Another local voice on the big stage

Wooli's Don Firth, who's a frequent contributor to the letters pages of The Daily Examiner and The Sydney Morning Herald, has been part of the ongoing shots at QANTAS in the Herald this week.
 

SMH Letters, August 24, 2011

Qantas flying low

Michele Zehnder (Letters, August 21) is quite right: Qantas should lose the right to adorn the tails of its planes with that wonderful stylised kangaroo. It should, instead, be given to Ausflag, the group looking to secure support for a truly Australian flag, so it can produce a flag to match Canada's in the instantly recognisable stakes.
Don Firth Wooli

 SMH Letters, August 25, 2011

The flying prawn? It could take off

I really like Don Firth's suggestion (Letters, August 24) that the wonderful stylised kangaroo from Qantas be given to Ausflag. It could then be flown above all government buildings and internationally, and would represent all things good. For instance, the downsizing of the Australian international fleet and also the utilising of offshore resources to save shareholder investments, a clear representation of our broken economic motor that is creating holes in our national fuselage.
Michael Cronk Dubbo

OMG! Does this mean that Alan Jones is Prime Minister?

One of those amazing wingnutters over at Just Grounds this week seems on the brink of declaring that The Parrot is the new Oz prime minister:

Talkback Radio…..the defacto peoples parliament.

While another has a very peculiar idea of how the reserve powers of a governor-general operate:

Ian Strawbridge said:

I think we need to get the GG to action! Lets all write / fax to her demanding she sack Juliar! Allegedly she still has 'the power' ! (Yes, I know how she was appointed)

Governor-General, Ms Quentin Bryce AC
Government House, Canberra ACT 2600.

fax: 02 6281 3760

Cheers, Ian

Memo to Clarence Valley Review: don't publish advertisements and pretend they're news items

This week's Lower Clarence Review provides yet another example that it doesn't know the difference between news items and advertisements.
What it's doing is publishing advertisements and trying to pass them off as news.
Shame! Shame! Shame!
Here's a snap of part of this week's page 5, but there's no mention that it's an advertisement!

Students studying juxtaposition 101 will readily see the classic irony of the piece appearing immediately below the above item.

Flying fox dispersal is the wrong way to go - NSW O'Farrell Government increases Hendra risk

We have to wonder about our best and brightest. By that I mean our politicians. This week the Minister for the Environment, Ms Robyn Parker, announced that the Office of the Environment had approved the Department of Education and Communities’ (DEC) application to disperse flying-foxes in Maclean. Ms Parker said she had asked the Office of Environment and Heritage to expedite the assessment of the permit, following representations from the local Member for Clarence, Mr Steve Cansdell.

With an outbreak of Hendra virus just up the road at South Ballina, and scientists saying stress in flying-foxes can increase the virus, our best and brightest are proposing to stress these animals. What are they thinking?

A study found that in times of nutritional stress (food shortages) the prevalence of disease in flying foxes increases. Dispersal is a slightly different type of stress but we do know that it's very stressful to flying foxes. The Qld government has also warned, dispersals could increase Hendra virus loads in flying-foxes and increase the risk of spillover into horses.

Despite this knowledge our pollies are keen to pursue this because they claim they want to reduce the “ impact on the amenity of students and teachers at the school”.  But what about the rest of the community? Isn’t there a plan for them?

And this is where it gets really silly. The bureaucrats have just spent two years working on a plan for the whole community. Seems the Minister and the MP don’t know about that.

Chiroptera

Northern Rivers

* 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.

Andrew shoots his bolt

Andrew Bolt produces a WTF moment over at The Telegraph:

“Meanwhile, the Greens confirm they are indeed the new haven of the fashionable anti-Semite”
Apparently carrying on in a similar vein, the televised Bolt Report is now receiving some flak.
It doesn't take a crystal ball to foretell more court time for Teh Bolta if he keeps on like this.

John Xavier Berlin jailed for fraud - history of child sex-offences revealed in court

THERE is no way John Xavier Berlin could have been a police officer, after being convicted of child-sex offences and spending two years in a Queensland jail.

That was the conclusion drawn by magistrate David Heilpern when he sentenced Berlin to 12 months behind bars at Grafton local court yesterday.

“Mr Berlin, you have never been a police officer,” he said.

“That is the source of all these problems.” Source: The Daily Examiner, 24/8/11

Today's Examiner gives Berlin much more attention than he'd ever like. Berlin is front-page material, gets more coverage on page 5 and is also the subject of an opinion piece written by the paper's chief-of-staff. Topping things off is a front page photograph of Berlin.

Read The Daily Examiner's report here.

Sick and tired of the NSW Government continuing to drag its feet when it comes to the northern section of the Pacific Highway?

If the answer is yes then Federal Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin has an online Pacific Highway Community Petition which anyone can sign at http://www.janellesaffin.com.au/ :

TO THE Premier of New South Wales, The Honourable Barry O’Farrell MP; the Deputy Premier of New South Wales, The Honourable Andrew Stoner MP; and the NSW Minister for Roads, The Honourable Duncan Gay MP.

This Petition of residents of the Federal electorates of Page and Richmond draws to the attention of the O’Farrell-Stoner Government its pre-election commitments to making the Pacific Highway safer for all motorists.

The Petitioners therefore request that the NSW Government allocates significant funding in its first Budget on September 6, 2011, to ensure that the highway can be fully duplicated by the 2016 deadline, as agreed.

It is important not to let the issue of the Pacific Highway upgrade slip on to any Macquarie Street backburner, as this exchange in Federal Parliament last Tuesday demonstrates:

ROB OAKESHOTT (Member for Lyne) – My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. As the minister responsible on behalf of the Commonwealth and following ongoing negotiations with the state of New South Wales, can you confirm that election promises from both levels of government and both political persuasions will be upheld—that is, the joint promise of completion of dual carriageway of the Pacific Highway by 2016, just five years away?

ANTHONY ALBANESE – I thank the member for Lyne for his question and for his commitment to representing constituents on the Pacific Highway up the NSW coast. He would be aware that we have committed some $4.1 billion to the Pacific Highway, more than any government has ever committed to any road in Australia's history over such a period of time.

The fact is that work is proceeding apace.  The Ballina bypass will be open early.  It will be open by Christmas, six months ahead of schedule and on budget.  Work has also commenced on the longest bridge ever constructed in Australia, which is a part of the Kempsey bypass.  The builders for the Devils Pulpit upgrade have been selected and work will commence by the end of the year.

The building contract for Tintenbar to Ewingsdale in the electorate of Page was also awarded in the last fortnight. Work is forging ahead on the Bulahdelah bypass, the Banora Point upgrade and the Sapphire to Woolgoolga duplication.

All up, today there are more than a thousand Australians at work upgrading the Pacific Highway.  Our last budget saw an additional billion dollars injected into the Pacific Highway so we could meet that objective.  I was there with the member for Lyne and the member for Page [Janelle Saffin] with the Deputy Premier of NSW [Andrew Stoner], following our commitment announcement in May, and I was encouraged by the very direct commitment that the Deputy Premier gave on behalf of the NSW government to meet our shared objective on the full duplication of the highway.

Just last month he said the date “remained plausible as long as both governments commit to it”.

There is no doubt this is a big challenge.  All of the planning work had not been completed, which is why we needed to put that extra funding into the budget.  I look forward to the NSW government on 6 September stumping up its share of the money in the $750 million that it has committed.

NSW Minister for Roads Duncan Gay has “staked his reputation on securing a major funding boost for the Pacific Highway in this year's state budget”.  He said:

“My first target and task is to fulfil that commitment in this year’s budget … unless we can keep with them—the federal government—we are falling out of the game.”

This is a vital upgrade.  That is why we have contributed $4.1 billion, which stands in stark contrast to the $1.3 billion committed over 12 long years by the former government.  We have committed more than triple the money in half the time because we are absolutely committed to delivering on this project.

I look forward to working with the NSW government to meet our shared objective.

NB. Thanks to the North Coast Voices reader who sent me the Oakeshott-Albanese remarks.