George Christensen asks Japan for coal-fired power plant in Australia

From The Australian by RACHEL BAXENDALE

REPORTER

@rachelbaxendale

Maverick Nationals MP George Christensen has been sent on a mining industry-funded mission to Japan to ask its government to build new coal-fired power stations in Australia.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan has tasked his fellow Queenslander with hand-delivering letters to major Japanese companies and government leaders.

“We’re asking the world leaders in clean coal technology in Japan to consider investing here,” Mr Christensen said in a statement.

The trip comes after The Australian today revealed that Mr Christensen is among five government backbenchers who have criticised the Australian Energy Market Operator for having an “ideological worldview” that favours renewables.

Mr Christensen, Tony Pasin, John Williams, Ken O’Dowd and Craig Kelly have all criticised the key bureaucrat and expressed concerns about AEMO’s direction under the leadership of chief executive Audrey Zibelman, in the latest indication of the obstacles Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg faces in securing support from the Coalition partyroom for his national energy guarantee.

Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio has meanwhile sent a firm message to the Turnbull government this morning, saying she is reluctant to sign up to the NEG at next week’s crucial Energy Council meeting because of opposition to the policy on the Coalition backbench led by figures such as Tony Abbott.

Mr Christensen’s trip is the latest push from the Nationals for coal after the consumer watchdog’s report into the energy market.

The Nationals claim the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report makes the case for the federal government to make an investment in “clean” coal.

Senator Canavan’s letter says world demand for coal is growing, especially in Asia which is supplied by Australia.

“The demand is coming from new coal-fired power plants that require high-quality coal and that’s what we specialise in,” the letter says.

He says Japan is a pioneer of high efficiency, low emission coal technology.

“I would welcome you to examine any opportunities to potentially invest in new technology in Australia to address this shortfall issue,” the minister’s letter says.

The Minerals Council of Australia-linked Coal21 Fund is picking up the tab for Mr Christensen’s trip.

He will deliver letters to the heads of Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation and the director of the coal division of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

'Sir Lunchalot' Ian Macdonald's jailhouse blues

By Kate McClymont

28 July 2018 — 12:00am

 “My husband is innocent and should not be in jail let alone be trucked all over the state to ensure maximum harm comes to his mental state and mine,” complained the wife of the now-jailed former Labor minister Ian Macdonald.

Anita Gylseth last month sent a blistering email to Premier Gladys Berejiklian, her deputy John Barilaro and a number of NSW cabinet ministers complaining about the location of the jails to which her husband had been sent and the inconvenience it had caused Macdonald’s family.

She complained about Macdonald previously being in Cooma "which is a nine-hour round trip or if I stayed overnight the cost of accommodation was added to the hefty fuel bill."

She also complained about his recent transfer to Junee prison in the Riverina “as our family unit is already in disarray with the outcome of the ICAC media driven trial”.

In June 2017, Ms Gylseth’s husband, the former mining minister, was jailed for a maximum of 10 years for criminal misconduct for giving a lucrative coal exploration licence to former union boss John Maitland, who was also jailed.

On the same day she emailed the Premier, Ms Gylseth also emailed senior Labor MPs imploring them to help her battle to establish a royal commission on what she suggested was a witch hunt led by former senior Liberals and the ICAC that, she claims, led to her husband’s wrongful conviction.

“Please take up the cause for me as I can no longer bear the nightmare that Barry O’Farrell and Chris Hartcher and Brad Hazard (sic) & [Mike] Baird have created for me and my family," Ms Gylseth emailed the Labor politicians on June 23.

In her email to the Liberal MPs, Ms Gylseth complained about her husband’s annual colonoscopy and his hernia operation, which she claimed was overdue, as well as her husband being transferred to various prisons which were inconveniently located from her home in the Blue Mountains.

"I received a call from Ian yesterday at 3pm telling me in a most distressed state that he was calling from Silverwater Correctional Centre and that he was being moved to Junee. Ian has chosen non association as he has been threatened by other inmates. He would reconsider this if there was somewhere with low association that was close to his family," Ms Gylseth wrote in her email.

A noticeable absentee on the list of nine senior Labor politicians emailed by Ms Gylseth was Opposition Leader Luke Foley.

In 2013, Mr Foley told the ICAC that Macdonald was known as “Eddie Obeid's left testicle". This was a reference to Macdonald’s former close ally who has been jailed over an unrelated matter.

In his evidence to the ICAC, Mr Foley said that as a party official in 2006 he had done his best to remove Macdonald from Parliament.

“I formed the view that he had lost his moral compass and was not fit for office,” Mr Foley told the corruption watchdog.

Four years after Mr Foley’s unsuccessful efforts to get Macdonald to quit Parliament, his career imploded.

In 2010, the rorting of the public purse by Macdonald, who had become known as “Sir Lunchalot”, came to an end when the Herald revealed taxpayers had contributed $6000 worth of meals and airfares while Macdonald honeymooned in Rome with his third wife, Ms Gylseth, in 2008.

He had also failed to declare free business-class airfare upgrades with Emirates Airlines worth at least $14,700 soon after he made a decision benefiting the owners of the airline and others in the thoroughbred industry.

As primary industries minister, Macdonald had allowed the multibillion-dollar thoroughbred industry to continue breeding operations in the Hunter Valley during the equine influenza outbreak in 2007.

Macdonald later complained to the ICAC that his financial stress had been exacerbated by adverse media stories which included that Ms Gylseth received a six-figure payout when she left her job in her husband's department.

It had previously been revealed Ms Gylseth received a handsome pay rise when she moved from her husband’s ministerial staff to a $110,000-a-year executive job within the department over which he presided.

My Health Record is a joke

My Health Record (MHR) was introduced in June 2012 by the Gillard Labor Government originally as an opt-in system before legislative amendments in 2015 introduced by the Abbott Coalition Government renamed it and laid the groundwork for it to become an opt-out system.

But what they didn’t tell us is that our private consultations will no longer be private – authorities will be able to access them with ease.  

How parents can manage a child's My Health Record:

Parents can opt children under 18 out of My Health Record until 15 October.

Children aged 14 and over can also opt themselves out until this date.

If no one opts out, a My Health Record will automatically be created by the end of 2018.  When a parent creates a child's My Health Record, they are its authorised representative and are responsible for managing the record.

If a child is not opted out and a My Health Record is created, parents can apply to be an authorised representative.

More than one authorised representative can manage a child's My Health Record.

If two parents have a child on separate Medicare cards, both cards link back to one version of the child's My Health Record.

From age 14, children can apply to manage their own My Health Record.

If they do not, the authorised representative will continue to manage it until age 18.

Parents of newborns will be able to opt them out as part of the Medicare enrolment process.

        

Source: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Australian Digital Health Agency

Muslim man sentenced to eight years for wife’s death

A Muslim man who left his wife to die for five days after he said he found her tied up and badly injured in their home has been jailed for at least eight years.

Mohamed Naddaf pleaded guilty to the criminally negligent manslaughter of Ashlee Brown, 25,who died in their 'unkempt and dirty' Craigieburn home in Melbourne’s north in November 2016.

Justice John Champion said Ms Brown was found in the passenger seat of the couple's car after having been subjected to a 'deliberate and frenzied assault' and tied up with clothesline wire.

The mother of three children under five had been bashed, stabbed, gagged and had her long strawberry blonde hair cut off. 

Naddaf helped Ms Brown to the bathroom, putting her down on a flannelette sheet on the floor, and fed her water through a syringe for five days.

He finally called triple zero on November 6 after Ms Brown died from complications arising from more than 100 injuries including internal and external bleeding.

Naddaf was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment and must serve at least eight years before being eligible for parole.

When Ashlee was about 20 she rang her mother to say she was pregnant and wanted her blessing to convert to Islam and marry Naddaf.

'She said to me, "Mum, I need your blessing to become Muslim". She said "I'm three months' pregnant and I'm engaged to Mohamed. I would really like to marry him, mum, and settle down and have a baby".

'I said to her, "Darling, I don't know anything about the Muslim religion. As long as you know what you're doing".

'I said, "Do you have to wear one of those burqas or hijabs?" I didn't know what they were called.

'She said, "No mum, only when I go into the mosque because it's disrespectful for a woman to show her face before God".

'I said to Ashlee, "As long as you're making a fully informed decision and it's what you really want".'

Ashlee said that it was.

'There was a pause after that,' Ms Brown said. 'She said. "Thank you, mum". And then her voice seemed to change and she said, "It's Islam". That didn't mean anything to me at the time.

'We said goodbye to each other and we hung up and I didn't hear from Ashlee again.'

Justice Champion said Naddaf's motivation was unclear. The court heard Naddaf had a significant criminal history and was a long-term drug user, taking heroin, marijuana and ice.

'The Crown is not in a position to prove who inflicted the injuries upon Ms Brown,' Justice Champion said.

Ashlee's mother had not been in contact with her daughter for five years and believes it was an 'honour killing'.

Ashlee’s mother said she was a fun-loving little girl,  'She was giving, she was loving, she loved the sun and the beach, she loved to sing and dance.

Colleen McCulloch's husband inherits entire estate

By Olivia Caisley, The Australian

Blockbuster author Colleen McCullough spoke from “beyond the grave” in an unsent letter to her husband and would not have wanted him to inherit her multimillion-dollar estate because of a “terrible breakdown” in their marriage, a lawsuit over her will has heard.

The opposing parties yesterday delivered their closing submissions on the eighth day of the case brought by McCullough’s executor and friend Selwa Anthony, who said the University of Oklahoma Foundation was the sole beneficiary of McCullough’s estate, while the author’s widow­er, Ric Robinson, said his wife left everything to him.

Both disagree over whether a document from July 2014 or a document from January 2015 constituted the will of the author of The Thorn Birds.

Ms Anthony has accused Mr Robinson of taking advantage of his wife’s deteriorating health to unduly influence her will in the days before her death on January 29, 2015, but Mr Robinson denies the claims.

In his closing submissions yesterday, Ms Anthony’s barrister, Kim Morrissey, told the court there had been a “terrible breakdown” in the marriage by 2015 and a drafted letter to her husband was like “Dr McCullough speaking from beyond the grave”.

In the October 2014 letter tendered in court, McCullough wrote that Mr Robinson had “made no attempt to disguise” his “antipathetic sentiments” towards her and criticised his “chauvinistic attitude” despite being financially supported by a woman throughout their 30-year marriage.

She questioned whether she could trust Mr Robinson and accused him of subjecting her “to a lot of pressure and criticism simply to fuel your desire for more money”.

Mr Morrissey said the letter was “utterly inconsistent” with an intention to leave her husband the estate and showed antipathy by McCullough to her husband.

“Dr McCullough had cut down his source of income,” Mr Morrissey said. “He was raging about that being cut off. He knew he was in the dog box then. He knew that a new will had been made.”

Mr Robinson’s barrister, David Murr SC, said despite their “fairly precarious” situation, McCullough’s reference to taking steps to reduce their joint debts indicated her intention to leave everything to him.

Mr Murr conceded the couple had reached an “unhappy truce” after Mr Robinson’s extramarital affair, which involved his return to the marital home to take up the role of paid carer for ­McCullough. 

However, in a ruling in the Supreme Court, Justice Nigel Rein said a document signed by McCullough in October 2014 overwrote the previous version and left the entire estate to Mr. Robinson. 

 A claim that she wanted to leave her fortune to the University of Oklahoma Foundation was dismissed.

What the Daryl Maguire saga tells us about politics

By state political editor Brigid Glanville

There are several reasons Australians hate politicians.

They can't stand it when pollies put political wins ahead of the best interests of the voter, or politicians who blatantly lie.

They also hate politicians who use their position for financial or personal gain, and that's where the NSW Liberal member for Wagga Wagga Daryl Maguire comes in.

It was last week revealed in a corruption inquiry that Mr Maguire sought payment of a "dividend" over a property deal.

Despite mounting pressure to resign from the Parliament, he yesterday revealed plans to stick it out until the NSW election in March, 2019.

For that decision, one senior Government minister described Mr Maguire as "just a stubborn prick".

Mr Maguire made the admission during an extraordinary day at the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) last Friday.

The MP appeared before the corruption watchdog during an investigation into improper conduct by former Canterbury City councillors Michael Hawatt and Pierre Azzi.

He told ICAC he pursued Mr Hawatt on behalf of Chinese "friends" with "mega money" from the company Country Garden, who he was trying to help get established in Australia.

In a tapped phone call from May 2016 between Mr Maguire and Mr Hawatt, Mr Maguire said his Chinese friends wanted to invest in as many as 30 development-approved properties.

Mr Hawatt suggested a $48 million project on Canterbury Road in Canterbury.

Mr Maguire asked Mr Hawatt what his margin was on the property.

Mr Hawatt replied that his margin was 1.5 per cent.

"1.5 per cent divided by two isn't very good," Mr Maguire said.

"Three per cent is a lot better, if you know what I'm talking about.

Shortly after the inquiry, the member for Wagga Wagga apologised "unreservedly for causing distress and embarrassment" to the Liberal Party and resigned from his position to sit on the crossbench.

The Premier has asked him to "think carefully" about his future, but Daryl Maguire has said he will not resign from Parliament.

He is not going to recontest his seat at the March 2019 election, saying: "I won't put the cost to the taxpayer of having a byelection."

That means for the next nine months Mr Maguire will continue to receive his $165,000 yearly backbencher's salary.

The backlash in Mr Maguire's own Wagga Wagga electorate has been swift and now visible, with signs beginning to pop up demanding he quit.

Transport Minister Andrew Constance said: "I urge him to listen very closely to what the people of Wagga are saying, because they're saying to him very clearly: go."

How he could go

The only way to force Mr Maguire to resign is to vote to expel him from Parliament, but that standing order hasn't been used since 1917 and it's normally reserved for convictions of a criminal nature.

If the party or the Opposition did use this order, it would be an extraordinary thing to remove a member put there by the voting public.

But as one Government minister said: "Does this guy have no f***ing moral compass?"

"He's doing damage to the Liberal Party, damage to the Government and damage to politicians in general."

There has been criticism of the Government for not taking a firmer stance against Mr Maguire and trying to force him to quit.

Some Nationals members believe it's because the Government doesn't want a by-election in the seat of Wagga as the Liberals will lose it to the Nationals.

"All matters and debates of Parliament are a matter for the Nats Party room," Acting Premier John Barilaro said.

"As leader I don't discuss nor pre-empt party room discussions."

Parliament resumes from the winter break in three weeks' time.

Donald Trump’s threat to pull out of Nato

NATO heads of State pose for a family picture during the opening ceremony of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) summit, at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, 11 July 2018

Donald Trump came close to suggesting the US might unilaterally withdraw from Nato if other member states failed to dramatically increase their spending on the military bloc.

He caused chaos on Thursday by saying the US would “go it alone” if European states failed to boost their spending to at least 2% of GDP by January.

And the threat worked… 

But at an emergency press conference later, Trump appeared to change his mind, claiming Nato members had agreed to commit an extra $33bn (£25bn). He said it had been “a little tough for a little while” -  he told the Europeans he would be “very unhappy” if they did not up their spending “substantially”.

But he said a “tremendous amount of progress” had been made.   Nato was now “much stronger” he added, with spending “rocketing” upwards.

Melania meets Chelsea Pensioner

First Lady Melania Trump high-fives with a British military veteran known as a "Chelsea Pensioner" during a game of bowls at The Royal Hospital Chelsea in central London Friday, July 13, 2018

Winston Churchill's chair

While meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May, Trump sits in Churchill’s chair

Donating blood in Australia

If you visited the UK during this time frame, you are unable to donate blood in Australia.

From 1986 — 98, the UK saw an epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a neurodegenerative disease in cattle likely caused by unsafe feeding practices. By ’96 the disease appeared to have crossed to humans, as scientists identified the first case of vCJD and strongly linked it to BSE. The human form was fatal and incurable: as of May 2015, it had killed at least 228 people, including 177 in the UK and 27 in France. 

Elon Musk’s offer to help rescued boys trapped in Thai cave rejected as ‘not practical’

 Elon Musk

by 

Benedict Brook@BenedictBrook

THE authorities dismissed the “tiny, kid-sized sub” the Tesla chief built to help save the trapped boys. But Musk has fired back.

TECH billionaire Elon Musk may have helped keep the lights on in Adelaide with super-sized batteries and his Hyperloop train could slash travel times, but the Thai Government gave him short shrift on his 11th-hour plan to rescue the stranded boys.

On Tuesday, mission commander and former Chiang Rai province governor Narongsak Osottanakorn said the rescue squad would not need the mini-submarine created by the Tesla co-founder and CEO as it was “not practical”.

Musk had been tweeting up a storm about the benefits of the “tiny, kid-sized submarine” he’d been furiously testing in a Los Angeles swimming pool.

On Tuesday, he said he had just returned from the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex where 12 Thai boys and their coach were trapped, after delivering the rescue device.

“Mini-sub is ready if needed. It is made of rocket parts and named Wild Boar after kids’ soccer team,” he wrote.

But the head of the rescue mission dismissed the option in favour of sticking with the plan for experienced cave divers to help the boys swim out.

“Although his technology is good and sophisticated it’s not practical for this mission,” Mr Narongsak said.

Musk fired back at this claim, saying the former provincial governor was “not the subject matter expert” and sharing his correspondence with leader of the dive rescue team Richard Stanton.

“Right now, I have one of the world’s best engineering teams who normally design spaceships and spacesuits working on this thing 24 hours a day,” Musk’s email to Stanton dated July 8 read. “If it isn’t needed, that would be great to know.”

Stanton replied: “It is absolutely worth continuing with the development of this system in as timely a manner as feasible. If the rain holds out it may well be used.”

The tech entrepreneur said parts were being assembled for underwater testing before being put on a plane. He said the operating principle was the “same as spacecraft design — no loss of life even with two failures.”

In an ominous indication of just how precarious the rescue operation was, Stanton then sent another email: “We’re worried about the smallest lad please keep working on the capsule details.”

Musk’s engineers designed a metallic escape pod based on “feedback from Thailand,” using a large silver tube meant to be affixed to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The person inside would not need to swim or know how to use oxygen bottles.

Earlier in the week, the tech boss described the device as “basically a tiny, kid-size submarine using the liquid oxygen transfer tube of Falcon rocket as hull”.

He said it was “light enough to be carried by two divers, small enough to get through narrow gaps” and “extremely robust”.

The device is outfitted with oxygen ports and a nose cone to protect it from impact with rocks.

On Monday, Musk had tweeted a short video of the sub being tested in a suburban LA pool. Guided by divers at the front and rear of the craft, it was inched through a metal framework supposed to resemble the tight submerged spaces in the tunnel complex.

But with some of these just 38cm wide, the sub would have to be immensely manoeuverable given divers have had to take off their oxygen tanks to squeeze through the narrow passages.

Each boy and their coach was fitted with a wetsuit, boots and full face mask with oxygen supplied from a tank carried by another diver.

They followed a guide rope through the tunnel system with a diver in front and one behind them to help them in the difficult flooded passages.

Musk’s sub may have been a dud for this mission, but his battery in South Australia is firing on all cylinders.

Officially turned on in December, the world’s largest lithium-ion battery responded quickly later that month when the coal-fired Loy Yang power plant tripped and went offline.

The battery delivered 100 megawatts into the national electricity grid in 140 milliseconds.

“That’s a record and the national operators were shocked at how quickly and efficiently the battery was able to deliver this type of energy into the market,” then Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said.

The battery, in the state’s mid north, was switched on after being built by Musk’s company Tesla in less than 100 days following a series of blackouts in South Australia.