Not the sort of reaction Premier O'Farrell and What's-iz-Name expected

Poor old Hapless Gulaptis can’t take a trick. The biggest political heavy he could draw into his campaign to win the Clarence election and this is fairly indicative of the media response on the day of the visit - barely concealed laughter.

Jules Faber in The Daily Examiner 4th Novemeber 2011

Premier laughs off gaffe by Rodney Stevens on 4th November 2011

“AFTER spelling his candidate's name wrong on a twitter post about visiting Grafton, NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell walked the streets of the Jacaranda city yesterday showing his support for Chris "Galuptis".

Almost two hours after arriving at Mr Gulaptis' Prince St campaign office dressed in a tie, after soaking up Jacaranda Thursday celebrations, Mr O'Farrell held a press conference, sans tie at Market Square.

Mr O'Farrell laughed off the spelling gaffe, saying it was probably auto-correct that resulted in Mr Gulaptis' name being spelt wrong...”

Comments

By blind-freddie from Iluka on 4/11/2011 at 8:03AM

O'Farrell's 'slip of the lip' makes me wonder if he sees his colleague-to-be as a bit of a galloper- and on a heavy track, stuck in mud, being harshly ridden, under the whip, only worth a long shot bet, a bit spavined, running for second place, heading for the glue factory, or even a touch of Fine Cotton. Or is the race fixed, a done deal, a one horse race, with only the gallop down the home strait needed for victory.

Is Gulaptis a real friend of public education or does he sing from O'Farrell's song sheet?

In TV ads promoting Chris Gulaptis as the Nationals candidate for Clarence Mr Gulaptis is seen standing near public schools. He sent his children to public schools and is quick to remind the electorate that he was the president of the Maclean High School Parents & Citizens Association.  

Mr Gulaptis should read Dick McDermott's letter to the editor of The Coffs Coast Advocate (see below) and then come out and tell the Clarence electorate where he really stands in relation to public education in November 2011.

Schools sold out

I've been a teacher for 38 years. I retire next year. I never believed I would see the day any State Government, be it Labor or conservative, would stoop to a level so low that they would hold their teachers to ransom rather than negotiate a new award which would allow wages to keep pace with inflation.

From January 1, 2012, public school teachers' salaries will be reduced annually unless they agree to measures that would relieve the government of the responsibility to fully fund the learning conditions of pupils in public schools.

Incidentally, there are no such conditions placed on teachers in private schools

What the latest O'Farrell legislation amounts to is asking the state's teachers, those who deliver the service, to finance the very service they are providing.

What the O'Farrell Government, of which local member Andrew Fraser is a member, is clearly doing is attempting to run down public education, the only education open to those most in need.

One in two people with children in public schools must have actually voted for Mr Fraser in the last election never having been told this was his agenda.

The O'Farrell Government is masking its deceit, attempting to hide this abrogation of responsibility by cloaking it in terms of what they call local autonomy.

By kidding parents that giving local school communities the choice to run their public schools the way they want, the government is slyly absolving itself of the responsibility to run our public schools the way they should be run.

This local autonomy push is a great "con" perpetrated by politicised bureaucrats and those who would be.

Don't fall for it mums and dads; it is yet another case of a national asset being flogged off or driven into the ground in the name of privatisation, but this time it will directly affect your kids.

Please see through the spin, join with teachers and resist.

Dick McDermott

Source: Letters, Coffs Coast Advocate, 5/11/11

Is the Coalition's own polling beginning to worry O'Farrell in the lead up to the Clarence by-election?

The Federal seat of Page and the state seat of Clarence sit squarely in the middle of NSW Nationals country.

In Australian electoral history Labor has only won Page at four general elections and Clarence at three elections – one a by-election.

In 2007 the Nationals Chris Gulaptis stood in Nationals safe federal seat of Page which had been held by the Ian Causley for six years until his retirement – and lost it with a -7.83% swing against him.

In October 2011 the Nationals once again picked Gulaptis to stand in the Nationals safe state seat of Clarence held by Steve Cansdell for eight years until his resignation in September 2011. In March this year Cansdell had been re-elected with a +19.8% swing towards the Nationals.

Since Gulaptis’ most recent nomination a number of Clarence Valley residents tell me they have been phone polled twice by ReachTEL, the North Coast Nationals favoured opinion pollster.

Co-incidentally the Nationals have twice gone public with statements such as these:

· "I predict a swing against us which is why Chris will have to shake as many hands as possible and knock on as many doors as possible to secure his role as a member of government that will be in for at least two terms," Mr Stoner said.

· Describing Mr Gulaptis' chances in the by-election, Mr O'Farrell said Clarence was "an absolutely tough seat". But he said the coalition had a good candidate in Mr Gulaptis to retain Clarence. "I sat in state parliament when a Labor member of parliament represented solidly this seat. "We take nothing for granted, in politics 51% is a win, I'll settle for 51%."

Gulapatis himself has been reduced to a racing analogy:

"A [ballot] draw's a draw, everybody is in the same boat," he said. "It's a big field, it's a wet track and we will see what happens at the end of the day."

One could be forgiven for thinking that the polling results sitting on Barry O’Farrell and Andrew Stoner’s desks in Sydney are not favorable to their candidate and that the Nationals are looking at losing quite a few percentage points off their very comfortable 31.4% tpp margin in this seat - something NSW Labor would not let them forget in a hurry.

When and where to meet The Greens candidate, Janet Cavanaugh, during the 2011 Clarence by-election campaign

Photo of Janet Cavanaugh from Google Images

The Greens Janet Cavanaugh is a candidate in the 19^th November 2011 Clarence by-election.

Here are some of the places you can say hello to her:

Tuesday 8th November:  4.45 pm at the Lower Clarence Teachers’ Association meeting, Maclean RSL, River Street Maclean.

Wednesday 9th November: Clarence Greens campaign office in the Casino Centre Arcade, Walker St Casino in afternoon;  5.30pm at the Casino RSM, Canterbury Street Casino,  when the Casino Chamber of Commerce and Industry is holding a meeting to which they've invited by-election candidates.

Saturday 12th November: Maclean Monthly Markets, Centenary Drive Maclean in morning; 1.30pm at the Clarence Valley Women's Inc. AGM at the Country Women’s Association Rooms, River Street Maclean.

Monday 14th November: In Grafton with John Kaye MP.

6pm at the Meet the Candidates Forum, Yamba Bowling Club, Wooli Street Yamba.

Wednesday 16th November:  6pm at the Meet the Candidates Forum, South Grafton Ex-Servicemen's Club, Wharf Street South Grafton. 

Camac tries to wrap her political gaffe around The Cross of Ages

Bethany of The Cross would've been wiser to leave her gaffe to sink to the bottom of the bowl. Instead she went to The Daily Examiner Editor:

In his story on Monday, Mr Deefholts quoted Ms Camac as saying if displaced abattoir workers did not want a job in Casino and preferred to "sit around and whinge" they could do that.

"If they want to get off their bums and get a new job they can do that," she was quoted as saying.

Ms Camac said that as the abattoir's human resources manager she had been caring for employees for the past two years.

"I continue to be concerned for their employment and their future opportunities for continued employment," she said yesterday.

"But even more importantly, as a Christian candidate, care for people and their families is absolutely central to my whole way of life.

"As a Christian I stand to defend the rights of the underprivileged and those who have been treated unfairly as evidenced clearly by my volunteer work in India and other places.

"I now find myself at the centre of public accusations of un-Christian behaviour by Grant Courtney, the leader of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union, based on an entirely false report by Mr Deefholts, accusing me of doing this as a 'cheap political stunt'. This has got to stop…..

Mr Deefholts yesterday stood by his original report.

He said that, realising her comments were potentially inflammatory, he had repeated her comments back to her and asked if they were accurate.

"I was surprised she said it, which is why I read it back to her," he said.”

If she keeps this up the only vote Camac is likely to get from the Clarence Valley is the donkey vote.

A pictorial guide to why the 99% in America is so angry

On 2 November the UN 2011 Human Development Report,  which covers 187 countries, was released. It showed that Australia continues to rank second only to Norway on the global human development index with regard to equality within society, after adjustments were made for internal inequalities in health, education and income.

It shares equal first place with Italy when calculating life expectancy for those born in 2011 and, comes in third after Sweden and Norway in the overall life satisfaction category - a

placing it shares with a number of other countries.

On the issue of gender inequality Australia ranks at eighteen.

However, in the United States of America it is another story all together, with is ranking across the same indices resulting in an overall ranking of twenty-three.

From Business Insider this series of historical graphs demonstrates this level of inequality:

In fact, income inequality has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in "income equality." China's ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran.

Wages as a percentage of the U.S. economy

What will Hapless Gulaptis do?

The Federal Government and COAG committed to a course of action in February 2011 which resulted in the National Health Reform Agreement. The NSW Government at the time was led by Labor’s K-K- Keneally.

This agreement sees NSW receive federal health funding under the National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services. Specifically this state will get $526 million in New Subacute Beds Guarantee Funding from 2010-11 to 2013-4.

Because there is a byelection in the Clarence electorate and the Nats candidate Chris Gulaptis got caught out telling funding pork pies, the O’Farrell Government’s Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Health Melinda Pavey fronted the media instead to announce that the new subacute beds planned for Maclean District Hospital were part of the Nats grand plan for the Clarence Valley.

I wait in breathless anticipation for Chris to break loose from his minders, tunnel under the media fence and announce to the world that in fact those extra 14 hospital beds planned for Maclean were due to his good offices – after all he’s already claimed credit on behalf of the Nats for a private bequest to Maclean Hospital!

Clarence Valley Council - matured or over ripe?

The Daily Examiner letter to the editor 3 November 2011:

A mature council

THE Clarence Valley Council's recently appointed GM, Scott Greensill, reportedly claimed "the council was now maturing past amalgamation" (DEX, October 27). Well, just how much has our forced amalgamated council matured?
At the council's general meeting on September 13, the staff's recommendation to councillors seeking federal funding for a $7m extension to the Grafton Gallery was prepared (in part) by none other than the Grafton Gallery's director, Jude McBean (item 12.167/11). That privilege included "waiving development assessment and construction fees" of $40,692 as well as "identifying a potential $4.13m which could accrue from developer (contributions) over the next 20 years". But no mention was made that the developer's contributions plan showed Grafton's projected population growth to 2021 was only 494 and zero to 2031, thereby contributing little S94 revenues.
In contrast, at the same meeting, council staff recommended to councillors the "waiving of hire fees of $150 for the cost of council's events trailer" for Iluka's Family Festival to raise money to build a sports shed for Iluka (item 12-168/11). Yet the developer's contributions plan shows Iluka's projected population growth of 642 to 2021 and 627 to 2031, thereby generating far more S94 funds than Grafton, as well as experiencing significant pressures on its existing infrastructures.
It must be a niggle in the guts for Iluka's volunteers to work their butts off to raise community funds, but not be given the privileged opportunity to prepare their own recommendations to a mature forced amalgamated Clarence Valley Council.

RAY HUNT
Yamba.

Meandering through the mauves

Top:
Peregrine's Journey 1990 by Patrycia Buckland of Alstonville NSW
Centre:
Floral Festivals stamp by Australia Post 2011
Bottom:
Fly Away 2002 by Deborah Cocks of Bray's Creek NSW

Quote of the Week

Here was a man who wanted to get rid of the possums in his roof, so called in a napalm strike.

{Heathen Scripture writing about Qantas Airlines CEO Alan Joyce on 1^st November 2011}

Forest NSW illegal logging

Local environmentalists are disappointed with the small fines Forests NSW has received for illegally logging 15 hectares of endangered lowland rainforest in Grange SF near Jackadgery.

Lowland Rainforest is an Endangered Ecological Environment (EEC) that is excluded from Forests NSW harvesting operations.

EEC’s are protected by the National Parks and Wildlife Act. Under sections 118A and 118D of the Act it is an offence to pick or harm endangered ecological communities; currently the maximum penalty is $220,000 and up to 2 years jail, with an additional $11,000 for each plant illegally logged, picked, bulldozed out of the ground, trampled or squashed.

Environmentalists are concerned that the forest regulator, the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) may not have found the 15ha area of rainforest that was trashed because the two small fines issued were for offences in other forest compartments. Forestry regulation staff at OEH do not have  the requisite skills to identify EEC’s. The Clarence Environment Centre offered to show OEH the forest compartment in question but OEH declined the offer.

The value of the illegally harvested trees far outweigh the fines imposed to FNSW.

OEH minister Robyn Parker and OEH CEO Lisa Corbyn owe the people of NSW an explanation. Why is Forests NSW not subject to the full force of the law?

Does Chris Gulaptis the National party candidate for the seat of Clarence support Robyn Parker's lazy approach to regulating Forests NSW harvesting operations?

Chris Gulaptis brags about he had 10,000 bats tipped out of their home near Maclean.

Parker claims the government is working hard to save koalas but has approved logging in core koala habitat in Boambee State forest near Coffs.

Robyn Parker is proving to be a liability for the NSW government with a bad case of foot in mouth disease.  Luke Foley at the recent standing committee - " So you are an environment minister that just does what Forests NSW ask?"

In the last 2 years Forest NSW have been found to have breached the Integrated Forestry Operations Approval (IFOA) at Yabbra SF, Girard SF, Doubleduke SF, Grange SF and Wedding Bells SF.

In June 2011 Justice Pepper of the NSW Land and Environment Court commented that FNSW operations -  ‘suggests either a pattern of continuing disobedience in respect of environmental laws generally or, at the very least, a cavalier attitude to compliance with such laws’.

Chris Green

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at gmail dot com to submit comment for consideration.

2011 Clarence By-election Scorecard. Part Three - dumb show

NSW Nationals candidate Chris Gulaptis is having his hand held by party minders and has made no major statements in the mainstream media this week. He is finding the going tough on social media, where his presence can be best be described as inane with entries such as this:

Strange what issues you can find whilst out door knocking. I am going to see a person who is experiencing difficulties with truck drivers relieving themselves on their footpath.

NSW Country Labor candidate Peter Ellem in the local media this week:

Country Labor candidate for the Clarence by-election Peter Ellem described the announcement as bungled, saying they should get "fair dinkum about this important project". "There wasn't one single cent allocated for this multi-million-dollar project in the budget which was released only one month ago," Mr Ellem said.

Mr Ellem said the government needed to show budgeted funding for the health centre to ensure it is delivered for local residents. 

And with this yesterday:

Country Labor candidate for Clarence Peter Ellem said he was alarmed at NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith's response to questioning in budget estimates meetings.

"(He) refused to rule out closing further prisons across NSW and Grafton is one of the oldest in NSW," he said.

The department announced 13 redundancies at Grafton jail in August and it confirmed that 12 redundancies had been accepted.

Peter Ellem has demanded that the O'Farrell government guarantee the future of Campbell Hospital at Coraki and urgently fund repairs so the hospital can be re-opened.

The hospital was closed after storm damage on September 25 and residents fear that the 14-bed facility will be closed down.

NSW Greens candidate Janet Cavanaugh continues her social media presence at Janet4Clarence and she has more campaign information posted than all the other candidates combined. She has also seen her policy positions placed in local mainstream media through her use of Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham to call for a fast-tracking of a Strategic Regional Landuse Policy for the North Coast and lines like this:

IN Grafton on Tuesday to support the Greens candidate for Clarence Janet Cavanaugh, MLC Jeremy Buckingham warned the National Party to ignore farmers' concerns at its own peril. "The National Party has got a choice to make, are they the National Party or are they the Multi-National Mining Company Party?" he asked.

Independent Wade Walker has made no public statement for the third week in a row week.

Christian Democratic Party candidate Bethany Camac made only one major public statement in the media this week in which she gave unsolicited and misleading ‘advice’ to sacked workers:

"If they don't want to take up the job offer at Casino and sit around and whinge they can sit around and whinge, if they want to get off their bums and get a new job they can do that," she said.

Outdoor Recreation Party candidate Clinton Mead has had little to say so far – although as a serial election candidate his March 2011 less is more argument when it comes to government funding does not bode well.

Australian Democrat candidate David Robinson is another hopeful serial candidate, who appears to live in the Ballina state electorate and has business interest in Alstonville and Lismore areas. He was/is President of the Alstonville and District Citizens and Ratepayers Association. As Robinson left it to the last minute to nominate, this is all he has said so far:

Robinson is a small business operator, being born into his family’s farm on the North Coast. Robinson’s activity in small business saw him being involved with bringing local dial-up Internet assess to Grafton, through Big River Internet, now Linear G, in the 1990’s, and now operating his free-range poultry and cattle farm. His interests include the breeding of poultry, Simmental cattle, goats, ducks and pigs plus, broadband Internet, web hosting, amateur theatre and community politics. Robinson stood as an Australian Democrats candidate at the 2010 Federal and 2011 N.S.W. State Elections, and has recently been involved in re-establishing the party’s Grafton-Maclean Branch. [Media release 2 November 2011]

Independent Stewart Scott-Irving from Old Bar is another candidate who is a serial nominee of longstanding, having stood as a Queensland Federal Labor candidate in 1990, as an Independent in the North Coast federal seat of Lyne in 2007 and 2008, for the Senate in 2010. Although he is yet to make any form of  policy statement, there is an intriguing glimpse into past history:

What a shame our Senator John Faulkner didn't take some of the blame for the demise of the ALP himself. When I informed him personally on Old Bar Beach of my being sacked along with my School Council when we attempting in 2005 to enrol an Aboriginal family's 3 children, he just wished me luck in my seeking justice through the IR Commission and the Supreme Court. Did I hear anything from him or the ALP subsequently? Not bloody likely!!!
Stewart Scott-Irving | Wallabi Point / Old Bar / Taree - June 10, 2011, 1:40PM

Assessment:

1. Chris Gulaptis remains a policy free zone. He appears to be avoiding the media this week and is relying on meet and greets which involve little critical appraisal of his utterances. Being towed along by party heavies like an errant toddler is not a good look.  He goes deeper into minus territory on the scoreboard.

2. Peter Ellem falters this week after getting off to such a promising start with so many Gulaptis gaffes to bounce off. There is no clear policy vision emerging. His silence on the risks of mining in the Upper Nymboida area of the Clarence River catchment can only be described as deafening. This sees little movement in his score.

3. Janet Cavanaugh is the only candidate who shows any passion with regard to the issues she canvasses in her campaign and deserves brownie points for not just going through the motions like most of the other candidates.

4. Wade Walker is still playing dumb and presenting as a zero.

5. Bethany Camac had become very quiet by the end of the working week as the noise from her day job reverberates across the electorate. She is another deep in minus territory.

6. Clinton Mead last stood for election in the foothills of the Southern Highlands and, currently lives in Bradbury near Campbelltown which is many hundreds of miles away from the Clarence electorate – making one wonder just how serious this candidate is about his own chances.

7. David Robinson fails to establish that he has genuine contemporary links with the Clarence electorate. As he could not turn membership numbers around for his ailing ratepayers association, one wonders how well he would do steering the good ship Clarence.

8. Stewart Scott-Irving as a latecomer to the scorecard does not rate yet. However, as an unsuccessful candidate he has been known to spit the dummy and demand an inquiry with this predictable result.

Rolling Scorecard

Gulaptis -2

Ellem 2.3

Cavanaugh 2.5
Wade Walker 0
Bethany Camac -3

Clinton Mead -1

David Robinson 0

Stewart Scott-Irving 0

I'm the 75,260,954,420th* person ever born on Earth and I'm peeved because.....

Garden weeds don’t respond to verbal threats but require a show of strength

My bank balance refuses to grow during the night

The Tooth Fairy doesn’t pay out on broken fillings

Aussie kids are into professional begging on All Hallows Eve

Cardinal George Pell thinks religion trumps science

Australian Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott won’t shut his mouth for even a nanosecond

Journalist Andrew Bolt hasn’t migrated yet

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell is

NSW Environment Minster Robyn Parker refuses to resign

NSW Police still haven’t charged admitted law breaker Steve Cansdell

Every time some silly bugger doesn't like what the Gillard Government is doing they yell "Tax!"

Too many pollies resign after an election because they don't want to do the hard slog in Opposition

There are people who'll vote for the NSW Shooters and Fishers Party

Australian multinational corporations still haven’t learned that foreign CEOs like Alan Joyce have no understanding of the national psyche

North Coast Nats’ Chris Gulaptis doesn’t know where to find a definition of “truth in advertising” or “political honesty”

NSW Country Labor’s Peter Ellem is dancing around the subject of antimony mining on the NSW North Coast

NSW Christian Democratic Party’s Bethany Camac thinks it’s fine to insult some of the very people she supposedly wants to represent

AND

The ute won’t start

* What’s Your Number?