Saying "Thank you"......

The Clarence Valley Independent, 2 May 2018:

A letter from mum and dad

Ed,

We will never forget certain things from this journey ever in our lives. On March 22, 2018 our lives changed forever.

Watching our baby Emerald (7 months old) go into cardiac arrest and multi organ failure one hour after arriving at our local hospital, me just taking her because I thought she was sick, then it all went downhill from there. The NETs retrieval team was called in to take us to Westmead; Emerald suffered a seizure in Grafton from low blood sugar that resulted in a brain injury and fluid on her brain, needing life support. It took NETS another six hours to stabilise her to get on the plane. Emerald was blue and lifeless and no one thought she would make it; in that moment I thought my baby had died, then the next day eight hours after arrival at the children’s hospital, we had a diagnosis of a very rare CHD called ALCAPA that Emerald had been silently fighting for seven months and was never picked up. They took her for major open heart surgery at 8am on March 23; the longest day of my life. They told me to be prepared for the worst as they expected Emerald to come back on the ECMO (the double bypass machine for lungs and heart).

3pm came and Emmy was about to come out of surgery and she wasn’t on the machine! When the head surgeon sat me down and pretty much told me no one told him about her low blood sugar and Emerald suffered another seizure creating a complication for the surgery, yet she still didn’t come back on that machine, they kept telling me that she would end up on it to give her heart a rest; the next week was very touch and go, we almost lost our girl three more times but still no ECMO; Emerald was fighting so hard
And the doctors telling me that her liver and kidneys won’t make it; she was so puffed up with fluid and so yellow from the jaundice and that they thought she had more seizures, but couldn’t tell because she was on the muscle relaxant, the only thought in my head was if she was going to be ok. I didn’t care if her brain injury resulted in her being a little more special, I just wanted to know she was ok – they couldn’t guarantee us anything and they still can’t. Emerald also contacted two blood infections, pneumonia from being on the life support and a collapsed lung.

This experience has been very trying and testing and very traumatising and we feel so out of our comfort zone being here and almost 700km away from home.

A few anxiety attacks from mum and dad over the last 5 weeks
Some very touch and go moments I will never forget.
We are slowly on the road to recovery, Emerald has astounded all her doctors with how far she has come and that she ever once stopped fighting.

Emerald is a miracle five weeks post op and she is saying mum, hi, can do high 5; eating solids again and rolling over from side to side!

I could not be standing here today beside my heart warrior if it wasn’t for the support from my family and friends and the entire community who has rallied around my daughter to help us. Thank you for all the donations and the prayers; we are truly blessed to have such caring kind hearted people in our lives and our little gem is fighting to get back to our little community so we can say thank you to everyone that has helped us.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I know this journey still has a long, long way to go and the shock has worn off finally and is only just hitting me now, but every day is a step closer to home and Emmy is improving every single day.
And I appreciate everything you all have done – Thank you.

Thank you for never leaving Emerald in the dark.

Jess and Kev – Emerald’s parents

Gina Rinehart may yet rue the day she decided to become such as big player on the Australian political stage

When Georgina ‘Gina’ Hope Rinehart (reputedly Australia’s richest woman) decided that she didn’t want climate change mitigation addressed by any national government and also decided to buy a slice of the national media pie as well, she set herself up as a person of interest to the average voter as well the tabloid press.

So when three of her four children took her to court she attempted to suppress the details.

Unfortunately for But liddle ol’ me is really a very private person Rinehart she has been less than successful and finally may have to endure us all knowing more of the Hancock family’s soiled laundry than she might like if the High Court rejects her appeal next Friday.

Ah well, at least she can cry on the shoulder of her good friend Christopher Monckton.

Meanwhile, here is part of an intriguing judgement handed down by the NSW Supreme Court in October 2011:

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:
3. An order that the Defendant as Trustee of the trust established by the Deed of Settlement made 27 December 1988 by Langley George Hancock (" The Trust ") provide to the Plaintiffs:
(a) the accounts of the Trust for the years 1992 to date;
(b) the accounts of Hancock Prospecting Pty Limited for the years 1992 to date.
4. An order pursuant to s 90 of the Trustees Act 1962 (WA) or in the Court's equitable jurisdiction varying the Trust Deed by splitting the trust into separate trusts with one trust as to Gina Hope Rinehart's 17.7% interest in the ordinary shares and the cumulative special shares, as referred to in clause 4 of the Trust Deed (" the First Trust "); and a further trust as to the residue of the trust property in favour of the children of Gina Hope Rinehart (" the Second Trust ");
5. An order in the Court's inherent equitable jurisdiction removing Gina Rinehart as trustee of the Second Trust.
6. A declaration that the Defendant has misconducted herself in the administration of the Trust within the meaning of s 77(2)(b) of the Trustees Act 1962 (WA).

Twas the night before e-Census and all though the town.....

There were hundreds of fur kids* refusing to be left out.

Click on images to enbiggin

* Fur Kids - beloved companion animals (more usually dogs and cats) that are considered part of the family unit.

Please note that no census form was killed or injured in creating this post.

Saying it with pictures for the benefit of Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott told the 55th Federal Council of the Liberal Party of Australia on 26 June 2011; As I said in my maiden speech and have been repeating ever since, middle income families with children are Australia’s new poor.

Leaving aside both the fact that Tony Abbott entered Parliament seventeen years ago and the suspicion that he is using this tired old argument to advocate tax cuts for comfortably off families like his own - it is immediately obvious that this statement by Abbott is not true.

So for the benefit of this shabby economic illiterate politician I will say it with pictures.

The mean weekly equivalised disposable household income has been rising for the entire time Tony Abbott has been the Member for Warringah and, the number reporting financial hardship had fallen to below twenty per cent of total households by 2009:


Individuals and families with low household incomes remain the poor - period.
Individuals and families on middle incomes fare better and, have been doing so consistently for at least the last twelve years.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2010; The headline indicator shows that the middle income group had a slightly greater gain in real income between 1997-98 and 2007-08 than the low income group (46% compared with 41%) and middle income households have maintained around a seven percentage point lead on low income households when it come to a percentage share of total income received by persons between 1994-95 and 2007-08.

Those most likely to experience financial difficulties are not middle income individuals and families:
By 2009-10 there were 2.9 million families with children living at home. In 2011 The Australian Institute of Family Studies stated; Of all four groups, families comprising couples with dependent children were in the second best financial position, with an average disposable income of $810 per week, and with 19% of people reporting the experience of at least one of the seven financial hardships.

The Report for National Families Week 2011 included the observation that in 2010 couples with children were more likely to have one of the parents in paid employment than lone women with children: