Newcastle Labour councillors have backed a plan to support same-sex marriage, provide more “safe” places for gay and lesbian people and to create a permanent “rainbow pedestrian crossing” in a Newcastle street or park.
While these may be admirable ideals, they would seem to have no place in local government management. Furthermore, while Newcastle Council is proposing a 46.9% rate rise over the next five years, many see this plan as a waste of rate-payers money.
The Newcastle Herald cartoonist, Lewis saw it this way:
Australians love a scandal, and Speaker Bronwyn Bishop’s expenses scandal – which began when it was revealed that she taken a $5227 helicopter charter flight from Melbourne to Geelong to attend a Liberal Party fundraiser – is no exception.
Referred to as “Choppergate”, the scandal has since expanded to include allegations of two more similar charter flights and a $90,000 fortnight in Europe, were she was seeking another job, during which Mrs Bishop charged taxpayers nearly $1,000 a day to travel in luxurious private limousines, and $4,000 for phones and calls.
The internet has continued to lampoon her, even though Mrs Bishop agreed to repay the cost of the charter flight (what about the other flights), plus a $1,300 penalty, and Prime Minister Tony Abbott declaring on Monday that Mrs Bishop has been put “on probation”. What exactly does that mean?
A full review of Mrs Bishop’s expenses is long overdue.
The Speaker of the Australian parliament, Bronwyn Bishop, finds herself in more trouble over expenses claimed for charter helicopter flights, and other overseas expenses.
It now comes to light the Ms Bishop has chartered two helicopter flights to attend Liberal Party fundraisers, knowing full well that this is well outside the guidelines for tax-payer funded expenses.
But Ms Bishop states that she has paid back those expenses, so that makes it alright. No, Ms Bishop, it does notmake it OK! What about willingly defrauding the Commonwealth, by making claims for payment to which you are not entitled? That’s like saying if a person gives back the money after they have robbed a bank, there is no offence. The police would not see it that way!
There is only one thing that should happen here. Ms Bishop should resign as Speaker, and resign from the parliament. If she cant or wont, then the Prime Minister must remove her from the Speakers role. But as Ms Bishop still can’t she that she has done anything wrong, and has this “don’t you know who I am attitude,” so believes that there is no need for her to go. She has been caught red-handed with her nose wallowing in the public trough!
In truth, she is not likely to do either, and the Prime Minister is also not likely to sack her as Speaker as he lacks the guts to do so. As Speaker she has not done a good job. Rather than show independence and impartiality that a Speaker should, she has shown a blatant and distinct bias toward the Liberal Party.
The Australian public deserve better than this, but politicians continue to demonstrate that they are there for themselves, and for what they can gouge from the public purse in terms of allowances, junkets and perks, rather than giving the Australian public a parliament which they have a right to deserve.
As a non-minister, Ms Bishop is number 7 in the list of the Top Ten Liberal Party spenders.
A full inquiry into Ms Bishop’s public funded expenses is long overdue.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has made a partial back down from yesterday’s solar investment announcement, saying today that he would be supportive of using the sun’s energy, as long as it involved mining it.
“It’s a big untapped resource just sitting there,” Mr Abbott said. “If we mined it sustainably, reserves could last for 80-100 years”.
Energy analyst Tom Skillton said it was an offer the solar industry should consider seriously if it wanted to remain viable. “The mistake the [solar] industry has made in the past is to focus, somewhat obsessively some would say, on the renewable nature of its product. But as soon as you consider it as a finite resource, it becomes a lot more attractive for Government investment,” he said.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt has also backed the idea, saying residents would hardly notice the hole created in the sun. “This new mine will be subject to the most stringent conditions, to ensure that access to light and warmth is only minimally affected,” he said.
Mining operations could begin within two years, with full-scale production ready within a decade.
In the last two weeks Sydneysiders have witnessed two fatalities and a serious injury as a result of collisions between bicycles and heavy vehicles. These tragic accidents stimulate people’s compassion and calls for action.
The NSW Minister for Roads and Freight Duncan Gay has suggested a licensing system for cyclists, saying “We will look at it on a safety basis.” But there is no evidence to suggest that licensing would have made any difference to the incidents over the last few weeks or would contribute to a change of culture on Sydney’s roads. The fact that there are a host of operational challenges and impracticalities to the licensing of cyclists creates an unhelpful distraction from what should be the government’s first priority – making our roads safer.
With safety as the priority for all road users, Bicycle NSW recommends that the NSW Government immediately follow the lead of Queensland in trialling minimum passing distance legislation, requiring a minimum of one metre when a motor vehicle overtakes a bicycle rider. This will provide motorists and cyclists alike with certainty over what is a safe passing distance. We believe this simple message can save lives when it is fully implemented and becomes part of Australian driving behaviours.
In addition the government needs to continue the focus on encouraging mutual respect between all road users and the importance of everyone obeying the rules. Bicycle NSW in partnership with the NSW Centre for Road Safety, the NSW Police, NRMA, Subaru and Toll Holdings is a proud supporter of the “It’s a Two Way Street – Show Mutual Respect” Campaign led by the Amy Gillett Foundation.
But by far the most effective safety initiative is the creation of a safe network of separated and connected bicycle paths in and around our urban centres.
Other safety actions Bicycle NSW believes require greater attention are educating all road users on the rights of others to safely use the roads, practical training programs to develop rider skills and knowledge as well as education to increase awareness around the importance of visibility by wearing a light and bright reflective clothing; obeying the road rules, riding in a predictable manner, giving hand signals; and planning your route using quieter streets, separated bicycle lanes andshared paths.
Governments at all levels around Australia have committed to plans and targets to increase bicycle usage because of the significant contribution that bike riding can make to reducing transport congestion, improving our health and enhancing the liveability of our urban spaces. Registration or licensing of bikes or riders should not be considered as a priority. The focus for action should be on solutions that will encourage bicycle riding and create a safer environment for everyone to respectfully share our roads.
An interesting move on the part of the current Federal Government, essentially cementing Tony Abbott’s clear opposition to the ‘eyesores’ that are wind farms. The directive to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation from its shareholders – the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance – essentially denies the possibility for finance for any new wind farms, and speaks volumes about the opinion of the emerging renewable energy technologies held by the current Federal Government.
Such a shame that ideology has again appeared to trump any real action on climate change, the embracing of new and renewable forms of energy security, or, dare I say, anything that might diminish the power of those individuals and corporations who are heavily invested in the resources sector.
Now apparently not satisfied with banning the Clean Energy Finance Corporation from investing in wind farms, the current Federal Government has now extended that ban to solar energy as well.
If this is direct action in response to climate change, then God help the Commonwealth of Australia!
There are many reasons why Greece finds itself in a precarious financial position, one of which is its poor record at collecting tax. But is it really true that in 2010 the government collected only 10% of the tax it was due, asks David Rhodes.
A graphic published by the Washington Post on Sunday suggested that 89.5% of the country’s tax receipts remained uncollected in 2010.
In Germany the corresponding figure was just 2.3%, the newspaper’s Wonkblog reported.
This left many social media users claiming that the root cause of Greece’s problems is that the vast majority of its taxpayers that year simply didn’t pay their taxes.
But that is a mistake.
The widely misinterpreted figure of 89.5% comes from an OECD report which actually relates to historic tax debts – not tax that Greece was due to collect from its citizens in 2010.
The reason the figure is so big, according to tax blogger Richard Murphy, has to do with the way the Greeks have been keeping their accounts.
“Sensible tax authorities take a view on this issue every year and say, ‘We’ll write off a proportion of our tax debts that we know we are never going to recover.’ Greece, though, is recording this extraordinary large number because they haven’t bothered to write off their old debts. This is a poor indictment of the way every thing in Greece is done, “Let’s do it tomorrow”, but when tomorrow comes it’s all too hard
“This is an accounting anomaly.”
Greece does indeed have a “massive” tax collection problem, Murphy says, but it certainly hasn’t been failing to collect 89.5% of taxes owed in any one year.
So how much tax did the Greeks collect in 2010?
In fact, no reliable figure seems to be available – at least, not as a proportion of the overall amount of tax that should have been collected.
What we do know is that, according to the OECD, in 2010 the Greek government collected 70.3bn euros ($93.1bn), or 34% of the country’s total gross domestic product (GDP) – slightly below the EU average of 38.5%.
In part this is because Greece has a large “shadow economy” – earning money without paying income tax, or perhaps avoiding paying VAT.
You might assume that businesses in the construction industry or tourism might be the main culprits when it comes to tax evasion, but a report published earlier this year by a group of US academics found that the primary tax-evading industries in Greece included medicine, law, engineering, and the media.
A study quoted by the IMF suggests that between 1999 and 2010 the shadow economy in Greece made up 27% of the country’s GDP – compared to an average of 20.2% in other rich countries.
That means that nearly one in four euros that potentially could be taxed in the country’s economy simply weren’t declared to the authorities, and the Greek government missed out on approximately 28bn euros ($31bn) of additional revenue each year.
But Richard Murphy, who has studied the size of the shadow economy in Europe, says Greece is not as bad as some of its neighbours.
“Greece has a problem but Bulgaria, and Romania are worst. Italy is up there alongside it. But it is an issue which has clearly contributed to the current Greek crisis,” he says.
There is also evidence to suggest that the Greeks aren’t very good at collecting taxes even outside the shadow economy.
In 2011, an OECD survey ranked Greece as one of the worst rich countries in the world at collecting VAT receipts and social security payments.
When the OECD had tried to do similar surveys between 2005 and 2009 they found that the data was simply “missing”.
As part of any deal that will see Greece remain inside the Eurozone its international creditors are demanding that the Syriza government enacts a range of tax reforms.
This includes simplifying the VAT system, closing tax loopholes and creating an independent tax collection agency free from government interference.
But Greece’s creditors have made similar demands before.
Home of the “Little Envelope”
Here’s a little envelope for you! Nudge-nudge, wink-wink!
Here’s a thing that the Greeks are good at!
As Greece is a country facing bankruptcy, the Greek citizens find they can no longer afford the expensive and customary cash-filled “fakelaki” (φακελάκι) or “little envelope” (bribe) paid to public sector workers.
Greece, who is dependent on international aid to remain solvent, has always had rampant corruption that has hampered efforts to raise taxes and reform its poor economy.
The health sector and the tax authorities topped the country’s corruption rankings for 2011 public sector bribes. While the economic crisis has not reduced corruption itself, it has reduced the price of corruption that Greeks can afford to pay.
Greeks have suffered steep cuts to pensions and wages as part of austerity measures now in place.
Greece will need to revamp its tax system and improve its public sector and a long list of other reforms to improve it’s solvency.
The struggle (against corruption) is not easy but a long, difficult and painful process which demands persistent political pressure to it, but as the Greeks are reluctant to comply with the EU imposed austerity measures, so too will they be reluctant to go without the fakelaki. But they are going to have to want to stop it, and of course fakelaki is “something for nothing”, and is so widespread, so it is most likely that nothing will be done to stop it.
George Brown is a decorated soldier and health professional and 40 year veteran in the field of emergency nursing and paramedical practice, both military and civilian areas. He has senior management positions in the delivery of paramedical services. Opinions expressed in these columns are solely those of the author and should not be construed as being those of any organization to which he may be connected.
He was born in the UK of Scottish ancestry from Aberdeen and a member of the Clan MacDougall. He is a member of the Macedonian community in Newcastle, and speaks fluent Macedonian. While this may seem a contradiction, it is his wife who is Macedonian, and as a result he embraced the Macedonian language and the Orthodox faith.
His interests include aviation and digital photography, and he always enjoys the opportunity to combine the two. Navigate to his Flickr site to see recent additions to his photo library.
Џорџ Браун е украсени војник и професионално здравствено лице и 40 годишен ветеран во областа на за итни случаи старечки и парамедицински пракса, двете воени и цивилни области. Тој има високи менаџерски позиции во испораката на парамедицински услуги. Мислењата изразени во овие колумни се исклучиво на авторот и не треба да се толкува како оние на било која организација тој може да биде поврзан.
Тој е роден во Велика Британија на шкотскиот потекло од Абердин и член на Kланот MacDougall. Тој е член на македонската заедница во Њукасл, и зборува течно македонски. Иако ова можеби изгледа контрадикција, тоа е неговата сопруга кој е македонски, и како резултат научил македонскиот јазик и ја примија православната вера.
Неговите интереси вклучуваат авијација и дигитална фотографија, и тој секогаш ужива во можност да се комбинираат двете. Отиди до неговиот Фликр сајт да видите последните дополнувања на неговата слика библиотека.
Discussion on the law that applies to or affects Australia's emergency services and emergency management, by Michael Eburn, PhD, Australian Lawyer. Email: meburn@australianemergencylaw.com
Oh, let's see...distinguished Gen-X'er, frustrated writer and mom living in the confines of a small town that thinks it's a big deal. And have I mentioned Walmart yet?
Words, By George! 
