A very practical gate to plate

In 2010 the Lower Clarence Community Garden Group received $50,000 from the Northern Rivers Food Links project and Village Showcase to establish a community garden in Yamba; facilitate a whole of community approach to participation in the garden; provide assistance and potentially financial support to aspirant community garden groups in the Lower Clarence area; support training groups by making the garden available as a training resource; and the delivery of workshops for the community.

The garden this group started in Wattle Park is coming along splendidly.

Fair Work Australia? Still going strong!

Ever since conservatives smelt blood in the Canberra air they have been racheting up complaints about Fair Work Australia (FWA), with a bring back WorkChoices subtext.

Well as far as I’m concerned the bl@@dy thing isn’t broken and an Abbott-led Coalition can’t be trusted anywhere near industrial relations policy.

Why do I think Fair Work Australia is getting a bad rap?

See this FWA press release on 7th September 2011 for starters……

“The operators of a Gold Coast shooting range have been fined a total of $30,000 for asking employees to sign an Individual Flexibility Arrangement (IFA) removing their penalty rates.

Australian Shooting Academy Pty Ltd, which operates a public indoor shooting range at Centro Surfers Paradise shopping centre, has been penalised $25,000.

Company director and part-owner Michael Joseph Murphy, who manages the shooting range, has been fined a further $5000.

Australian Shooting Academy was also ordered to pay compensation of $7146 to one worker.

The fines and compensation order, imposed in the Federal Court in Brisbane, are the result of a prosecution by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

They were imposed by Justice John Logan after Mr Murphy admitted he was involved in Australian Shooting Academy breaching workplace laws in 2010 when asking six employees to sign an IFA.

The IFA removed their entitlement to Modern Award penalty rates for overtime, weekend and public holiday work. Five of the six employees ultimately signed the IFA.

However, the adverse action, coercion, undue pressure and duress provisions of workplace laws were breached when one of the employees signed only after he was threatened that there would be no work for him if he did not sign.

Further, the adverse action provisions of workplace laws were breached when the one employee who refused to sign the IFA was subsequently given no further work. This worker was the subject of the Court’s compensation order.

It is the first time the Fair Work Ombudsman has taken legal action over alleged contraventions relating to IFAs.

It is unlawful for employers to force employees to agree to an IFA and it is unlawful to make an IFA a condition of employment.”

And this one on the same day…..

“The Fair Work Ombudsman is prosecuting the owner-operator of a Sydney truck company, alleging he was involved in sham contracting activity and underpaying a worker more than $13,000.

Facing court is Sydney man John Mineeff, who owned and operated Fairfield-based company Villtruck Pty Ltd, before it went into liquidation last year. Villtruck was involved in purchasing, repairing and selling second-hand trucks.

It is alleged Mr Mineeff was centrally involved in his company breaching the sham contracting provisions of workplace laws in relation to an employee who performed panel beating and vehicle detailing duties.

It is alleged the employee, aged in his 30s, was dismissed in early 2009 and immediately re-hired as an independent contractor.

However, it is alleged the employee’s correct classification was as an employee because he continued to perform substantially the same duties at his employer’s direction.

Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson says under the sham contracting provisions of workplace laws, it is unlawful to dismiss an employee in order to engage them as an independent contractor to perform the same duties. “It is also unlawful to misrepresent an employment relationship as an independent contracting arrangement,” Mr Wilson said.

Mr Mineeff was allegedly also involved in underpaying the employee $13,592 in annual leave entitlements and breaching workplace laws relating to keeping employment records and issuing pay slips.

Fair Work inspectors investigated after the employee lodged a complaint.

The Fair Work Ombudsman cannot prosecute Villtruck because the company is in liquidation.

Mr Mineeff was allegedly involved in multiple breaches of workplace laws. He faces maximum penalties ranging from $1100 to $6600 per breach.”

And yet again…..

Court fines couple over underpayment of security officers

2 Sep 2011

The operators of a NSW security company have been fined for their involvement in failing to back-pay 22 underpaid workers.

WA’s Rottnest workers get $24,000 back-pay

31 Aug 2011

The Fair Work Ombudsman has recovered more than $24,000 back-pay for workers on Rottnest Island as part of an education and compliance campaign.

Almost $55,000 back-pay for regional Tasmanian workers

26 Aug 2011

A number of workers in regional Tasmania have been back-paid a total of $54,700 following intervention by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Deniliquin sales assistant back-paid $6400

22 Aug 2011

A sales assistant at Deniliquin in regional NSW has been back-paid a total of $6400 following intervention by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Let Teh Rabbit, Erica Abetz, Poodle Pyne, Don Argus and the rest of the Serfdom Rules1 mob decide policy? We’d hafta have a death wish!

1 Voices from Working Australia: Findings from the ACTU Working Australia Census 2011

Moggy Musings [Archived material from Boy the Wonder Cat]

An I cans spellz and knows grammar musing: In a local newspaper this gem appeared recently - the girls appeared to be rifling through teachers' draws looking for money. Draws? Ooopps! Repeats afta meez. D*R*A*W*E*R*S . A noun not a verb. An item of furniture usually found in a desk or cupboard, not an action. Around my house draws is also slang for an item of clothing the two-legged people first pull on in the morning, so at first reading I wondered if the school teacher was Miss Moneypants. (Big thanks to Rex the German Shepherd's Dad for this tip)

A snail mail musing: My little canine friend Veronica Lake tells me that many of the good folk living in Cox Street, Yamba, are about to revolt. They are insensed that a letter sent by post to Clarence Valley Council remains unanswered after two months and an email reminder (that the road surface at the eastern and western ends of their street is breaking up) received a cursory response. #COUNCIL FAIL

A false claims & poor punctuation musing: Hear that the Pacific Hotel at Yamba is beginning to get phone calls about its advert in the Coastal Views community newspaper on 5 August 2011. With so many absurdly false advertising claims attached - and the phantom apostrophe distracting the eye - the entire piece is an exercise in how not to attract patrons to a pub.

A reminder that the love/loyalty goes both ways musing: July 2011: A man has died while trying to rescue his dog from water at Lake Cathie on the New South Wales mid-north coast. The dog got caught in a rip as it frolicked off the beach, south of Port Macquarie yesterday afternoon. His 42-year-old owner, from Bellbird in the Hunter region, plunged into the sea when he realised his pet was in trouble but soon got into difficulty himself. A surfer managed to drag the man to shore and attempts were made to revive him but he was declared dead at the scene. It is understood the dog survived.

An Underdogs Rule musing: Loukanikos the doughty Greek canine shows the world how it's done - try your best to shout your protest but don't bite if you can help it. See him in action at YouTube. He even has a dedicated Facebook site.

Local meat co-op brings home the gravy

A win for local meat co-op

Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin said she is very pleased that her lobbying on behalf of the Northern Co-operative Meat Company has paid off.
The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Joe Ludwig has come up with a $25.8 million package to support the meat processing industry with the implementation of the new Australian Export Meat Inspection System (AEMIS).
“I have been lobbying the Minister this year on behalf of the Northern Co-operative Meat Company Ltd and the meat industry in general, calling for a funding package to cover the extra market access costs, such as additional meat inspectors.
 “The General Manager of Northern Co-operative Meat Company, Garry Burridge, who is also head of Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC), has done a great job in his advocacy.  He put up the strong industry arguments.
“I was able to champion his just cause for the local workers and all involved in the meat processing industry.
“The minister has agreed with me that the meat processing industry needs extra support to change over to the new meat inspection system which starts in October.
“The package accepted by the AMIC is for $25.8 million in rebates for the industry. 
“Persistence had paid off.  I knew it was hard to lobby on this, particularly when a scheme had been agreed to that would cut out at a certain point.
“I’ll be speaking on this in Parliament when the legislative instruments for the new certification system, along with the new fee structure, are introduced.
 “Minister Ludwig once he’d made the decision was keen to tell me. 
“I have now invited the Minister to come to the electorate again and visit the meatworks,” Ms Saffin said.
[Janelle Saffin MP for Page Media Release 5 September 2011]

U.S. Embassy in Canberra brings forth a LOL

The do you know the truth or do you read Telegraph gets the thumbs up:

Reference ID 09CANBERRA335
Origin U.S. Embassy Canberra, Australia
Cable time Fri, 3 Apr 2009 00:41 UTC
Classification CONFIDENTIAL//NOFORN

“The Murdoch-owned tabloid, "The Daily Telegraph", Sydney's largest selling newspaper…often an accurate gauge of what Labor's core working-class voters are thinking.”

Haven’t laughed so hard in weeks.

What do they teach in journalism 101 these days?

Remember the days when newspaper reporters told their readers the important bits of information about their stories? Well, could someone please remind some of the young newshounds at The Daily Examiner that its readers are not happy. This reader turned to the back page of today's paper to read about a football match played in Grafton yesterday (yesterday's paper had a pre-game report that took up the best part of a page).

The heading was "Uni Shield hopes are over", so I thought, "Gee, now I'll read the detailed account of the game."

But, what a shocker! The all-important piece of information, the final score, was nowhere to be seen.

The Great ABC Switch Off Threatens

Never thought that we’d see the day when The Great ABC Switch Off became a subject for discussion in our home.

At 9.30pm last night it happened ten minutes into “At Home With Julia”, so disgusted were we with a program which mocked the Prime Minister’s private life and cruelly held her non-politician life partner up to national ridicule.

There are some places media shouldn’t go and the intimacies of a public figure’s home life is one of those areas.

ABC1, ABC Executive Producer Debbie Lee, Quail TV Executive Producers Rick Kalowski and Greg Quail, Writers Amanda Bishop, Rick Kalowski and Phil Lloyd, Director Erin White, Series Producer Carol Hughes and ALP legal counsel Mr Anton Denby SC (yeah, we get the lol) all made a huge error of judgement as far as we’re concerned.

What on earth was Australia’s public broadcaster thinking?

Anony-mice

Yamba

*GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com for consideration.

The Daily Examiner couldn't or wouldn't name company directors responsible for the illegal destruction of pristine natural habitat - why?

On 7 September 2011 The Daily Examiner reported:

A COMPANY which illegally cleared 38 hectares of native vegetation and may have displaced several koalas on a Halfway Creek property was fined $200,000 in the Land and Environment Court in Sydney on Thursday.

Judge Shaehan found Graymarshall Pty Ltd had breached the Native Vegetation Act by completely clearing six areas of the 170ha property of white mahogany, tallowwood and red mahogany.

One company director was found to have participated in the clearing, which was done on the instructions of both directors using a D6 bulldozer and a D65 excavator.

Neither director was named in the judgement.

Now, I have no idea if the company’s directors were not named in The Daily Examiner article because the newspaper knew their names and declined to publish or if it was too apathetic to search the public record – either way the Clarence Valley community is entitled to know all relevant facts surrounding Director-General of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water v Graymarshall Pty Ltd (No.2) [2011] NSWLEC 149 (1 September 2011).

The judgment in this case clearly stated that:

One director of the defendant participated in the clearing, done on the instructions of both directors, and under their supervision, using a D6 bulldozer and a D65 excavator….

I agree with the prosecutor's submission that the offence should be considered to be of high objective gravity.

This is what is previously stated about the company structure in Graymarshall Pty Ltd v Director-General of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water [2010] NSWLEC 54 in relation to the same illegal clearing matter:

Annexed to Mr Beaumont’s affidavit was a company search dated 15 March 2010, which listed Mr Murray Gray and Mr Darrin Marshall as the sole directors and shareholders Graymarshall. Mr Darrin Marshall is also listed as the company secretary. No other evidence concerning the company was, however, given. [my bolding]

Clarence Valley Shire Council Environment, Economic & Community Committee Tuesday, 9 March 2010 Inspections states:

Development Application SUB2009/0026 was lodged on 22 June 2009 by Peterson Consulting Group on behalf of the owners D. Marshall and M. Gray (Graymarshall Pty Ltd) for subdivision of land (boundary adjustment).

The applicant is seeking approval for boundary adjustments between 5 existing lots (Lots 20, 53, 54 and 105 DP751368 & Lot 3 DP816313) to reconfigure the lots to create 4 lots of 40 ha and one lot 195.6 ha in size.

The boundary adjustment will result in the creation of an additional three (3) dwelling entitlements.

The lots are located at the end of Gilmores Lane approximately 7.5 km south of Halfway Creek and 4 km west of Kungala. The lots are zoned 1(a) General Rural under the Ulmarra Local Environmental Plan (the LEP). Together the lots comprise approximately 356 hectares……

By letter dated 11 March 2009, Council was notified by the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) that it was investigating potential illegal clearing of native vegetation on Lots 20, 53, 54 and 105 DP751368. At the time of writing this report, DECCW had not concluded investigations though the Department has advised Council that a direction to carry out remedial works was to be issued pursuant to Section 38 of the Native Vegetation Act 2003 for the revegetation of approximately 50 hectares of land on the lots.

This was extracted from ASIC's database at AEST 08:25:57 on 07/09/2011 and shows the only recorded change in company detalis since 2008:

Name GRAYMARSHALL PTY LTD
ACN 132 679 719
ABN 60 132 679 719
Type Australian Proprietary Company, Limited By Shares
Registration Date 11/08/2008
Next Review Date 11/08/2012
Status Strike-Off Action In Progress
Locality of Registered Office Coffs Harbour NSW 2450
Jurisdiction Australian Securities & Investments Commission
31/08/2011 6010 Application For Voluntary Deregistration of a Company

It took me all of fifteen minutes to search for, download and open files relating to this destruction of an estimated 38ha of pristine habitat (including part or all of a 2ha section listed as an Endangered Ecological Community under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995) in the Halfway Creek area and, it is very evident who the company owners/directors were during the relevant period.

It took me only a few minutes more to ascertain that two businessmen with identical names are listed in the Coffs Harbour local government area – one an earthmover and excavator, the other a medical specialist. These two men may or may not be the same Gray and Marshall.

I’m still wondering why the newspaper didn’t bother to identify the company directors in question. It is very quick to name and shame drink drivers and others coming before the local courts on the NSW North Coast. I would have thought environmental vandalism perpetrators should also be similarly shamed.

Ouch! That's gotta hurt News Corp

In a press release dated 10^th August 2011 News Corporation announced that from the beginning of the 30th June 2010 up to the Fourth Quarter 2011 it has paid out a grand total of US$165 million dollars in litigation settlement charges – and the litigation river is still in full spate due to Phone-Hackergate U.K.

Combine that amount with the 'forced' closure of British News Of the World which had 27% of the Sunday newspaper market share in May this year and it has to make shareholders unhappy.

The West Australian newspaper gets a well deserved rap on the knuckles

Press Council of Australia Adjudication No. 1502: Kate Swanton/The West Australian (August 2011)

Document Type:

Complaints

Outcome:

Adjudications

Date:

12 Aug 2011

The Australian Press Council has considered a complaint by Kate Swanton about an article in The West Australian on 17 March 2011 concerning the transfer of some asylum seekers from Christmas Island to Darwin after a “riot” on the island on 16 March. The article stated that “the transfer to Darwin of the core group of troublemakers” happened after “immigration officials caved in to their demands”.

Ms Swanton complained that the article was inaccurate and unfair. She pointed out that on the same morning as the article appeared the Immigration Minister denied that the transferred people were the organisers of the actions by asylum seekers or were “the core group of troublemakers”. He said that he would have made this denial earlier if he had been asked.

Ms Swanton also complained that a number of letters to the editor published on 21 March assumed the article to be true and made very strong criticisms of the transfer to Darwin, but the newspaper took no action to correct or clarify the article by mentioning the Minister’s denial.

The newspaper responded that the principal author of the report witnessed asylum seekers boarding a plane to Darwin and obtained the information from “sources in the Australian Federal Police and the Immigration Department that the people boarding the flight had been involved in the riots”. It added that the report did not describe those on the flight as “organisers” or “ringleaders” of the riot, but as “a core group”, and that the Minister had said some of them were possibly involved in the riots.

The Council has concluded the article’s assertion that the people flown to Darwin were “the core group of troublemakers” does not accurately reflect what the newspaper says it was told, namely that they “had been involved in the riots”. It notes also that the article gave the views of an official spokesperson for the Immigration Department on another matter but did not do so on this issue despite its central importance.
The Council has also concluded that the situation was aggravated when the newspaper did not report the Immigration Minister’s subsequent denial of its assertion but published several letters to the editor all of which relied on the assertion and protested that the transferred people had been "rewarded" for leading the “rampage”. In consequence, the newspaper’s coverage of the issue was unfair and unbalanced.

Accordingly, Ms Swanton’s complaint has been upheld.

http://www.presscouncil.org.au/document-search/adjudication-no-1502-the-west-australian-aug-2011/?LocatorFormID=677&FromSearch=1

Catholic Church accused of still hiding child abuse - why am I not surprised?

The accusations and excuses then..
"Claims by Salesian old boys that they were sexually brutalised by a few priests and brothers have rocked the order and sent the Australian leadership into a bunker.
Apart from a brief statement by the order's head, Father Ian Murdoch - who negotiated a number of financial settlements with alleged sex abuse victims
- there has been no comment from the Salesians.
Roy was paid $45,000 in 2000 from the Salesians for alleged sexual abuse by Ayers. The Salesians denied liability.
Ayers is now seriously ill and reportedly dying in Samoa, where the Salesians sent him allegedly after
he was accused of abusing children."
{The Age 3rd July 2004}
"Mr Jones became the face of disgruntled victims this week when it was revealed that Cardinal Pell had falsely told him a church investigator dismissed his sexual assault claim against Father Terence Goodall, and that there had been no other victims...
Cardinal Pell called it an "innocent error" and formed
a panel to review the case"
{The Sydney Morning Herald 12th July 2008}

The accusations and excuses now..
"A LEADING child protection expert has urged the Victorian government to hold a public inquiry into the handling of child-sex cases by a religious order after the Catholic Church suppressed a report it asked him
to write.
Sydney University law professor Patrick Parkinson yesterday wrote to Victorian Attorney-General
Robert Clark and Police Minister Peter Ryan seeking
an inquiry into the behaviour of the Salesians of Don Bosco.
In his letter, Professor Parkinson says the Catholic Church's actions have cast doubt on its commitment
to protect children before it protects itself."
{The Age 30th August 2011
"POLICE ditched an investigation into a Catholic
priest {Fr Jack Ayers}accused of abusing Victorian schoolchildren because they considered him too old
to bring to justice.
Victorian detectives have also not interviewed a second Salesian priest who is working at the order's headquarters near the Vatican, despite a fresh abuse complaint being made against him more than a year ago.
An eight-month Herald Sun investigation has discovered alarming claims that authorities failed to properly act on complaints of sexual abuse within the Salesian order.
Click here to see priests in the Salesian shame file
{The Herald-Sun 5th September 2011}

NSW Nats Steve Cansdell receives report card from one voter ahead of 2011-12 NSW Budget

From an online comments segment of The Daily Examiner, Grafton NSW:

By steve2473 from Evans Head on 6/9/2011 at 7:44AM

Promise: Grafton bridge to be built
Promise: Pacific H/Way completed by 2016
Promise: More Police on North Coast.
Promise: Dredging Clarence River
Fact: Liar Liar pants on fire!

UPDATE:

So how did NSW Nationals MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell's election promises (as described above above) compare with the realities of the first O'Farrell Government?

It would appear that:

• There is no commitment to building a new bridge for Grafton City in the Clarence Valley.

• There is a Pacific Highway allocation of $1 billion allocated in 2011-12 for various upgrades to increase length of dual carriageway, part of the current joint funded program with the Australian Government to improve travel times, road safety freight efficiency and traffic conditions on the Pacific Highway. With another $2.6 billion promised over the next four years.

• Infrastructure investment in the public order and safety policy area in 2011-12 is estimated at $440 million which is $46 million below or 9.5 per cent below the 2010-11 Budget. A total of 550 more police officers promised over the next four years, with no specific NSW North Coast commitment.

• No mention of dreging the mouth of the Clarence River or any of the smaller regional ports.

So on steve2473's scale, Cansdell probably scores 1 to 1.5 out of 4. With most of that courtesy of Federal Government funding programs.

Not an impressive performance for one who told voters that getting him into government would change the funding outlook for the Clarence electorate.

NSWhere.

Where does Andrew Fraser, Member for Coffs Harbour, stand on this matter?

A public school teacher in the Coffs Harbour electorate has challenged the local member in relation to the NSW government's hypocritical stance on teachers' salaries

I wonder if our local member Mr Andrew Fraser will be prepared to publicly condemn the teachers of our public schools for taking industrial action next week.

I ask this because I can get no answers as to why, on the eve of a very economically shaky service- cutting state budget, which follows legislation that will freeze all future public school teacher wage increases to below the rate of inflation and removes their access to an arbitration process, there is no such restriction on private school teachers.

I ask, because his supposedly cash-strapped conservative NSW State Government continues to allocate an amount of taxpayers' money each year to private schools which, depending on where they choose to direct it, would allow these schools to pay practically all the wages of their teachers.

I ask because his self-touted fiscally responsible government has imposed no restrictions on private school teacher unions seeking whatever wages they can obtain from their employers as well as assuring them continued access to the Industrial Relations Commission if they need to have their wage disputes arbitrated.

I reckon this is an injustice public school teachers must fight. It's utterly unfair and counter-productive and I'm sure most fair-minded readers would believe so too, or is this what our once egalitarian society has stooped to.

Dick McDermott

Source: Letters, Coffs Coast Advocate, 6/9/11

Watching the watchers in Australia

A 2008 US Embassy cable published by Wikileaks on 29 August 2011 states:

¶3. (C) Scott explained that Australia's Movement Alert List (MAL) has been updated to include not only those persons banned from entering or transiting Australian territory, but also all persons subject to asset freezing or whose travel is subject to reporting. 

An application for a visa by any person on the Movement Alert List triggered an alert to DFAT and/or other agencies responsible for taking action on the specific case. 

The system was as an effective mechanism to screen and prevent travel to Australia by persons of proliferation concern or who were subject to a travel ban, according to Scott. 

This included refusal of visas to Iranians on a regular basis.

According to the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship Movement Alert List fact sheet on 10 August 2010:

As at end of July 2010 there were approximately 630 000 identities of interest listed on MAL.

People may be listed on MAL when they have serious criminal records. Other people listed include those whose presence in Australia may constitute a risk to the Australian community and people who may not enter Australia as they are subject to exclusion periods prescribed by migration legislation. This can occur for a number of reasons, including health concerns, debts owed to the Commonwealth or other adverse immigration records.

About 1.8 million documents of concern are also recorded on MAL. These include reported lost, stolen or fraudulently altered travel documents.

Details of identities of concern are recorded on MAL as a result of the department's liaison with security, law enforcement agencies, other Australian Government departments and immigration officers in Australia and overseas.

If there is a MAL match a decision on entry is taken by the department in consultation with any other relevant agency.

Now aside from what seems like an incredible number of people being on the Australian Government’s watch and/or no fly data base, it would appear that if one owes a “debt to the Commonwealth” then the no fly provisions will possibly be activated.

Which may be of some concern to those Australians with large unpaid tax bills, those owing money due to cash transfer overpayments or having significant outstanding costs awarded against them in favour of a federal government agency; who probably were not expecting the Tax Office, Centrelink or the Attorney-General to be contributing to the Movement Alert List and now find their names side by side with those of suspected Al Qaeda sympathizers.

Given that Australian citizens already residing in the country are being placed on this list and, a second 2010 US Embassy cable indicates that information on these citizens when officially passed on to the US Government will possibly result in those named (after assessment by the Visas Viper committee) being placed on American no fly and/or selectee lists, one has to wonder exactly how many government departments are contributing names to the Australian Movement Alert List.

Judges don't sh*t ice-cream

Due to blog formatting problems this post can be found here.

Would you really like this bloke to be Australia's next prime minister?

*Due to blog formatting problems this post can be read here.

Fairfax must reckon its readers are mugs

Prominently posted at the top of the front page of today's Sun Herald is a promo for a free Top Gun DVD.

Readers are referred to page 36 for details about how they go about getting the free DVD.

Fairfax has a strange idea of what "free" means.

To get the "free" DVD readers have to sign up and join a
DVD hire mob and that requires readers handing over their
credit card details. Not likely!

Elite private school sources funds from drug dealer

Being Sunday and the broadsheets not publishing today it's only reasonable that NCV does a bit of tabloid-like blogging.

Cranbrook, an Anglican independent non-selective day and boarding school for boys, located at 5 Victoria Road Bellevue Hill, has found itself in the picture for accepting cash from a drug dealer as payment for school fees.

Today's Sun Herald reports:

Even cocaine traffickers have to pay their kids' school fees. But the Maroubra drug dealer Wayne Cleveland miscalculated when he turned up at Cranbrook on March 12, 2008, with $40,000 in cash.

According to a police statement tendered in the District Court, the school, apparently alarmed at the sight of so much money, declined to accept the full amount owing, taking just $15,000. To add insult to injury, it told Cleveland it might have to report the transaction to authorities because it was more than $10,000.

Somewhat panicked, Cleveland turned to his friend and prominent eastern suburbs real estate agent Glenn Farah, the then chief executive officer of NG Farah, a family business founded almost 50 years ago.

Read more here.

A now defunct Port Macquarie newspaper gets caught out in yet another conflict of interest

The Port Paper shutdown with suspicious alacrity once its connection to The National Party of Australia began to surface.

However, even the quoted paragraph below by The Poll Bludger  on 27 August 2011 and the earlier 
allegations of push polling do not explain why the newspaper’s owner/s folded their tent so quickly or why there appears to be deliberate obfuscation over the company name.

In other poll news, a fortnightly Port Macquarie-based publication called The Port Paper has published results from an automated phone poll conducted by ReachTEL in Rob Oakeshott’s electorate of Lyne showing support for Rob Oakeshott at just 14.8 per cent, against 55.3 per cent for the Coalition and 17 per cent for Labor. This has raised eyebrows on a number of counts. Firstly, the question on voting intention was the last of three put to respondents, after attitudinal questions on carbon tax and pokies reforms (both of which were strongly opposed), which is commonly recognised in the polling caper as the wrong way to get an accurate response. Secondly, the principals behind The Port Paper are very strongly associated with the Nationals. And thirdly, Bernard Keane in Crikey today relates that ReachTEL “proudly announced it was an associate member of Clubs Qld, which has this year been campaigning aggressively against the Andrew Wilkie-led poker machine reform push. The Port Paper story fails to disclose that.”

Perhaps that grave acronym ICAC being publicly coupled with a certain NSW O’Farrell Government Minister (who joined the Solar Bonus Scheme at the then optimum kilowatt hour pricing and whose own electorate abuts Port Macquarie) is what routed this supposedly independent publication - given an associate of the newspaper is also reportedly a policy adviser to this same minister.

The close proximity of yet another Nationals MP (whose electoral office is only approximately four street corners away from the newspaper office and who is a Facebook friend of The Port Paper editor and its website registration contact person aka ministerial policy advisor) probably didn’t smooth the feathers of the publishing company’s handful of unidentified shareholders either.

One has to wonder if they are also connected to the National Party in some manner, as The Port Paper paper often reads like those political campaign leaflets or MP newsletters not uncommonly found in NSW North Coast letter boxes.

At least one of the newspaper's advertisers (also quoted in a prominent anti-Oakeshott article) may possibly be one of these shareholders.

Sunday Snaps

Debrah Novak Untitled

Anna Calvert Clarence River Grafton NSW

John Nalder Reflective Sunset Hat Head NSW

Pet Census

Are you disappointed that the latest census didn't ask about your furry, feathery or scaly friends?
Pet Census 2011 enables some pet owners to provide their loved ones' details, but lovers of goats, handlers of snakes and riders of horses will be disappointed to know they are excluded from the census and can't fill out the form at www.petcensus.com.au .
Sadly, only cats and dogs are included in the census.



The Pet Census is commissioned by Petplan Australasia Pty Ltd which states the census seeks to explore four main areas relating to human-animal relationship, namely, health, finance, social relations and family life. Whilst Australians are already known to be a nation of animal lovers, the findings may show that pets actually play their part in a 'big society' with proof that pets make us more compassionate, happier, healthier and more sociable.

Reminder: Monday 5 September is the last opportunity for people to submit that other Census form online using eCensus. That Census is compulsory for everyone who was in Australia on Census night, Tuesday, 9 August 2011.

Been wondering why Tony Abbott appears to be enthusiastically treading the Republican Tea Party path? Well wonder no more...

He may not quite have the full hang of it yet, but the not-so-honourable Tony Abbott MHR has obviously caught sight of a Tea Party aktion cheat sheet and for months has been happily whipping up angry wingnuts wherever he can find them.

Perhaps his decision to turn political debate into a mindlessly ugly experience can be found among those U.S. diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks.

In September 2006 Liberal Party Federal Director Brian Loughnane was considered a Protected Source by the U.S. Embassy in Canberra and was busy telling with the Yanks that; “the close ties between President Bush and Howard where reflected in the similarly strong ties between the Australian Liberal and U.S. Republican parties.”

Yamba is invited to Playing for Change community busking event on 17 September 2011

PLAY A SONG. BUILD A SCHOOL.
CHANGE THE WORLD.

The 1st annual PLAYING FOR CHANGE DAY – on September 17, 2011 – is a global day of action where musicians of all varieties perform on stages, cafés, city squares, and street corners worldwide and raise money to bring music into the lives of young people.

This year's event carries the theme Power to the People, drawing its inspiration from the spirit of John Lennon's activism, thanks to the gracious support of Playing For Change's mission by Theatre Within and Yoko Ono. Proceeds raised will support the work of the Playing For Change Foundation and Theatre Within – to help build music schools, strengthen music and arts education, support teachers and performances, purchase instruments, and connect schools to promote cross-cultural learning and conflict resolution.

Debrah Novak has invited every local with music in their hearts to participate:

I would like to personally invite Yamba to participate in the inaugural global event ‘Playing For Change’ on the 17^th of September simply because the Lower Clarence oozes extreme talent! You know we do…………well you all know how musical I am with my SAMBA shakers!

It is a global day of action using music.

This event will be for one hour and I am inviting musicians of all shapes and sizes to turn up an play. I have spoken with council and I have the responsibility of taking out a buskers license and calling it Debrah Novak & friends. This covers us for insurance! (Thanks CVC)

It will be an un plugged music jamming session where everyone is welcome to join in.

There will be a hat for people to through money into. Money raised goes to the ‘Playing for Change Foundation’. Money raised goes to third world countries to buy kids musical instruments.

Here are the two websites about the event.

http://playingforchange.com/

http://www.playingforchangeday.org/

Venue: Yamba Fish and Chip corner

Time: 7pm till 8pm

Date: 17^th September 2011

Wet weather venue TBA.

This is the first heads up. The only reason I have put my hand up to run this event was when I looked at the number of global events celebrating this day there was only one in Australia and that was in Brisbane. We are the lucky country with amazing talented people, we can do better than that!

Debrah Novak Photography & Media Services  

p: 0266 46 1 174 | m: 0419 272 621 | e: dnovak@phonestar.net.au

Even more publicity for John X Berlin

A community service notice

For the benefit of its readers, especially those who missed last week's papers, The Daily Examiner's free weekly paper Coastal Views gives Maclean identity John X Berlin another prominent mention in an opinion piece on page 2.

Source: Coastal Views, 2/9/11

'Nigerian' email scam with a twist

There's no doubt about those scamsters. You have to take your hat off and acknowledge the lengths they are prepared to go to in order to assist good folk being fleeced.
The latest one to cross my desk didn't ask me to provide my details
(you know, all the important stuff like my bank account and drivers licence) via email.
Oh, no, this one provided me with their phone number so I could call them and hand the details over directly. That's what I call courtesy with a capital 'C'.

See scam email here.

The Australian Press Council has released preliminary data about the numbers and

outcomes of complaints considered by it during the year 2010-11.

Highlights include:

• The number of complaints considered by the Council rose by 7% to a total of 437 (excluding 129 which were outside its jurisdiction or were referred elsewhere).

• Mediation or adjudication by the Council achieved remedies for complainants in 194 cases.

• Mediated remedies included 98 apologies, retractions, corrections or similar action. In another 36 cases the newspaper agreed to publish a response by the complainant.

• Where mediation failed and the matter went for adjudication by the Council, 71% of complaints were upheld.

• This proportion of upheld complaints compares with 43% in the previous year and an average of 46% over the preceding decade.

• All adjudications by the Council were published in the newspaper or magazine to which they related, although not always with due prominence.

Further details are available on the Council’s website.

Information about types of complaint and other aspects will be provided in the Council’s Annual Report later this year.

For further information or comment by the Council's Chair, Prof Julian Disney, contact:

Derek Wilding (Director, Standards)

02-9261-1930; 0425-242-401; derek.wilding@presscouncil.org.au

A chat room lesson for the inner 3 year-old

The Power Index on 31^st August 2011:

“chat room user has managed to force mining company Voyager into a trading halt. User Ronny2011 reported a fake drilling result for one of the company's projects in Mongolia on internet forum HotCopper, forcing the company into a trading halt last Friday. On Monday this week, the company released a statement confirming the announcement was false and unauthorised……What could have been a little joke for Ronny2011 could now result in him or her being charged with fraud – their IP address has been forwarded by HotCopper to ASIC for further investigation.”

Good riddance of bad rubbish

The Port Paper is closing its doors today ... how sad! Not too many tears will be shed over that bit of information.
The paper, which paraded under a banner of so-called independence, has been nothing but a mouth piece for local National Party stooges.

North coast employer steals employees' superannuation

Warning to employees:
Check your payslips and contact your super fund

Sadly, yet another group of workers have discovered their boss hadn't been forwarding their superannuation to their super fund. The boss used the old trick of showing workers' super payments on their pay slips but then not forwarding those amounts to their super fund. Hmmmm, the ATO moves quickly to ensure taxation payments arrive promptly but (and this is speaking with first-hand experience) it doesn't give a flying fig about ensuring super payments are always sent. And the ATO does have that responsibility!

Today's Northern Star reports
Former staff of the We 'R' Kids childcare centre in Casino are furious their former employer had not paid their superannuation for up to five years.

In a further blow the workers appear to have lost all their entitlements.

Gathering in Casino yesterday to meet with employment advisers and others to consider their next move, the former staff said they were still in shock following the sudden closure of the centre on Friday. The centre was placed into liquidation with parent company, 888 Aust Investments Pty Ltd, racking up debts totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Marlene Agresta was a former assistant at the centre who said although superannuation payments were reported on her pay slips, the funds had not been transferred to her superannuation fund since the company took over the business in 2006. She also said former staff were owed two weeks pay, which was due next Tuesday.

"We could have had two weeks pay to keep us going, but we didn't even get that - it's really slack," Mrs Agresta said.

Former employee Liz Parry said she had no idea what her next move would be, but said she would consider applying for a Centrelink payment until she found another job.

"But that is something I will leave as a last resort. I want to work, I am not the kind of person to sit around doing nothing," she said.

The whereabouts of former 888 Australia Investments Pty Ltd director James Zhang was unknown. Mr Zhang returned to China last year and has been virtually out of contact since.