Iluka Landcare celebrating its volunteers 3 November 2013

When you visit Bundjalung National Park and Iluka Nature

Reserve, you are within the traditional homelands of the

Bundjalung and Yaegl Nations. In caring for these lands,

we show our respect for elders past and present and their

strong spiritual and cultural connection to this Country.

ILUKA LANDCARE GROUPS

Celebration of 20 years of Landcare Volunteer Work in

Bundjalung National Park

Open Day Sunday 3rd Nov 2013

Dates and details to be confirmed

Bushfires expose O'Farrell Government budget cuts

Media Release – Fire Stations closed as Sydney burns

September 10, 2013 

Bushfires expose O’Farrell Government budget cuts: Off-duty crews called-in due to five stations being closed

NSW Government budget cuts have meant that when today’s bushfire emergency hit, five Sydney fire stations were closed, and resources had already been diverted from four others.

The Fire Brigade Employees’ Union said fire stations in Camden, Riverwood, Miranda, Mona Vale and Ryde were all closed due to budget cuts today, requiring Macquarie Fields, Ashfield, Botany and Newtown to be left vacant as crews were sent to cover their areas, while Ryde was not covered at all.

As today’s bushfire emergency hit — with multiple fires in Western Sydney, the Hawkesbury, Blue Mountains and the Central Coast — Fire and Rescue NSW has had to recall off-duty firefighters to cover the gaps and closures.

At Castlereagh, where a large fire is impacting rural properties, the local fire station was also closed on both Sunday and Monday this week.

FBEU secretary Jim Casey said the nature of these bushfires had shown just how irresponsible the O’Farrell Government’s policy of closing fire stations was.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that hot weather and strong winds can mean bushfires, but it appears to be news to the O’Farrell Government who have been caught with their pants down today,” Mr Casey said.

“Off-duty fire crews had to be called in as neighbouring stations raced to protect life and property, all because budget cuts have left large areas of Sydney without adequate fire protection.

“Budget cuts and the irresponsible policy of closing fire stations meant that as fire conditions developed into a major emergency today, fire stations across the city were shut.

“With fire stations closed, it only takes one major incident in Sydney — like a serious house or factory fire — and resources would be overstretched.”

Mr Casey said the State Government’s reckless approach to public safety was unsustainable, with today’s blazes catching them out well before the official start of the fire season.

“We have been warning the community and the Government about this for some time,” Mr Casey said.

“Fire stations, like all emergency services, are there for a reason — to respond quickly and on short notice.

“Current budget cuts mean the State Government are treating fire protection like a game of musical chairs, shuffling resources around the city and hoping they aren’t caught out.

“At some stage the music will stop and they will be left exposed, with communities around Sydney and the State the ones that will suffer.

“The FBEU is urging the NSW Government to lift these budget cuts and end the practice of temporarily closing fire stations, especially with the experts warning of a dangerous fire season ahead.”

Jim Casey
State Secretary

Tuesday 10 September 2013

Yet another Spot the Difference

Thanks to APN, or at least its two dailies in northern NSW that Clarrie reads, here's another Spot the Difference.
Why are The Daily Examiner and The Northern Star providing their readers with budget versions of Ginger Meggs?
Today's hint: punctuation (perhaps a devious APN staffer was a bit mischievous with the white correction fluid)

Today's Examiner and Northern Star

gocomics.com

Credits: Thanks APN and gocomics.com

Equal pay is still a dream for most Australian women

The Sydney Morning Herald 3 September 2013:

The pay gap in favour of men has widened in two of Australia's most female-dominated industries.

The health care and social assistance sector has the biggest gender pay gap in the country even though women outnumber men by four to one. Full-time men in that sector are paid 32.3 per cent more on average than full-time women, up 1 percentage point in the past year. Two other sectors - finance and insurance and professional, scientific and technical services - also have an average pay gap in favour of men of more than 30 per cent.

In retail trade, where 56 per cent of the workers are women, the gender pay gap widened by 3.4 per cent in the past year, second to construction where the average gender pay discrepancy increased by 4.9 per cent.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency says the gender pay gap across all sectors of the Australian economy stands at 17.5 per cent. That's 2.6 percentage points higher than it was in 2004 and one percentage point higher than it was in 1995. The average full-time woman now earns $266.20 less each week than the average full-time working man, an annual difference of $13,842.....

Average super payments for women ($63,412) are 42 per cent less than men's ($109,609), the ACTU report says.

Telling It Like It Is - a post for all those people who voted for Abbott & Co

This is part of what Australian Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott and Deputy Prime Minister-elect Warren Truss promised to enact, once they formed federal government along with those Liberal and National Party members elected to Parliament on 7 September 2013:

■ Lower the tax-free threshold from $18,200 to $6,000. This will increase taxes for an est. 6 million Australians earning less than $80,000 per annum and see many retirees and low income earners having to pay tax.

■ Abolish the low-income superannuation contribution. This will see the reinstatement of 15 per cent tax on superannuation contributions for people earning less than $37,000 per annum and result in an est. 3.6 million workers who earn less than $37,000 paying over $4 billion extra in tax on their superannuation over the next four years.

■ Introduce a paid parental leave scheme that replaces a mother's salary up to $75,000 for six months leave, paying for much of this $5.5 billion scheme with an est. $4.8 billion of tax revenue garnered primarily from the incomes of ordinary workers rather than with employer or industry contributions.

■ Remove franking credits associated with the 1.5% paid parental scheme levy on business earnings of $5 million or more. Resulting in shareholders with lower tax thresholds or superannuants on tax concessions missing out on tax refunds.

■ Abolish the means-tested Schoolkids Bonus received by an est.1.3 million families providing up to $410 for each primary school child and up to $820 for each high school child.

■ Abolish the means-tested Lower Income Support Bonus for low income households, including those in low paying/part time employment, independent retirees, old age pensioners, war widows, and single parents.

■ Introduce a $2 billion Direct Action Plan which is predicted to fail to meet the 5 per cent greenhouse gas emissions target due to significant underfunding and, therefore will waste the tax revenue assigned to this plan. 

■ Cut 12,000 public service jobs across the country, which is likely to result in a decrease in service delivery to regional communities.

■ Require major mobile phone carriers and regional communities to stump up over $100 million to build the towers to eliminate blackspots. Which will almost inevitably result in higher phone charges for the average consumer.

■ Alter the National Broadband Network rollout so that Internet users have to pay to have fibre optic cable connected to their home or business before they can access the markedly reduced download/upload speeds now on offer under this new plan.

■ Cutting $42 million from legal aid services.

■ No new federal funding for the Pacific Highway Upgrade until after the next federal election in 2016 and, Australia-wide the cancellation of one bridge and five rail projects. 

I ask all those reading this post, who voted for a Liberal or Nationals candidate, to take a short drive around your neighbourhood and wander about your shopping centre. Most of the people you see will be affected to some degree by these plans of Messrs. Abbott and Truss.

So don’t be surprised if in six months time (when these measures start to affect weekly budgets) you are told the following to your face:

**Please start video now**

http://youtu.be/fogKbGWZW64

* All figures derived from the Federal Coalition's Costings Table, Liberal Party campaign statements, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's victory speech of 7 September 2013, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Dept of Human Services, Centrelink, Financial Standard Online, Business Spectator, Crikey, The Northern Star and The Sydney Morning Herald.

The new Member for Page really is what's-his-name

This morning in the time session usually occupied by local rural news ABC North Coast local radio presented an election post-mortem.

A voter at a polling place in Grafton told the ABC he likes Tony Abbott so he voted for "what's-his-name in Page". Quite obviously, the voter had no idea know who the National Party's candidate was.

If that wasn't enough to put listeners off their corn flakes an interview the ABC conducted with State Member for Clarence Chris Gulaptis didn't help.  Gulaptis, who has his own identity problems due to something of an association with the disgraced former MP for Clarence Steve "Speed Camera" Cansdell, told the ABC that voters on Saturday thought he (Gulaptis) was Hogan and wished him well in the election. Gulaptis also said that Hogan has people thinking he is Gulaptis.

The Nationals have an identity crisis.

Readers are invited to match the names of current and former Nat identities (see above) with their mug shots.

Credit: Images from Google images

This is the environmental vandalism which occurs under Coalition governments in Australia

http://youtu.be/QEhZhMHMveg

Newcastle Herald 6 September 2013:

THE state government has been accused of allowing Glencore Xstrata to mine under Sugarloaf State Conservation Area without meeting all its licence conditions.

West Wallsend Colliery, responsible for destroying part of the reserve, appears to have been operating for more than 18 months in breach of a consent condition designed to monitor subsidence risk and protect the environment.

In what shapes as another embarrassing chapter in the environmental scandal for the government, documents show the mine was supposed to establish an independent review committee to monitor its operations.

Information obtained by the Newcastle Herald reveals the committee - which was never formed - was to have veto power over the mine in the event of unacceptable environmental impacts from subsidence.

Extensive subsidence damage, uncovered last week, occurred in October last year adjacent to longwall 41 during secondary extraction, but the public was never informed.

In June, more than 180 tonnes of grout was pumped into a stream during a botched remediation project run by the mine.

The colliery's project approval, authorised by Planning Minister Brad Hazzard in January 2012, states the committee should include "involvement and review by appropriate subsidence experts".

Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham described the lack of an independent committee as "another disgraceful element of this sad episode".

Mr Buckingham called on the government to explain exactly why Glencore Xstrata was allowed to continue mining without complying with its approval consent.

"It's clear the government has a crisis on its hands and the planning approval process is broken," he said.

"That independent body was a requirement of the mine's consent. The company plays lip service to this condition and there is no serious compliance. The system is broken, and it's not just this mine, it's mines across the state."......