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AUSTRALIA COURT REPORT: Paul Charlton sentenced to 24 years’ jail for 2007 murder of Melbourne singer Joanne Howell

A man with grey hair wearing a black suit and purple tie.
Paul Charlton has been sentenced to more than two decades in prison for the 2007 murder of Joanne Howell.(AAP: Diego Fedele)none

AceNewsDesk – It took 16 years, but Paul Charlton’s crimes have finally caught up with him.

Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Nov.29: 2023: ABC/AAP News: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe

A man with grey hair wearing a black suit and purple tie.
Paul Charlton has been sentenced to more than two decades in prison for the 2007 murder of Joanne Howell.(AAP: Diego Fedele)none

Charlton, who brutally bashed and killed Melbourne singer and mother Joanne Howell in her home, was today jailed for 24 years by the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Charlton tried to pin the 2007 killing on an unidentified intruder, telling police he had been out walking his dog for two hours and returned to find his girlfriend’s body at the bottom of the stairs.

Ms Howell’s skull had been fractured and she had been strangled.

In the lead-up to her death, Ms Howell told friends she wanted to leave Charlton and wrote him a letter “to make it clear” their relationship was over.

After Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, Ms Howell’s sister Lisa Hennessy was beaming and pumped her fist as she left the Supreme Court.

“He’s been running for 16 years, and he can’t run any more,” she said of Charlton.

A woman being interviewed outside court
“He’s a murderer and a coward.”Lisa Hennessy was overjoyed at the sentence handed down by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.(AAP: James Ross)

Ms Hennessy said she hoped her sister would be looking down on the family and be proud that her killer was held to account.

“She’s always going to be there … I don’t think anyone ever gets closure,” Ms Hennessy said.

“I just used to think she was the most beautiful woman in the whole world.”

Justice for Joanne, at last

For years, Charlton was considered the prime suspect.

In 2011, a coroner said it was “highly improbable” Ms Howell had been killed by an intruder, and the evidence suggested Charlton was involved in Ms Howell’s death.

Charlton maintained his innocence, and even lodged a victims of crime compensation claim to cash in on Ms Howell’s death.

A woman in profile
Charlton attempted to blame the death of his then-girlfriend Joanne Howell on an unidentified intruder.(Supplied)

In a television interview in 2018, the karaoke event singer serenaded the camera and told a Channel 9 reporter he was haunted by Ms Howell’s death.

“I think about her every day. I write her a birthday card every year,” he said.

“She may have been a pain in the arse, but she was my pain in the arse and I loved her.”

It was only in 2021 that police arrested Charlton and charged him with murder.

In July this year, a Supreme Court jury found him guilty, a verdict that left Charlton so shocked he fainted in the dock and was taken to hospital by ambulance.

On Wednesday morning, Charlton told prison authorities he was sick and could not be brought to the Supreme Court to hear the sentence in-person.

The hearing was delayed and Charlton appeared via videolink from the Melbourne Remand Centre.

Charlton, who was wearing a green prison jumper, grimaced during the hearing and shut his eyes as details of his violent crime was read out.

Supreme Court Justice James Elliott said the killing was “an extreme act of domestic violence”, that included attempts to cover up the crime.

“You brutally murdered Ms Howell in her own home when she was entitled to feel safe,” Justice Elliott said.

“There is a very real prospect you will spend the remainder of your life in custody.”

Charlton, 69, will have to serve a minimum of 19 years’ jail before he is eligible for parole.

If he is ever released, Charlton faces deportation to the United Kingdom, the country of his birth, because he does not hold Australian citizenship.

In an unrelated matter, the now-convicted murderer was also found guilty of sex offences in 2018.

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BREAKING AUSTRALIA REPORT: WA Christmas Tree Or Moodja ‘fire tree’ flowering signals early start to bushfire season with fireys already fatigued

A bright yellow tree in a burnt out paddock
Local Aboriginal groups say flowering of the WA Christmas tree is a sign for bushfire season.(Supplied: Quentin Knight)none

AceBreakingNews – Local Aboriginal people on the south coast say the early flowering of their spiritual “fire tree” is the sign bushfire season in southern Western Australia has come early, putting fire authorities on edge.

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Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Nov.29: 2023: ABC Great Southern News: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe

A bright yellow tree in a burnt out paddock
Local Aboriginal groups say flowering of the WA Christmas tree is a sign for bushfire season.(Supplied: Quentin Knight)none

For thousands of years, the moodja tree’s striking yellow and orange flowers have been a warning sign for Menang-Noongar people that fire and flames are coming.

Colloquially known as the West Australian Christmas tree, it flowers during the Noongar season of birak, coinciding with Christmas, but Menang man Larry Blight said Noongar people know it as the “fire tree”.

Its early flowering across much of the Great Southern means fire season is here.

Mr Blight studies the tree and said Aboriginal people determined their movements when flowers began to appear, since it indicated when the weather would heat up.

A man in a forest.
Larry Blight says the early flowering of moodja trees is a warning for fire season.(ABC Great Southern: Karla Arnall)

If our [Menang] people start to see the fire tree flowering early they will begin to move towards the coast,” he said.

The tree, scientifically known as Nuytsia floribunda, is found across southern WA.

A yellow flower among green leaves.
The native WA Christmas tree has its own bright orange decorations.(ABC Great Southern: Tom Edwards)

Mr Blight said the trees had already started to flower, a sign bushfire season would be much longer than the past few years.

“I’ve noticed the flower is really starting just east of Albany towards Manypeaks,” he said.

“Normally we’d be in the kambarang season for this time of year.

“But everything is already rapidly drying out. It’s unusual.”

The earlier arrival of bushfire season was starkly highlighted with the loss of 18 homes in a bushfires in northern parts of Perth last week.

Early start puts volunteers at risk of burnout

Bushfire season, which started two months earlier, has already raised concerns volunteer firefighters could struggle with fatigue.

The Great Southern, almost five hours’ drive south of Perth, has already had more than 60 fires, five times the amount of the past two seasons for this time of year.

Volunteer deputy fire chief for the city of Albany, Graham Poole, said soil dryness was a contributing factor to the increase in fires.

“[These fires] are burning as if it’s the middle of summer, but it’s only November,” he said.

“So already we’re having to work extra hard rather than getting eased into the season.”

Mr Poole said with bushfire season expected to last for almost six months, he was concerned volunteers would run out of spare time and energy.

“People might work a full day, then instead of relaxing they have to battle a fire for 10 hours,” he said.

Male firefighter looks in side mirror in car wearing red helmet and yellow protective uniform with hand out the window.
“Some can handle that for a day, but no-one can sustain it for a week.”Mr Poole says Kalgan volunteers have battled fires all across the state already, not just from their local area.(ABC Great Southern: Piper Duffy)

Settling in for a longer season

DFES superintendent for the Great Southern, Wayne Green, said out-of-season fire behaviour had changed with climate change a factor.

“Five years ago, at eight o’clock it was usually tools down and start thinking about tomorrow’s plan,” he said.

“But now the fires are burning at two o’clock in the morning as if it’s the middle of the afternoon.”

Mr Green said he was concerned for volunteer firefighters in particular since they also had to worry about their other careers.

“They will become fatigued, especially if fires continue at this rate,” he said.

“Which is why it’s important to maintain extra preparedness, and I think we’re doing that well so far.” 

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AUSTRALIA UPDATE REPORT: Last hurdle cleared as government now set to allow water buybacks for Murray-Darling

David Pocock press conference
The Greens and independent senators David Pocock and David Van will vote for the bill.( ABC News: David Sciasci )none

AceBreakingNews – UPDATE – The Commonwealth will have a green light to enter the water market and buy irrigation water from farmers to boost the environment, with the Albanese government securing the numbers to re-write the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

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Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Nov.29: 2023: ABC News: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe

David Pocock press conference
The Greens and independent senators David Pocock and David Van will vote for the bill.( ABC News: David Sciasci )none

Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has been seeking to extend the 2012 Murray-Darling Basin Plan – which sets out how water in Australia’s largest river system is shared — allowing more time and new infrastructure projects to allocate water to the environment.

The updated legislation would remove a cap on the amount of water the Commonwealth can purchase from farmers to meet environmental water savings targets.

The buybacks would be voluntary, with willing irrigators invited to sell their water to the Commonwealth.

The amount of water sought to be purchased by the Commonwealth would be determined by the success of the infrastructure projects and would likely add a cost of billions to the already $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

Independent ACT senator David Pocock announced his support for the legislation at Parliament House on Wednesday morning after the government agreed to provide a $50 million package of measures for the upper Murrumbidgee River.

“For decades, and we’ve seen the decline of the upper Murrumbidgee, so part of my ask for supporting an update (to the Basin Plan) was that the government look after the Murrumbidgee. And they’ve come to the table,” Senator Pocock said.

He said the package included a $30 million contingency reserve to be drawn on in times of drought, $20 million to improve the health of the upper Murrumbidgee and $500,000 to support First Nations to participate in water releases from the High Country.

That $30 million drought figure is yet to be allocated by the federal government. 

Senator Pocock joined Independent Victorian senator David Van and the Greens to provide the votes for the government to pass the legislation in the Senate, with a vote on the bill likely before the end of the week.Loading…

As Ms Plibersek sought the essential support of the crossbench, she suggested Commonwealth land purchases could also be completed to meet the environmental commitments of the Basin Plan.

“We want to do on-farm efficiency measures, off-farm efficiency measures, we are looking at land and water purchases. We are looking at a whole range of things to make sure that we deliver [the] Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full,” Ms Plibersek told ABC’s 7:30.

On Tuesday, Senator Van announced his support for the deal, after the government agreed that irrigators could lease water to the Commonwealth to contribute to the water-saving targets.

Senator Van said the option for farmers to lease back water would “remove some of the damaging impacts of water buybacks”.

A sunset over the river.
The changes would remove a cap on buybacks of water from farmers to meet water savings targets.

By losing that in perpetuity part that goes with a buyback, farmers are more likely to want to lease their water back to the Commonwealth Holder of Environmental Water and it gives them flexibility in their business.

That leasing term might be 12 months, it could be 5 years it could be 30 years,” Senator Van said in his first media conference since moving to the crossbench

In June, Senator Lidia Thorpe accused the then Liberal in parliament that he had sexually assaulted her, a claim he strongly denied.

In return for Senator Van’s support, the government has also committed to provide an annual socio-economic report on the impact of the new Basin Plan to the federal parliament each year.

Earlier in the week, the Greens won amendments that would guarantee the return of 450 gigalitres of water each year to the environment by December 2027, and acknowledge the connection of First Nations to water within the legislation.

The Greens amendments have also secured $100 million for First Nations to participate in the water market.

Despite more than 2,100 gigalitres of water a year being allocated to the environment since the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was legislated in 2012, a shortfall of around 750 gigalitres a year remains.

The federal opposition, farmer groups and some regional councils have opposed the use of water buybacks, which they argue harm communities.

When water is bought back by the Commonwealth for the environment, it reduces the amount of water available for farming.

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BREAKING AUSTRALIA ATO BUSINESS REPORT: Tax Office’s robodebt-like tax debt recovery scheme under review

McKim stands on the floor of the senate with one arm outstretched.
Nick McKim says it is even more egregious given one in three major corporations pays no tax at all.(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

AceBreakingNews – UPDATE – The tax office has stopped sending letters warning of sometimes decades-old tax debts, acknowledging the letters were causing “unnecessary distress “ More than 200 thousand letters were sent over 12 months.

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Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Nov.29: 2023: ABC Business News: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe

Australian Tax Office
ATO reviews letters for old tax debts, part of an “on-hold” debt awareness campaign.(Supplied)none

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) says it was running an awareness campaign about “on-hold” tax debts, which are not required to be immediately paid, but will be taken from future tax refunds and credits.

Some tax agents say they have received letters on behalf of clients relating to debts raised more than 20 years ago, and have questioned if it is fair to pursue matters from so long ago.

And others have compared the letters to the much-criticised “robodebt” campaign, where Services Australia sent letters to welfare recipients pursuing often incorrectly-generated debts.

The tax office said it has verified that all of the debts exist, and that those with the debts have been notified about them before.

But in a statement, it said it will “pause” the campaign and review whether the letters are the best way of notifying taxpayers about the debts.

“We accept that our communication approach caused unnecessary distress – especially for those debts incurred several years ago,” it said.

“We will review our overall approach to debts on hold before progressing any further.

“No further action is required by anyone who has received a letter.”

What are ‘on-hold’ debts?

“On-hold” debts are often very small, and can date back several years.

The tax office makes a decision not to pursue repayment of the debt, usually because they’re not “economical” — that is, it would cost more to chase down the debt, than the value of the debt itself.

But, critically, the debt is not waived — it just sits on the tax office books indefinitely.

If a person carrying an “on-hold” debt eventually lodges a tax return and is eligible for a refund, the ATO can claim back the debt from that refund.

The ATO’s letter-writing campaign was aimed at anyone with an on-hold debt, even if they were unlikely to need to be repaid anytime soon.

Anne Kayis Kumar from UNSW’s Tax and Business Advisory Clinic said while it’s understandable that the ATO wanted to remind people of the debts, it’s also clear how people became confused and alarmed.

“I think it was well intended,” she said.

“But the the message that was conveyed, didn’t quite land in the way that I imagined the ATO was hoping it would.”

She said pausing the letters was the right move, and the campaign might have been better directed at people who actually faced having to repay the debts through a looming tax return.

“If those letters were being sent out to people where the debt was being realised, it would make a lot more sense to really put it front and centre of the taxpayer’s mind,” she said.

Dr Kayis Kumar said the ATO’s policy of applying interest to on-hold debts can mean people are often presented with frighteningly large figures.

But she suggests those amounts can be reduced, as the tax office has a practice of often waiving penalties and interest on request, once debts begin being repaid.

McKim stands on the floor of the senate with one arm outstretched.
Nick McKim says it is even more egregious given one in three major corporations pays no tax at all.(ABC News: Matt Roberts)
McKim stands on the floor of the senate with one arm outstretched.
Nick McKim says it is even more egregious given one in three major corporations pays no tax at all.(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Greens criticise ATO campaign, drawing robodebt comparisons

The Greens have been sharply critical of the ATO’s campaign, questioning the merits of pursuing the debts at all.

Senator Nick McKim said there are other areas the tax office — and federal government — could be focusing its attention.

“Targeting individuals for questionable debts that are many years old is punitive and deeply unfair, and has echoes of Robodebt about it.

“It’s even more egregious given one in three major corporations pays no tax at all.

“Labor should focus on cracking down on corporate tax evasion rather than trying to intimidate people into paying money that they may not even owe.”

Some tax agents have questioned the fairness of pursuing debts that may be decades old, given many people won’t have financial records that old.

Dr Kayis Kumar said that might be something worth considering, in the wake of the now-paused letter writing campaign.

“There are definitely lessons to be learned from this,” she said.

“Where the debt is so old that the taxpayer doesn’t have the records of it, whether it reasonable or ethical to pursue something where archival records are no longer available is definitely a consideration.”

And she said there are broader options for the government to pursue, like simply waiving the debts altogether in situations of financial hardship — which is not an option currently available to the ATO.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones was contacted for comment, but a spokesperson directed questions to the ATO.

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FEATURED BOLIVIA WILDFIRES REPORT: Locals care for animals affected by blazes

A local man offers an animal some mango
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AceNewsDesk – In a year that has seen around 3 million hectares (11,583sq m) of Bolivian land burnt by wildfires, some of the country’s animals have been left exposed.

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Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Nov.29: 2023: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe

A local man offers an animal some mango
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President Luis Arce has called on South America’s international community to provide aid to Bolivia – where a chunk of the Amazon rainforest sits.

Farmers in the mountainous region of San Buenaventura, in the north-west of the country, said the blazes had left a trail of devastation.

“They have affected us in many ways,” resident Rilvert Salinas Pariamo told Reuters news agency, adding that rising temperatures had impacted “our crops, animals and forests”. 

New images, shared by the news agency, show the extent to which some locals have gone to help affected creatures.

A mother and son care for an animal in San Buenaventura, Bolivia
A mother and son care for a coati (raccoon) in mountainous San Buenaventura
Two local men prepare water and fruit to leave for animals affected by the fires
Two local men prepare water and fruit to leave for animals affected by the fires
Another badger eats some of the food left out by the locals
A coati eats some of the food left out by the locals
Park Ranger Radamir Sevillanos, of the Madidi National Park, searches for animals who may be hurt or trapped
Park Ranger Radamir Sevillanos, of the Madidi National Park, searches for animals who may be hurt or trapped
Firefighters tackle a blaze in a sugar field, on 22 November, as forest fires ravage the Bolivian Amazon
This image, taken on 22 November, shows firefighters in a sugar field tackling one of the blazes that hit San Buenaventura
A woman helps a man apply eye drops after fighting a forest fire in the community of Bella Altura, San Buenaventura
A woman helps a man apply eye drops after fighting a forest fire in the community of Bella Altura

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