All sweet in sugar wars as combatants trade hectoring for harmony

Greg Beashel, managing director and chief executive of Queensland Sugar Limited.The Australian

12:00AM March 4, 2017

• Sarah Elks

  

  Queensland political reporter

  Brisbane

  @sarahelks

Sweet relief is just weeks away for Queensland’s sugar industry, with warring miller Wilmar and marketer Queensland Sugar Limited reaching in-principle agreement.

The months-long stoush has caused political pain for state and federal conservatives, with rebel federal Liberal National Party MP George Christensen threatening to quit the party over the impasse.

After 11 hours of state government-funded mediation in Brisbane on Thursday, QSL and Singapore-owned Wilmar announced yesterday they had reached a “high level agreement” about QSL buying Wilmar’s raw sugar.

“While QSL welcomes this long overdue development, there is still a lot of work to be done before a detailed contract is secured and Wilmar growers can begin to access QSL marketing and pricing services for the 2017 season and beyond,” QSL managing director Greg Beashel said.

The Weekend Australian understands teams of lawyers for both sides are negotiating the wording of a written agreement, expected within weeks.

This week, the LNP state opposition failed to push through Queensland’s hung parliament a bill to compel both parties to enter formal arbitration to solve the dispute. The attempted legislative intervention came after the LNP voted with Katter’s Australian Party crossbenchers in 2015 to partially re-regulate the sugar ­industry, at the urging of canegrowers.

Thursday’s mediation was run by retired Supreme Court judge Richard Chesterman, appointed by the state government.

Growers sell cane to millers, such as Wilmar, which manufacture raw sugar. The price growers are paid is based on the price for which Wilmar sells the raw sugar.

The sugar can either be sold through the miller, or historic sugar marketer QSL. Wilmar has already negotiated cane supply agreements with growers. The contract being negotiated with QSL is the on-supply agreement.

Annastacia Palaszczuk: How I’ll counter One Nation

Sarah Vogler, The Courier-Mail
February 12, 2017 11:36am

PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk says her government’s push to spend more time in the regions “listening and delivering” will help counter the rising political threat of One Nation.

Ms Palaszczuk this morning responded to an Galaxy poll conducted exclusively for The Courier-Mail which found one in four Queenslanders intended to vote for One Nation at the next State Election, due later this year.

More than one in three believed it would be good for One Nation to hold the balance of power in the next parliament.

Ms Palaszczuk backed her government’s decision to bring back compulsory preferential voting despite One Nation’s resurgence.

“I don’t because when we come to the election there will be a clear choice and that choice is a stable Labor Government led by me, a Premier who listens, a Premier who understands the concerns of Queensland families and delivering or the alternative is a One Nation/ LNP coalition led by Tim Nicholls.

“I don’t think the people of Queensland want that disruption to Queensland.”

Ms Palaszczuk said she believed her government was demonstrating it was listening.

“I have been extensively travelling across this state since returning back from leave. I have been out there listening but there’s one thing I want to say to the people of Queensland and that is not only am I listening but my government is also delivering,” she said.

“We know that the people in the regions are doing it tough and that is why I am out there constantly talking to the people in the regions, listening to the people in the regions and making sure that we deliver programs and projects that can create jobs.”

Ms Palaszczuk pointed to the planned overhaul of trading hours as one example of a job-creation policy.

“What I will continue to do is listen and deliver.”

Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls has refused to be drawn on whether he will consider doing a deal with One Nation to form government if support for the far-right party in recent opinion polls is replicated at the ballot box at the looming state election.

Mr Nicholls said he understood voters were “mad as hell” after a Galaxy poll conducted exclusively for The Courier-Mail found 23 per cent of voters intended to choose One Nation.

But he insisted he was in the next election to win it outright and would not rule in or out a potential deal with One Nation should the party win enough seats to hold the balance of power.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk rules out governing deal with One Nation

Sarah Vogler, The Courier-Mail
February 4, 2017 12:00am

PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk would rather relegate Labor to the wilderness of Opposition than share power with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation after the next election.

In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with The Courier-Mail on the second anniversary of her election win, Ms Palaszczuk said she was focused on gaining a ­majority at the next election, which could be held later this year.

But if not, she ruled out a governing deal with One Nation. Labor has already signalled its intention to put One Nation last on ballot papers.

“I’m not having a coalition with them. I am firmly focused on a majority government and there will be no coalition with One Nation,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“I think the people are going to start seeing the LNP and One Nation as one and the same.”

Labor has been pressuring the LNP to declare its hand on a preference deal with One Nation after a deal was struck between the WA Liberals and the minor party. Many in Labor fear the move to compulsory preferential voting could backfire on them following the rise of One Nation.

Ms Palaszczuk, who has spent more time in regional Queensland than the southeast since returning from leave last month, says her Government will continue its focus on job-creation policies this year with her aim to have an unemployment rate with five in front of it.

She said she and her ministers would continue to fan out across the regions for the rest of the term.

“What I am firmly hearing from the people in the southeast is that they understand,” Ms Palaszczuk, who was speaking in Rockhampton where she governed for the week, said.

“They stop me in the street and they say ‘we see you in regional Queensland and they are doing it tough so it’s good that your there listening and helping them’.”

Ms Palaszczuk formed minority government with the help of Independent MP Peter Wellington following a stunning electoral comeback in 2015.

She said she believed the Government’s work was bearing fruit.

“Over the last two years I think we have clearly shown the people of Queensland that we are a stable government,” she said.

“That we have a clear vision for growing the state and that the economy is turning the corner.”

The Premier pointed to the mid-year fiscal and economic review handed down by Treasurer Curtis Pitt last year and the $2 billion operating surplus contained within it as an example of that.

She said one of the Government’s back to work policies had created 1200 jobs so far.

That regional focus is also designed to help Labor head off a resurgent One Nation hoping to win a slew of seats at the state election.

Ms Palaszczuk has dismissed suggestions she is concerned by the minor party’s popularity which she said was born out of a wave of dissatisfaction sweeping not just Queensland but the world.

But she said she believed it was possible to counter that movement.

“I think the issue there is that you will always have people who may feel dissatisfied or may feel they want to protest about a particular issue,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“My job is clearly to demonstrate to people where we are delivering services and where we are creating jobs.

“We are yet to see anything tangible that One Nation is delivering.”

Complaint to Crime and Corruption Commission Qld over alleged councillor domestic violence data leak

Tom Snowdon, The Courier-Mail

February 5, 2017 12:00am
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/complaint-to-crime-and-corruption-commission-qld-over-alleged-councillor-domestic-violence-data-leak/news-story/adb48cf44c28101d24b61c8db92cdf71

ACCUSATION DENIED: Logan City Council’s Darren Power is holding a sign during a 2015 council-led walk against domestic violence.

A Queensland councillor is accused of giving a One Nation staffer who has had domestic violence concerns raised about him confidential information about his ex.

Logan City Council’s Darren Power has been referred to the state’s corruption watchdog following a conversation in which he was allegedly told about steps council had taken to protect One Nation policy adviser Sean Black’s former partner.


A complaint filed with the Crime and Corruption Commission alleges Cr Power may have relayed those steps to Mr Black – a former Logan City councillor who now works for One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts – during a subsequent conversation with him.

Cr Power strongly denies ever even being told about the protective measures, let alone passing them on to Mr Black.

He said in a text message to The Sunday Mail he thought the CCC complaint was part of a wider political game to punish him for speaking out about a contentious development on a koala habitat in his division.

“This sounds like a political payback for my opposition to the Carbrook development, or do they think I am running for One Nation?” Cr Power said.


It is understood the police, Local Government Minister Jackie Trad and Domestic Violence Minister Shannon Fentiman have all been made aware of the complaint.

The CCC refused to confirm a complaint had been received. But a spokeswoman for Logan Mayor Luke Smith declined to comment because of the “involvement” of the CCC.

Mr Black, despite repeated approaches, made no comment for this story but stopped it running in last week’s Sunday Mail by applying for an eleventh-hour injunction that prevented its ­publication.


Those orders were revoked during a closed court application hearing on Monday in Brisbane’s Supreme Court.

Cr Power, according to a document obtained by The Sunday Mail, was called into Mayor Smith’s office in December for a conversation about the domestic violence concerns against Mr Black.

“I found this unusual as Cr Smith and I have a difficult relationship and we rarely talk in private,” Cr Power writes in the document, dated January 22 this year, which was given to Mr Black.

“Cr Smith then told me that he had heard that Sean Black has a habit of domestic violence, that he ‘bashed his former wife’ and that ‘it was just a matter of time before it catches up with him and that the papers are aware’, and that ‘is (sic) all about to explode’ in the media.”


The long-time councillor, who has been repeatedly elected since 1997, claimed he believed Cr Smith had heard this information ­directly from Mr Black’s former partner:

"Cr Smith led me to believe that the story that was about to break in the paper would ‘mean Sean Black would be one of the most politically maligned individuals in Australia’,” the document says. It was supplied to the CCC as part of the complaint.

Mr Black, who was once banned from attending meetings without security guards amid bullying allegations, was elected as a Logan councillor in 2008 before he left in 2012 to return to the property industry.


He has previously said the ban was an attempt to silence him for his part in an unsuccessful coup against the former deputy mayor.

Third Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party hopeful rages at gay ‘bigots’

One Nation has refused to say whether Tracey Bell-Henselin – a former Rise Up Australia candidate in last year’s federal election – would be disciplined or disendorsed over her comments. Picture: Annette Dew

Anthony Templeton, Kieran Rooney, The Courier-Mail
January 11, 2017 1:03pm
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/third-pauline-hansons-one-nation-party-hopeful-rages-at-gay-bigots/news-story/9d6af1c3bc77c6175fff4a7e543fcfbe

UPDATE: Senator Pauline Hanson has backed One Nation’s Glasshouse candidate, Tracey Bell-Henselin, who posted controversial remarks online claiming the gay community wanted “to destroy families”.

But Senator Hanson, during an interview in Townsville today, claimed Ms Bell-Henselin’s comments were not anti-gay and she would remain as the party’s candidate for the Sunshine Coast-based seat.

“I think you had better go and read that in full context with regards to her work ... those were not homophobic comments at all,” she said.

“That was totally taken out of context and I’m quite happy with her comments she won’t be disendorsed at all.”

EARLIER:

A third One Nation candidate could find herself in hot water after posting homophobic remarks, saying the gay and lesbian people want “to destroy families”.

The party’s candidate for the seat of Glasshouse, Tracey Bell-Henselin, posted several anti-gay comments on her personal Facebook page in recent months, and claims the LGBTI community is “the real manipulating bigot”.

“LGBTI is out to destroy families as we know (them) and have lived for generations producing babies/growing a family produced by a mother & father – creation!!!,” she wrote in one of her posts.

“But now when we stand up on the side of the law to protect our family and children we gave birth to – we are told to shut up that we (are) bigots & homophobic – labelled, cursed sworn at!!!”

Ms Bell-Henselin refused to return calls yesterday, but did send a text message saying she would only respond to The Courier-Mail’s questions if leading party figures were present.

“I will only talk to you with Pauline and James Ashby present as One Nation is a team,” she said in the message.

One Nation has refused to say whether Ms Bell-Henselin – a former Rise Up Australia candidate in last year’s federal election – would be disciplined or disendorsed over her comments.

The revelations come after One Nation’s Bundamba candidate Shan Ju Lin was axed over the weekend for homophobic posts. The party’s former Currumbin candidate Andy Semple was disendorsed last month after he posted an offensive Tweet joking about the LGBTI community.

One Nation executive member and Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby said he was unaware of Ms Bell-Henselin’s homophobic social media posts until he was contacted by The Courier-Mail. Mr Ashby refused to comment but confirmed the party would look into the matter.

Acting Communities Minister Kate Jones said Ms Bell-Henselin’s comments were divisive and should not be tolerated.

“We don’t want 2017 to be dominated by Queenslanders running down other Queenslanders,” she said.

“Clearly, Pauline Hanson and her party should take action against this candidate.

Embattled Health Minister Sussan Ley apologises for apartment splurge

Annika Smethurst, National politics reporter, Herald Sun
January 8, 2017 3:37pm

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/embattled-health-minister-sussan-ley-apologises-for-apartment-splurge/news-story/2f8e51855174151cd95588a97cbcb060

EMBATTLED Health Minister Sussan Ley has apologised for an “error of judgment” and agreed to pay back money owed to the public for a taxpayer-funded trip she took to the Gold Coast where she bought a lavish apartment.

Ms Ley has also asked the Finance Department to review all her ministerial travel to the Gold Coast which the Herald Sun can reveal, cost taxpayers more than $40,000 in the past three years.

Government documents show the NSW MP took at least 18 trips to the Gold Coast, where she owns property and her partner runs a bin cleaning business, between 2013 and 2016.

The Herald Sun attempted to cross reference these trips with Ms Ley’s ministerial duties — public appearances, media events, speeches and meetings — but could not find evidence of any “official business” on nine occasions.

Those trips alone cost taxpayers more than $20,000.

But a spokesman for Ms Ley said that the Minister travels extensively across Australia and undertakes “extensive meetings with doctors, patients and other organisations that are not media or public events”.

He said just because there is no statement, such as a media release or speech on the public record, it doesn’t mean there is no justification for the travel to the meeting.

Health Minister Sussan Ley is under fire for buying a $795,000 Gold Coast unit in this Main Beach tower. Picture: AAP

In a statement, Ms Ley said she spoke to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who agreed that claiming costs during a 2015 trip when she purchased a property “does not meet the high standards he expects of Ministers”.

“I apologise for the error of judgment”, she said.

As a shadow minister in March 2013, Ms Ley spent four nights on the Gold Coast at a cost of $3352. The following month Ms Ley again flew to the Gold Coast from Albury with a family member billing taxpayers for taxis, car hire and chauffeur driven cars totalling $3594.

A month later, Ms Ley again returned to the Gold Coast for “official business” on May 30 with a family member claiming $2907 in flights and travel allowance costs.

Other questionable Gold Coast trips include a four night stay in July 2014 when taxpayers paid $4388 in travel costs for her and a family member and a weekend stay in September 2014 totalling more than $2000.

Health Minister Sussan Ley responds during Question Time. Picture: Ray Strange.

The latest revelations come just days after the Herald Sun revealed Ms Ley bought a $795,000 apartment at Main Beach during a taxpayer-funded work trip in 2015.

Ms Ley said she made the impromptu property purchase while at Main Beach for confidential health discussions with stakeholders who she is refusing to name.

Opposition Health spokeswoman Catherine King again called for her resignation saying there was no credible explanation for taxpayer-funded trip to the Gold Coast on weekends and holidays.

“These revelations make it crystal clear that Malcolm Turnbull must sack Sussan Ley,” Ms King said.

“As a Minister and Shadow Minister, Ley has charged taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars for trips to the Gold Coast — where she owns a home and her partner owns a business.”

“Ley has violated every tenet of Malcolm Turnbull’s own ministerial standards. Either she must walk or Mr Turnbull must push her.”

annika.smethurst@news.com.au

@annikasmethurst

One Nation chaos: website static and staff quitting

Former One Nation national secretary and administration boss Saraya Beric yesterday. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The Australian 12:00AM January 6, 2017
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/one-nation-chaos-website-static-and-staff-quitting/news-story/c68c8617e275b841d59293559130d11f


James Walker
Associate Editor Brisbane
@Jamie_WalkerOz

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party has been unable to update the body of its website since October last year when a key figure in the organisation, Saraya Beric, was pushed out, stunning even diehard One Nation loyalists.

The young Brisbane woman turned her hand from playing the violin for a living to running Senator Hanson’s online and social media strategy during last year’s federal election campaign. She worked 16-hour days to manage the party’s Albion headquarters on a shoestring. Loyalty? It runs only one way in One Nation, Ms Beric complained yesterday, speaking publicly of her disillusionment with Ms Hanson.

The dysfunction behind the scenes has also hit the office of NSW senator Brian Burston, whose former personal assistant Diana Allen unloaded to The Australian yesterday. Party co-founder David Ettridge and former president and national treasurer Ian Nelson continue to take potshots at Senator Hanson and her high-profile lieutenant, James Ashby.

This was capped by the altercation on Tuesday outside a Perth court in which former One Nation senator Rod Culleton claims to have been assaulted by ex-state Liberal parliamentarian Anthony Fels, who wants to contest a seat in the March 11 West Australian election for One Nation. Police are investigating the incident that left Senator Culleton nursing bruises and a sprained wrist.

The One Nation website has not been updated since August 15 because, Ms Beric said, the offices of the three remaining senators did not pass on news to party headquarters. Only two of the 36 candidates introduced recently by Senator Hanson for a Queensland election expected this year have their profiles up.

Ms Beric, 32, resigned her ­office-bearer positions as ­national and Queensland secretary on October 13 last year and was locked out of the site but with the know-how to run it. The page templates and codes to update it were “all in my head”, she said yesterday, breaking her silence about the drama inside the Hanson camp.

She emphasised that she did not “spit the dummy”, but the situation had become untenable.

She was told that her authorisation to do any other work as a fulltime contractor had been withdrawn, and she should leave what she was doing to get the party registered for the WA election.

“I am disappointed at the treatment of some people in the party,” she said. “I am disappointed that the party seems to have swayed away from its principles and values, but there are some great candidates still involved and I hope that they will stay true to themselves and the Australian people.”

Diana Allen lasted only seven weeks in Senator Burston’s office, and said she quit after claiming the chief-of-staff referred to her as a “petulant princess”.

“That’s not how you talk to a woman of 50,” she said from her Lane Cove home in Sydney.

Senator Hanson hit back yesterday at Mr Nelson and Ms Beric, saying they had “their noses out of joint” through missing out on jobs following the election. She agreed she had been a friend of 66-year-old Mr Nelson — though not a close one — and that he had approached her to rejoin the party when it was revived in 2013. “He has just turned and is basically a lonely man,” Senator Hanson said. “One Nation was basically his whole life. He has no one in his life and now that he has lost this, he has … become bitter and nasty. I’ve got no time for him.”

As for Ms Beric, who worked 16-hour days during the election for a gross salary of $800 a week, Senator Hanson said: “Saraya was vying for a job in the parliamentary office, which I told her she wasn’t capable of doing.”

Ms Beric disputed this yesterday. After Senator Hanson asked her to set aside her music career, she became “Jacky of all trades” in One Nation, managing the office in Brisbane, taking on the roles of IT fixer, candidate manager during the election as well as social media manager and office-bearer.

When Mr Nelson went into bat for her to get a raise, Mr Ashby offered to increase her pay to $50,000 a year. Mr Nelson said this was insulting; forthright ­discussions with Senator Hanson ensued.

Ms Beric said, however, that Senator Hanson never spoke to her about a new role and she had not sought one on the parliamentary staff.

She had wanted to focus on marketing and online work. “Pauline just sent James to talk to me,” Ms Beric said. “If she was told I wanted a job with her, that was not the case. She has not bothered to have a conversation with me.”

Mr Nelson said: “I was disgusted by how Saraya was treated and told them so. I couldn’t stand how the place was being run, and I’m not the only one.”

The man who replaced Ms Beric as office manager and Mr Nelson as treasurer, Senator Hanson’s brother-in-law Greg Smith, said he couldn’t say why they had severed their links with the party.

Mr Nelson handed in his membership card last August, ending a 20-year association with One Nation in which he also served as state director of the pivotal Queensland division.

“It’s the same for any business: if you lose people they have to be replaced,” Mr Smith said. “That’s just the nature of the business. People leave for many reasons.”

Ms Allen said she had worked for media companies and top corporates including Leighton Contractors, Siemens and Honeywell Group, and was appalled by the chaos in One Nation.