Government's welfare card plan 'fails the human rights test': lawyer

The government is hoping to dramatically expand the use of cashless welfare cards.

The Morrison government's plan to expand the use of cashless welfare cards has been labelled "discriminatory and coercive" by lawyers.

The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) slammed the Morrison government's proposals around the cards at a Senate inquiry into the new bill.

"This is the government micro-managing people's lives – denying them the freedom to make decisions about where to buy things like food and clothes, and the option of buying cheaper goods with cash," HRLC senior lawyer Adrianne Walters told the inquiry.


 

The cashless welfare cards quarantine 80 cent of Centrelink payments.
AAP

At trial locations in three states, cashless welfare cards quarantine 80 per cent of Centrelink payments so the money can only be spent on essential items, rather than alcohol or gambling.

The government wants to expand this to include an additional 22,000 people in Cape York and the Northern Territory, where 50-100 per cent of income will be quarantined depending on ministerial direction.

But lawyers claim 82 per cent of people likely to be affected by the new bill are Indigenous.

"Imposing a blanket law that forcibly restricts how and where a person can spend their money, fails the human rights test," Ms Walters said.

Government material about the current cashless debit card.

Source: Department of Social Services

"At its core, this is a discriminatory and coercive policy. In remote areas, it effectively punishes people who have no choice but to turn to the social safety net because of the lack of paid jobs in their communities. Rather than fix this injustice, the government is seeking to broaden it."

The national trial of the cashless welfare cards is in its fourth year, and without an extension being granted in Parliament it will expire in June next year.

The cards are being rolled out in Kununurra and the Goldfields in Western Australia, Ceduna in South Australia, and Hervey Bay in Queensland.

Draft laws to expand the scheme are before the lower house of federal parliament.

Material from the Department of Social Services states "the Cashless Debit Card is testing whether reducing the amount of cash available in a community will reduce the overall harm caused by welfare fueled alcohol, gambling and drug misuse".

A government report released last year found the cashless debit card has had a "considerable positive impact" in the two trial communities of Ceduna and the East Kimberley.

"[The concept] has been effective in reducing alcohol consumption and gambling in both trial sites and [is] also suggestive of a reduction in the use of illegal drugs," it said.

"[And] there is some evidence that there has been a consequential reduction in violence and harm related to alcohol consumption, illegal drug use and gambling".

Source: sbs.com.au

Google Pixel 4 and why should not buy it!

You know 'advertisements', they tell you to buy stuff even though the product may not be good for you, like McDonald's, Coca-Cola and now Google products.

Why should you not buy the Google Pixel 4?
 
Well for one, it's overpriced in Australia, and JB Hi-Fi is not the best place to purchase goods if you're a savvy shopper.

Now they tell you that it's made the "Google Way".

- What's this "Google Way" exactly?

Well the "Google Way" is that it will syphon all your data from the phone to Google's servers and put you into a new class called a 'data generator/provider' instead of a 'consumer' where in Australia you may have had some sort of 'Consumer Rights'.

- What's this "... always getting better"?

Well that means they're storing more and more information on you, to pass on to others.

If it (the Pixel 4) could it would syphon your snot from your nose, run DNA tests and store that data to be used against you at a later point in time by governments.

Make no mistake about it Google's Android is bad enough, but marry that up with the (tax evading) corporation's hardware and you have a PERFECT spying device.

WARNING: Police can edit body camera footage or deactivate camera

You may have heard the classic catch phrase in criminal law of "The camera does not lie" where person gets convicted as a result. 

The public may even get told to (falsely) feel safe, as the police are recording their interaction with them.

Well it's all changed now as you cannot even trust the recording the police have, not that you ever would have wanted to.

It can (and most likely) will be tampered with to suit the police version of events, if it is to be relied upon in court.

Now the (police) video camera has just become an "unreliable witness".

As usual, the police are left to their own devices to investigate with impunity.

What the mainstream media is not telling you is that Victoria Police has been tampering with video evidence for quite some time.

See article from 10 Nov 2019 by theage.com.au of the headline:

 Call for overhaul: Police can deactivate body cameras, edit footage

Victorian police officers can deactivate their body-worn cameras whenever they choose, edit the footage before court cases and limit complainants' access to images, prompting calls for a dramatic revamp of the system.

The Age can reveal that the Andrews government has given police full power to deal “in-house” with any potential breaches of body-worn cameras, which have so far been sent to 8085 frontline police and protective services officers across the state.

But lawyers and human rights advocates fear that without independent sanctions and oversight, the system - designed to improve law enforcement and community safety - could easily be abused.

“There are no laws regarding when they have to be turned on, or when they have to be turned off," said Robinson Gill Lawyers principal solicitor Jeremy King, who has represented numerous victims of police brutality over the years. "Police have control of the entire system."

Critics are pushing for tougher safeguards - including state government penalties - for officers who misuse the devices.

It comes after a number of cases where investigations have been hampered because body-worn devices have not been activated at critical times.

One officer at an anti-mining protest used his body camera as a billboard for a sticker saying “EAD [Eat a Dick], Hippy”.

Victorian Children’s Commissioner Liana Buchanan was recently unable to fully examine alleged brutality by prison guards against youth offenders at the Grevillea Youth Justice Unit because “body-worn cameras were not operative during the time of the alleged assaults".

And in Queensland in 2016, the Supreme Court was forced to rule on claims of unlawful arrest involving a police officer whose body-worn camera was switched off during the period where consent to a search had allegedly been given.

Under the latest police guidelines, reviewed last month, officers are meant to turn on their cameras when “exercising their powers”, such as when they make an arrest or execute a warrant.

But they ultimately have the discretion to decide if or when they choose to activate the device, in a bid to protect privacy or other sensitivities, and they do not need to inform people they are being filmed. If a recording is not made - or if the camera is stopped prematurely - the officer must simply make a note outlining the circumstances. Compliance is monitored by the professional standards unit.

"At this point in time no disciplinary action has been taken regarding misuse of a body worn camera," a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.

The data recorded on the cameras is uploaded at the end of each shift to a secure storage system. However, the guidelines show that police can edit or redact the footage when preparing evidence "where absolutely necessary or required by law".

If someone making a complaint against an officer or a PSO asks to view the footage at their local police station, police can also limit access if they decide it may compromise an investigation or put a person in danger.

Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said the current framework struck "the appropriate balance required to achieve positive benefits that support law enforcement and the community''.

"The community would not expect every single interaction police have with the public to be filmed, nor would they necessarily want it," he said.

And despite growing concerns, Police Minister Lisa Neville also defended the system, telling The Age: “We know the roll-out of body-worn cameras is already improving police and public interactions and leading to fewer complaints.''

Body-worn cameras were trialled in Victoria last year as a recommendation of the Family Violence Royal Commission, to make it easier for police to gather evidence. But they have gradually been expanded as a general feature of frontline policing, with 11,000 expected to be in operation by the end of the year.

But Gregor Husper, principal solicitor at the Police Accountability Project, argued that while the cameras have the potential to make police more accountable and boost community safety, "instead they have become another accountability failure".

Human Rights Law Centre director Ruth Barson said it was clear independent oversight was needed.

"If police are left to investigate their own, the result will be impunity."

Bank stuffed customer around until social media post then lied about 'misunderstanding'

From its inception Australia was always going to be a banker's paradise, based on the rife practice of usury (which King Edward I did not do away with, i.e. Statute of the Jewry), irrespective of today's low interest rates.

The royal commission into banking is a farce at the expense of the hard working 'mums and dads' taxpayers.

The so called 'penalty' to the banks is a joke, where in reality the taxpayers / customers foot the bill anyway.

In reality the whole slate should be wiped clean and started again, but this time for the BENEFIT of the people.

VERY briefly, with regards to a tattooist from the Gold Coast:

• Bank became judge jury and executioner deciding whether you're a criminal, according to your choice of business.

• The bank stopped a person from accessing their funds from their business deposit transactions,

•  Bianka Roggensack was screwed around by the Bank of Queensland until she put up a post on a social media platform, where the bank then lied that it was a 'misunderstanding', where the bank gave her a promissory note of $100.

We do not recommend the use of a place called the Bank of Queensland to store 'your' cash, as at the end of the day, it's not your cash but rather theirs.

Australia is in reality (still) a colony, with police state policies under a corporatocracy becoming a totalitarian / fascist state very quickly where the rule of law is not for the benefit of the people.

Things that will never happen in Australia:

• Since politicians have been alleged to commit criminal activity, then by the same token the bank should stop them from accessing their funds.

• Since police commit criminal activity, their bank accounts should be frozen, but then again they have a special police 'bank' / credit union.

 Read more details on Bianka Roggensack's experience with the BoQ at:
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/banking/bank-of-queensland-reviewing-no-tattoo-parlour-policy-after-gold-coast-artists-accounts-frozen/news-story/dd0dc298ff50601bd062af681b0a6541

Magistrate 'Costas' Kilias to be expelled for being under the 'influence'?

Exposing the corrupt to the core nature of the Australian judicature is a hard ask, especially when no one wants to 'come to the party', i.e. met with denials, silence supported by a policy of punishing whistleblowers.

With the information that (magistrate) Rod Higgins' judgements / orders were made under the influence of his 'partner' 23 year old court clerk Ashleigh Petrie making it into the 'public domain', many of his orders are unlawful.

But it does not stop there.

Ms. Petrie was also involved with another magistrate Constantinos "Costas" Kilias, therefore casting a doubt over his judgements / orders given.

The (toxic) culture within Australia's judicature is kept under wraps, as it works against the benefit of the general population, where action on ex-parte orders are just one example.

The 'problem' with obtaining any information now from Ms Petrie is that she is no longer alive, killed in an apparent accident in Metung, East Gippsland.

A treasure trove of information has been lost in her untimely death which will be for the benefit of the toxic courts.

Pity the corrupt judicature remains intact.

So who is going to take a class action lawsuit against the unlawful orders of the magistrates involved?

Will the mainstream media keep quite on the unlawful orders by the magistrates?

See full article by the abc.net.au at:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-05/ashleigh-petrie-magistrate-rod-higgins-media-reports/11646754

Paul Rosenblum corrupt cop influencing outcomes

Former superintendent charged over attempts to influence investigations

A former police superintendent charged with misconduct in public office will front court on Monday, more than a year after officers from the state’s corruption watchdog raided his home on the Mornington Peninsula.

Paul Rosenblum is accused of trying to influence police investigations during his time with Victoria Police, including in a number of senior roles related to procurement and the awarding of police contracts to third parties.

Mr Rosenblum, who recently left the force, is also a former Yarra Ranges police inspector and represented the force as a security adviser at the Australian Security Summit in 2018.

Investigators from the state's Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) descended on Mr Rosenblum’s bayside home in June 2018, where they seized a number of items including firearms and computers as part of Operation Dawson.

 

Last week they charged the former superintendent with misconduct in public office following a lengthy investigation. He’s accused of accessing information from internal Victoria Police systems and contacting those involved in investigations that were unrelated to his role.

 

The Police Association is understood to be funding his legal defence.

Last week IBAC revealed the agency had charged 16 people with various offences during the 2018-19 financial year under various state and Commonwealth statutes.

Those individuals include 57-year-old Sergeant Rosa Catherine Rossi who last week pleaded guilty to 10 fraud offences, including dishonestly obtaining six properties and rorting Centrelink.

Rossi accessed the police database, LEAP, without authorisation and in 2016 deceived locksmiths to fraudulently take possession of houses in Malvern East, Chadstone, Brooklyn and three rural properties in Willaura, about 230 kilometres west of Melbourne.

Her colleague, Inspector David Manly, will return to court next month after recently admitting he lied under oath to IBAC investigators after being caught with a mobile phone that he claimed to have destroyed.

Manly, a married 74-year-old, had used the mobile phone to contact Rossi over a period of more than six years and hid the phone when IBAC officers attended his Lara home.

The corruption watchdog also charged other senior police officers this year including Commander Stuart Bateson, 51, who is accused of disclosing "restricted matters".

Source: theage.com.au

Police will not sack their 'brother' despite criminal activity

The police commit many criminal and unethical actions, where even if caught out go unpunished and still remain in their jobs, something that would be against "community standards".

The intention of Victoria Police was to never show the public the corrupt nature of the state's judicature therefore their extreme attempt to keep the Nicola Gobbo matter under wraps.

Last year the 'Corporate Australia' site published the name of Lawyer X / Informer 3838, where post was taken down by Google, but not before it was read by many.

The Gobbo matter highlights that a person actually involved in criminal activity or accused in any criminal activity (including  alleged driving offences) cannot trust the judicature (that being persons involved in the 'administration of justice', from the 'gatekeepers' i.e. registrars court clerks to 'officers of the court' i.e. lawyers, sheriffs, or police or magistrates or judges).

As a result of the royal commission the current chief commissioner Graham Ashton should be removed from office but as usual the 'brotherhood' will support him in keeping his salary, ripping off tax payers.

Why not keep smiling, especially when one can act with impunity.

Just another day in a police state.

Climate data altered by government to suit 'global warming' agenda

New Zealand's NIWA sued over climate data adjustments
Anthony Watts / August 16, 2010  

NIWA is being sued by the NZ Climate Coalition, mainly due to the differences in data in this graph:

 Niwa sued over data accuracy

The country’s state-owned weather and atmospheric research body is being taken to court in a challenge over the accuracy of its data used to calculate global warming.

The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition said it had lodged papers with the High Court asking the court to invalidate the official temperatures record of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa).

The lobby of climate sceptics and ACT Party have long criticised Niwa over its temperature data, which Niwa says is mainstream science and not controversial, and the raw data publicly available.

The coalition said the New Zealand Temperature Records (NZTR) were the historical base of NIWA’s advice to the Government on issues relating to climate change.

Coalition spokesman Bryan Leyland said many scientists believed although the earth had been warming for 150 years, it had not heated as much as Government archives claimed.

He said the New Zealand Meteorological Service had shown no warming during the past century but Niwa had adjusted its records to show a warming trend of 1degC. The warming figure was high and almost 50 percent above the global average, said Mr Leyland.

Full story here:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4026330/Niwa-sued-over-data-accuracy

But it seems some think the challenge is “stupid”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4026553/Court-challenge-to-Niwa-stupid

The New Zealand Climate Science Education Trust, a newly registered arm of the Coalition, has filed a claim in the High Court seeking a declaration to invalidate the NZ Temperature Record, currently promoted by NIWA, and featured on its website. Media release, backgrounder and summary of claim here:

http://www.climatescience.org.nz/images/PDFs/niwa.ct.docs.pdf
(Document no longer available at the above link, see below to obtain the document)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=17N6UncV_9JaAvQprOTewOpwlqsDnvYQ-

Partial text below, more details in the PDF link above.

The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition

Hon Secretary, Terry Dunleavy MBE JP, 14A Bayview Road, Hauraki, North Shore City 0622

Phone (09) 486 3859 – Mobile 0274 836688

– Email – terry.dunleavy@nzclimatescience.org.nz

13 August 2010

High Court asked to invalidate NIWA’s official NZ temperature record

The High Court has been asked to invalidate the New Zealand official temperature record (NZTR) as promoted by the Crown Research Institute, NIWA. These records are the historical base of NIWA’s scientific advice to central and local government on issues relating to climate change. NIWA maintains temperature archives for the past

century, and also projects them forward for the next century.

The statement of claim filed on behalf of the New Zealand Climate Science Education Trust (NZCSET) asks the court for three rulings:

A: to set aside NIWA’s decisions to rely upon its Seven Station Series (7SS) and Eleven Station Series (11SS), and

to find the current NZTR to be invalid

B: to prevent NIWA from using the current NZTR (or information originally derived from it) for the purpose of

advice to any governmental authority or to the public

C: to require NIWA to produce a full and accurate NZTR.

”Twentieth-century temperature records are now being challenged all around the world” said Bryan Leyland, spokesman for the NZCSET. “But I think we are the first country where the issues are to be placed squarely before an independent judicial forum.”

“Many scientists believe that, although the earth has been in a natural warming phase for the past 150 years, it has not heated as much as Government archives claim. The precise trend figure is extremely important, as it forms the sole basis of the claim that human activities are the dominant cause of the warming.

“The New Zealand Met Service record shows no warming during the last century, but NIWA has adopted a series of invariably downward adjustments in the period prior to World War 2. Because these move the old temperature records downwards, the 7SS NZTR shows a huge bounce-back of over 1°C in the first half of the century” said Mr

Leyland. “Although this is out of line with dozens of other records, and has been the subject of sustained questioning by both the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition and the ACT party, NIWA refuses to accept that there are serious problems with the adjustments. In fact, no one has been able to explain exactly how they were

arrived at.”

The Court proceedings also allege bias and unethical conduct on the part of NIWA’s National Climate Centre. These are based partly on NIWA allegedly delegating the NZTR decision to a former employee, James Salinger, knowing that he had a vested interest in an untested theory put forward in his own 1981 thesis. NIWA also knew that the data and calculations for that theory had been lost, and, thus could not be replicated.

Another core criticism is NIWA’s constant reliance on an eleven-station series it produced last December. The flaws in this paper have been highlighted many times, including at

http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2010/06/nz-climate-crisis-gets-worse

“We find it hard to believe NIWA management just failed to notice that all the warming in the ‘eleven-station’ series was caused by the fact that it starts off with only three stations in 1931. From 1945 onwards there are between 9 and 11 stations” said Mr Leyland, “It’s astonishing how the increasing number of stations leads to greater warming, more alarm, and increased research grants.”

The Court will be asked to rule that NIWA has refused to repudiate the current NZTR in order to avoid political embarrassment, and feared loss of public confidence in the objectivity of its scientists. The proceedings were filed and served this week, and NIWA has up to a month to respond.
NOAA gets its temperature data from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The surveillance state at the next level

The [penal] colony policies of the Australian Government are to catalogue, monitor and control the movements of the serf population, under whatever pretext by the government of the year (almost literally in recent years), not for their protection but rather for the protection of those in government.

Driver licences are going digital (starting in Australia's original police state NSW being made up of criminals), the cashless society agenda is being ramped up, covert facial recognition trails in airports, and now facial recognition to browse websites.

Of course the serfs are 'sold' that it's all for their protection, but it's not.

It's for the benefit of the administration, for a lower running cost in 'administering' the prison isle.

They want your biometrics, i,e 'FaceID', fingerprints, iris scan, and last but not least your DNA.

It's for the easier implementation of the 'guilty until proven otherwise' very common scenario in Australia.

Read more at: https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/censorship/porn-viewers-may-be-subject-to-face-scans/news-story/340ec8460c7bb0cf8d83e0dc49c4ccb2

Australia the secret 'police state' governing in secret

Australia the (penal) colony is sure living up to its status as a secret and secretive police state.

The 'Culture of Secrecy' has been around well, since 1788, BUT the serfs have much better communications equipment nowadays.

Remembering that on the 26th of January 1788, Martial Law came to this land.