Author: mangakiko

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Australia

Donna Adams appointed as Tasmania’s first female Commissioner of Police

A woman wearing a blue police commissioner's uniform looks seriously at the camera.

Donna Adams has been appointed Tasmania’s first female Commissioner of Police, after 35 years in the force.

The highest-ranked woman in the 125-year history of Tasmania Police began her career as a constable when she was 19 years old.

Commissioner Adams said she felt “privileged” and “honoured” to be the 15th person to take on the role of commissioner.

“This is an extremely proud moment for me, and I’m really looking forward to making positive change,” she said.

“It’s not a position I thought I’d be awarded when I first joined Tasmania Police back in 1987, straight out of school.

“In fact, I only had a very simple ambition to join the drug squad, and as it turns out, it was an ambition I did not fulfill.”

Commissioner Adams has previously spoken about being greatly outnumbered by men when she first started in the force.

“When I first went to Bellerive CIB (Criminal Investigation Branch) in 1990, I had to share a toilet with the men and had my name on the first cubicle,” she said.

In 2009, she became the first woman promoted to the rank of commander, before last year becoming the state’s first female deputy commissioner.

Police Minister Felix Ellis, new Police Commissioner Donna Adams and Premier Jeremy Rockliff walk away from a building.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff (R) described Commissioner Adams as “a highly capable professional”.(ABC News: Maren Preuss)

Focus on ‘back-to-basics policing’

Throughout her career, Commissioner Adams has received several awards, including the Commissioner’s Commendation for her work after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, as well as an Australian Police Medal for Distinguished Service.

She will take over the role of Darren Hine, who will retire on October 11 after more than 40 years in Tasmania Police and 14 as Commissioner of Police and Secretary of the Department.

Commissioner Adams said she had a “big pair of shoes to fill.”

“Darren [Hine] you have provided outstanding leadership, and support to me over the past 14 years,” she said.

“He has transformed Tasmania Police through his inclusive leadership.”

The 54-year-old said she would focus on “back-to-basics policing” in the wake of the pandemic and that “prevention and disruption” would also be a key issue.

“Now’s the time to re-focus on high visibility policing, and ensuring we have a strong focus on local policing issues in local communities,” she said.

“We need to do everything we can to prevent harm before it occurs, we need to do everything we can to prevent victims, from being a repeat victim of crime.”

Premier Jeremy Rockliff said the significance of his appointment could be “understated.”

“Donna is a highly capable professional, and well placed to provide exceptional leadership to Tasmania Police, and the community,” he said.

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Categories
US

Democrats celebrate as climate bill moves to House – and critics weigh in | US politics

Democrats celebrated the much-delayed Senate passage of their healthcare and climate spending package, expressing hope that the bill’s approval could improve their prospects in the crucial midterm elections this November.

The bill, formally known as the Inflation Reduction Act, passed the Senate on Sunday in a party-line vote of 51-50, with Vice-President Kamala Harris breaking the tie in the evenly divided chamber.

Raucous applause broke out on the Senate floor after Harris announced the final tally, and Democrats continued their victory lap once the vote had concluded amid a belief that the bill will give Biden – and many Democrats – a record of significant achievement to campaign on.

“I’m really confident that the Inflation Reduction Act will endure as one of the defining feats of the 21st century,” the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said at a press conference after the bill’s passage. “To do small things with 50 votes is rough. To pass such a major piece of legislation – with only 50 votes, an intransigent Republican minority, a caucus running from Bernie Sanders to Joe Manchin – wow.”

Democrats’ work is not quite done though. The Senate-approved bill now heads to the House, which must pass the legislation before it can go to Joe Biden’s desk. The House is scheduled to return from its recess on Friday to take up the bill, and Democratic leaders have expressed confidence that it will pass.

“The House will return and move swiftly to send this bill to the president’s desk – proudly building a healthier, cleaner, fairer future for all Americans,” the Democratic speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement.

Democrats hope the bill’s passage could also help them persuade voters to keep them in control of Congress in November, when every House seat and 34 Senate seats will be up for grabs. So far, Democrats’ prospects in the midterm elections have appeared grim, as Republicans are heavily favored to regain control of the House of Representatives.

Asked on Monday morning whether he believed the bill’s approval would benefit Democrats running in November, Biden said, “Do I expect it to help? Yes, I do. It’s going to immediately help.”

Biden pointed to some of the bill’s healthcare provisions, including capping Medicare recipients’ out-of-pocket prescription costs at $2,000 a year, to argue that the legislation would provide concrete assistance to millions of Americans. But that policy will not go into effect until 2025, and Biden acknowledged that some of the bill’s most important provisions will take time to kick in.

That delayed implementation could prove detrimental to Democratic candidates trying to make a pitch to voters about how the party has made the most of its control of the White House and Congress.

Despite its name, the bill is also not expected to provide immediate relief to Americans struggling under the weight of record-high inflation. According to a report issued by Moody’s Analytics, the bill will “modestly reduce inflation over the 10-year budget horizon”.

Republicans accused Democrats of ramming through a partisan bill that failed to address voters’ top concerns, as polls show most Americans believe the economy is getting worse.

“Democrats have proven over and over they simply do not care about middle-class families’ priorities,” the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said after the bill’s passage. “They have spent 18 months proving that. They just spent hundreds of billions of dollars to provide it again.”

Republicans’ talking points were echoed by a surprising voice on Sunday: Bernie Sanders. The progressive senator expressed concern that the bill would do little to help working Americans, after he unsuccessfully pushed amendments to the bill that would have expanded its healthcare and financial assistance provisions.

“It’s a very modest step forward,” Sanders told MSNBC. “Bottom line is, I’m going to support the bill because given the crisis of climate change, the environmental community says this is a step forward. It doesn’t go anywhere near as far as it should. It is a step forward.”

Democrats have championed the bill’s environmental provisions, which mark America’s most significant legislative effort yet to address the climate crisis. Experts estimate that the climate policies in the spending package will slash US greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels. That accomplishment will bring the US within striking distance of Biden’s goal to cut emissions in half by the end of the decade, which scientists say must be achieved to avoid climate disaster.

To win the support of the centrist senator Joe Manchin, the bill also includes controversial proposals to expand oil and gas development on federal lands, which have sparked outcry among some climate activists. But the bill’s defenders say the climate benefits of the legislation far outweigh the costs.

As the spending package moves to the House, Pelosi has the weighty task of keeping her entire caucus in line to ensure the bill’s passage. Given Democrats’ narrow majority in the lower chamber, Pelosi can afford to lose only a few votes and still get the bill passed. It seems like Pelosi will have the votes she needs, after moderates and progressives alike endorsed the package, so Biden could be reaching for her bill-signing pen by the end of the week.

Categories
Entertainment

The Block launches huge in new reality battle

The Block launches huge in new reality battle

The Block appears to have tapped into the dreams of city viewers who have endured two years of rolling lockdowns.

A Tree Change season, the first ever rural reno for the Nine series, launched to a huge 867,000 meter viewers, despite heated competition. That’s up 16% on 2021’s 747,000 premiere and in effect positions Nine well for a stong second half of the year.

It was easily ahead of The Masked Singer‘s 522,000 (rising to 598,000 for the reveal of Ryan Moloney), the return of MKR (503,000) and Spicks & Specks (449,000).

Later 60 minutes was 445,000 then Mystery Road: Origin (263,000).

Commonwealth Games was still big, at 724,000 / 396,000 / 331,000 with 7 mate topping multichannels with a huge 396,000.

Seven network won Sunday with 38.6% then Nine 27.2%, 10 15.0%, ABC 12.9% and SBS 6.3%.

Seven News was #1 at 982,000 viewers.

Nine News drew 807,000 with a late edition at 223,000.

The Sunday Project drew 314,000 / 248,000 for 10. 10 News First was 253,000 / 188,000. NCIS: Hawaii was 169,000 then FBI (93,000).

ABCNews was 572,000 for ABC. compass (164,000) and movies: Suffragette followed.

On SBS it was SBS World News (141,000 / 121,000), Mysteries From The Grave: Titanic (110,000) and Hindenburg: The New Evidence (75,000).

In Total TV numbers last Sunday were:

hunted: 982,000
Beauty & the Geek: 707,000
Mystery Road: Origin: 569,000
NCIS: Hawaii: 355,000

OzTAM Overnights: Sunday 7 August 2022

Categories
Sports

NRL 2022: Adam Hills, Physical Disability Rugby League, World Cup, Australia

NRL 2022: Adam Hills, Physical Disability Rugby League, World Cup, Australia

Physical Disability Rugby League pioneer Adam Hills is set to play against some of the team-mates he helped introduce to the game after being selected in an extended Australian squad for October’s World Cup in England.

Hills, who was awarded an OBE for services to Paralympic Sport and Disability Awareness in the Queen’s 2022 New Year’s Honors List, was instrumental in the establishment of a PDRL competition in Britain and has played for Warrington since 2018.

However, the comedian and TV host declared his allegiance to Australia on an episode of The Last Leg aired in the UK on July 29, which also featured an announcement of the draw for the PDRL World Cup.

The tournament will be played Warrington from October 23 to October 30 and features Australia, England, New Zealand and Wales.

A 40-man Australian squad was announced on Monday and will be reduced to 20 players on August 14, with Hills hoping to be among those selected for the World Cup.

“Honored to make the extended squad to represent Australia in the PDRL World Cup,” Hills tweeted. “Whether selected or not, I’ll do all I can to support the team.”


Adam Hills is a household name in Australia and England

Adam Hills is a household name in Australia and England
©RLWC2021


The majority of the squad played in a historic selection trial between the Gold Coast Titans and NSW PDRL teams at Cbus Super Stadium on July 16.

A fundraising campaign has been launched to assist with travel and other costs for the Australian PDRL team.

A household name in both Australia and England, where he hosts The Last Leg and Channel 4’s coverage of Super League, Hills is also a RLWC2021 ambassador.

After learning that there was a PDRL competition in Sydney, which included his beloved Rabbitohs, Hills offered to help Warrington establish a team.

Commuting from London to train and play, he has since played more than 20 matches for Warrington, two for Souths and represented NSW City and Lancashire.

A documentary Hills made about Warrington’s trip to Australia to play South Sydney in the Physical Disability World Club Challenge won an award in the Television/Digital Documentary category at the 2019 British Sports Journalism Awards.

Hills is now poised to pull on the green-and-gold jersey of Australia at the PDRL World Cup in England, which will be played alongside the Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair tournaments.

The final of the PDRL World Cup will be the second match in a double-header with the Samoa v France game at Halliwell Jones Stadium on October 30.

Categories
Australia

NSW Premier’s ‘thank you’ cash bonus reduced by tax as nurses work overtime during COVID-19

Two healthcare workers put on personal protective equipment

New South Wales nurses say the tax office has claimed much of their $3,000 pandemic “thank you” payment after many were pushed into a higher tax bracket by working extra shifts during the latest COVID-19 wave.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrotet announced in June that public healthcare workers would receive the bonus to thank them for their increased workload due to COVID-19.

It came four months after thousands walked off the job to protest staffing levels that had pushed an already stretched system to its limit during the pandemic.

But according to Diane Lang, NSW Nurses and Midwives Association’s delegate at Bega’s South East Regional Hospital, the promised $3,000 had since been cut in half for many staff.

She said the reduced payment came at a time when many nurses were doing overtime and extra shifts to cover staff shortages caused by the latest wave of infections.

A close up of a woman wearing sunglasses.
Diane Lang says the thank you payment has been taxed significantly for some nurses.(ABC South East NSW: Adriane Reardon)

“For many nurses, completing overtime and ensuring the health system did not collapse during a wave of COVID and influenza cases placed them in a higher tax bracket than usual,” Ms Lang said.

“All those people who have done all those extra shifts and all that overtime have paid a lot of tax.

“We knew we had to pay tax, but we were under the impression it was going to be paid separately to our wages, so there’s a lot of angry nurses out there at the moment.”

NSW Health has been contacted for comment.

Taxed for hard work

Genevieve Stone is the secretary of the union’s branch at Wollongong Hospital where nurses were “heartbroken” after the full amount failed to land in their bank accounts.

“What we found is the nurses who worked overtime in that pay period were the ones who were taxed the most, and got the least amount of money,” she said.

“The pandemic has been dragging on for a ridiculous amount of time, and I think we were all hoping for a morale boost in the way of this payment.

“We were hoping to be more heard and appreciated, but that hasn’t happened.”

The front of a building with a sign saying Wollongong Hospital
The union says those who worked hardest were taxed the most and earned less.(ABC Illawarra: Tim Fernandez)

Ms Stone said a pay rise in line with inflation would be “much more beneficial” to the workforce than a one-off payment, with both senior and junior staff leaving the profession in waves.

“We’re always called martyrs and angels, but that overshadows that we are highly skilled workers,” she said.

“We go to university, we’ve got medical knowledge, we do manual labor and we deserve to be valued.

“We are haemorrhaging nurses.”

a man wearing glasses standing behind a microphone
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet had planned to thank employees for their hard work during the pandemic.(abcnews)

Industrial action planned

A nurse for more than 40 years, Jill Telfer is the secretary of the union’s branch at Tamworth Hospital.

She said that while some of the tax could be returned next financial year, many nurses were still “very disappointed”.

“I wasn’t the greatest thank you I’ve ever received,” Ms Telfer said.

“What dropped into our pay was $2,700 as we had super taken out automatically and we were also taxed, so I received about $1,700, but many received much less than that.

“The payment was just like a pat on the head, because we are desperate to change our situation in our public hospitals.

“We would prefer we were offered a fair pay rise.”

Ms Telfer said further industrial action was planned and many, including herself, were considering an early retirement.

“I know good friends who have got positions elsewhere because they didn’t want to keep doing this,” she said.

“We were short staffed before COVID, but now it’s even worse and it’s just got to be fixed.”

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Categories
US

White House denies more IRS funding could increase audits on lower-income Americans

White House denies more IRS funding could increase audits on lower-income Americans

‘Fox Business Tonight’ host David Asman discusses how the new spending bill Joe Manchin voted for will benefit the IRS massively.

The Biden administration on Monday pushed back against concerns that an extra $80 billion in funding for the IRS that Democrats included in their latest health care and climate change spending package could increase audits on lower-income households.

When asked about the possibility of more audits on middle-class Americans, the White House pointed to a letter written by IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig last week, in which he maintained that additional funding for the tax-collecting agency will not increase audits on households earning less than $400,000.

“These resources are absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans,” Rettig wrote in the letter. “As we have been planning, our investment of these enforcement resources is designed around the Treasury’s directive that audit rates will not rise relative to recent years for households making under $400,000.”

Providing the IRS with an influx of funding has been a top priority for President Biden and is one of the most prominent provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that Senate Democrats passed along party lines early Sunday.

DEMOCRATS’ MINIMUM CORPORATE TAX WOULD HIT THESE INDUSTRIES THE HARDEST

President Joe Biden

President Biden speaks about inflation and the economy from the White House campus May 10, 2022. (Getty Images/Getty Images)

The Democrats projected that enhancing IRS funding could add an extra $124 billion in federal revenue over the next decade by hiring more tax enforcers who can limit tax evasion by rich individuals and corporations. Roughly $1 trillion in federal taxes goes unpaid yearly because of errors, fraud and a lack of resources to adequately enforce collections, the IRS estimated last year.

But Republican lawmakers have sounded the alarm over the proposal, warning that it could have serious ramifications for lower-income workers.

That’s because the IRS disproportionately targets low-income Americans when it conducts tax audits each year. In fact, households with less than $25,000 in earnings are five times as likely to be audited by the agency than everyone else, according to a recent analysis of tax data from fiscal year 2021 by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.

IRS charles rettig

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig testifies before the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee on March 17, 2022, in Washington. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/Getty Images)

The reason for that is a rise in what is known as “correspondence audits,” meaning the IRS conducts reviews of tax returns via letters or phone calls rather than more complex face-to-face audits. Just a fraction – 100,000 of the 659,000 audits in 2021 – were conducted in person.

According to the Syracuse study, more than half of the correspondence audits initiated by the IRS last year – 54% – involved low-income workers with gross receipts of less than $25,000 who claimed the earned income tax credit, an anti-poverty measure.

STRATEGISTS, TAX EXPERTS WEIGH IMPLICATIONS OF MANCHIN-BACKED BILL ON MIDTERM ELECTIONS

Even taxpayers with a total positive income that ranged from $200,000 to $1 million had one-third the odds of being audited by the IRS compared to the lowest-income wage earners. About 9 million taxpayers reported these high-income levels in 2021, but fewer than 40,000 of their returns were audited, or roughly 4.5 out of every 1,000. That contrasts sharply with lower-income Americans, who faced an audit rate of 13 out of every 1,000.

The discrepancy is primarily due to high-income taxpayers having complex investments that can easily shroud the gaps between taxes owed and paid vs. tax reported and paid.

capitol hill

Night falls at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite/AP Newsroom)

“Barring an unlikely significant change in the composition of IRS enforcement, the stepped-up IRS enforcement would subject taxpayers across the income spectrum to more scrutiny and greater audit risk,” the conservative Heritage Foundation said in a recent blog post.

Still, Rettig argued that hiring more enforcement officers and modernizing the agency’s antiquated technology could actually help the IRS to avoid auditing honest taxpayers.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

“Large corporate and high-net-worth taxpayers often engage teams of sophisticated representatives pursuing unsettled or sometimes questionable interpretations of tax law,” he said. “The integrity and fairness of our tax administrative system relies upon the ability of our agency to maintain a strong, visible, robust enforcement presence directed to these and other similarly situated noncompliant taxpayers.”

FOX Business’ Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report

Categories
Entertainment

Anne Heche slips into coma, in ‘critical condition’ after car crash

Anne Heche slips into coma, in 'critical condition' after car crash

Anne Heche is fighting for life after her horror car crash.

The US actress’ representative told foxnewsthat she is “in an extreme critical condition” following the fiery collision on Friday, local time.

“She has a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention,” the rep said.

“She is in a coma and has not regained consciousness since shortly after the accident.”

thenew york postreported that the Los Angeles Police Department had received a warrant to test the vanished actress’ blood to determine whether she was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs at the time of the accident.

Stream more entertainment news live & on demand with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends October 31, 2022 >

Officers believe Heche, 53, may have been intoxicated when she ploughed her blue Mini Cooper into an LA home, igniting a massive fire that torched her and her car.

“The info we received this morning was a warrant that was obtained the same day as the traffic collision, which was August 5. The warrant was to draw blood, and an investigation is ongoing pending the blood test results,” a rep for the LAPD said.

“If found intoxicated, [Heche] could be charged with misdemeanor DUI hit and run. No arrests have been made so far.”

A red-capped bottle could be seen in Heche’s car’s cupholder in a photo TMZ reports was taken before the accident.

According to eyewitnesses, the actress first crashed into the garage of a nearby apartment complex but backed up and sped off before residents could help her.

Officials with the LAPD West Traffic Division have confirmed she hit another vehicle before slamming into the house that went up in flames.

Photos from the scene captured Heche being put on a stretcher and showed serious injuries to her back, while aerial shots documented smoke billowing out of the house into which she drove as well as numerous fire trucks surrounding the area.

Heche, also known for a high-profile romance with Ellen DeGeneres in the 1990s, has been open about her struggles with substance abuse.

“I drink. I smoked. I did drugs. I had sex with people. I did anything I could to get the shame out of my life, ”she told ABC News in 2020, explaining that she spent much of her childhood getting sexually abused by her father.

“I’m not crazy,” the Six Days Seven Nights star said at the time.

“But it’s a crazy life. I was raised in a crazy family. And it took 31 years to get the crazy out of me.”

This article originally appeared on The New York Post and was reproduced with permission

.

Categories
Sports

Manase Fainu: NRL rising star ‘ended’ wild brawl with alleged stabbing

Manase Fainu: NRL rising star 'ended' wild brawl with alleged stabbing

NRL rising star Manase Fainu did not start a bloody brawl in a church parking lot but he “ended it” when he plunged a steak knife into the back of a youth leader, a court has been told.

Mr Fainu, 24, is fighting allegations that he stabbed Faamanu Levi in ​​the back during a brawl outside a Mormon church dance nearly three years ago.

The Manly Sea Eagles hooker has pleaded not guilty to wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after Mr Levi was stabbed in the back near his shoulder blade and cut above his right eye.

Mr Fainu’s trial has entered its final stages, with Crown prosecutor Emma Curran using closing submissions on Tuesday to point to the evidence of one eyewitness who told the court that he had seen Mr Fainu stab Mr Levi.

Mr Fainu during his evidence said he played no part in the brawl, which took place between two parked cars in a parking lot at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Wattle Grove in Sydney’s southwest.

During his evidence on Monday, Mr Fainu said he was approximately 10 to 12m from the fight between his friends and another group of men when he heard someone yell “knife, knife”.

He had undergone shoulder surgery a month earlier and on October 25, 2019, he had his left arm in a sling.

Tony Quach said he saw Mr Fainu stab his friend Mr Levi and was able to identify him by his sling.

During his evidence, Mr Quach said Mr Fainu had not started the fight but “he ended it” by stabbing Mr Levi.

“Manase Fainu jumped over a fence into the grounds of the church, he was with four of his friends and the group of them approached Mr Levi and his friends,” Ms Curran said.

“A brawl broke out and when things looked like they were getting out of hand, Mr Fainu pulled out a knife and plunged it into the back of Mr Levi, causing a wound that punctured his lung and caused internal bleeding.”

Mr Quach said he saw Mr Fainu with an angry look on his face and a knife in his right hand and his arm bent at a 90-degree angle.

It is not an issue that Mr Fainu was in the car park, his left arm was in a sling, and there was a brawl during which Mr Levi was stabbed before Mr Fainu scaled the wall once again and ran to his car.

However, the identity of Mr Levi’s attacker is in dispute.

Ms Curran said another man, Kupi Toilalo, said he saw a man approach him and his friends with his left arm in a sling holding a knife.

“When Kupi saw this, he was at arm’s length away from the person holding the knife, nothing obstructing his view,” Ms Curran said

Mr Fainu told the jury on Monday that he was “scared” because he knew he could not defend himself if he became involved in the fight.

He denied brandishing a 10cm steak knife that was used to stab Mr Levi, saying he did not see any of his friends with a weapon on the night.

Mr Levi underwent surgery after the stab wound punctured his lung and caused internal bleeding.

Mr Fainu said he went to the church because his friend Uona “Big Buck” Faingaa was seeking to recover money owed to him by a man.

The court was told that before the brawl, two of Mr Fainu’s friends were involved in an altercation on the dance floor and were asked to leave.

Mr Fainu said he left the church grounds as his mates were being escorted out, apologizing to a security guard on the way out.

CCTV footage showed Mr Fainu and four of his friends shortly afterwards jumping a fence from a Coles carpark back onto the church grounds.

Mr Fainu testified that he had told his friends that he would go inside to collect Mr Faingaa’s money by himself; however, they followed him over.

Defense barrister Margaret Cunneen SC said Mr Fainu had been identified as being present during the brawl because of the distinguishing nature of his sling, but all of the eyewitnesses were mistaken about him being the stabber.

“Mr Manase Fainu is a man who was never before in trouble for any violence whatsoever,” Ms Cunneen said.

“He did not stab Mr Levi. No one condom what happened to Mr Levi, it’s appalling.”

The jury will withdraw to consider its verdict after Ms Cunneen’s closing submissions.

The trial before Judge Nanette Williams continues.

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Categories
Australia

Lawyers push to waive COVID fines issued to children as young as 13

A woman wearing a black top stands next to a police car with her arms crossed.

The New South Wales government is resisting growing calls to scrap tens of thousands of COVID fines, which lawyers say were unjustly issued, including to a teenager with an intellectual disability.

The question of whether the government and NSW Police were heavy-handed in their pandemic response will be argued in a test case before the NSW Supreme Court.

The Redfern Legal Center hopes its legal challenge will quash 45,000 fines, which it says failed to properly outline the offense committed.

“The process was unjust, messy, and the rule of law was not followed,” the center’s Samantha Lee told 7.30.

The agency responsible for COVID penalties, Revenue NSW, said that of the 62,035 fines issued since early 2020, more than half, or 38,372 remained unpaid in full.

While the majority of these are being paid in some form of repayment plan, many have gone unanswered.

In total, 3,840 children between 13 and 17 years of age were fined between $40 and $5,000, which lawyers say should be waived as cautions.

Revenue NSW said 17 fines issued to children totaling $45,000 remain unresolved.

A woman wearing a gray jacket.
Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay says the ends disproportionately affected poorer communities.(abcnews)

“This is a form of unjust treatment to children,” Ms Lee said. “These children have been fined for $1,000, $3,000 and $5,000.

“One child who has an intellectual disability was given three $1,000 fines for being out of his house. I’m of the view that he should never have been issued a fine.

“Under the fine acts, someone who has an intellectual disability should not have been issued a fine.”

The Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay told 7.30 a.m. she wants to see all fines suspended nationally given the system disproportionately affected poorer communities in NSW and Victoria.

“It’s actually a nationwide issue, and what we really need to do is firstly, in respect to the fines, pause enforcement until they can be properly reviewed so that the public can have confidence that the fine system is lawful and working fairly,” she said.

“But secondly, we actually need to have a broader review into the pandemic response.”

Children volunteer to pay off fines through government program

A woman wearing a coat stands on a footpath.
Bronwyn O’Brien, a case worker at SydWest Multicultural Services.(ABC News: Jason Om)

Some people penalized in NSW have chosen to pay off the fines through a program known as a Work and Development Order (WDO).

It allows people on low incomes to pay down the fine through unpaid work or activities such as a life skills course, counselling, drug and alcohol treatment and mentoring.

About 140 children have taken part in WDOs, including some at SydWest Multicultural Services in Blacktown, which was among the suburbs that suffered harsher restrictions than the rest of Sydney.

Case worker Bronwyn O’Brien told 7.30 that NSW Police had been unforgiving to residents, particularly if they were multilingual.

She cited a case of a father and a son who had gone out to get groceries and tried to explain themselves to the police, but were ignored.

“Any opportunity for them to explain was shut down and they were immediately given a $1,000 fine each,” Ms O’Brien said.

She said it took weeks for people in the WDO program to pay off their ends.

“They were like $500, or $1,000 per fine. For the clients we’re working with that could be their weekly or fortnightly pay, if they’re receiving Centrelink it’s even worse.”

“Some people, they have to spend months and months to engage in activities just to get the fine down just a bit.”

A young man wearing a cap and hoodie.
Connor Jago was 17 when he was fined for not wearing a mask on a train.(ABC News: Jason Om)

Connor Jago was 17 when police issued him with two COVID fines for not wearing a mask on a train, and a separate transport fine, totaling $680.

“That was more than I make in two weeks almost,” he told 7.30.

The second $80 COVID fine was because he was wearing a mask below his nose after putting it on, Mr Jago told 7.30.

He threatened to take the government to court, arguing he was complying with police directions before Revenue NSW dropped one of the COVID fines of $500.

Fines commissioner says repayment system beneficial

A man wearing a suit and tie has his arms crossed.
NSW chief commissioner of state revenue, Scott Johnston.(ABC News: Tom Hancock)

In a rare interview with 7.30am, the head of Revenue NSW defended the organisation, and welcomed any review of individual cases.

The chief commissioner of state revenue, Scott Johnston, would not be drawn on whether it was appropriate for police to fine children as young as 13, and said the WDO program had had “powerful” outcomes.

“Some of the criticism or challenge on the way that we’ve done that, about imposing unfair penalties on people and youths, I think is not really reflective on the experience that the people who received these fines have had,” he said.

“I understand completely that a fine affects people differently. Some people can’t afford to pay that commitment and the genuine commitment from my organisation, and [me]is to have a conversation with people where they need help and support.”

Mr Johnston said the agency had resolved the cases of 500 children under 15 who were fined $40 for not wearing a mask.

NSW Police declined to comment at 7.30, while the Victorian Government told 7.30 its penalty system protected citizens from the pandemic and that there are options available if people are struggling to pay off fines.

Watch this story on 7.30 on ABC TV and ABC iview.

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Categories
US

Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s approval, Wyoming primary: This week in politics

Inflation Reduction Act, Biden's approval, Wyoming primary: This week in politics

Lawmakers are racing toward the August recess, as President Biden prepares to sign a bill Tuesday that invests nearly $52 billion into the semiconductor chip manufacturing sector.

Meanwhile, the House is expected to vote this week on a roughly $430 billion spending package aimed at improving health care, addressing climate change, and making corporations pay their fair share of taxes. The Senate approved the measure over the weekend.

We’re also slated to see new inflation data on Wednesday, as US Rep. Liz Cheney makes a final sprint in her campaign to retain her Republican seat in a race against a Donald Trump-backed opponent.

Here’s more on the three big politics stories we’re watching this week:

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT

The House is expected to vote Friday on a massive spending package that Democrats say will help to curb inflation. It comes after Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote on Sunday in a party-line 51-50 vote. The package — brokered by centrist Senator Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — is one of the most significant spending bills to move through the upper chamber since the start of the pandemic.

The bill includes $390 billion to combat climate change, while encouraging consumers to transition to electric vehicles. Democrats say the legislation will reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030. The legislation also sets the corporate minimum tax rate at 15% for companies that book profits of more than $1 billion but use various deductions to pay less than the legal corporate tax rate of twenty-one%. The bill authorizes roughly $430 billion in new spending, and its proponents say it will create $740 in revenue.

INFLATION DATA

President Biden is facing low approval ratings for his handling of the economy, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday. Only 29% of polled voters approve of Biden’s handling of inflation, and 69% think the economy is getting worse.

The government is set to release new data on the Consumer Price Index on Wednesday, potentially hurting Biden’s approval rating if it shows inflation is still creeping up. Inflation hit 9.1 in the month of June, a new 40-year high. The report comes as the White House is trying to seize on momentum from Friday’s massive jobs report — a whopping 528,000 jobs that were added to the US economy in the month of July.

JACKSON, WY - JUNE 14: Republican congressional candidate Harriet Hageman meets attendees at a rally at the Teton County Fair & Rodeo Grounds on June 14, 2022 in Jackson, Wyoming. Hageman, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is running against Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) in the August 16 GOP primary. (Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images)

JACKSON, WY – JUNE 14: Republican congressional candidate Harriet Hageman meets attendees at a rally at the Teton County Fair & Rodeo Grounds on June 14, 2022 in Jackson, Wyoming. Hageman, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is running against Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) in the August 16 GOP primary. (Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images)

FINAL SPRINT FOR CHENEY PRIMARY

It’s the final sprint to the primary for US Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who faces her primary challenger Trump-backed Harriet Hageman next week. A Casper-Star Tribune poll performed from July 7 through July 11 has Hageman, an energy attorney, beating Cheney 52% to 30%.

Former-Vice President Dick Cheney recorded an ad for his daughter, who has built a national profile for herself given her position on the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. A loss for Cheney would be a victory for Trump’s political machine, as it would unseat one of the most prominent Republicans in Congress. The primary is on Tuesday, Aug. 16.

Kevin Cirilli is a contributor to Yahoo Finance and a visiting media fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. Follow Kevin on Twitter @kevcirilli

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