Morrie wants to sell the farm and Sussex Street gets very nervous

The NSW Labor Government is still pushing ahead with the privatisation of power supplies in the state.

It's rumoured that sitting government MPs are rather irate at the voter flack that Morris Iemma has brought down on their heads.

The Sussex Street party machine is also worried about surviving the next state election, if the voter mood remains the same.

They should all be worried, every man-jack. This has to be the stupidest political move that Iemma and Costa have made, in a growing list of stupid moves.

I hear that the Opposition is down on its knees every night praying that privatisation goes ahead, as they see it delivering votes and cash when they win government.

  

Bundjalung artists exhibit this month at Ballina

Two Catfish Nesting by Noel Kenneth Caldwell. Photograph from The Northern Rivers Echo.

Indigenous artists from the Jambama Art Shed in Casino are taking their art to the coast for a special exhibition at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery in Ballina, aptly titled Branching Out.
As well as traditional canvas paintings, there are painted boomerangs, clap sticks, sculptures, pyrographic pieces and designer wall hangings. There are also sewn items including bags, place mats and cushion covers, all with original hand printed designs.
Branching Out opens at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery in Ballina on Friday, February 1, and runs until February 24. Artworks are also on display at the Jambama Art Shed Gallery Space in Casino, which is open to the public Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm."

The other side of the 'sorry' coin: bitter bile spews forth

This swam across my screen yesterday from a site describing itself as " Australia's eminent source of news, politics and commentary. Make iServ your trusted resource for accuracy and the good old Aussie fair go!"

It seems this blog has been swallowing Liberal Party memos whole for breakfast, with disastrous results.

 

"Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is about to say sorry to the alleged stolen generation, a generation of people who in reality simply don't understand that they all would have probably been dead by now if it wasn't for them being placed in foster homes - a bunch of ungrateful, resentful brats who are keen on big payouts at the hands of bleeding hearted do-gooders in one of the greatest displays of double standards the current generation of Australians will witness."

Found at http://iserv.com.au/default.asp?t=485 

The National Indigenous Times on the 'sorry' question

The National Indigenous Times January 2008 editorial.

"The Rudd government's handling of the sorry saga over an apology and payment of compensation to members of the Stolen Generation represents both a step forward and a step backward.
And as any fifth grader will tell you, that adds up to not much progress at all.
The step forward is that a national apology will be delivered. Granted, for Indigenous Australians extracting the word 'sorry' must feel like drawing blood from a stone. But a belated apology is better than no apology at all.
The step backward is that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Indigenous affairs minister, Jenny Macklin have decided that no compensation will be forthcoming. That is deeply disappointing.
Of course, the practice of removal was primarily committed by state governments, so it is not the federal government's responsibility to compensate ALL Aboriginal people for the Stolen Generations outrage, even though some leadership from federal Labor on the issue would have been welcome.
But it is most certainly the federal government's responsibility in relation to the Northern Territory, which was under Commonwealth control until the late 1970s.
Sadly, politics got in the way of progress again.
Rudd simply did not want his Prime Ministership defined by an early act of 'generosity' towards 'the blacks'. While it may well have been the 'right thing to do', politics is about pragmatism and populism, not principle and leadership."
National Indigenous Times editorial in full:

http://www.nit.com.au/opinion/story.aspx?id=13781

 

The Australian legal system has recognised that compensation is due to individuals from the Stolen Generation.

 

"THE first stolen generation Aborigine to be given compensation has been awarded another $250,000 by a South Australian court.

Bruce Trevorrow was awarded $525,000 in compensation in August last year after a South Australian judge ruled the state falsely imprisoned him as a child and owed him a duty of care for pain and suffering.
Lawyers for Mr Trevorrow then returned to court seeking 50 years of interest on the compensation payment.
The lawyers argued Mr Trevorrow should receive an extra $800,000 but the SA Supreme Court, civil jurisdiction, today awarded him $250,000 in interest.
Mr Trevorrow was 13 months old in 1957 when a neighbour drove him from his Coorong family home, south-east of Adelaide, to Adelaide's Children's Hospital with stomach pains.
Two weeks later, under the authority of the Aborigines Protection Board, he was given to a woman, who later became his foster parent, without the permission of his natural parents.

He did not see his family again for 10 years--- "

News.com.au article yesterday:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23143865-29277,00.html

Frank Sartor's name is turning into a swear word on the NSW North Coast

The NSW North Coast has been under sustained population growth and demographic change for decades; as retirees, sea-changers and tree-changers look for their piece of coastal paradise.

Consequently demands on local government infrastructure have been relentlessly growing in relation to how many extra bodies there are per town or square kilometre and, although all groups profess satisfaction with their new lives, within five years they are demanding increased infrastructure and services.

Throughout this period there has been limited NSW Government assistance for local government. 

Indeed there has been considerable cost-shifting onto this lower tier of government at both state and federal level.

Now NSW Labor's Morris Iemma and Frank Sartor are intent on finally bringing the only truly immediate form of government available to us, local government, to its knees by depriving it of reasonable Section 94 developer contributions.

 

Genia McCaffery, President of the Local Government Association of NSW, reflects a widespread dissatisfaction with State Government.

 

"Local government usually negotiates as a first option, so it is a measure of how angry we are with the State Government's high-handed treatment that we are now proposing drastic action. On Wednesday 250 mayors, councillors and general managers from across NSW defied the State Government by vowing to refuse to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars in community funds.

The State Government plans to slash the contributions developers are required to pay to councils - usually an amount per lot known as a Section 94 levy - to help fund the additional infrastructure that is needed to service the new population housed by the development.

Furthermore, the State Government plans to take control of the smaller contribution developers will have to pay rather than passing it on to the local council so that the council can use the money to build new roads, stormwater and drainage facilities, parks and sporting fields or to extend existing facilities such as libraries and community centres.

We argue that developers should not be able to walk away with huge profits from development, leaving councils with the cost of providing infrastructure to meet the needs of new residents. This burden is particularly onerous under the rate-pegging scheme, where our revenue from ratepayers is already restricted.-------

The Government is hiding behind the catchphrase of housing affordability. They argue that slashing contributions will take $50,000 to $60,000 off the price of a new home. In reality, developers contribute just $13,000 to $15,000 per house.

Does anyone really believe that developers will pass the $15,000 in savings on to new home owners? This Government is pandering to the interests of one group - developers, the same interest group that makes large contributions to party election funding."

The Sydney Morning Herald full opinion piece:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/councils-are-nearing-melting-point/2008/01/31/1201714145875.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 

Going toe-to-toe on the whaling issue in Tokyo

Japan versus the rest of the world is how the issue of 'scientific research' whaling in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary is shaping up.

 

The U.S. based Pew Charitable Trusts through its environment group is now attempting to referee.

It called a two-day symposium in Tokyo and made this left field observation which may not meet with the approval of the International Whaling Commission.

"Tuiloma Neroni Slade, the chairman of the symposium, said a resolution of the row could include a recognition of wider hunting rights by Japan's coastal whalers, suspension of research whaling, and a limit on the number of animals that whaling nations can kill each year."

 

The Age yesterday reported on the Australia-Japan whaling impasse.

"Japan's prime minister insisted a bitter dispute over whaling won't hurt bilateral relations, a day after Australia expressed its disappointment as whalers resumed their hunt.----

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is in Tokyo and has held talks with Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who sought to downplay any diplomatic fallout from the dispute.

"The whaling issue is a matter of each country's circumstances," Fukuda told reporters after the meeting, during which the whaling standoff was discussed.

"It should not negatively influence diplomatic relations.

"It's important to address the whaling issue in a calm manner."

Smith said he was disappointed the whalers had resumed their hunt in the Southern Ocean, killing five minke whales hours after he arrived in Tokyo on Thursday."

Nelson and Turnbull: oh, what hyp-hyp-hypocrites

These last few days the airwaves have been full of Liberal Party leader Brendan Nelson and wannabe leader Malcolm Turnbull rabbiting on about how the Howard Government had left a booming economy without a worry on the horizon. They both accuse the Labor Federal Treasurer Wayne Swann of putting a spin on talk of increasing inflationary pressures.

Hello? In the twelve months before the 2007 federal election almost every economist who gave a public opinion warned that the Howard Government needed to watch the growing trend towards inflation, as it presided over back-to-back interest rate rises.

Both these blokes need a good kick in the withers to bring them back on track to reality.

Did that resounding election loss teach them nothing?