Latest news with #StateAdministrativeTribunal
West Australian
28-05-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Albany council refuses to extend Nullaki lime pit operating window and remove transport restrictions
A proposal to triple the operating time period and remove transport restrictions of a lime pit in Nullaki has been shut down by Albany councillors. Councillors voted on Tuesday to refuse an amendment to the pit, located at Lot 9005 Eden Road in Nullaki, that would see its operational window extended from four months a year to 12 months a year. Proponent Graeme Robertson and Great Southern Lime also requested the removal of restrictions of 50,000 tonnes per year to be transported off the site, and no more than 84 vehicles a week or 20 vehicles a day. The original extractive industry was granted approval — subject to 45 conditions — by the State Administrative Tribunal in 2019 after the City of Albany refused it. Primary concerns expressed by councillors and the majority of submissions made during the public comment period included public safety, noise disturbance, environmental concerns and a current lack of compliance. Of the 105 submissions made, only five supported the extension, with the majority citing dicey near misses they had seen or experienced themselves with the trucks that utilise the same narrow, convoluted roads as local residents and the school bus. Deputy mayor Paul Terry acknowledged the demand for lime but noted that conditions were put on the original approval for 'very good reasons' and that many trucks did not obey the 40km/h speed limit of the road. 'In the report, it talks about, I think it's 133 of those truck movements out of 140 or so were over the 40km/h (speed limit),' he said. 'In fact, over 50 per cent of trucks that were going through there were over 50km/h. 'Now that has a significant safety impact on the residents that go there.' The pit occupies an 8ha area of the 437ha lot and is zoned as environmental conservation land. Three members of the public spoke in favour of the extension and pointed to the necessity of lime for farmers in regulating the pH of their soil and the cost of trucking it in from further distances. Cr Craig McKinley spoke against the motion of refusal, comparing the regulations to the Federal live sheep export ban in its effect on farmers and urged the council not to add more restrictions to the agricultural industry. 'We should be encouraging business,' he said. '(Regarding the) transport speeding, well, I used the analogy at the committee meeting that they can't control the speeding. 'It's up to the WA Police to control and regulate the speeding trucks, it's not up to the business.' The motion to refuse the amendment was carried 7-3, with Crs McKinley, Thomas Brough and Mario Lionetti voting against.
Daily Mail
30-04-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Real estate agent slapped with a $4,500 fine after being caught using a tenant's money to cover her OWN rent
A former real estate agent has been fined $4,500 after stealing $2,700 from her employer to pay her own bond and outstanding rent. Western Australian agent Dianne Sandra Huggins proved not even those working in the property sector are safe from the country's brutal housing crisis with a State Administrative Tribunal fining her earlier this month. Consumer Protection WA heard Huggins was living in a rental in Mandurah managed by her employer when her landlord decided to switch to another agency. Having not paid her $1587.20 bond and still owing rent, the real estate agent took $2,700 from the agency's trust fund to cover her debts. That money had originally been paid as bond and rent by a tenant on an unrelated property managed by the company. A subsequent audit of the agency's trust fund quickly revealed $2,700 was missing, prompting an internal investigation. When confronted by the agency, Huggins submitted a fake bank receipt showing her husband had paid $2,700 to the agency for their bond and rent. However, she later admitted to creating the document by altering a pre-existing receipt to cover-up her theft. Huggins resigned from the agency and $2,700 was deducted from her final paycheck to make up for the lost funds. The State Administrative Tribunal fined Huggins $4,500 on April 9 for making unauthorised withdrawals from the trust account and acting dishonestly. Between being fined and deregistered by the tribunal, Huggins was hired by real estate agency, H&N Perry, and did not inform them about the tribunal. Director Frank Lawrence, expressed his team's 'disappointment' with the regulator. 'It's disappointing that the Department of Mining Industry Regulation and Safety allowed her to continue to work without providing any notification to her existing employers of the impending investigation into her,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'Our systems are such that she had no access to receipting and she had no access to tenants' or owners' funds, fortunately. 'The offences she committed occurred prior to her employment here.' Mr Lawrence said Ms Huggins had been dismissed from H&N Perry and would be required to apply for a new licence should she wish to be a real estate agent again. Mr Lawrence called for the regulator to better inform employers of agents' history. 'We are disappointed with the regulators for putting our clients, and potentially our business, at risk,' he said in a statement to Daily Mail Australia. WA Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Trish Blake, said Huggins' conduct 'undermined the community's trust in the real estate industry'. 'Knowing full well the unpaid bond would be discovered by the new managing agency, she engaged in a series of deceptive acts, including misappropriating another tenant's funds and forging a bank receipt,' she said. 'Real estate agencies hold substantial sums of money in trust for tenants and property owners, necessitating strict regulatory compliance and routine audits of these accounts. 'Making unauthorised withdrawals from real estate trust funds is a serious offence, and sales representatives or agents who engage in such misconduct will be subject to legal consequences.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted Huggins and the WA Department of Mining Industry Regulation and Safety for comment.
West Australian
21-04-2025
- Health
- West Australian
Kenneth Lee: Perth doctor behind attack on ex fined for prescribing himself testosterone injections
A Perth doctor previously banned from treating women after assaulting his ex-girlfriend has now been fined $10,000 for prescribing himself testosterone injections. Dr Kenneth Lee was allowed to keep practising despite initially being suspended by the Medical Board of Australia in September 2020 over the allegations. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to one count of common assault and was fined $5000. His suspension had been lifted before he faced Perth Magistrate's Court however, conditions were attached to his reinstatement. One of the conditions was that he could only treat men. Another required him to advise patients of his criminal history ahead of their appointment and a third condition prohibited him from self-prescribing medicines. It was the second time he'd been banned from self-prescribing — the first being in 2018 after Dr he wrote himself prescriptions between August 2015 and March 2017. On top of that self-prescription ban, Lee was fined $4000. He successfully had that ban lifted in June 2019, however, within a month Dr Lee visited a Perth pharmacy with prescriptions he wrote for himself on several occasions, according to State Administrative Tribunal documents. The first two were for Reandron, a medication used to replace the body's natural hormone testosterone and filled in August and September 2019. A third was for Armodafanil, a wakefulness-promoting medication, which was being prepared for Dr Lee when a pharmacist noticed the previous ban on his medical registration and instead alerted the medical board. Dr Lee also self-prescribed Selegiline and Pramipexole, Schedule 4 drugs used to treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease. To try and cover up his tracks, Dr Lee obtained a handwritten prescription for Armodafinil from a consultant psychiatrist and changed its date and attached it to a letter denying his actions to the medical board. Despite the latest blight on his record, Dr Lee received another chance this month, walking away with his medical licence intact and instead ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. The State Administrative Tribunal also forced him to pay the medical board's $5000 in legal fees. The SAT decision comes almost three years after Dr Lee was granted a spent conviction by Perth's Magistrates Court after admitting he gave his estranged partner a 'backhander' as he drove her home — and then pushed her over when they got there. In 2022, the then-45-year-old was due to go to trial over the incident, committed against his then-girlfriend during their 'toxic' 18-month relationship, but pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated common assault after a string of other domestic violence charges were dropped. After news of the assault, which Dr Lee failed to report to the medical board within the required seven days, his medical licence was suspended. In its decision to reinstate Dr Lee almost two years later, the tribunal sided with the medical board in accepting Dr Lee posed a 'serious risk of psychological harm to victims of abuse' that he saw in a clinical setting. But the tribunal did not accept Dr Lee 'posed a risk to women generally', and that the condition requiring him to disclose his criminal history sufficed. That condition, as well as the requirement he inform patients of his criminal history, was revoked by the medical board three months ago. It is understood that at the time of publication, Dr Lee's registration was subject to no conditions. The medical board has been contacted for comment.
