Warning on attempts to reduce the level of proof required for a rape conviction

Australia’s peak legal body is ­challenging a movement to ­reshape the administration of rape trials in the wake of #MeToo, ­declaring that the presumption of innocence and the rule of law must remain sacrosanct, as the country’s law reform commission looks to overhaul legal frameworks governing sexual violence.

In extraordinary comments amid a Labor-led push to improve outcomes for rape victims, the Law Council of Australia says that, while some fundamental principles underpinning the criminal justice system may have “some ­impact” on complainants, any ­reforms must protect critical rights of defendants.

The Law Council, in its submission to the Australian Law ­Reform Commission inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence, proposed reforms including better funding community legal services and implementing “early intervention strategies and services” including consent education.

“All law reform proposals must be carefully considered and ­critically evaluated to ensure they do not undermine key safeguards of the criminal justice system,” the submission reads.

“The presumption of innocence, the right to silence, the right to a trial by jury, the burden of proof resting on the prosecution, and the criminal standard of proof (beyond reasonable doubt) are all essential to the integrity of the criminal justice system.”

Other submissions tendered to the inquiry, predominantly written by sexual assault advocacies, have called for a “civil” approach to rape cases – with a different standard of proof – to be introduced, and a crackdown on “in­appropriate” defence questioning.

There have also been suggestions that “bad character” ­evidence relating to a defendant, such as the fact that they are a heavy drinker or use illicit drugs, could be admitted, and an accused person’s right to silence be ­“reviewed”.

Some members of a “lived-­experience” sexual assault advisory group set up by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to speak ­directly with the commissioners of the inquiry have also called for prerecorded evidence for complainants to be allowed, and for the introduction of specialist sexual assault courts.

The Law Council – representing all state and territory bar ­associations and law societies, and advocating for more than 100,000 lawyers across the country – said that, while protecting the presumption of innocence might “have some impact upon complainants”, it is “a cornerstone of our criminal ­justice system” that should not be diminished.

“The criminal justice system was developed at a time when the impacts of trauma upon complainants and victim-survivors were not well understood,” the submission reads. “Improved understandings of the impacts of trauma require that trauma-informed practices and principles are embedded ­within the court system, legal profession and police practices.

“The criminal justice system has a responsibility to protect the fundamental rights of an accused person. There is also a responsibility – however complex this may be – for justice systems in each ­Australian jurisdiction to better support complainants and victim-survivors whilst upholding ­fundamental criminal justice principles to ensure a fair trial.”

Two long-term judges presiding over the review – Australian Law Reform Commission president Mordecai Bromberg and part-time commissioner Marcia Neave – said in June the ­inquiry would investigate the “non-­engagement” of rape victims with criminal solutions, and examine whether alternative civil remedies could bring them justice.

The Law Council said it ­supported “strengthened access to alternative pathways to the criminal justice system including restorative justice and civil compensation”.

In a statement accompanying the submission, it affirmed the “importance of adopting an ­approach that centres on the ­experience of complainants and victim-survivors”.

It also said it held “grave ­concerns” about “the persistent inadequate funding” of legal aid services, and supported “the ­operation of support services and other initiatives that assist victims navigate and understand the criminal justice system and ­mitigate re-traumatisation”.

“We consider that victim-­survivors and complainants are more likely to be re-traumatised and to experience adverse ­impacts resulting from unmet legal needs in the context of a chronically underfunded justice system,” the submission reads.

One of the Law Council’s core focuses is on “early-intervention strategies and services” including consent education, family support services, behavioural-change programs for offenders, and “fully resourced representation for complainants and ­victim-survivors at certain stages of the criminal process”.

In regards to “inappropriate” defence questioning, the Law Council “generally considers ­existing safeguards, for example, rules with respect to disallowable questions, to be adequate”.

“However there is scope to continually improve the application of such rules,” the submission reads.

“The Law Council notes that a primary function of the trial judge is to control questioning that could jeopardise a fair trial and that their judicial authority, ­independent of objections raised by counsel, requires them to ­ensure that counsel observe ­accepted standards in the manner in which evidence is elicited.”

The Law Council said it did not support prerecorded evidence for adult sexual-assault complainants becoming the norm, saying it could cause delays and be ineffective. However, it ­acknowledged that prerecording evidence could “reduce the re-traumatisation of vulnerable ­persons” by ensuring they do not have to give evidence multiple times.

The Law Council does not ­support the introduction of specialist sexual assault courts, saying it could “exacerbate existing disparities” for people who live outside metropolitan areas, and could “create significant risks of ‘burnout’ and trauma for staff consistently working in such courts”.

“Instead, we support greater focus on raising standards of ­trauma-informed and culturally safe practices across all criminal courts,” the submission reads.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/warning-on-metoo-redo-presumption-of-innocence-must-stand-says-law-council/news-story/1060d4ba15f0bf659c37ceac297694e5

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Big coal miner retreating from "Green" policies

Glencore chief executive Gary Nagle will test the ESG purists as he reverses plans to jettison coal and instead focus on harvesting the rivers of cash it generates.

Some of Australia’s biggest investors, including super funds will be quietly cheering him on.

For now Glencore’s own investors are happy to let yield win out over green investing, but that also marks a decisive shift in how big money is approaching ESG.

Big investors including Australian super funds have shown they have a higher threshold for energy pragmatism over green investing than their European counterparts.

Through its history as a commodities trader dating back to pugnacious long-time boss Ivan Glasenberg, Glencore, the world’s biggest thermal coal miner, has long resisted pressure to shun coal and was a reluctant mover on ESG conventions.

Despite taking the green hits, Glencore stuck with it and now the investors are moving in Glencore’s favour. Nagle has broken ranks with the mining pack on coal and in doing so has given his investors cover.

It’s been a twisted path for Glencore to get to this position.

Last year’s $US7bn ($10.7bn) buyout of Elk Valley Resources from Canada’s Teck was pitched to help the Anglo-Swiss Glencore bulk up on steelmaking coal to give its existing operations scale and more investor appeal to be spun out.

However, Nagle had a change of heart after citing overwhelming feedback from Glencore’s own shareholders that “supported the retention” of the thermal and met coal businesses. Shortly after the November deal he started getting approaches from big shareholders, but it was Australian activist investor Tribeca that led the charge urging Glencore to stick with coal.

Tribeca also pushed for Glencore to move its primary listing from London to the ASX where super investors were prepared to run a wider lens over coal’s role through the energy transition.

Think of the model of AGL or Origin Energy, where big super has been prepared to back the profits of today’s dirty coal-fired power plants in order to harvest the cash to fund the transition to a renewable energy future.

In AGL’s case, the giant Loy Yang brown coal plant will stay open for another decade.

Last year Macquarie Group made more profit from oil and gas trading and storage than it did green investing, yet it kept pushing record highs.

Glencore says keeping the coal operations “should enhance Glencore’s cash-generating capacity” to fund opportunities to buy greener friendly metals such as copper.

The coal operations where prices have remained elevated will also “accelerate and optimise” the return of excess cash back to shareholders.

So too the long-mooted coal exit was inconsistent with ESG principals, Glencore added, given its stated plan to run down its thermal coal mines over their life. This policy replaced a Glasenberg-era climate pledge of keeping an annual cap on coal production at 150 million tonnes annually.

Glencore’s move will certainly clear the path to put investor pressure on other diversified miners looking to exit coal. BHP has already sold off its lower-quality met coal operations to Whitehaven. Its Mt Arthur thermal coal mine is slated to close by 2030.

Elsewhere, Anglo American is in the process of selling its met coal operations for a mooted $5bn, which includes Australian mines. BHP’s since-shelved takeover of Anglo spurred on the exit. Other names such as Rio Tinto and South 32 have already exited coal.

To show the mood is changing among investors, even New York-based BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager that has been at the front of ESG push, is quietly curbing some of its green animal spirits.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s full-throated approach to ESG investing in the past has seen him subject of political attacks which was impacting the $US10 trillion ($15 trillion) investor as some US state governments cut pension plan mandates.

This year has been one of transition for Fink. He has pulled back from ESG advocacy to acknowledge there is a balance that needs to be struck between energy transition and the need for energy security, particularly in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Where gas was once shunned, it is now a key plank in the transition, Fink says.

Glencore is now adding coal to the mix.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/when-nick-scali-becomes-a-memestock-for-a-day/news-story/7ce28ddc5752ef170386c48182c69fb9

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Government retreats on solar panels as China fires up

It took less than six months for the Albanese government and some of Australia’s biggest climate investors to change their mind on a solar panel manufacturing plunge.

The government and the project backers discovered the enormous costs in challenging China in the areas where it dominates the market and slashes prices to keep others out.

Given the base facts were known six months ago, the speed of the reversal of the decision to make solar panels in Australia has shocked those who believed that the “Made in Australia” plan can be based around climate investing.

Already, BHP has mothballed its nickel plans because the nickel market is being flooded with low cost Indonesian nickel funded by the Chinese.

China has vowed to further increase investment in manufacturing products such solar panels batteries and electric cars, despite the losses that are being incurred because of the low prices. If Donald Trump is elected president, he will take on China and use tariffs to thwart the Chinese. What Kamala Harris will do if she wins is not clear.

I will describe below China is also set to make the “Made in Australia” investment in rare earths costly and has announced a big rise in Chinese funded rare earths production.

“Made in Australia” is also in trouble on another front.

As I set out on Wednesday, the nation is set for a substantial fall in Australian manufacturing as the Victorian government hits the manufacturing base by starving the manufacturers of assured gas (by stopping gas developments) and imposing high taxes. The Commonwealth also lands blows on manufacturing via its industrial relations legislation.

The Victoria, Premier Jacinta Allan, has been fully briefed on the impacts of what she is doing but has other priorities.

The Albanese government decision to direct its controversial $1bn Solar Sunshot incentives program towards taking solar panel technology group SunDrive into panel manufacturing was high risk given what is happening in the global solar market.

The announcement was made by Anthony Albanese, Industry Minister Ed Husic and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, but it was Bowen who set out the strategy most clearly.

“A lot of people ask me why don’t we make more solar panels in Australia, and we should”, he said.

“And so Solar Sunshot will support making solar panels and solar cells in Australia and as a result a great Australian company called Sun Drive, that makes the most efficient solar panels in the world, have now said they will move to open a new factory on the site of the old Liddell power station in Muswellbrook and that new factory will employ more people than used to be employed at the Liddell power station.

“So there is a lot more to do, but we are going to bring back solar panel manufacturing to Australia and Solar Sunshot is going to the policy that gets it done for us”, Bowen declared.

The announcement surprised the solar panel world because of the strong group backing SunDrive, including Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, venture capital groups, Blackbird and Main Sequence, Canva founder Cameron Adams, former PM Malcolm Turnbull, and Tesla chair Robyn Denholm, plus the federal government-backed Australian Renewable Energy Agency and Clean Energy Finance Corporation,

SunDrive this week announced a “strategic review” to focus on developing technology to transform panel manufacture rather than producing the physical panels.

Significant retrenchments took place as a result of the reversal. It was a very sensible decision, and I suspect the wiser heads among the shareholders prevailed.

In rare earths, China is planning to maintain its domination of supply and treatment by expanding in Africa in association with Australia’s Peak Rare Earths company.

China’s Shenghe group has acquired half of Peak Rare Earth’s $US300m Tanzania project, and China effectively finances the project. The Chinese cover most or all of Peak Rare Earth’s capital outlays.

This year, the Chinese have stepped up production of rare earths and the prices have plunged, sending many rare earth company shares lower and making it difficult for new developments – exactly what the Chinese are aiming to do.

The Australian government’s investment in rare earths will face similar hazards to those it encountered in solar panels, but in rare earths we are clearly supported by the US, which is determined to be independent of the Chinese.

The economics of each project only make sense if the United States and/or other buyers are prepared to pay above the market for the materials they require to ensure independence from the Chinese.

In just the same way, the solar panel manufacturing plunge only made sense if buyers were prepared to pay above the market for the SunDrive solar panel technology that was unique and produced better panels than those made by the Chinese.

But once again, buyers must be prepared to pay for the better technology to justify the manufacturing investment.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/government-retreats-on-solar-panels-as-china-fires-up/news-story/a5adccb29fddcd1c513df754811b554b

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Fraud and sex slaves: blitz on dodgy training colleges

Dozens of dodgy training providers have been shut down over ties to organised crime, fraud and bogus qualifications, as cash-starved universities threaten to sack staff.

Home Affairs officials have revealed that sex trafficking and slavery among international students – along with housing short­ages – are the main reasons the Albanese government is rationing enrolments of international students in Australian universities, training colleges and schools.

The admission came as the Australian Skills Quality Authority told The Australian it was ­“actively managing more than 170 serious matters’’ involving 140­ ­private non-university training providers.

An ASQA spokeswoman said 33 providers had been struck off the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students during 2023-24.

ASQA is still investigating another 140 colleges, including 60 per cent that deliver training to international students. “More than 70 per cent relate to alleged fraud, including bogus qualifi­cations, cash for (qualifications), fabrication of assessments and evidence, ghost colleges, funding fraud and visa/migration risks,’’ she said.

Half ASQA’s investigations relate to the “disruption of criminal networks’’.

These include Operation Inglenook – a Border Force initiative to rescue students brought to Australia as sex slaves – and Fraud Fusion, a multi-agency taskforce to stop Nat­ional Disability Insurance Scheme frauds.

ASQA’s crackdown coincides with federal government plans to ration the number of international students who enrol in individual universities and training colleges.

University vice-chancellors on Tuesday demanded that federal Education Minister Jason Clare back down on plans to slash foreign student numbers by January 1. “They are draconian, interventionist and amount to economic vandalism on the day when we’ve seen Wall Street suffer its worst result in two years, creating massive global economic uncertainty,’’ Group of

Group of Eight Chief Executive Vicki Thomson speaking at The Australian’s Strategic Forum. Picture: Nikki Short
Group of Eight Chief Executive Vicki Thomson speaking at The Australian’s Strategic Forum. Picture: Nikki Short
Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson told a Senate inquiry into the draft legislation on Tuesday.

“Let’s be clear, the archetype of shonks and crooks is not representative of the university sector, and certainly not the Group of Eight.’’

Ms Thomson said universities supported the government’s plan to crack down on compliance in the higher education sector but not to cap the number of inter­national students.

Mr Clare said the government’s reforms would “ensure quality and integrity’’ in inter­national education.

“Once the legislation passes, the intention is to set limits for every university, higher education and vocational education provider that educates an international student,’’ he said.

Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy told the inquiry that 14,000 university jobs were at risk as a result of a 23 per cent drop in visas granted to fee-paying international students over the past year.

He said the reduction of 60,000 students due to start their studies next year “would represent a $4.3bn hit to the economy and could cost the university sector alone over 14,000 jobs’’.

The Home Affairs Department’s group manager of immigration policy, Tara Cavanagh, told the Senate hearing that two independent reviews had revealed exploitation of international students living in Australia.

She said there was evidence of “poor quality education products, false promises of pathways to permanent residence, sex trafficking, bonded labour and slavery-like conditions’’.

“Such activity and funding is supporting networks of criminal activity inside and outside of Australia,’’ she said.

“(The) reviews have shown there are large numbers of education agents and providers acting in collusion to lure young people to Australia with the promise of full-time work and not study.

“Those students have been found to have been enrolled in what are essentially ghost colleges.’’

Ms Cavanagh said Home Affairs had found unscrupulous training providers poaching legitimate students from universities.

“An (immigration) agent from another provider swoops on them, convinces them to change into a lower level course, channels them into full time work, puts in the system that the student is studying but in reality they’re enrolled in a ghost college and working often for very low wages,’’ she said.

The government’s legislation responds to growing public concern that soaring numbers of international students are pushing up rents in a cost of living crunch.

Immigration data shows that 780,104 international students are living in Australia – a 21 per cent surge in just 12 months, and 16 per cent more than pre-pandemic numbers.

The housing shortage is so severe that the University of Sydney is now appealing to its alumni to rent out their spare bedrooms to students struggling to pay commercial rents.

Alumni will be able to charge students $290 per week, without meals, or $360 a week for homestays including meals. Hosts will have to undergo criminal background checks and home inspections.

Chief University Infrastructure Officer Greg Robinson said the homestays could be a “rich cultural exchange of students and hosts’’.

“It’s essential our students can access safe and affordable housing,’’ he said.

The university announced its billeting program after it was exposed by National Union of Students national president Ngaire Bogemann during the Senate hearing in Canberra on Tuesday.

Ms Bogemman had described the rent-a-room scheme as a “horror story’’.

“At the University of Sydney, alumni have been asked to provide student accommodation in their own homes because there’s a lack of available beds close to campus,’’ she said.

“That is quite alarming and not something students should be pushed into.’’

National Tertiary Education Union public policy director Dr Terri MacDonald told the hearing that “bad actors’’ are cashing in on foreign students.

“International students are our second-largest group of migrant workers,’’ she said.

“They’re also most exposed to trafficking, wage theft and labour exploitation. With these factors in mind, many of the recent changes the government has made to international education are sensible and supported by the NTU

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/fraud-and-sex-slaves-blitz-on-dodgy-training-colleges/news-story/854278980c5c960e90c73acec25e2a5f

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