Reaching for the Moon from the NSW North Coast

With so many night sky watchers living on the NSW North Coast, new Clarence Valley photographer Samantha Jefferson's view of the 2007 eclipse of the Moon from an Australian east coast perspective is appreciated.
Samples of Sam's work can be found at her webpage Stuft.

While canuckdownunder displaying her work at Flickr looks skywards from the Richmond Valley.

Forty-five years ago today in the United States of America

Section of the Zapruder film taken on 22 November 1963

Last night I realised that this morning it would be forty-five years to the day since then U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
Although the years and the dislosures have tarnished the image of the Kennedy Camelot forever, I still remember where I was when I heard the news.

People power saves the day in the Lower Clarence

Lower Clarence residents (particularly those living in Maclean) were rejoicing this week as a grass roots campaign, to stop Clarence Valley Council selling a vital public car park and adjoining green space, proved successful.

On Wednesday of this week, by a vote of 5 to 3, Council decided not to go ahead with offering the land for sale.
Those five shire councillors who opposed the sale are commended for their good sense.

Cr. Ian Tiley deserves individual mention for his speech against the sale which had the visitors gallery break into spontaneous applause.

All who took part in this successful demonstration of people power deserve a pat on the back.
Meetings, letters to the editor, emails and phone calls to councillors, submissions to council - all played a huge part in the outcome.

In particular, Ian McLennan worked hard to gather support from the Maclean community, as well as conducting a survey over a 2hr period in the park - with 74 of 91 surveyed opposing the sale.

Congratulations also to Janet Purcell for her determined effort to get the word around.

See history here and here.
The Daily Examiner article here.

Possum Comitiatus on the national economy

Possum Comitatus writing in Crikey last Tuesday:

The economy is lukewarm to tepid, but not dead.

For a country supposedly in the middle of an economic crisis so grave that it cannot be described without the obligatory passing mention of the Great Depression, yesterday’s ABS retail turnover figures were hardly the stuff of nightmares.

At worst, the national economy appears to be treading water. At best, the national economy appears to be treading water. We might not actually be going anywhere, but it’s a pretty good outcome when you consider that expectations play a sizeable role when it comes to the willingness of people to open their wallets, and the last 6 months of media coverage framing those expectations has been the equivalent of some nutter standing on the corner banging on about the end of the world being nigh......

Retail turnover data is the least worst measure we have when it comes to the rubber hitting the road of the real economy in terms of how money is flowing out of people’s wallets and into the nation’s cash registers. What it shows at its most basic level is that some States are faring better than others as the financial crisis has increased the spread of retail activity between States, highlighting the disparity in economic activity driven by regional factors across Australia....

If NSW wasn’t such a basket-case, the national figures would be looking quite spiffy all things considered. We don’t so much have an economic crisis as we a NSW crisis.

It will be interesting to see if the Rudd Government's one-off payments to self-funded retirees, pensioners, familes and low-income earners (due in December) will actually lift NSW up to the 0.0 line on the graph.

Kevin Rudd discovers Blogotariat

So much to see, so much to do - sometimes a poor blogger misses the most exciting moments.

Fresh from his venture on Twitter, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd now has his KevinPM.com.au blog registered on the Blogotariat.

On 17 November he left a little calling card on his blog excitingly called; Message from the G20.

Days before that on 13 November he deposited; Kevin PM, "Welcome to KevinPM, where we can communicate about the big challenges confronting Australia".

Yep, Rudders is about as exciting as watching paint dry and his team of pithy ghostwriters is not much better.

Still there always the Twitter 'no clean feed' pixies gently protesting his tweets to amuse folk like me.

Saffin hosts climate change information night for Northern Rivers, Ballina 21 November 2008

From The Northern Rivers Echo today:

Page MP Janelle Saffin is holding a public forum on climate change to provide a local perspective on one of the biggest issues facing the Northern Rivers, Australia and the world.

The forum, Climate Change: A Regional Perspective, will be held in the Richmond Room, Regatta Avenue, at the rear of the Ballina Public Library on Friday, November 21, from 5.30pm until 7.30pm.

The keynote speaker is Southern Cross University's Head of the School of Environmental Science and Management, Professor Jerry Van Clay.

Ms Saffin said the forum would be an opportunity to hear a world-renowned expert on natural resource management and sustainability explain the possible implications of climate change for people living in the Northern Rivers.

She said Professor Vanclay would also discuss the Rudd Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper, which we released in July, and economist Professor Ross Garnaut's Climate Change Review.

Northern Rivers Social Development Council finds Rees mini-budget lacklustre

This media release more or less says it all about the NSW Government mini-budget. Lacklustre Budget Fails To Inspire

Northern Rivers Social Development Council has welcomed today's NSW Budget announcements on new infrastructure but expressed disappointment at the lack of spending on key priorities for the region. According to NRSDC President, Jenny Dowell, there are some positives in the Budget. 'The region will receive a $1Million increase in funding for community transport. This will go some way towards meeting the needs of older people and those living with disability,' Ms Dowell said. 'We welcome new funding for health infrastructure including the modest boost to acute mental health services – this is badly needed in our region,' said Ms Dowell. 'We are also relieved that the government will provide indexation of 3.3% to disability services and NGOs funded by the Department of Community Services. This will help vital community organisations maintain current services against high inflation,' Ms Dowell said. 'However, we are very worried that non-government transport and health services will receive indexation of only 2.5%. In real terms this is a cut in funding,' said Ms Dowell. NRSDC CEO, Tony Davies, points out that there is very little new money in the budget. 'Unfortunately, the claims of record spending on Health, Housing, Disability, Transport, Preschools and Community Services, are largely spin,' Mr Davies said. 'What the government has done is re-announce previous commitments. We are pleased that the government is investing in the services that help our community, but some of these initiatives have been announced four or five times. We would have liked to see more action to address new and emerging community needs,' Mr Davies said. 'There are significant gaps that this budget still does not address. Worryingly there is scant detail about projects to support regional areas with many of the big ticket infrastructure items going to metropolitan centres,' said Mr Davies. Areas where NRSDC would have liked to see greater investment include: Growth funding for non-government disability, aged and community services to meet the demands of a growing and ageing population. The Department of Community Services to meet the continuing escalation in demand for child protection services and to provide better and earlier support to vulnerable families. Youth services – despite a rapidly increasing population, there has been no real growth in funding for young people for the last decade. Transport – to support planning, coordination, public transport infrastructure and services [Northern Rivers Development Council media release,November 2008]