Newspaper typo accidentally creates a gang of four on council :-)

The Daily Examiner 26 September 2012 at 6am

Clarence Valley Council’s new EE&C Committee membership is reported correctly above, with the exception of omitting Mayor Richie Williamson from inclusion on this committee.

However, membership of the C&C Committee should now read, Williamson, Kingsley, Simmons, Challacombe and Toms.

A sitting mayor has a permanent seat on both committees and the remaining members of both committees were decided at the extraordinary meeting on 25 September.

The first committee meetings are scheduled for 9 October 2012.

On the subject of ambition......

Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself

And falls on the other— 

[Macbeth, Scene VII]

The Ambition:

"I will be putting my hand up for deputy mayor and after doing that job for a year I will be running for mayor."  [Cr.Andrew Baker, The Daily Examiner, 20 September 2012] 

Of the 28,647 formal first preference votes, 11,899 voters (41.5%) did not want any previous councillors returned.
Five of the previous six councillors received a combined total of just 7,515 (26.23%) of the vote.
3,075 voters (10.73%) gave their vote to me (more than 40% of the combined votes of those 5). [Cr. Andrew Baker, The Daily Examiner, 24 September 2012]

The Reality:

[Clarence Valley Review, 19 September 2012]

Andrew Baker was not the first choice of 89.27 per cent of people who cast formal votes at the 8 September 2012 Clarence Valley local government election.

The Outcome:

On 25 September 2012 two councillors nominated for Mayor: Richie Williamson and Karen Toms. An ordinary voting process saw the votes go Williamson 7, Toms 2 in only one round - Williamson elected Mayor for next twelve months.
Andrew Baker is popularly believed to have voted for Toms.

The mayoral election was followed by four councillors nominating for Deputy Mayor: Craig Howe, Andrew Baker, Jeremy Challacombe and Margaret McKenna.

First round vote: Howe 4, Baker 3, Challacombe 1, McKenna 1 - McKenna eliminated.
Second round vote: Howe 4, Baker 4, Challacombe 1 - Challacombe eliminated.
Third round vote: Howe 5, Baker 4 - Howe elected Deputy Mayor for next twelve months.

Conclusion:

Although Baker is believed to have secured Toms' (and possibly Kingsley's) vote from the start , with McKenna's vote going to him in the second round, he lost any chance of Challacombe's support by the deciding round.
Baker was his own worst enemy. Already being viewed as generally unsympathetic to the Grafton demographic, he compounded this by alienating many re-elected councillors when he publicly bagged them a day before this vote.

So in the end he lost any hope of gaining his desired prize because he couldn't keep his finger off the send button on his email program.

Dowell, George and Saffin call for Telstra to invest in digital infrastructure for Lismore

Lismore Mayor Cr Jenny Dowell, Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin and State Member for Lismore Thomas George with copies of the community petition outside Telstra’s Goonellabah Call Centre

Bipartisan call for Telstra to invest in digital infrastructure for Lismore

PAGE MP Janelle Saffin, Lismore MP Thomas George and Lismore Mayor Cr Jenny Dowell have called on Telstra to make a $3.4-million investment in digital infrastructure to compensate for closing its Goonellabah Call Centre later next month.

In a bipartisan front last Friday, the local politicians met with Telstra executives Peter Jamieson and Sue Passmore at the call centre to put forward a package of proposed initiatives and to hand over a community petition, signed by almost 6000 local residents, condemning the imminent retrenchment of 116 staff.

“First and foremost, our concerns remain very much with the affected staff and their families, and we were able to meet with staff to check on their welfare and to see whether they needed further assistance with redundancy, transfer or searching for alternative employment,” the politicians said in a joint statement.

“The call centre has been operating for 20 years and the economic impact of its closure is the direct loss of 116 local jobs, amounting to $3.4 million in salaries annually, and a flow-on impact to a further 290 local people’s jobs and incomes, amounting to about $11.9 million annually,” they said.

“Our proposal requests that Telstra CEO David Thodey and his corporation invest an additional year’s worth of salaries ($3.4 million) in a partnership with Lismore City Council to retrain affected workers, build new digital infrastructure to double or better broadband access speeds, and improve local businesses use of broadband.

“We are also asking Telstra to leave the call centre’s internal infrastructure intact to reduce any start-up costs should Lismore Council be able to attract another business to the purpose-built location.”

Ms Saffin, Mr George and Cr Dowell pointed to a recent council-funded study by the Digital Economy Group which found that the Gold Coast had far higher ratios of fixed and mobile broadband infrastructure than Lismore per head of population and by land area.

“As a regional area, we are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters – major floods, storms and bushfires -- relying on critical infrastructure to co-ordinate emergency services responses and keep people in contact during times of crisis,” they said.

“With so few towers in Lismore per head of population, the existing towers become congested easily and this is a matter of public safety and concern. We need to build community resilience wherever we can.”

Mr Thodey and his management team have been given two weeks (by Friday, October 5) to respond as to whether they will support the Lismore community with a digital infrastructure investment package.

Monday, September 24, 2012. Media Contact: Peter Ellem 0437 303 875.

Lismore City Council Digital Infrastructure Assessment Report - September 2012

What did Nationals candidate Kevin Hogan do?

This announcement was published online in The Daily Telegraph on the morning of 14 September 2012:

TONY Abbott has vowed to take $2 billion earmarked by the Gillard government for Sydney's doomed Epping to Parramatta rail project and use it to fund the completion of the Pacific Highway. 

By breakfast on the 15 September a number of other media outlets ran with this same story, coupling Nationals Leader Warren Truss' name with that of Liberal Leader Abbott.

There was a rather odd alternative view to the two Coalition leaders' public statements, in that the NSW Legislative Assembly Hansard on 18 September 2012 records Nationals MP Chris Gulaptis praising a Nationals candidate at the next federal election, Kevin Hogan:

The Nationals candidate, paid his own way to Canberra to meet with the Federal Nationals to convince them to prioritise the funding for the Pacific Highway duplication. That is the sort of commitment you want from a local member.

Gulaptis further defined this supposed altruism by telling the Coastal Views (21 September) that Hogan and other candidates had flown to Canberra the week before at their own expense in order to convince the Federal Nationals of the need for a new funding arrangement.

If this was indeed the case, then the absence of any mention of Kevin Hogan and friends during Nationals Leader Warren Truss’ previously prepared 15 September keynote speech to the Nationals Federal Conference in Canberra was noticeable.

As late as 20 September Truss was still not publicly crediting Hogan with any role concerning the promised Pacific Highway funding, either to the party faithful or APN readers.

Indeed, the last time I can recall Warren Truss personally associating Hogan's name with a specific road funding announcement was during Hogan's failed attempt to gain Page during the 2010 federal election - and that $10 million election promise concerned Bangalow Road.

The official silence concerning Hogan's supposed intervention was hardly surprising to those living outside of the forced hothouse of National Party politics; given the party conference was probably the main reason Hogan was in Canberra that week as it commenced on the Thursday- Friday.

After all he was a delegate to this conference at which no specific resolutions regarding Pacific Highway funding were made.

As for any sighting of this particular Nationals candidate in the corridors of power? Well, some of the conference program was held in the Nationals Party Room and various committee rooms at Parliament House.

When one looks at the timeline, the assertion that Hogan saved the day falls somewhat short  and exposes Chris Gulaptis' statement to the NSW Parliament as a blatant attempt to gild the lily to such a degree that he might be suspected by the uncharitable of deliberately misleading the Legislative Assembly. 

Now Mr. Gulaptis may think it acceptable to collude in political fibs told to voters in his electorate when it comes to the matter of jobs to replace those lost when he and his colleagues closed Grafton Gaol. However, it may be very unwise of him to treat the NSW Parliament in the same contemptuous manner - it is a political animal known to have very sharp teeth.

Is this the Stoner-George-Page-Gulaptis foot in the door to open all NSW North Coast national parks to hunters?

ABC News 19 September 2012:

The future of state government-owned land at Grafton is about to come under scrutiny, at a hearing on October 5.

An Upper House inquiry into public land management includes state forest and national parks is underway, and will hear local concerns next month.

Clarence MP Chris Gulaptis said one of the issues under consideration is feral animal management.

He said public comment is being sought on topics including fire hazards, public access and land acquisition.

How not to conduct yourself as a newly elected shire councillor with mayoral ambitions

Opinion article by The Daily Examiner Editor, Jenna Cairney, 22 September 2012:

Divided council will fail

THERE are some interesting rumblings coming from council quarters and I'd love to be a fly on the wall at this weekend's induction training weekend, which new councillor Andrew Baker this week publicly said he wouldn't attend because it was at a private resort.
I hate to be a fence-sitter but I am trying to reserve judgment on the issue. I'm sure Mr Baker won't mind me referring to him as a rogue councillor.
On one hand, I admire someone who challenges, questions and defies. But I tend to agree with letter writer Greg Clancy today when he says a successful council must work as a team.
The truth is, regardless of whether his cause is noble or not, Mr Baker needs to get the other councillors to vote with him.
Word is, council is planning to hire a media officer in coming months, which should make life interesting for us.
Speaking of media officers, I think if councillor candidate Jane Beeby has any intention of running again in four years, she may be wise to hire one (see Thumbs Up Thumbs Down).
Joke or no joke, publicly bagging Grafton on Facebook made me very defensive and someone who sees us as "fat, sick and nearly dead" is not someone I want representing us on council.
As we have all learned in recent months, the only way for the Valley to survive and prosper is to stick together and take a bit of pride in ourselves and what we can achieve.
Here at The Daily Examiner it's become a mantra. Don't miss Monday's paper for a great story by Kate Matthews about what can be achieved when we take a united stand.

The politically pugnacious property developer and recently elected Cr. Andrew Baker has apparently decided who his enemies are, even before his first Clarence Valley Council ordinary monthly meeting, if this Letter to the Editor in The Daily Examiner on 24 September 2012 is any indication:

Response to editorial

HELLO Jenna,
What an interesting page 14 you have in your paper of Saturday 22nd September last.
Are you suggesting I should join "the team" in the way you joined the $8000 State Government-sponsored weekend away in Sydney recently? That $8000 has sure prevented any more bites at that hand.
Your page does many things to draw attention to opinions of me and a couple of failed candidates.
You give failed candidate Clancy free reign to show his true self in his presumption to lecture me on how I should conduct myself in public life. Now that is news when the failure seeks to teach the successful. With your encouragement, that's really precious!
Perhaps most disgraceful of all is your use of a prominent article where you seemingly advise all councillors to now think as one mind. You just don't say which one mind we should use? Or did you mean the mind of Guru Greg? In giving your advice you just repeat the worthless advice of failed candidate Clancy - yet you completely ignore the hopes expressed on the same page by the highly-respected, long-time community leader Des Plunkett.
The following facts are available to all of us:
Of the 28,647 formal first preference votes, 11,899 voters (41.5%) did not want any previous councillors returned.
Five of the previous six councillors received a combined total of just 7,515 (26.23%) of the vote.
3,075 voters (10.73%) gave their vote to me (more than 40% of the combined votes of those 5).
1,275 (4.45%) voted for Greg Clancy. He was not elected.
You might further note Clancy admitted to a comprehensive election campaign.
I had no paid advertising, no leaflets, no posters, flyers, letterbox drops, or polling place meet and greet. I did no door knocking or anything else really. I started independent, finished independent-and-alone, and will remain so. I am non-factional, unaligned and am not beholden to anyone.
So you publish the diatribe of a failed candidate telling me where I have gone wrong. Well, Greg now has four years to cry into his glass of organic vinegar.
Perhaps before you next repeat the advice of failed candidate Clancy on how others should conduct themselves in public life, you might avoid the appearance you too have sucked on that glass of vinegar. It just seems your eyes have misted over to the truth of the election outcome.
I accept you have the editorial benefit of giving a malicious spray whenever you feel so moved. Can I suggest you avoid doing it directly into the wind?
Please be clear. I did not ever offer to climb on board the council bus to nowhere. The bus I have witnessed for four years. I would prefer to walk by myself to somewhere than have a jolly time riding to nowhere, thanks.
And please, please, never think I will be encouraged onto the bus by a weekend of indulgence at ratepayers', or taxpayers' expense. MY soul ain't for sale.
I certainly do understand the team mentality thing that some naive people hold up as the answer to every institutional prayer.
This is still apparently the forlorn hope of a team that has trained hard for four years to perfect mediocrity. Of course they will say "let's try it for one more year to see if, by some miracle, a different result occurs". I don't subscribe to the theory that repeating one year of mediocre performance three more times will produce anything better than a wasted four years.
In the meantime, the 73% of voters that didn't want ANY of the five incumbent councillors will be left to wonder how your recycling of advice from a failed candidate can help this Clarence Valley? Please tell them.
Now to the good news.
Your announcement that council has decided to employ a media officer creates another low point in council decision making. This major policy-decision-by-media-release, before all councillors have even heard about it, let alone agreed to it, is a monumental insult to those councillors who thought they would receive some respect when it came to decision making. I didn't naively expect that respect, by the way.
Maybe all our decisions will be made for us by media release?
Of course, and it's clearly too late now, had I been asked if I agreed to this new policy of having a media officer employed in a new position, I would have suggested to my colleagues that we try truth-in-government to see how that feels. And it would have saved the money. Looks like I won't get that opportunity?
Please feel free to encourage my views anytime you like.

Andrew Baker

Clarence Valley councillor

Editor's note: In reference to the trip to Sydney for the Country Expo, I (Jenna Cairney) drove to Sydney to help promote the Valley in my own time. The fuel and my accommodation was paid for by The Daily Examiner.

On the basis of the Editor’s note alone this round goes to The Daily Examiner in the face of Baker’s needless penned aggression.

One has to suspect that Cr. Baker may be trying to cow the local media into not reporting any further on his financial difficulties and the forthcoming fire sale by appointed receivers of ten of his companies'  properties.

Want to tell Chris Gulaptis MP how strongly you feel about keeping coal seam gas exploration & mining out of the Page electorate?

Then gather outside his electoral office at 10.30-11am 2 pm tomorrow Tuesday 25 September 2012, when likeminded residents will be holding a peaceful protest at 11 Prince Street, Grafton, NSW. Opposite Clarence Valley Council’s main building.

Oops! Uncle Joe spoke too soon

Australian Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey on the 19^th September 2012 at 2.17pm, presumably waving a report he hadn't read and relying on something he watched on the tube or heard on the radio as he chomped his morning cornflakes:

“I seek to table the report of S&P that says Australia is heading for a $20 billion deficit this year,“

ABC News on 20^th September at 6.44am:

“Global ratings agency Standard and Poor's has moved to correct an earlier statement it made about the Federal Government's prospects of returning to surplus.

An S&P analyst originally told the ABC the agency was predicting a budget deficit of up to $25 billion this year.

But S&P now says the analyst was referring to old figures from the last financial year.

It says the Federal Government remains on track to deliver the predicted modest surplus in 2012-13.

The agency says given the current forecasts the surplus is likely to be about $1 billion.”

26th Annual Australian National Goanna Pulling Championships, Wooli NSW, September 30 2012



The 26th annual Australian National Goanna Pulling Championships will start at 9am on Sunday September 30 at the Wooli Sports Ground.

Competition takes place on Goanna Mountain where men and women compete for the honor of Australian Champion in their respective categories. Winners receive the Yearly Championship belt and a cash prize and the Australian "Open" Champion has his/her name engraved on the perpetual shield.

Join in the fun with categories for every age and big prizemoney up for grabs. There will also be age and novelty races for all to participate in. Watch the Wood Choppers skill and expertise, and our four legged friends in the Grafton Dog Obedience Club demonstrations. Enjoy the BBQ food and drinks or have a refreshing ale at the beer tent. Whip Cracking demonstrations will also return. There will be something to entertain all ages, from Old McDonald's Farm and amusement rides for the children, to a huge variety of market stalls for the bargain hunters.

This is sure to be an event not to be missed. See you there!

For more information go to: http://www.goannapulling.com.au/main.html

Fairfax advertisement blooper

The advertising team at Granny Herald stuffed up big time this week when it placed a display ad (see below) in the hospitality section. Anyone with half a brain will readily see it should have been placed in the legal section.

Quote of the Week

“If You Like Sarah Palin, You’ll Absolutely Love Cory Bernardi

He’s not just a homophobic, Islamophobic, climate-change denying South Australian senator, he’s an ideological entrepreneur, importing the Tea Party’s ‘astroturf’ techniques and now training others in the faux-grassroots campaigns first cultivated by the American far right.” {Global Mail 21^st September 2012}

Punters spewing over Daily Examiner's poor performance

As if Wednesday's debacle at the Examiner wasn't enough to put punters off their weetbix, today's edition will have punters who buy the local rag shaking their heads and asking themselves why they bother to buy it. Today's paper has reprinted the TAB dividends it published on Thursday - how thoughtful, they are the results for the races the paper forgot to print on Wednesday. Perhaps DEX thinks that's an act of compensation.

Gays, creepy people and creatures should not be allowed to marry according to Liberal Party Senator Bernardi

The very Christian Liberal Party Senator Cory Bernardi decided in favour of a number of rather strange ‘facts’ in his contribution to the Marriage Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2012  debate of 18 September 2012.

His own personal slippery slope has government-sanctioned same-sex marriage leading to widespread polygamy, an increase in bestiality and the formal recognition of marriage between creatures.

Highly offensive as it is to try to equate homosexuality with bestiality, it was the term creatures which set me to musing.

Wondering about the current state of conjugal relationships in the animal kingdom, I came to the only conclusion possible.

You are too late, Senator! When cats took over the Internet pictorial evidence of formal animal marriage, even inter-species unions, began to proliferate.

They have been doing it behind your conservative political back for years!

No wonder you were forced to resign from the Opposition front bench. Strong indignation from those you maligned, combined with general laughter at your absurdity, must have caused your leader more than a little heartburn at the thought of the next opinion poll.

Wedding photos from Google Images

Celebrating Bundjalung Nation Artists

Large Open Weave Basket, 2008

Lelarnie

Childless, 2005

Michael Philp

Life drawing 8, 2007

Joanne Lapic

All images are from Arts Northern Rivers: Visual Arts Network

Foodie Quote of the Week

From the 2012 Causley Fresh Gate to Plate event at the Grafton Showground

“Having moved to the Valley recently from the Granite Belt, a significant food bowl in Queensland, I was overwhelmed by not only the produce on offer in this region but the entrepreneurial ingenuity of some of our locals creating great products, delivering great service and telling great stories.”
{Jenna Cairney, Editor The Daily Examiner, on the subject of the Clarence Valley, 17th September 2012}

Saffin and Gulaptis on the effects of O'Farrell health cuts in their electorates

While NSW Nationals MP for Clarence Chris I refuse to have a personal website Gulaptis rarely tells his electorate anything, unless pushed to it by local media; Federal Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin makes her views clear at www.janellesaffin.com.au and in accessible media releases such as this on 14 September 2012:

Liberals cut deep into public hospitals while Nationals watch on

PAGE MP Janelle Saffin has warned that doctors and nurses in public hospitals on the Northern Rivers will be axed under the O’Farrell-Stoner Government’s savage cuts, leaving local families waiting longer in emergency departments and for elective surgery.

 
Ms Saffin today condemned NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner for confirming that the Liberal-National Coalition Government will slash funding for health across the State by $3 billion.
 
“That means over 3600 jobs will be lost -- the equivalent of on average more than 16 doctors, nurses and allied health professionals sacked from hospitals like Lismore Base and Grafton Base,” she said.

“I have delivered major Federal funding to redevelop these hospitals, and continue to fight to protect and build on infrastructure and the health workforce for Ballina, Casino, Coraki, Bonalbo and Urbenville hospitals.

“Regardless of what Jillian Skinner says, the NSW Coalition’s attack on health services, which come on the back of cuts to our local schools, will lead to a collapse in health service delivery at the frontline.

 
“The real impact of these cuts is longer queues in emergency departments, hospital ward and bed closures and longer waiting times for surgery.”

Ms Saffin said that when Coalition Premiers pick up an axe – services are the first to face the chop.
 
“Cutting services is what Coalition parties do,” she said.
 
“While Federal Labor is investing record amounts in our local hospitals – the NSW Liberals are ripping it away and the NSW Nationals are there watching on.
 
“This is a preview of what would happen if Tony Abbott ever got into power federally.
 
“After all, we know he slashed $1 billion from public hospitals when he was Health Minister.”

Chris Gulaptis is reported in The Daily Examiner as saying that:

"MPs are panicking too,"….He said local health boards will be responsible for determining where savings are made and while he wouldn't be involved with that, he would "like to be kept abreast of what they propose".

He is yet to get to his feet in the NSW Legislative Assembly and speak against these cuts – preferring instead to buck pass to the Northern NSW Local Health District Board. Forgetting of course that well-known Nationals and Liberal Party members sit on this very board.

Australia Dementia Awareness Week 21-28 September 2012

Brain Health: Making the Connections

This year’s theme for Dementia Awareness Week (21-28 September 2012) is Brain Health : Making the Connections. As part of our week’s activities, we’ll be celebrating the launch of Your Brain Matters around Australia.

The first event will be held at Martin Place in Sydney on 17th September, so come and join us. To find out what’s happening near you during Dementia Awareness Week click here ( http://www.fightdementia.org.au/whats-on/dementia-awareness-week-2012.aspx ).

Memory Walk and Jog Tweed Heads: Sunday 23 September at Chris Cunningham Park, Tweed Heads. The walk will  follow the path around Jack Evans Harbour.

Register, donate or sponsor a walker here

National Dementia Helpline: 1800 100 500

An interpreter service is available

(The National Dementia Helpline is an Australian Government Initiative)

From fightingdementia.org:

By 2020 there will be around 75,000 baby boomers with dementia.

Part of the local dawn and dusk chorus

A snapshot of Luke Hartsuyker earning his taxpayer funded salary

In the House of Representatives debate on super trawlers being allowed to fish in Australian waters, what was the esteemed Nationals Member for Cowper’s contribution over the course of three days?

Why, this sarcastic interjection on 12 September 2012:

Mr Hartsuyker:  You can count on Sid!

Given that Brisbane is identified by RV Able Tasman's owner-operator as this super trawler's home port and, the NSW North Coast was part of its prospective fishing range, Hartsuyker can hardly say that he was looking after his electorate's interests.

DEX blooper - reprints old race fields

The only things correct in the four-page racing lift-out in today's Daily Examiner are the paper's name and the date. Today's Examiner reprinted the race fields for Saturday 8 September.
The events at Warwick Farm, Doomben and Flemington have been well and truly run and won, so the very least readers could have been provided with was a new lot of tips from the paper. But, oh no, the paper had the temerity to print its original, and in most cases losing, tips.
Who went to sleep at the wheel steering the good ship DEX last night? Was it the night helmsman or the captain? C'mon, who's going to put their hand up and claim bragging rights for this little ripper at the annual Xmas party? Perhaps a stewards inquiry is needed.

CSIRO: Climate change likely to have a major impact on Australia's plants, animals and ecosystems

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) media release of 18 September 2012:

Major changes needed to protect Australia’s species and ecosystems

A landmark study has found that climate change is likely to have a major impact on Australia’s plants, animals and ecosystems that will present significant challenges to the conservation of Australia’s biodiversity.

The comprehensive study, conducted by CSIRO (Australia’s national science agency), highlights the sensitivity of Australia’s species and ecosystems to climate change, and the need for new ways of thinking about biodiversity conservation.

‘Climate change is likely to start to transform some of Australia's natural landscapes by 2030,’ lead researcher, CSIRO’s Dr Michael Dunlop said.

The comprehensive study highlights the sensitivity of Australia’s species and ecosystems to climate change, and the need for new ways of thinking about biodiversity conservation.

‘By 2070, the ecological impacts are likely to be very significant and widespread. Many of the environments our plants and animals currently exist in will disappear from the continent. Our grandchildren are likely to experience landscapes that are very different to the ones we have known,’ he said.

Dr Dunlop said climate change will magnify existing threats to biodiversity, such as habitat clearing, water extraction and invasive species. Future climate-driven changes in other sectors, such as agriculture, water supply and electricity supply, could add yet more pressure on species and ecosystems.

‘These other threats have reduced the ability of native species and ecosystems to cope with the impacts of climate change,’ Dr Dunlop said.

One of the challenges for policy and management will be accommodating changing ecosystems and shifting species.

The study suggests the Australian community and scientists need to start a rethink of what it means to conserve biodiversity, as managing threatened species and stopping ecological change becomes increasingly difficult.

‘We need to give biodiversity the greatest opportunity to adapt naturally in a changing and variable environment rather than trying to prevent ecological change,’ Dr Dunlop said.

The study highlights the need to start focussing more on maintaining the health of ecosystems as they change in response to climate change, from one type of ecosystem to another.

‘This could need new expectations from the community, possibly new directions in conservation policy, and new science to guide management,’ Dr Dunlop said.

‘To be effective we also need flexible strategies that can be implemented well ahead of the large-scale ecological change. It will probably be too late to respond once the ecological change is clearly apparent and widespread’.

The study found the National Reserve System will continue to be an effective conservation tool under climate change, but conserving habitat on private land will be increasingly important to help species and ecosystems adapt.

The team of researchers from CSIRO carried out modelling across the whole of Australia, as well as detailed ecological analysis of four priority biomes, together covering around 80 per cent of Australia.

The study was funded by the Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and the CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship.

More information and the reports are available from The implications of climate change for Australia's biodiversity conservation and protected areas.

Celebrate nature at Jeff Keyes 'award winning property on Sunday 23 September 2012

A Celebration of Nature

From 9.30 a.m. on Sunday 23^rd September

On Sunday 23rd September Jeff Keyes,

winner of Clarence Valley Council's 2012 Individual Sustainability Award,
will be hosting a celebration of nature at his property "Urimberra",

 the Sportsman Creek Conservation Area

Activities/displays include

·     a nature walk led by Jeff Keyes and John Edwards (starting at 11 a.m.)

·     nature education activities for children, organised by Sharon Lehman, Coordinator of Clarence Valley Conservation in Action - the CIA

·     a photographic exhibition of flora and fauna found on the property (around 320 of the approximate 600 species identified on the property)

·     a display of rustic furniture made on the property by Jeff Keyes

·     landscape paintings by Peter Chapman

·     up-to-date information on the coal seam gas industry plus a screening of a DVD on the Queensland CSG industry

The starting time for the celebration is 9.30 a.m.   Tea and coffee will be provided.  Bring snacks and a picnic lunch.

Everyone is welcome to this celebration.

 Directions:

The 50 ha wildlife refuge is at 2954 Summerland Way, Dilkoon, 20.6 km north of the Blue Goose Inn at Junction Hill, 750 m. north of Dilkoon Creek bridge and 1.3 km south of Sportsmans Creek.

For further information:

Contact Jeff Keyes on 0417 403606 or Stan Mussared on 66449309.

The celebration is coordinated by the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition and the Clarence Environment Centre

Frontpage Mockup of the Month

Found floating in cyberspace - author unknown

Cansdellgate: Daily Examiner says "justice has to be done and seen to be done"

The Examiner which has been on the Cansdell case since the outset marked the first anniversary of the scandalous matter with an opinion piece that merits further airing. Unfortunately, the Examiner hasn't put it online, so here it is ...

It might now be seen as small beer given what has happened in the Clarence Valley in the past few months, but just over a year ago the former Member for Clarence Steve Cansdell handed in his resignation from Parliament.

On September 16 last year, Mr Cansdell admitted falsifying a statutory declaration to avoid a speeding fine and turned himself in to police.

Despite this, he has yet to be charged, let alone face court, for doing something serious enough to warrant his resignation from office.

In February, six months after the resignation, NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith dropped a bombshell in parliament when he said Mr Cansdell could not be charged under state law because he had signed a Commonwealth declaration.

There were screams of "cover-up" from the opposition, but so far no-one has been able to discover a way of pursuing the case. The actions of the authorities on this issue do not give the community confidence proper procedures have been followed.

Months of police investigation went to the DPP and then the case was dropped on what most people would call a technicality.

The Attorney-General's reasoning also strains credulity as the most cursory investigation reveals fines issued by the NSW State Debt Recovery Office have always been printed with NSW statutory declarations on the back.

Mr Cansdell may never have to answer for his transgression - indeed many supporters would say his fall from grace was punishment enough - but justice has to be done and seen to be done.

I feel a foregone conclusion coming on down in Macquarie Street

Members of the very NSW Government (and its allies) who highhandedly closed Grafton Goal in July 2012 now dominate the Legislative Council select committee conducting the Inquiry into the closure or downsizing of Corrective Services NSW facilities:

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP

The Hon Paul Green MLC (Chair) Christian Democratic Party

The Hon Robert Borsak MLC The Shooters and Fishers Party

The Hon David Clarke MLC Liberal Party

The Hon Amanda Fazio MLC Australian Labor Party

The Hon Scot MacDonald MLC Liberal Party

The Hon Melinda Pavey MLC The Nationals

The Hon Mick Veitch MLC Australian Labor Party

Another foregone conclusion just around the corner?

Never trust a North Shore townie with the NSW Health portfolio

On the 15th September 2012 The Daily Telegraph ran this:
“HEALTH Minister Jillian Skinner is prepared to push people out of hospital early to help achieve a $3 billion budget cut.
Explaining the government's cuts to the health portfolio yesterday, Ms Skinner said that "most of the money" saved would be through "better models of care, through, for example, not keeping patients in hospital as long as they should be".
"I think a lot of people are very pleased not to be kept in hospital longer than they need to," Ms Skinner said.
"I have a brand new granddaughter. Her mother was in hospital for two nights, she spent the next two nights in a five-star hotel room. This is a private hospital, this is what they do now ... It's actually better for the mum ... and more efficient for the hospital to pay for a five-star hotel room than a $2000-$3000 acute bed."
Jaysus wept! Since when was country NSW littered with posh hotels? Where are patients in the Northern Rivers going to find a five star hotel near one of the public base or district hospitals? And what makes Skinner think that NNSWLHD CEO Chris Crawford will put his hand in his pocket to pay for one, when even getting into hospital in the first place can be a minor miracle due to closures and cost cutting.
Coraki’s public hospital went AWOL in 2011 and is now presumed dead, no in-house doctors in A&E at some other hospitals, and I’m told that mental health nurses and sexual assault counsellors are considered an endangered species in the Lower Clarence.

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