[Peetwo]

Federal ICAC NOW!

Recent relevant references:

Better to die on your feet than on your knees

The Guvmint and it’s bloated bureaucratic departments are a blight on society and a thorough disgrace. These grubs are happy to put the kybosh on Angel Flight for no valid reason. Yet they are extatic to approve a DFO building that dangerously infringes on a runways strip width which ultimately and almost certainly contributed to the death of 5 people. Go figure? Perhaps the problem with Angel Flight is that there are no brown paper bag incentives that can be passed around?

I propose this;
1. Miniscule Mc’Do’nothing be relieved of his portfolio.
2. Shane Wingnut be offered an immediate redundancy package.
3. The PM acknowledge the work that Angel Flight does and provide an assurance that it’s operation shall continue unchanged.
4. If the above reasonable requests are not met then a concerted effort by the IOS be put into action which highlights and exposes this farcical state of affairs.

Viva Le Revolution

P7 - Second the motion. Enough is enough.

From the AOPA Australia FB page..

AOPA AUSTRALIA CALLS ON ALL AUSTRALIANS TO OPPOSE CASA'S PROPOSED CHANGES TO COMMUNITY SERVICE FLIGHTS

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia is calling on all Australians to take affirmative action in sending a clear message to the Deputy Prime Minister, rejecting CASA's proposed changes to Community Service Flights, by calling the Deputy Prime Minister's Riverina Electorate office to register your objection to CASA's proposed changes.

COMMUNICATE, COLLABORATE & EDUCATE
NOT OVER-REGULATE.

The Hon Michael McCormack MP
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Infrastructure,Transport and Regional Development
Leader of the Nationals
Federal Member for the Riverina
Telephone: (02) 6921 4600
Email: michael.mccormack.mp@aph.gov.au

***SHARE THIS POST WITH YOUR FACEBOOK FRIENDS***

NOT AN AOPA MEMBER? WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
Join today: www.aopa.com.au/membership

AOPA Australia | Your Freedom to Fly

In light of the disturbing findings of the SA Murray Darling Basin Royal Commissioner and legend Legal Eagle Brett Walker SC yesterday, the Mandarin came out with the following:  

Why does water administration require ‘cloak and dagger’ secrecy akin to ASIO?
By Harley Dennett • 01/02/2019

[img=750x0]https://www.themandarin.com.au/content/uploads/2019/02/top-secret-files.jpg[/img]
‘The MDBA doth protest too much, methinks,’ writes Commissioner Bret Walker in a rebuke that drew upon the works of George Orwell and William Shakespeare to describe how bureaucrats twisted the language of transparency.

After dealing with the legal and scientific issues of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan administration, Walker waited until the very end of his Royal Commission report, published online yesterday, to call out how misplaced any public faith is in the plan’s scientific credentials and claims of transparency and accountability.

“Whether Australia is meeting its international obligations under environmental treaties is not a ‘cloak and dagger’ matter.”

Commissioner Walker found Murray-Darling Basin Authority bureaucrats consistently chose to quash public release of its scientific and legal advice — “unlawfully” according to Walker — despite dozens of mandated reviews, the findings of which the agency is required to publish, plus audits and other statutory disclosures.

The commissioner described the agency’s “weasel word” claims of being a transparent and accountable organisation as Orwellian in the face of its refusal to cooperate with the commission or the external scientific community. Walker appears to have ample justification for his belief that claims of transparency were disingenuous: the MDBA sought an injunction against the state of South Australia and the commissioner to prevent its people from being summoned to give evidence. - P2 comment; GOLD! Bret...absolute GOLD! Hmm...why does that quote sound so familiar?? 

“The MDBA is not ASIO. Its scientific inquiries and work should never remain private. Regrettably and inappropriately … the MDBA has preferred to avoid making itself accountable to the public and to the wider scientific community.”

Secrecy of water adminstration included virtually all aspects of modelling used to determine environmentally sustainable level of take, and legal advice from the Australian Government Solicitor on the construction of the Water Act. This extended to other government agencies tasked with providing independent accountability, including the Productivity Commission and CSIRO, which were left to make their evaluations while “wearing a blindfold”. Member governments to the Basin Plan were also refused access to the modelling, according to state government officials testifying before the commission.

The Basin Plan, which involves three subnational governments — Queensland, New South Wales, ACT, Victoria and South Australia — is a component of how Australian environmental law fulfills international agreement obligations. Walker calls it a vital reform, involving huge amounts of public money, and therefore requires public scrutiny:

“Public disclosure of all aspects of science-based environmental restoration and protection seems both fitting and desirable as a matter of obviousness. Nothing about it suggests either a need for, or public benefit from, secrecy. Whether Australia is meeting its international obligations under environmental treaties is not a ‘cloak and dagger’ matter.”

Witnesses who gave evidence at the commission frequently cited a core requirement of the scientific process: a conclusion is not scientific if it isn’t capable of being tested and proved wrong. Walker noted this self-evidently implied sharing was also a core requirement: “Knowledge that cannot be scrutinized because of a lack of information is not science. Equally, scientific knowledge not publicly disclosed obviously cannot be checked.”

In addition to enabling public faith that the MDBA is complying with the law, Walker noted that transparency is imperative in Australia’s system of democratically elected government, so that the work of public servants can be checked, queried, test and improved.

“The public deserves a far higher standard of intellectual honesty, engagement and disclosure from a Commonwealth Department” - P2 comment: Is Clinton Mckenzie a disciple of Bret Walker?

The MDBA does claim to be a transparent and accountable organisation in its response to the commission, but it did not answer or explain why disclosures were rebuffed, for example to state government officials.

The insistence on secrecy is both an unacceptable way for a public-funded Commonwealth science-based authority to act, he writes, but is also contributes to the probability that many of the objects and purposes of the Water Act and Basin Plan will not be achieved.

In its response, published online yesterday, the MDBA says it is confident that the Basin Plan has been made lawfully and based on best available science. “There is extensive documentation in our published reports to support this,” the statement says.

The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources was also criticised for a lack of public disclosure with respect to its decisions, including why it has prioritised effiency measures over buybacks at additional public expense. Walker accused DAWR of perpetuating a discourse of myth and exaggeration over the policy’s potential impact: “The public deserves a far higher standard of intellectual honesty, engagement and disclosure from a Commonwealth Department attempting to defend such a contentious policy.”

The DAWR recently announced that it will publish online a range of details about projects funded under its new Murray-Darling Basin Water Infrastructure Program, but Walker says it’s too little, too late: “The issue cries out for the ministrations of the Auditor-General.”

This brings me to the next contribution from the Mandarin -it would seem that the rest of the first World democracies believe us Aussies need a Federal anti-corruption authority ASAP as well...  

Corruption Perceptions Index: Australia failing to improve
By David Donaldson • 31/01/2019

[img=750x0]https://www.themandarin.com.au/content/uploads/2017/08/iStock-531630164_opt.jpg[/img]
A lack of progress on corruption demonstrates the need for a federal anti-corruption commission, international watchdog argues.

Australia is failing to improve on corruption, according to this year’s Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.

A score of 77, unchanged from the previous year, places Australia as the 13th-cleanest country in the world.

Denmark is seen as the least corrupt country in the world, with a score of 88.

Perhaps more importantly, New Zealand ranked second on 87.

While Australia’s score did not worsen this year, it is two points down from 2015.

The index is based on the perceptions of experts, as corruption itself is impossible to accurately measure. This raises the possibility that perception and reality may be somewhat misaligned.

One need not look too far from home to find an example of this — Victoria’s reputation as the clean state has been severely damaged since the inception of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, which has uncovered plenty of evidence to the contrary.

And a glance at the index shows Australia is not the only country to have seen a slight decrease — indeed, every country above Australia, with the sole exception of Singapore, has fallen since 2015.

“Transparency International points to Australia’s ‘downward trend’ as evidence of the need for a federal anti-corruption commission.”

Are things getting worse or are western countries just becoming more aware they may have previously been overlooking the problem?

Transparency International points to Australia’s “downward trend” as evidence of the need for a federal anti-corruption commission, adding that research they conducted last year found 85% of Australians now think at least “some” federal politicians are corrupt.

“Strengthening our democracy must be a priority for 2019,” says Transparency International Australia CEO Serena Lillywhite.

“It is great that most of our parliament now supports some form of national anti-corruption agency, but the government’s proposed model does not go far enough. The national integrity bills proposed by Cathy McGowan MP provide a more comprehensive and coordinated approach to addressing issues of parliamentary integrity and preventing, detecting, investigating and disclosing corruption.”

After all, the lack of major federal corruption scandals might be because Australia is relatively clean — or it might mean we’re just not looking hard enough.

  
So what's the mantra again - 

Oh yes - Federal ICAC NOW! - MTF..P2