log spiking – Tasmanian Times put several questions to the Police regarding their investigation into alleged ‘log spiking’ incidents at two southern sawmills in May. We received the following response:
“Tasmania Police is continuing to investigate a reported log spiking incident in southern Tasmania last month. More than 20 bolts have been recovered by police, and these items will be subject to forensic examination, including DNA analysis. Investigators are currently exploring a specific line of enquiry, however the matter is ongoing. Police remain open to exploring all legitimate and credible lines of enquiry in an effort to identify those responsible.”
honours – in the public holiday honours this time around, Premier Peter Gutwein congratulated all Tasmanians who receive these awards as “remarkable individuals recognised for their great service to their community.” He singled out Dr Rosemary Callinghamm appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to mathematics education, teacher development and to her community; and Hugh Hiscutt also appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) this year for his significant service to the people and Parliament of Tasmania, and to the community of West Devon.
Inspector Glen Ball received the Australian Police Medal following more than 40 years of service. “This achievement is a testament to the work he has undertaken in communities across the state, and particularly his efforts leading complex investigations into notoriously dangerous crimes,” said Police Minister Mark Shelton. One of these operations saw Inspector Ball awarded a Commissioner’s High Commendation for his “devotion to duty, leadership and high level management skills leading to the highly successful outcome of Operation Northcote – solving cold case murder, clearing scores of crimes committed across the state.”
social casinos – the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Banning Social Casinos and Other Measures) Bill 2020 – which would ban social casinos in Australia, was introduced by Clark MHR Andrew Wilkie this week. “Social casinos are games played on social media platforms like Facebook, websites or phone apps,” he explained. “In these virtual casinos players are enticed in with free chips and credits, only to be encouraged to pay real money to continue playing or place higher bets. The real kicker is that players can’t cash out once the game is finished.” He said that online casino games are illegal in Australia but social casinos are not. The Bill also gives the Australian Communications and Media Authority the power to apply for Federal Court injunctions against carriage service providers to block domain names, URLs and IP addresses of online locations which provide prohibited gambling and casino services to Australians.
Wilkie pointed out that ads for gambling services are often embedded into the social media platform hosting the social casino, which actively encourages players to move across to other betting websites. “Social casinos pose a particular risk to children and young adults, whether they are using a parent’s credit card to purchase chips or just playing for free. Indeed Australian research has found that ‘gambling-like’ games on social media effectively prepare children for gambling with real money later in life because they familiarise underage users with how to play casino games. The ball is now in the Government’s court. Either it will see sense and support the bill, or rollover and get its tummy tickled again by the gambling industry.”
boat trip went whale – with whale migration season in full swing, Police and a rescue helicopter were called to a boating incident on Wednesday afternoon, after a 6-metre recreational fishing vessel collided with a whale near Schouten Passage about 1:30pm. “The five men (aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s) occupying the boat all received various non-life threatening injuries and were treated by paramedics at the scene, with one flown to hospital,” Police said. The vessel was travelling from the outside of the passage to the inside, while the whale was heading east out of the bay. They advised that Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service and the DPIPWE Marine Conservation Program (MCP) have been notified of the incident. There was no news on the condition of the whale.
Teddy Sheean – the World War 2 soldier is still the centre of a tug-of-war regarding his nomination for a Victoria Cross medal. The matter took a turn this week when Prime Minister Morrison ordered a review into the independent review that had recommended a VC; this recommendation was later rejected by the government. “Rather than saying he got it wrong, the Prime Minister is wasting time and taxpayer money with a review into a review,” said Labor Senator Anne Urquhart in a joint statement with relevant Shadow Ministers Richard Marles and Shayne Neumann. “The DHAAT was extremely clear: it recommended a posthumous VC based on new and compelling evidence of Teddy Sheean’s bravery and the version of events at the time was inaccurate and understated his actions. The Morrison Government’s response to the Tribunal’s recommendations has trashed the process.” They contend that the Minister for Defence Personnel was initially supportive of the decision, but was “rolled by his colleagues.”
Tasmanian Liberal Senators “voted in favour of the process outlined by the Prime Minister yesterday which will see an independent panel review decisions by the Defence Honours and Awards Appeal Tribunal,” they said in a joint statement by the 5 Senators. They said they had written to the Prime Minister last month “unanimously urging the Appeal Tribunal’s decision be upheld, so the announcement of an expert panel review is an important step.” The review panel includes former Defence Minister and War Memorial Director the Dr Brendan Nelson, former Solicitor-General, David Bennett, former Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Dr Peter Shergold, and Senior Curator and Historian at the NSW Anzac Memorial, Brad Manera.
Meanwhile the Senate successfully ordered Mathias Cormann (the Minister representing the Prime Minister) to provide all relevant documents in relation to the recommendation of the DHAAT in relation to Teddy Sheean. The government has until Wednesday to provide the documents.
bushfire summit – the Inaugural National Bushfire and Climate Summit was held this week, featuring 33 Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, led by former NSW Commissioner of Fire & Rescue, Greg Mullins. A key message was that that governments must turn down the heat driving increasing climate change-fuelled bushfires, otherwise no amount of resourcing will ever be enough to keep pace. According to Greens’ Climate Change spokesperson Rosalie Woodruff, the Summit confirmed the length and extent of last summer’s fire disasters were fundamentally different to what even sophisticated defence wargaming had ever predicted. “This is despite the planet having ‘only’ warmed 1.1 degrees above average so far,” she said “Current estimates are the world will warm by a minimum of 3 degrees at the end of the century, unless we act fast.”
Summit scientists and firefighters actually cautioned against assuming last summer’s fires were the ‘new normal’, because they are already outdated. “Governments must look to the future, and we must start modelling the expected changes that climate heating will bring,” said Woodruff. “Summit fire experts warned Tasmania to act now to prevent worsening bushfire conditions. Some 50 per cent of the state’s carbon emissions come from fossil-fuelled transport, and critically, the government is also clearfelling critical native forest carbon stores and increasing bushfire risk to neighbouring communities in the process.” She labelled the recovery from COVID-19 an opportunity to reset and called for the expertise of forestry workers, ‘currently wasted in climate-damaging logging’, to be redeployed into large-scale bushfire prevention and land regeneration.
