Lawyers are warning that the Online Safety Bill introduced into Parliament today gives new and broad discretionary powers to the e-Safety Commissioner.
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The Victorian government proposed using prisoners to pick fruit on farms amid a worker shortage caused by international border restrictions, before the plan was immediately savaged by farmers and canned.
News of the unconventional solution to stop fruit rotting on trees comes as the Victorian Farmers Federation casts doubt on the viability of the Andrews governmentâs plan to bring 1500 Pacific Island workers into the state via Tasmania.
Fruit pickers in Victoria last month.
Credit:Justin McManus
After months of fevered deliberations over how to solve the industry crisis, Agriculture Victoria raised the possibility of using prison labour in a December 23 meeting with horticulture industry groups and the federal government.
Federal Government workers compensation authority Comcare accused of unethical behaviour
Posted
ThuThursday 4
FebFebruary 2021 at 6:52pm
Dozens of Comcare claimants who did not want to be named for fear of retribution from the insurer say they have been bullied by doctors examining them.
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A doctor used by federal workers compensation authority Comcare and its licensees to examine claimants has never been formally investigated despite 66 complaints being made about him since 2000 to the Health Care Complaints Commission.
Key points:
Worker s compensation claimants are often sent for an independent medical exam by a doctor of the insurer s choice
Banking royal commission recommendations flounder, two years on
Posted
WedWednesday 3
updated
ThuThursday 4
FebFebruary 2021 at 1:44am
The Government has, on some counts, only implemented just over a third of Kenneth Hayne s recommendations so far.
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Key points:
Of its 76 recommendations, only about one-third have come into law
Some key protections have been downgraded or abandoned
Two years ago, the final report of the banking royal commission exposed a culture of rapacious greed, of profits and shareholders being put before customers and the law.
But there has been slow progress to fix the scandals exposed.
The aftermath of the 2018 probe killed the careers of the chief executives and chairs of several of Australia s top banks: AMP, NAB and Westpac. Court battles against IOOF, NAB, the Commonwealth Bank, Allianz and more have been won, lost or are ongoing.
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Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn has expressed hope the industryâs tarnished reputation has been partly repaired by how banks responded to the coronavirus pandemic, after lenders played a key role in shielding the economy from the shock.
In comments marking two years since the banking royal commissionâs final report, Mr Comyn, who is also chairman of the Australian Banking Association, said the industry had taken steps to make sure âsimply unacceptableâ failures did not happen again.
CBA chief executive Matt Comyn.
Credit:Louise Kennerley
Aside from a series of changes to banksâ policies that resulted from the explosive inquiry into financial misconduct, Mr Comyn also sought to highlight the importance of how banks dealt with customers on a daily basis, including during the economic shock sparked by COVID-19.