclub's security guards, who were interviewed by police, saying one of the staff immediately rushed over to help the victim when he hit the ground.

"If there's ever an altercation we try and get in there and help," Mr Condi said. "Though we're very limited in what we can do. We have a no-violence policy and anything we see we try to dissolve right away."

Staff would review the venue's security procedures to prevent a similar incident from happening in future, Mr Condi said.

"Since it's been public we've posted a link to the police story on our Facebook page and we've been discussing with investigators whether we put signs up of the wanted man inside the club," he said.

"We're just trying to get as much information as we can."

Mr Condi said it was difficult to say whether alcohol-related violence had spiked in the city's centre in recent years, as he hadn't noticed a rise in incidents. He said responsibility for alcohol-related violence rested on both licensed venues and individuals.

"Obviously as a venue we have to make sure people don't get too intoxicated, because we don't want that kind of violence in the venue," he said.

 Police Minister Simon Corbell declined to say when he was made aware of the April 21 incident. A spokesman said Mr Corbell would not comment on the decision by investigators not to release information to the public for nearly a month and declined to answer questions about what sort of crimes he was briefed on by ACT Policing.

In a statement, Mr Corbell said he was confident police were driving reductions in offence rates.

"Assault offences in the last quarter, when compared to the same time last year, show a decrease of 20 per cent," he said.

"Alcohol-related crime continues to place an unnecessary financial, social and health burden on the community and is an ongoing priority for ACT Policing."

Mr Corbell said the summer period saw a 39 per cent decrease in alcohol-related violence in the ACT compared with the previous year as well as a 22 per cent decrease in alcohol-related anti-social behaviour.

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Tony Abbott pulls out of Geelong university appearance ahead of planned protests

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has cancelled a visit to Deakin University’s Geelong campus with Victorian Premier Denis Napthine on Wednesday, an event protesters were targeting.

A collection of different community groups had planned to protest against Mr Abbott and his first budget that has cut billions from the state budget and made dramatic changes to cost-of-living.

Extra security had been arranged for the event at the Waurn Ponds campus in the wake of a series of anti-government protests and backlash against the budget in the city.

Mr Abbott’s office on Tuesday afternoon cancelled the event with Deakin University that was to celebrate the work of Carbon Nexus, which had received some federal funds in the past.

The event had been confirmed by the Prime Minister’s office earlier in the day.

A federal source said the decision to cancel the visit to Geelong had nothing to do with what has been an at-times frosty relationship between Mr Abbott and Dr Napthine in recent months.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne said on Tuesday night that the event was cancelled on the advice of the Australian Federal Police, who said that "they were concerned about the safety particularly of innocent bystanders".

"So the Prime Minister made the decision, and his office, that it would be wiser to not go and create that tumult at Deakin University so students can get on with their studies unmolested by the Socialist Alternative, which seems quite intent on shutting down democracy in Australia," he told ABC TV's Lateline program.

But National Union of Students president Deanna Taylor said on Wednesday that Mr Abbott must explain why he was worried about facing students and answering their questions.

"I think the Prime Minister and his ministers are being a bit cowardly and trying to portray students as though they’re violent rabble-rousers who are out to cause trouble, which isn’t the case at all," she said.

"They’re trying to make us sound like spoiled little brats who don't know how good we've got it. They have a very clear agenda."

Students at universities across Australia have targeted prominent Liberal figures who have appeared on campus since the federal budget was handed down last week and will hold a national day of action on Wednesday against the changes to higher education.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was attacked at Sydney University on Friday and heckled later that day at an event at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Former frontbencher Sophie Mirabella was also shouted down during a lecture at the University of Melbourne on Monday.

But Ms Taylor says students are so incensed by the proposed changes they are doing what they can to get their point across.

"Not all students have access to the corridors of power and can't go and lobby politicians," she said. "For a lot of students who are disenfranchised, protesting and demonstrating is really their only way of voicing their discontent."

Ms Taylor said an expected 2000-strong rally in Melbourne would be the nation's biggest, but thousands more would rally across the country in all capital cities except Darwin.

She said government plans to deregulate fees would burden students with debt for 30-40 years and  hinder them from buying a house or car.

"We shouldn't basically be penalising people for getting a higher education," she said.

Despite the cancellation of the Deakin University event, it is understood Mr Abbott and Dr Napthine are still scheduled to see each other on Wednesday night in Melbourne.

Dr Napthine has been critical of the federal budget and has called for an urgent meeting of all government leaders.

Victoria is facing up to a $20 billion cut to health and education funding over the next ten years with changes to national partnership funding set to impacting Victoria from July 1.

Dr Napthine has been angered by Canberra’s decision to allow Holden and Toyota to pull out of manufacturing operations in Australia, as well as at the refusal to assist fruit processor SPC.

Mr Abbott will still attend an event in Victoria on Wednesday as he continues to sell what has been a horror first budget for the Coalition, delivering a big hit in the Prime Minister's popularity in Victoria in the Fairfax Nielsen polls.

Mr Abbott last week conceded "there was some things in the Budget that the premiers liked – there were other things in the Budget that the premiers would prefer weren’t there"  but has stressed the federal government would still look to work constructively with the states.

However, Mr Abbott refused to meet with state premiers collectively over the weekend in Sydney to discuss the fall out from the budget.

With Mr Abbott’s popularity in Victoria the lowest in the country, Monday's Age/Nielsen poll showed the Coalition trailing 61-39 in the state, questions have also been raised about whether it is good for Dr Napthine to be seen with Mr Abbott, especially in a marginal seat, ahead of the November state poll.

Geelong Trades Hall secretary Tim Gooden said a community protest had been organised, including representatives from unions, students, the Greens, ALP, people from Men’s Sheds, pensioners and disability groups.

Earlier the university would not comment on whether there would be a strong security presence at the Waurn Ponds campus, but Victoria police are aware of protests and said there would be ‘‘adequate police’’ there to ensure safety.

On Tuesday, Dr Napthine said he did not back a broadening or increase to the GST. He also said he had received a letter from the PM conceding that there were budget impacts that would affect Victoria from July 1, with the state up to $200 million worse.

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No more non-religious chaplains

Last week's budget delivered a double blow to youth welfare worker Joanne Homsi. For the past 18 months, Ms Homsi has worked in two high schools in the St George and Sutherland area, supporting students with drug and alcohol issues, low confidence, family problems and suicidal thoughts.

As well as talking with students, she has connected them to mental health centres, remedial learning programs and other services.

Ms Homsi loves the job, and the schools value her work. But in December she will be looking for a new job - and there will not be a safety net to catch her if she cannot find one. Because she is under 30, she would have to wait six months before she can receive any unemployment benefits under tough new rules for young job seekers.

Ms Homsi's three-days-a-week position was funded by the federal government's National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program. The government is continuing the program, at a cost of $245 million over five years, but will remove the option for schools to hire a non-religious welfare worker.

The 623 schools that made this choice will have to hire a chaplain or go without. "I'm very saddened and concerned about the change to the program," she said.

School chaplains have a role to play, but not everywhere, she said. She noted St George is a multicultural area where Catholics, Anglicans, Muslims, Buddhists, Greek Orthodox and non-religious students study together. "These schools had a choice between a chaplain or a youth worker and they chose to have a youth worker," she said.

"I've been available to everyone regardless of their religion or culture. I've provided students with a non-judgmental approach to very sensitive issues and that has been beneficial to everyone."

Parliamentary Secretary for Education Scott Ryan said the government is restoring the scheme to its original vision after Labor expanded it to include student welfare workers in 2011. "The Coalition was critical of Labor watering down the focus on chaplains when the original chaplaincy program expired," Senator Ryan said. "Student welfare services are an important part of school communities and are rightly provided by, and the responsibility of, the states in public schools and other schools and systems in their respective schools."

Australian Council of State School Organisations president Peter Garrigan said: "The chaplaincy program in its entirety should have been scrapped and the money given to provide … services like psychologists, speech pathologists or dentists. But if the program has to operate there should be a non-religious option."


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University of Sydney study rules out link between vaccination and autism

WHETHER or not to vaccinate children has sparked fiery debate among parents for decades.  Many parents feel immunisation is unnatural and there are prevalent fears about a link between vaccination and autism.

But a new report led by the University of Sydney appears to have settled the argument.

A review of available data from around the world has found that there is no link between vaccination and the development of autism or autism spectrum disorders.

The study examined seven sets of data involving more than 1.25 million children and concluded that there was no evidence to support a relationship between common vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough and the development of autism.

The paper’s senior author, Associate Professor Guy Eslick from the Sydney Medical School, said he was inspired to look into the issue after watching some documentaries on the medical debate.  “I thought, surely someone has put this data together. I searched; there was nothing,” Prof Eslick said.

“There has been enormous debate regarding the possibility of a link between these commonly used and safe childhood vaccinations and the supposed development of autism.

“The data consistently shows the lack of evidence for an association between autism, autism spectrum disorders and childhood vaccinations … providing no reason to avoid immunisation on these grounds.”

The idea that vaccines were linked to autism took hold in 1998 when British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield published a paper that hypothesised that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine could lead to the condition.  The paper has since been discredited and his research was found to be fraudulent.

In 2011, pharmaceutical scientist Dr Dennis Flaherty called Wakefield’s findings “the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years”.

Prof Eslick stressed that he had no vested interest in the argument. He is not an expert in vaccination or autism and his study was not funded by a drug company.

“I did this because it was really interesting to me that there is a mass of people against vaccination and there really wasn’t any information to support that,” he said.  “I want my research to elucidate the truth and find out what’s real.

“When I saw the data, I would have to say I was a bit surprised but happy overall.”

Prof Eslick said the fear of this relationship between vaccination and autism had become a major public health issue.

“This is especially concerning given the fact that there have been 11 measles outbreaks in the US since 2000, and NSW also saw a spike in measles infections from early 2012 to late 2012,” he said.

Groups such as the Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network maintain that there is a link between vaccination and autism. The network has uploaded a list of studies that supports its views here.

Prof Eslick said he had a great deal of empathy for parents of children with autism.

“(This study) will be cold comfort for them and I don’t think it will change their minds. You will probably never be able to change their minds,” he said.

Vaccination does harbour some risks — such as rashes and allergic reactions — but these are uncommon, according to Prof Eslick.

The review has been published in the medical journal Vaccine.

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Shorten shafted

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's bold attempts at fundamental structural reform of the Labor Party have been all but voted down by the ALP's Victorian conference.

Mr Shorten has built his leadership on party reforms to give rank-and-file a greater say in election of candidates and leaders.

"We cannot shirk the task of modernising the party, we cannot shirk the task of rebuilding the party, we cannot shirk the task of being a party that genuinely practises what it preaches for the nation of Australia," Mr Shorten said at the state conference on Sunday.

But his proposals, designed to weaken union dominance, were deferred and diluted as union factional opponents who stood to lose power under the proposals banded together to defer and defeat the changes.

Despite being 10 points ahead in Monday's opinion polls as the electorate digests an unpopular federal budget, Victorian unions were in no mood to cut Mr Shorten some slack.

"The paradox with reforming a political organisation is that those who have the power don't want to give it up," former ALP state secretary Nick Reece told ABC's 7.30.

"But in order to achieve the reform, you need the people in power to accept the case for reform. So you end up with a stalemate situation, in which reform is very difficult to achieve.

"Australian political parties have the lowest membership in the world. Collingwood Football Club has more members than the Labor Party, the Liberal Party and the Greens combined."

After a public backlash against unions which has seen a royal commission called, the Labor leader had pushed to weaken their stranglehold on Labor's central selection panel.

Mr Shorten wanted to bolster the weight given to the vote of local branch members in candidate selection from 50 per cent to 70 per cent.

After 48 hours of furious behind-the-scenes negotiations by union and party delegates, the proposal was deferred until after the national ALP conference in March 2015.

"The Labor Party's got to continue to change. That's inevitable. The path of rebuilding can't be done in one day or one weekend," Mr Shorten said when asked by 7.30 whether the deferral represented a loss for him.

Also deferred was a plan to allow branch members a say in electing the state leader.

Party sources told 7.30 that supporters of Victorian Labor leader Daniel Andrews were vigorously lobbying against this being debated so close to the state election in November - an election Mr Andrews has a good shot at winning.

A fight with the party could derail his campaign. But Mr Andrews batted off suggestions that he fought Mr Shorten's proposals on 774 ABC Melbourne on Monday.

"You're telling me what my position is, and I'm putting it to you that it's wrong," Mr Andrews told presenter Jon Faine.

Mr Shorten also downplayed questions from 7.30 about tensions between the pair over reforms.

"What matters to Daniel Andrews is the best interests of Victoria. What matters to me is the best interests of Victoria and indeed the nation," Mr Shorten said, adding that the days of Labor disunity were "behind us".

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NAPLAN study finds testing causes students anxiety, program not achieving original goals

A new study on the effects of the National Assessment Program - Literacy And Numeracy (NAPLAN) has found the nationwide school testing is not achieving what it set out to do, and is having unintended negative consequences.

Eric Sidoti, project leader of the study, says since NAPLAN's inception in 2008 it has changed from being used as a diagnostic tool to a comparative measure.

"NAPLAN has taken on a life of its own. I guess what has happened is the testing tail is wagging the educational dog," Mr Sidoti told ABC's 7.30.

"It is symptomatic of the high stakes of NAPLAN as it has come to be, rather than what it was intended to be."

The study was undertaken by the Whitlam Institute at the University of Western Sydney and conducted by the University of Melbourne.

It found the tests were causing high levels of anxiety among some students.

"For a significant minority you are finding levels of stress that are beyond the norm, so not just a question of being nervous but vomiting, sleeplessness, migraines," Mr Sidoti said.

It is a view borne out by the experience of Lily Taylor and her nine-year-old son, Hamish. Hamish is one of millions of children in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 who sat the test last week and he is aware of just how important NAPLAN is.

"The teachers told me that if you don't do well in NAPLAN you won't get a good education to get into a good school, and then if you don't get a good education you can't get a good job," he said.

His mother is worried about the pressure on him to perform well.

"He did say to me that he wasn't sleeping, that he was waking up in the night and he is usually a very good sleeper. So that was of concern," Ms Taylor said.

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Another natural fluctuation that "research" did not understand or foretell


Hundreds of giant Australian cuttlefish have swum into breeding grounds at the top of Spencer Gulf in South Australia, reversing a worrying decline of recent years.

The population had been dwindling and local diver Tony Bramley says he had not been expecting to see any this season, based on that trend.

He says it has been warmer-than-usual weather for the start of the breeding season and more cuttlefish might arrive as temperatures drop.

Mr Bramley says he does not know where the cuttlefish have travelled from as there has been no sign of many gathering offshore in recent weeks.

Cuttlefish research efforts include:

Monitoring breeding aggregation in northern Spencer Gulf to check numbers, water quality and state of habitat.

Looking at potential alternative cuttlefish spawning areas in northern Spencer Gulf.

Determining the habitat preferred by cuttlefish when laying eggs, to aid research into artificial habitats which might promote breeding.

"It's just baffling to see that many cuttlefish after the year that we had last year," he said.

"I'm really at a loss to explain how they've recovered so quickly, I mean it's wonderful to see that.

"It just proves that, no matter what you think you might know, nature can always surprise you, because it's out of left field. I really didn't expect anything like what we saw."

Mr Bramley says cuttlefish numbers are better than they have been in the past three years but still low overall.

"Now to be fair we've only dived Black Point, so we haven't been through the rest of the aggregating sites."

Federal and state funding has supported research into cuttlefish breeding in northern Spencer Gulf since the decline in numbers was noted.

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Foreign aid cuts make up one fifth of budget savings

As Peter Bauer once said:  Foreign aid is a way of transferring money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries

The single biggest saving made in the 2014 federal budget was a reduction in foreign aid spending. On Twitter, World Vision Australia chief executive Reverend Tim Costello said the cut made up about one fifth of overall budget savings.

He accused the Government of balancing the books on the backs of the poor.  "Of the $36 billion Government budget savings - aid cuts contribute 20 per cent when aid is only 1.3 per cent of total the budget," he said.

ABC Fact Check asked World Vision where Mr Costello got his figures. A spokeswoman said that they were drawn chiefly from the 2014-15 Budget Overview released with the budget papers on May 13.

The budget included cuts to aid spending in the current financial year. These were announced in January by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who said that in 2013-14 aid spending would be $5.042 billion. Her predecessor Bob Carr had forecast aid spending of $5.666 billion for 2013-14, so Ms Bishop's announcement represented a cut of over $600 million.

The Budget Overview contains that cut, and forecast cuts of $601 million in 2014-15, $1.2 billion in 2015-16, $1.7 billion in 2016-17 and $3.5 billion in 2017-18. These cuts total $7.6 billion over five years, with the largest cut coming in 2017-18, when Labor had planned to increase aid spending to reach 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI). The 0.5 per cent is linked to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, which call on countries to commit 0.7 per cent of GNI to aid.

According to the Parliamentary Library aid spending has been around 0.35 per cent of GNI in recent years.

The Coalition has also committed to increasing aid funding to 0.5 per cent of GNI, but has not committed to a date, citing the state of the budget as the reason.

The foreign aid cuts are the largest in a table in the Budget Overview summarising the major savings announced on May 13. The total major savings in the table amount to just over $35.7 billion.

Share of the total budget

To determine the percentage share of the overall budget spent on foreign aid, World Vision compared aid spending, as shown in the budget papers, and total government payments, as shown in the Budget Overview, between 2013-14 and 2017-18.

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Budget hits pensioners and mature-age workers

Payments are more tightly targeted to those in most need

Pensioners, mature-age workers and self-funded retirees will be stung sooner than expected by the budget.

Those eligible for the part pension from next January will be hit by an effective 50 per cent tax as super payments are included in both means tests, financial advisers warn.

Worse, after July 1 this year those on concession cards which are available to pensioners could lose as much as $2000 a year, says Louise Biti, head of technical services at Strategy Steps, which advises financial planners.

The pension concession and Commonwealth Seniors Health cards offer travel, electricity, phone and council rate discounts in an agreement with the states.

But buried in the budget documents the government reveals it will be "terminating" this agreement after July 1, saving  $1.3 billion over four years.

"It will hurt pensioners the most. This will cost $1000 to $2000 a year. No one was expecting that. Since it's not a direct payment to pensioners the government didn't want to highlight this," Biti says.

The separate abolition on September 20 of the "seniors supplement" attached to the Seniors Health card for self-funded retirees will cost couples $1320 a year.

But the biggest sting is the government's decision to count super drawdowns as part of the assets test from next January.

This will bring super into the deeming net where it is assumed to earn a certain return, as is the case for term deposits and other financial investments.

Currently super pension income is adjusted by dividing the balance by the pensioner’s life expectancy.

Under deeming, super will be simultaneously caught by both the assets and income tests.

For example, a 65-year-old with $250,000 in super on the full pension would, after January 1, be assessed as earning $8284, which is above the $7176 income threshold. Every dollar earned above $7176 would lose 50 cents of pension.

In a double whammy, you lose some of the pension to begin with, then another 50 cents in every dollar you earn if you keep a part-time job, financial planner Paul Moran, principal of Moran Howlett Financial Planning, says.

“Under the assets test you could work part-time to use up the income test threshold but now if you have a super pension you’ll lose half. The change amounts to a new tax of 50 per cent for many existing and soon-to-be pensioners and veterans. It’s a huge hit,” Moran says.

It will hit even harder in 2017 when deeming starts with balances of $30,000 (or $50,000 for couples) instead of the current $46,600/$77,400.

Those getting the age pension before December 31 will be exempted from the new super deeming rule. But this will also discourage anybody over 65 from remaining in the workforce, at the risk of being caught in the new rules from next year.

“There’s an incentive to retire if you reach 65 this year. Or you could resign, go on the pension and then go back to work part-time and start a super payment so long as you do it before December 31,” Moran says.

“These are not wealthy people. So getting $100 less a fortnight is very material to them,” he adds.

In another budget hit, the mature age worker’s tax offset for those in the workforce aged over 55 and earning less than $63,000 a year will be scrapped on July 1.

Although this will pay for the new $10,000 subsidy to employers for hiring older workers who had been on the dole for six months, Biti warns this could backfire.

“A boss might sack you and hire somebody else and get the $10,000,” she says.

Other budget booby traps include:

The fringe benefits tax rising to 49 per cent for those earning over $180,000 paying the deficit levy.

The franking credit from dividends drops from 30 to 28.5 per cent after July 1, 2015.

A freeze on the thresholds for the private health insurance rebate and Medicare levy surcharge from July 1, 2015. This will reduce the value of the rebate for some and push others into the surcharge as wages rise.

The abolition of the twice-yearly income support bonus on Centrelink and Veterans’ Affairs payments.

The abolition of the dependent spouse tax offset from July 1.

One piece of good news that has escaped notice is Treasurer Joe Hockey’s claim that households will save “on average around $550 next year alone” from the abolition of the carbon tax.

And while the Medicare levy rises to 2 per cent on July 1, it appears the higher tax-free threshold of $19,400 due to start on July 1, 2015 has also been spared the axe.

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Kev can’t waffle his way out of this

THOSE Labor people, including Kevin Rudd, who insist the “pink batts” royal commission is a political stunt, should just listen to the heartbreaking testimony of the victims’ families.

Four young men lost their lives in the ill-conceived, foolish $3 billion green scheme Rudd rushed into action as part of an economic stimulus package during the Global Financial Crisis.

Insulation installers Matthew Fuller, Rueben Barnes, Mitchell Sweeney and Marcus Wilson are the human toll of political naiveté and fakery.

Their grieving families took the witness box last week, to thank the commission for trying to discover the truth about the deaths, the fires, the electrified roofs - and make sure it never happens again.

They also thanked Kevin Fuller, whose only child, Matthew, 25, became the first installer to be electrocuted in a roof cavity, on October 14, 2009; without his perseverance the commission never would have happened.

Fuller said he was driven by guilt that three young men had died after Matthew, and his googled discovery that metal staples had been banned in New Zealand after similar tragedies.

“I expected the system would get off its a**e and go and … change things and make stuff happen. Nobody did. Nobody. They all just allowed Rueben to get killed. And what that did to us was kill us, because we had talked to them all between Matt and Rueben and said, ‘Do something. This has got to stop’.”

Martin Sweeney, the father of Mitchell, 22, the fourth installer to die, on February 4, 2010, also gave heart-rending testimony on Thursday. “We love you very much, Mitchell, and we haven’t stopped missing you,” he said.

Then, as he left the stand, head bowed, shoulders slumped, Kevin Rudd flounced in. The two men passed within centimetres of each other, but Rudd did not even glance at the grieving father.
In the witness box, Rudd, who had jetted in from the US, was soon expounding on his brilliance during the GST. He had a “helicopter view”, busy busy busy, never troubled by details of a scheme which set of a frenzy of unregulated activity which led to the deaths of young men electrocuted in roof cavities while installing pink batts.

Rudd was insufferable from 9.05am to 5.28pm. He waffled and filibustered, preened and boasted. His smugness and grandiloquence escalated as the day dragged on.

“I have no particular familiarity with that,” he kept saying. He used five words when one would do, dealt in the abstract when asked for specifics, used strange idioms, jargon and impenetrable bureaucratese, as if he were so clever he spoke at a level mere mortals could not understand.

One example: “I think what I would say in response to that is, as prime minister, once a decision is taken to implement a program that all its downstream administrative requirements, in terms of adequate training, adequate preparation for the adherence to the laws which exist, are then made.”

The pretentious blather was infuriating. Obfuscation from a disorderly mind. Language employed to obscure thought.

One frustrated lawyer snapped: “Mr Rudd … please, just concentrate.”

As the day wore on, it became clear that Rudd’s language may be key to the dysfunction that led the nation to catastrophe.

George Orwell warned long ago of language which corrupts thought and leads to political chaos. Pity no one in Labor listened.

By the end of that exhausting day, even Rudd’s own barrister had his head in his hands. If you looked around the room at 3pm, you would have seen the body language of boredom or disbelief at the spectacle in the witness box, still blithely blabbing away.

A climax of sorts came when Elizabeth Wilson, acting for Rueben Barnes’ sister, pressed Rudd on what was done in the month between Matthew and Rueben’s deaths.

“If we can just focus on what you did after becoming aware of Matthew Fuller’s death; did you … proactively go and say, ‘Listen, I want all the advice on any safety issue with the scheme?’,” she asked.

Rudd waffles. Wilson persists: “After my client’s brother’s death, after Rueben’s death, did you ever consider suspending the program, pending a full safety audit?”

Rudd: “That advice was not put to me, to the best of my knowledge.”

Wilson: “But, Mr Rudd, did you consider suspending the program, pending a full safety audit? “

Rudd: “…the position in which I found myself was to take advice from the portfolio minister responsible and the public servants advising me.”

Blah blah blah. Rudd as prime minister, a mere receptacle for “advice”.

Who knows what the commission will conclude. But to the families, it’s obvious where the fault lies.

“(The insulation companies) chose to run their business badly in order to make a quick buck,” Rueben Barnes’ sister Sunny told the inquiry. “However, the option to run it in this way … was there, thanks to the Commonwealth Government.”

Thanks to Kevin Rudd.

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Milllion-plus university students face increased costs for tertiary education

More than a million university students and former students would face extra charges, some in the tens of thousands of dollars, according to a Fairfax Media analysis of the planned move to impose higher interest on their fees.

And the likelihood students will be saddled with extra payments from interest rates of up to 6 per cent has increased after Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer softened his opposition to the measure.

''We've got to see how we can have a win-win situation for Australia and Australian students,'' Mr Palmer, whose party will hold the balance of power in the Senate from July, said. ''I do think our universities could be a great export for Australia.''

The Abbott government plans to allow universities to set their own fees, and will lower the income threshold for students to repay their debts and apply real interest to student loans for the first time.

The changes have split the tertiary sector. Elite universities are strongly in support while many technical, suburban and regional universities are opposed. Under the changes, it is predicted the price of some degrees could rise to $120,000.

Interest has not been applied to student loans since the introduction of HECS in 1989; debts are pegged only to inflation (now 2.9 per cent).

From 2016, debts will be indexed to the 10-year treasury bond rate, capped at 6 per cent. The change will affect everyone with student debt, with no exemptions for former students who still owe money. There were 1.175 million Australians with outstanding HELP debts in 2012, according to Tax Office data.

A $60,000 student debt, unpaid for 10 years, would grow to $97,734 at an interest rate of 5 per cent. The Treasury bond rate, now 3.8 per cent, can fluctuate dramatically and has averaged 5.2 per cent over the past decade.

Before the election, Mr Palmer said high tertiary fees were holding the country back. ''We need Australia's cleverest people taking themselves and this great nation forward, not burying them under a mountain of debt,'' he said. But the mining magnate now says he is open to Christopher Pyne's changes.

Mr Palmer, who has had a fractious relationship with Coalition MPs including Prime Minister Tony Abbott, said he would make his decision based on the national interest.

But he acknowledged he had a good relationship with the Education Minister, whom the Prime Minister has asked to manage all government communication with Mr Palmer. ''I've known Christopher Pyne a long time,'' Mr Palmer said. ''He's a very entertaining member of parliament.''

Asked about his confidence in negotiations with the powerful and unpredictable MP, Mr Pyne said: ''I am certain I can work with Clive Palmer to bring about reform to higher education.''

With Labor and the Greens opposed to the changes, the government will need the support of the three Palmer United Party senators, PUP ally Ricky Muir and two other crossbench senators to pass its higher education package. With two senators-elect supporting Mr Pyne - Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm and Family First's Bob Day - the success of the changes will be decided by Mr Palmer.

The architect of the HECS repayment system, Bruce Chapman, called for the government to rethink its policy, describing it as unfair and ''bad economics''.

''Past changes to HECS didn't deter students, but now there will be a real rate of interest on the debt we are in uncharted waters,'' he said.

A spokesman for Mr Pyne said: ''Changing the interest rate to match the rate government has to pay is fair for taxpayers and fair for students.''

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Revenue to the rescue

For all its rhetorical emphasis on expenditure restraint, the 2014-15 budget in fact relies heavily on revenue to reach approximate balance in four years' time. Total annual revenue is up by a very robust 29% over those four years. This largely takes the form of automatic revenue growth (including personal income tax bracket creep) which always occurs when the economy is growing.

However revenue is set to grow faster than the economy, thereby lifting its share from 23% to 25%, a level that has not been exceeded since the boom years of the 'noughties' (and even then not by much). The fiscal experts who keep telling us the budget is in strife because there isn't enough revenue should throw away their song-sheet.

As well as raking in strong automatic revenue growth, the government has chosen to put some icing on its cake by hiking the top marginal rate of personal income tax and reinstating indexation of fuel excise for inflation.

Such measures will make about one-quarter of the deficit-shrinking discretionary policy effort (as distinct from the automatic revenue and expenditure changes) over the next four years - and less by the end, if the income tax hike is indeed only temporary as claimed.

While this makes a welcome change from the previous government's heavier emphasis on revenue measures, it is still disappointing that the current government has seen fit to resort to increased revenue to the extent it has. The more a government relies on tax increases, the more it is telling us it wants to sustain big government rather than reduce it.

The revenue-boosting measures are ad hoc rather than anything that deserves to be called 'reform'. The hike in the top income tax rate, in particular, reverses some of the decades-long downward trend in marginal rates. It will ratchet up the incentive for high earners to hone their tax-minimisation skills, and ratchet down the incentive for them to do more productive things.

While much of the talk about broken promises is sanctimonious, in tax matters the government should have stuck to its pre-election script and left any changes until after its tax system review.

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Abbott's debt tax may hinge on fight within the Greens

The survival of Tony Abbott's controversial "deficit tax" hangs on a fight building within the Greens. Its leader Christine Milne is facing a revolt over her opposition to raising taxes on high-income earners.

With Labor determined to oppose the Prime Minister's "broken promise", Senator Milne has angered colleagues by saying she, too, would oppose the policy.

Her position undermines a core belief of the Greens, which is to redistribute income from the wealthy to the poor. The federal Greens are set to debate the issue early this week.

If Labor and the Greens block the deficit tax, Mr Abbott would fail to get the legislation through either the current or the new Senate, which will be dominated by Clive Palmer's senators, who are likely to oppose any tax increases.

Mr Abbott's deficit tax appeared destined to fail earlier this week when Senator Milne said: "This is totally the wrong way to go and it's no wonder the Liberal cabinet is in chaos with Tony's tax."

But a Greens source said Senator Milne had angered colleagues by shunning Mr Abbott's unlikely embrace of progressive taxation. Another senior Greens source acknowledged that constituents had been complaining about the party leader's position.

"Senator Milne's been out since day one saying she doesn't support [the tax], despite the fact it is Greens party policy," a source said.

"Her response hasn't gone down well with a number of key people in the party and the membership.

"She's now trying to work out what to do as she is set to be rolled in party room on it."

Asked about the internal anger, Greens senator Lee Rhiannon replied: “While I support robust debate in the party room, I don’t support leaking internal policy debates to the media and having the debate in public.”

Leaked emails reveal Greens voters have been complaining to Senator Milne's office, suggesting she was betraying her constituents by opposing tax increases on wealthy people.

One frustrated voter asked Senator Milne: "How can the Greens leadership/parliamentarians oppose a 1 per cent levy on people earning $150k per annum?

"I am extremely doubtful that your grass roots members, like me, would oppose such a levy."

The constituent's claim is supported by polling data – a Fairfax Media-ReachTEL poll of 3241 people taken last week showed more than half of Greens voters supported Mr Abbott's debt tax.

Senator Milne's adviser told the constituent that while Greens MPs supported the "general proposition" of progressive taxation, they would not support Mr Abbott's debt tax because it did not "constitute tax reform".

Senator Milne was on personal leave when contacted, but on Saturday acting Greens leader Adam Bandt used noticeably softer rhetoric, suggesting the party may support Mr Abbott's debt tax after all.

“The Greens don't accept Joe Hockey's confected 'budget emergency' argument, which he is tying this mooted temporary deficit levy to," Mr Bandt said.

"Equally, we have long argued for a more progressive taxation system and more permanent tax reform in Australia.

"There have now been so many rumours about what the government intends to do that we will wait and see what emerges on budget night before deciding on a final position.”

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UPDATE:  It appears that Shorty has now backtracked and the ALP will support the levy





Green fantasy would drive us all to red ruin

Piers Akerman

THE reaction to the federal Budget from both Labor and the Greens would indicate they want to ensure Australia becomes a nation of innumerate bludgers.

More taxes, not less; more handouts, not fewer.

There is no budget crisis, the left-wing parties shrill.

But the nation is clearly on a debt-and-disaster trajectory unless tough measures are taken now, and most Australians recognise the need to tighten the belt before the unsustainable cost of the Labor-Green profligacy totally destroys the future.

“Well, there isn’t a budget emergency,” Greens leader Christine Milne shrieked about the figures on Wednesday.

“There is not an emergency in terms of debt. There is a failure to raise revenue. And this whole budget discussion is completely insulating the revenue side.”

When pressed about the third of the population, some seven million, receiving Centrelink payments, Milne switched to the Greens’ default position: “What I think is we have to raise more money, look at what we’re spending, see what we can service in terms of debt.”

She wants to squeeze more money out of those already doing the heavy lifting to pay for Labor-Green supporters who don’t want to work and don’t want to move from their leafy retreats to areas where the jobs are.

Making it harder for young people to go from school to a life on the dole is a no-brainer.

It is not an attack on young people, as Opposition Leader Bill Shorten claims. It is an attack on the welfare mindset that encourages the slothful institutionalisation of benefits.

It is about preventing young people from sliding into indolence and encouraging them to learn skills, through apprenticeships, at TAFEs or universities, so they can become productive contributors to their nation.

Treasurer Joe Hockey has demanded Shorten explain how he would pay for all of his hopeless predecessors’ big-ticket promises — things like the Gonski program, the NDIS and the ongoing cost of the dysfunctional NBN.

Shorten has had nearly nine months now to develop a strategy to deal with the budget holes left by former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, but so far he has only called for greater spending rather than restraint.

He has been so obstructive that he has had to renege on his own party’s promise to scrap its ill-conceived and abysmally executed carbon tax when its abolition would save pensioners and low-income earners more than enough to meet the small increases in the cost of visits to doctors.

Hockey put the $7 co-payment charge in context when he compared it to a packet of cigarettes, which costs around $22.

“That gives you three visits to the doctor,” he said.

“You can spend just over $3 on a middy of beer, so that’s two middies of beer to go to the doctor.”

The grandstanding by Labor and the Greens has given the Abbott government the opportunity to highlight the reluctance of the state governments to take responsibility for raising the money they wish to spend.

That’s why the state premiers are squealing. It’s far easier for them to portray themselves as victims of a harsh, penny-pinching federal government than to step up and raise their own revenues for their programs.

As Abbott has pointed out, there is a tax reform white paper due and there is a white paper on federation in the next 18 months.

He says the states and territories are perfectly entitled to argue for change, if that’s what they want, but each level of government should be sovereign in its own sphere. States run public hospitals. States run public schools and, over time, should bear a larger share of funding them.

The national electorate finally woke to Labor’s scam last September, but many still fail to understand how seriously the Rudd and Gillard governments, with their Green and Independent hangers-on, damaged the fabric of the Australian economy.

It must be repaired in a timely fashion and Tuesday’s Budget goes some way to addressing the problems before the nation follows those across Europe which have suffered from the borrow-and-spend economics beloved of socialist states.

Abbott has raised the possibility of a double dissolution should his measures be blocked by hostile Senators although it seems unlikely that will be necessary, despite the bluster of Queensland windbag Clive Palmer and his PUP senators.

Former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan never delivered a surplus and he never told the truth about the state of the economy.

Hockey and Abbott are being upfront about the bad numbers and are honestly trying to wrestle the nation back on track.

They have both taken responsibility for the tough measures they believe are necessary — something Labor still refuses to do.

They are not running for office. They are not running in a popularity contest. They are trying to stop the country being run into the ground under the weight of the Labor-Green debt burden.

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Uber drivers hit with fines for ridesharing
Australian State Government authorities have cracked down on Uber's ridesharing service, issuing "infringement notices" to drivers offering lifts to passengers in Melbourne.

The move comes after the company quietly launched ridesharing to selected Uber 'members' in recent weeks, before commencing a full-scale Australian launch of the service across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Both the Victorian and New South Wales State Governments have come out against the ridesharing service, known as UberX, saying it does not comply with State transport legislation covering the provision of taxi and private hire car services.

Fairfax Media has since reported that the Victorian Taxi Services Commission has been issuing $1,700 fines to drivers found providing UberX rides to passengers in Melbourne. Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper reported that roughly 50 drivers have been caught by the crackdown.

In a statement to CNET, the Victorian TSC said it had issued infringement notices to what it calls "illegal hire cars" found operating in the State.

"In response to intelligence, the TSC recently conducted an investigation to detect illegal hire cars operating in Victoria," a TSC spokesperson told CNET.

"As part of this operation, infringement notices have been issued for vehicles found to be providing a commercial passenger service without the appropriate licence and for drivers who are not accredited.

"The TSC is keen to work with the industry to facilitate new entrants into the market, however this must be done within the framework of the law to ensure the safety of passengers and drivers."

CNET contacted Uber Melbourne for comment on the matter, specifically on whether it planned to continue the UberX service in Melbourne and other Australian cities, what was being done with UberX drivers who were fined and whether the company felt it had any responsibilities to its UberX drivers.

Uber did not respond to these questions, but issued a statement saying "we applaud the Victorian government's efforts and appreciate their support for innovation and competition".

However, the statement added: "Riders and drivers are flocking to the Uber platform precisely because we are solving a problem that has stood for decades in Melbourne -- the inability to get a safe, affordable, reliable ride when and where needed."

Uber said it looked forward to "continuing the ongoing conversation" it had been having with the Victorian Government since last year.

Melbourne is not the only city where Uber has come up against opposition to its ridesharing services. Earlier this year, taxi drivers in Paris brought roads to a standstill to protest the rise of car services including Uber, while one passenger reported being in an Uber car that came under attack from one of the city's cab drivers who slashed tires and smashed windows.

In the US, Uber has faced a number of legal challenges while Seattle's City Council recently revised regulations governing ridesharing in that city, limiting the number of drivers who could offer the service on any given day.

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More aid bang with fewer taxpayers' bucks?

Predictably, the aid community has savaged the Abbott government's decision to cap Australia's overseas development assistance (ODA) at $5 billion per annum for the next two financial years.

World Vision Australia chief executive Tim Costello called the move 'devastating,' while UNICEF Australia spokesperson Tim O'Connor claimed that it was tantamount to a 'broken promise to the world's poorest.'

These assessments are inaccurate and unfair.

Although Australia's aid spending is now stagnant, it remains substantial and can produce large development dividends at its current level.

Australia's ODA as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) is likely to fall slightly while aid spending is kept at $5 billion per annum, and is expected to stabilise once the aid budget is pegged to the consumer price index in 2016-17.

However, at roughly 0.34% of GNI, Australia's aid spending compares well to the 0.3% of GNI that the OECD's 28 leading bilateral aid donors collectively spend on ODA.

Moreover, Australia is the tenth largest aid donor in dollar terms among the world's wealthy industrialised nations, while the majority of the countries that give more than Australia have far larger tax bases and GDPs.

Criticisms of the government's decision to scale back ODA also overlook the crucial question of the effectiveness of aid spending.

Big aid budgets make countries look charitable, but they reveal little about the real contribution made to poverty alleviation and economic development.

The government was therefore wise to launch a consultation process earlier this year to develop performance benchmarks to improve the effectiveness of Australia's ODA.

Using ODA to assist aid-recipient countries implement necessary domestic policy reforms would be a particularly effective means of improving the return that developing nations and Australian taxpayers alike receive from overseas aid.

As the experiences of India, China and other emerging economies illustrate, and as AusAID acknowledged in 2012, aid is much less important for development than a country's domestic policies.

Consider, for example, how collective land ownership in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and other Pacific nations stifles economic growth by sapping individual incentives to efficiently use land.

By subjecting ODA to performance benchmarks that prioritise necessary domestic policy reforms in aid-recipient nations, Australia may well be able to do much more for the world's poor for much less.

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ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG is unimpressed at the duck shoving going on over the pink batts fiasco

Home insulation royal commission: Kevin Rudd accepts 'ultimate responsibility' for scheme

But blames the public service

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd says he takes responsibility for the "deep tragedy" of his government's home insulation program, in which four workers died.

A royal commission sitting in Brisbane is examining how decisions were made and how warnings were handled before the worksite deaths of four installers in 2009 and 2010.

Appearing at the commission today, Mr Rudd pointed out the failures of the public service, which he said did not raise any safety issues.

Mr Rudd said former junior minister Mark Arbib had been asked to stay "abreast of the detail where things could go wrong" with the scheme in 2009.

He said he told Mr Arbib that he needed "to watch this very carefully so that things can be nipped in the bud if there's a problem".

However, Mr Rudd said he bore "ultimate responsibility" for the failures.

"As prime minister you accept responsibility for the good and for the bad, for anything that the government does during the period, of which I am its prime minister," he said.

"And for those reasons, as I've said repeatedly before, I have accepted ultimate responsibility for what was not just bad, but in this case a deep tragedy."

Mr Arbib, who was parliamentary secretary for government service delivery during the scheme's delivery, previously told the hearing that his role was largely to communicate with the public, but that he would have "raised the alarm" with the prime minister if he was aware of warnings public servants failed to pass on.

Under questioning by Tom Howe QC, representing the Commonwealth Government, Mr Rudd said Mr Arbib "absolutely" had more than an oversight role and he had been specifically charged with evaluating the risks presented by the scheme.

"I wanted a set of eyes focused on implementation difficulties," Mr Rudd said.

In his statement to the inquiry, Mr Rudd said his relationship with Mr Arbib began to deteriorate towards the end of 2009.

"We had our disagreements about some other political and policy matters, and it is fair to observe that our personal relationship unfortunately deteriorated, although our professional relationship remained functional throughout."

Mr Rudd said he knew little about insulation, and relied on the advice of others when setting up the scheme, which was designed to stimulate the economy during the global financial crisis.

"If you're looking for me as the home handyman - if my wife was giving testimony, she would be quick to give a response - I am not," he said.

Mr Rudd noted in his statement that the home insulation scheme was first recommended not by ministers, but by the public service as part of a series of recommendations on energy efficiency.

"The public service had also asked a professional firm to do a risk assessment of the whole Home Insulation Program before proceeding," he said.

Mr Rudd's previously censored statement to the commission was released today, after the Commonwealth agreed to allow the airing of Cabinet discussions.

The decision is legally historic, breaking the 113-year-old Cabinet-in-confidence convention and allowing the former prime minister to give uncensored evidence at the inquiry in Brisbane.

In his written statement, Mr Rudd said he was repeatedly told the national insulation roll-out was "on track", even after several workplace deaths.

He said Cabinet considered analysis of the scheme in October 2009, and no major risks were raised.

The next day, the first of four installers, Matthew Fuller, was killed on the job.

During questioning by lawyers representing families of the men killed, Mr Rudd addressed their desire for answers.

"I think your clients have a right to feel confused, angry, let down, by a system which ultimately did not perform," he said.

The former prime minister said Cabinet received regular reports from the bureaucracy that were "specifically designed to alert ministers to any programs going off the rails".

Mr Rudd said eight of these reports found no problems with the energy efficiency program, including the insulation scheme, saying it was "on track".

He said problems were not identified until around the time of the fourth worksite death.  He said the program could have been delayed if public servants had raised safety issues.

"Had a delay been requested of Cabinet on safety grounds, I have no doubt ministers would have granted it immediately," he said in his statement.

"The reaction would have been: 'Hang on here, if there is a problem we need to really look at this'," he told the inquiry.

Mr Rudd has been "stood aside" as a witness, leaving open the possibility for lawyers to pose further questions. He will be able to reply in writing or via videolink.

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Budget 2014: First home buyers savings scheme axed, funds released to account holders

The Federal Government has taken the axe to a generous Rudd-era savings scheme for first home buyers, but will lift restrictions on the ability for account holders to access their money.

The Government says it will save $134.3 million over five years by abolishing First Home Savers Accounts, which were introduced in 2008 to help first home buyers save.

They offered tax concessions, high interest rates and government contributions.

Before the accounts are abolished, at the start of July next year, the scheme will be wound down.

Eligibility for the 17 per cent government contribution will stop from the start of July this year.

First Home Savers Account holders were only able to access their funds after four years, and only for the purchase of a first home, to put towards an approved mortgage or to contribute to their superannuation.

But as of July 2015, they will be able to withdraw their funds without such restrictions.

The accounts were initially offered by two of the big four banks, ANZ and the Commonwealth Bank, as well as a number of credit unions.  But the Commonwealth Bank eventually ditched them.

It is understood there was a lack of take-up from customers, with savers put off by being unable to access their funds for four years.

Unveiling the scheme in 2008, then-treasurer Wayne Swan predicted the accounts would hold $4 billion after four years.  But statistics from the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority show in the December quarter, just $521.5 million was held in 46,000 accounts.

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Irukandji 'forecast' may soon warn Australian swimmers about presence of deadly stingers

Swimmers afraid of the potentially fatal sting of the irukandji jellyfish may soon be able to dive into the ocean with confidence thanks to a study from CSIRO and University of Queensland researchers.

The scientists have studied historical accounts of weather conditions at the time of stings and believe they have determined which conditions drive outbreaks of the tiny, transparent marine stinger.

The knowledge could lead to an irukandji forecast for swimmers, available days in advance.

Report co-author Dr Scott Condie said along the Queensland coast, stings were more common when south-easterly trade winds dropped off.

"There's some clear mechanisms by which the jellyfish could be carried onshore under these conditions," he said.

"Most of the time when the trade winds are blowing, it's going to be pretty difficult for them to get onshore, and they probably don't like those conditions anyway.

"As it becomes calm, there's some onshore flow, which might carry [the irukandji] into where swimmers are likely to be."

The researchers were alerted to the possible link between an absence of south-easterlies and the presence of irukandji by local surf lifesavers, who noticed that stings seemed more common on calmer days.

The so-called stinger season runs from November to March, with irukandji found in the tropical waters of Northern Queensland, and all over Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Stings cause pain, headaches, vomiting and sweating. Some patients require life support and a significant number experience recurring symptoms.  As many as 100 people a year are hospitalised with irukandji stings each year.

The scientists note that fear of the jellyfish can cause significant damage to the Australian tourism industry with an estimated US$65 million in lost revenue following two irukandji fatalities on the Great Barrier Reef in 2002.

"We anticipate our findings will lead to the development of technologies for delivery of improved public and occupational safety objectives, e.g. making forecasts publicly available via the web, radio, SMS or smartphone apps," wrote the authors in the paper, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

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Eastman inquiry: evidence finishes with opposing calls for action on murder conviction

Eastman is a bit of an oddball but he was convicted on nothing more than supposition and bad forensic science.  The cop was involved in a deal with the Riverina mafia which fell apart.  So it was probably the mafia that potted him.  The cops didn't want that to become known however so they fitted up poor silly old Eastman for the crime.  There has always been extensive disquiet about his conviction

The Eastman inquiry has ended, amid calls for his murder charge to be quashed and a miscarriage of justice declared.

The inquiry has been considering the conviction of David Harold Eastman for the murder of Australian Federal Police (AFP) Assistant Commissioner Colin Winchester in 1989.

Inquiry head Justice Brian Martin will now prepare a report for the Supreme Court, which will have the final say.

In his final submissions Eastman's lawyer Mark Griffin QC urged Justice Martin to take a strong line in his recommendations.

"The fact is there have been significant failures that cannot be excused," he said.

"To let the (conviction) stand is to countenance a gross miscarriage of justice."

"You can make a report to the full court which corrects the record."

"You can make a conclusive finding that there was a miscarriage so the defects, flaws and failures... can be remedied."

Forensic case against Eastman put in doubt by inquiry

The most important development in the inquiry was the systematic demolition of the forensic case which was key to his conviction.

Forensic scientist Robert Collins Barnes was forced to admit he may have misled earlier hearings about some of the evidence.

His methods and record keeping were also roundly criticised.

In her summing up, counsel assisting the inquiry Liesl Chapman said: "The opinions he expressed at trial were seriously flawed and there is a question about his reliability and veracity."

Mr Griffin urged Justice Martin to deliver an adverse finding about Mr Barnes, as well as police and prosecutors in the case.

He also raised concerns about police tactics, which involved listening devices to record Eastman talking to himself at home.

"You should reflect your disapproval of that conduct ... there needs to be some admonition," Mr Griffin said.

But lawyers for the DPP and police told the inquiry even without the forensic evidence the guilty verdict was supported by an overwhelming circumstantial case.

AFP counsel Lionel Robberds outlined that case.

Eastman had been a suspect because he had made threats against Assistant Commissioner Winchester, after he had failed to secure his help in having an assault charge dropped.

Eastman believed the police should not have charged him, but should have charged the other man involved.

Mr Robberds said Eastman had increasing frustration over his failure to be reinstated in the public service.

David Eastman's legal battle timeline

"He knew the case was going to ruin him for life," he said.  "If it went ahead and he was convicted that would be the end of it all."

He said one witness had suggested he had stalked the premises where the crime took place.

And, Mr Robberds told the hearing, despite being one of the most intelligent people on this earth, "In less than 12 hours, he said he did not remember where he was."

Mr Griffin also raised concerns that police should have considered the alternative theory that mafia figures were involved in the killing.  He told the court today there was a body of evidence suggesting some mafia figures had a strong motive for the murder.

He says that theory is a counterbalance to the prosecutions circumstantial case.

In her summing up, Ms Chapman told the hearing she disagreed with police that they had done a thorough investigation of the alternative hypotheses.  The inquiry has considered some of the mafia evidence in secret.

Among the issues Justice Martin must now consider is whether the collapse of the forensic case justifies a miscarriage of justice finding.

He will also be considering whether there should be a retrial.

Mr Griffin has urged against that idea.  "The prospect of there being a retrial is just so remote as to not be feasible. The prejudice in conducting a retrial would be extreme," he said.

Judge thanks Eastman for his good behaviour during inquiry

Justice Martin wrapped up today's hearing with a personal message to Eastman who has been watching the inquiry from a room at Canberra's jail.  He thanked him for not interrupting.  He also acknowledged Eastman's troubled history with losing confidence in his lawyers and sacking them.

Justice Martin told Eastman he had been very lucky to have Mr Griffin to represent him.

The Supreme Court will decide the final outcome of the inquiry based on recommendations from Justice Martin.

But it may still all be academic.

The court is still considering a challenge to the inquiry's establishment.

Mr Barnes has asked Justice Martin to delay handing his report to the court until that ruling is delivered.  Justice Martin says he is still considering the request.

It is not known when there will be a decision on that or the future of Justice Martin's report.

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