Don't diss the mayor and his deputy or the editor will censor?

Having a quick read of 'The Egg Timer' yesterday I noticed a letter to the editor which had an odd segue, so on a hunch I got in touch with the writer.
Seems this letter was published 18 days after it was emailed and 10 days after this year's Clarence Valley Council mayoral election.
Yesterday's belated version in the newspaper has been snipped and shaped, with the red highlighted section now missing. Hmmm..........

Glass houses vulnerable to stones

With good reason Clarence Valley's Deputy Mayor Jim Simmons is feeling aggrieved [DEX, September 18].
It seems someone has been using the entrance to his business as a public urinal.
What is fascinating about Cr. Simmons complaint is that he attributes this activity to an unnamed person or persons who possibly oppose his stance in the matter of the proposed new supermarket in Maclean.
Does he mean a well-known local developer who would have benefited from this supermarket or one of the many local residents who have voiced their objections to any loss of public space? Surely not! The Lower Clarence doesn't usually stoop to such behaviour.
Perhaps Cr. Simmons should look both closer to home and also further away for his culprit.
The clue may be in the timing "Thursday through to Sunday evenings....10.30pm and about 4am".
Leaving aside consideration of a disgruntled client, his business is in the immediate vicinity of a curbside bus stop which caters for local, regional, intercity and interstate private buses and CountryLink services. Some of which pickup and put down within the hours Cr. Simmons has identified. The same hours which see both pubs and public toilets close in Maclean.
However, this is September - the mad month at Clarence Valley Council when councillors begin to jockey for position in the mayoral elections.
Much better to be seen as a beleaguered shire councillor bravely facing a hostile community. Rather than one who is deputy mayor in a highly dysfunctional council where good governance and transparency appear to be missing in action, the Mayor and Council in the Chamber have lost any semblance of control over local government bureaucracy, official record keeping can be highly misleading, trust funds are misused, cost over-runs are just shrugged off, developer contributions are not always collected, senior staff think it acceptable that an official response to a good faith budget submission can be "so what" [Clarence Valley Council, 21 June 2010], certain councillors and management give the distinct impression of being in the pocket of at least one large multinational company and the mayor of this supposedly non-aligned shire council uses his official title to formally endorse a candidate at the August 2010 federal election ["Why we're backing Janelle Saffin",August 2010].
Cr. Simmons should not be as quick to point a finger at the Lower Clarence community - glass houses are notoriously vulnerable to stones and at last count the rumour mill had complaints to the NSW Division of Local Government, Dept. of Lands and ICAC concerning Clarence Valley Council climbing steadily during the time that Williamson and he have been at the helm.

JUDITH M. MELVILLE

Coffee Club's image turns to water......

The Coffee Club, which tries to promote a sustainable image with its UTZ certified brews, gets a dressing down in this letter to the editor published in The Daily Examiner yesterday:

Water wasters

I was disappointed the theme for one of the Coffee Club's Franchise of the Year events was a "water fight", which asked customers to buy a bottle of water and encourage their friends, work colleagues and family to do the same.

Don't they know bottled water is one the most wasteful products sold in Australia, particularly in towns like Grafton which have an excellent water supply?

Bottled water is expensive and is not worth the cost, either to the consumer or to the planet.

It has a high environmental cost at all stages - during its production vast amounts of oil and water are used, during its transportation more fossil fuels are burned, and then there is the problem of disposing of the discarded bottles.

All up, the amount of oil required equals about 20 per cent of the bottle's volume.

Australia's annual use of bottled water generates more than 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases - the same amount as 13,000 cars.

Bundanoon became the first town in Australia to ban the sale of bottled water a year ago due to concerns about its environmental impact.

I presume there is no Coffee Club franchisee in that town.

A much better stunt for the Coffee Club would have been to ask its franchisees to sell reusable bottles, which could be filled for free from the tap.

JANET CAVANAUGH,
Secretary,

Climate Change Australia (Clarence)

Women with the most influence?

Forbes Magazine's top ten influential women in 2010

1. Michelle Obama, First Lady

2. Irene Rosenfeld, chief executive, Kraft Foods

3. Oprah Winfrey, media mogul

4. Angela Merkel, German chancellor

5. Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state

6. Indra Nooyi, chief executive, Pepsi

7. Lady Gaga, singer

8. Gail Kelly, chief executive, Westpac

9. Beyonce Knowles, singer and fashion designer

10. Ellen DeGeneres, talk show host

That's not a real list - my mum's not on it. She could wipe the floor with Michelle O. any old day.

Mum sprang fully formed into Oz outer suburbia armed with the secret knowledge of lamb roasts, light as air scones, how to remove blue bottle stings and the exact length my pants should be at each birthday. Good onya Mum!

Regional newspapers still battling for relevance in 2010

From the Australian Newspaper History Group October 2010 newsletter produced by Rod Kirkpatrick:

Four regional dailies had double-figure percentage declines in circulation for the three or six-month period to 30 June, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. They were: the Standard, Warrnambool, 16.45; the Gold Coast Bulletin, 15.31 per cent; the North West Star, Mount Isa, 12.98; and the Geelong Advertiser, 11.56. And the Townsville Bulletin, down 9.95 per cent, was only a whisker short of a double-figure dip. Three of these papers are big dailies, not based in areas where there is a population slump.

The table below from this same newsletter shows that newspapers on the NSW North Coast continue to lose circulation as they battle to retain relevance for local readers.

Diversity with regard to range and editorial stance is important for regional media - whether it is print or digital, produced by professional journalists or bloggers.

While local newspapers urgently need to break out of parent company moulds which often simply clone the news across their banners and apparently encourage journalists to go for cheap regurgitation of media releases; readers also need to keep purchasing these papers as a way of encouraging regional journalism and protecting their own ability to access all shades of opinion on regional, state and national issues.

Buy a local newspaper today.

Aussie nags get their own political party

Yep, you heard it here first. Sturdy farm horses, riding school nags, gymkhana stalwarts and thoroughbred high steppers now have their own political party - the Stable Population Party of Australia.
Wonder if lucerne hay and crushed oats are served at party meetings?


Pic from Craft Company No 6

Mixed public perceptions of Prime Minister Gillard's character and attributes

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard gets a mixed response from survey respondents in the Essential Report of 4 October 2010:

While Opposition Leader Tony Abbott does not fare well in comparisons with Julia Gillard in the same report:

Click on images to enlarge

Have Keneally and Sartor let down regional indigenous communities once again?

New provisions of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Act came into effect at the beginning of this month.

In light of increasing competition over land use on the NSW North Coast and the sometimes cavalier destruction of indigenous heritage sites which has occurred in the not so distant past, it is worth noting that the Keneally Government and Minister Frank Sartor are still falling short in relation to commitments given according to this NSW Aboriginal Land Council media release:

The State's peak Aboriginal groups have expressed extreme concern at the lack of honesty and integrity displayed by the NSW Government in withholding key information about new Aboriginal cultural heritage regulations, despite its commitment to negotiate.

The NSW Government's undertaking to negotiate on regulations was a key condition for the NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) and NTSCORP Ltd to remove their opposition to legislative changes to the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 (NSW), opening the way for Coalition and Greens support for the National Parks and Wildlife Amendment Bill 2010.

NSWALC and NTSCORP are very disappointed they did not receive key information or copies of the final National Parks and Wildlife Amendment (Aboriginal Objects and Aboriginal Places) Regulation 2010 until the documents were made publicly available by the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) this week.

This is despite a commitment made in Hansard in April by the Environment Minister, Hon Frank Sartor MP to continue working with both organisations on the regulations.

"While meetings between our organisations and the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water took place, it now appears the negotiations were not in good faith," said Bev Manton, Chair of NSWALC.

She said that repeated requests for copies of the regulations had led to late and partial information being provided and there had been no response at all on several key issues raised by NSWALC and NTSCORP over the past four months until this week.

"Unfortunately, now that we have the information, it's clear that commitments made by the Minister in writing are absent, including a promised amendment to ensure that court appeals would still be available if there was substantial non-compliance with the consultation process.

"This was one of the few hard-won rights for Aboriginal people under the previous law," said Ms Manton.

The regulations will support new provisions in the National Parks and Wildlife Act which are due to come into effect on 1 October 2010.

The regulations will detail the defences available where a person has damaged or destroyed an Aboriginal object, and also outline the processes for consultation with Aboriginal groups.

Defences will be available if a person was carrying out a wide range of activities defined by the regulations as 'low impact', including major farming infrastructure and mining exploration works. Separate codes of conduct set out in the regulations for the forestry and mining industries will also act as a defence if a person destroys an Aboriginal object.

NSW still remains the only state without standalone Aboriginal cultural heritage legislation.

"Aboriginal cultural heritage is not only significant to our people, but holds a central place in the cultural heritage of this State. It's insulting that it continues to be treated under the same legislation as flora and fauna," said Warren Mundine, CEO of NTSCORP.

"Aboriginal People have the cultural responsibility to protect their significant objects and places and the traditional right to speak for those places but in NSW we still don't have the legal right to protect and speak for our own cultural heritage," Mr. Mundine said.

During debate on the legislative changes earlier this year, the Minister announced the establishment of a working party to undertake a two-year review of the regulation of Aboriginal cultural heritage in New South Wales and to develop a new legislative model.

But NSWALC, NTSCORP and other Aboriginal groups are still waiting for a further announcement from the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Hon Paul Lynch MP, and confirmation as to who will be invited to participate on the Working Group.

"These changes to the National Parks and Wildlife Act were announced with great fanfare by the NSW Government as an improvement for Aboriginal heritage protection, to be followed by much overdue broader reform in the coming years," said Ms Manton.

"The lack of details put forward by the Government on the establishment of a working party to undertake a two-year review of the regulation of Aboriginal cultural heritage in New South Wales and to develop a new legislative model, and the failure to properly and respectfully negotiate with Aboriginal groups on the changes to the National Parks and Wildlife Regulations, tell a different story," she said.

• National Parks and Wildlife Amendment (Aboriginal Objects and Aboriginal Places) Regulation 2010
• National Parks and Wildlife Amendment Act 2010 No 38
• Frank Sartor, NSW Minister for Climate Change and the Environment (NSW Hansard 21 April 2010): Since then my department has had further targeted consultations with stakeholders, which we undertook to do. I have also met with peak Aboriginal groups to discuss their outstanding concerns. I have committed to continuing to work with the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council and the Native Title Services Corporation to develop amendments to the draft regulations and the draft Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water code of practice, which will reflect and give effect to the objects of the legislation to conserve places, objects and features of significance to Aboriginal people and to strengthen the protection afforded to Aboriginal objects and places in New South Wales. [my emphasis]