Clarence By-election: weeping with laughter in the first week of the unofficial election campaign

When I first read the health funding claims of Nationals candidate Chris Gulaptis I was frankly sceptical, given his past record of saying any old thing to support his position.

I searched the Internet until I found a copy of the agreement between the Commonwealth and the NSW Government concerning Grafton Base Hospital.

I also hunted cyberspace for any evidence that his predecessor had ever made the same claim.

Result – Gulaptis was incorrect in claiming either the NSW Nationals or the O'Farrell Government had supplied the entire amount of this funding or that Steve Cansdell had made a statement to that effect. Nor are his assertions concerning Maclean District Hospital correct.

When the media first queried the Gulaptis claim this is what he said:

Mr Gulaptis defended the figures he quoted, claiming they were in a press release Mr Cansdell sent out before his resignation on September 16.

"The $9 million is in relation to the orthopaedic ward and imaging expansion.

So it was to the accompaniment of helpless laughter that I read this article in The Daily Examiner today, in which he ends with an outright misrepresentation of his original statements and a bald untruth about the funding process, as well as omitting to mention the fact that the Commonwealth has already begun scheduled funding payments:

Poll stoush over hospital funding  by Tim Howard

THE Nationals candidate for the Clarence by-election, Chris Gulaptis, has been caught out with claims the State Government has stumped up $9 million for Grafton Base Hospital says an opponent.

Following his preselection on Sunday, Mr Gulaptis included a figure of $9 million for Grafton Base Hospital among "hundreds of millions of dollars" the Nationals had directed toward the Valley since the March State election.

The chairman of the hospital Medical Staff Council, Allan Tyson, questioned the claim on Monday and yesterday the Country Labor candidate Peter Ellem accused Mr Gulaptis of "overstretching" with the claim.

"Mr Gulaptis, either through ignorance or incompetence, is inappropriately claiming credit for Grafton Base Hospital funding provided by the Commonwealth and former State Labor governments last year," Mr Ellem said.

"I'm calling on Mr Gulaptis to provide the budget details of his claim - where is the $9 million for Grafton Base Hospital?

"If it is the same $6 million from the Commonwealth and the $4 million announced by the former Labor State government, Mr Gulaptis should apologise for misleading the local community.

The claim has also angered Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin, who worked hard to make sure the money came to the hospital during the 2010 Federal election campaign.

"I'm furious that someone can try and take credit for something they had nothing to do with," Ms Saffin said.

"What he's saying is wrong in fact and wrong in any sort of insinuation.

"And to attempt to blame Steve (Cansdell) left me speechless.

"I never saw any such release and I know Steve never tried to claim anything like this. He always said it was a good thing the hospital got that funding."

Mr Gulaptis defended his assertion yesterday, and upped it by $1 million.

"Over the course of the weekend I referred to the $10 million allocated to Grafton Hospital - one of many projects in the Clarence Electorate to receive funding in the 2011 State budget papers," Mr Gulaptis said in a prepared release.

"The NSW Government budget papers for the Liberal and Nationals' first State budget are clear and in black and white.

"There is a total of $10 million in COAG funding for Grafton Base Hospital, consisting of $4 million from the State Government and $6 million from the Federal Government.

"This is being delivered. It is not a promise from a former minister, nor an undertaking from a senior departmental officer but a hard-line item with funding from both the Federal and State governments to improve health infrastructure for the people of Clarence.

"Many State Labor health promises over the years were never delivered. The Nationals have actually handed down the funding for this project."

Writs for the Clarence By-election will not be issued until 28 October and candidate nominations only open on the same day. The NSW Nationals still have time to change their minds and rectify their biggest mistake this year.

Dementia rates high in NSW and on the North Coast

Click on images to enlarge

According to a report DEMENTIA ACROSS AUSTRALIA: 2011-2050 prepared for Alzheimer’s Australia by Deloitte Access Economics, the prevalence of diagnosed cases of dementia are continuing to rise with NSW projected to have the greatest number of people with dementia now and in the future.

This report states; NSW has 91,308 people with dementia in 2011, projected to increase to 303,673 people by 2050.

In NSW North Coast federal electorates the estimates for 2011 are:

Lyne 2,502 persons - with numbers expected to exceed 3,000 by 2015 and reach 9,004 by 2050

Cowper 2,448 persons - with numbers expected to exceed 3,000 by 2016 and reach 8,930 by 2050

Richmond 2,441 persons - with numbers expected to exceed 3,000 by 2016 and reach 8,808 by 2050

Page 2,362 persons - with numbers expected to exceed 3,000 by 2015 and reach 5,586 by 2050

What these figures indicate is that North Coast communities need to lobby hard and lobby early if they are to see adequate supported accommodation and community health services are in place for the most vulnerable of our retirees and frail aged - because the call for funding dollars across Australia will become increasingly urgent.

Nature Conservation Council of NSW warning concerning O'Farrell Government coal seam gas policy

Government leaves significant wildlife habitat and natural areas open to mining and gas 15 October 2011:

The NSW government's proposed strategic land use policy will leave the state's most critical wildlife habitat and natural areas open to destructive mining and gas development, according to the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.
The proposed policy allows mining companies to buy their way into highly sensitive natural areas, by allowing mining and gas development to go ahead in these areas, provided that the destroyed habitat is 'offset' elsewhere.
"The policy proposals currently on the table will not deliver on the government's election promise to maintain critical environmental assets by placing sensitive areas off limits to mining and gas extraction," said Pepe Clarke, NCC Chief Executive Officer.
"Carefully mapping the most important wildlife habitat in the state, only to allow it to be destroyed by mining, is bizarre and totally unacceptable. The Government must recognise these are natural areas too precious to destroy and impossible to replace.
"The government's strategic planning proposal does not apply to exploration activities, despite the fact that exploration activities can have significant impacts on the environment in their own right.
"The NSW government's proposed approach to strategic land use planning does not reflect the balance between mining, agriculture and conservation promised by the Coalition in its election policy.
"We cannot accept a policy that does not provide certainty for mine‐affected communities and genuine protection for wildlife, forests, rivers and wetlands.
"Environmental and agricultural stakeholders have become increasingly frustrated with the government's strategic land use planning process, as their repeated calls for the government to honour its promise to place sensitive areas off limits to mining have fallen on deaf ears.
"The State government must not turn its back on its promise to protect natural areas and local communities from the destructive impacts of unprecedented expansion in coal and gas development.
"This policy proposal must be withdrawn immediately, and replaced with a commitment to provide real protection for local communities, farmland, water and natural areas," Mr Clarke said.

Front page image: This Eastern Pygmy Possum was found by scientists during a recent wildlife survey of the Pilliga forest. It is one of at least 22 endangered animal species under threat from a large-scale coal seam gas mining proposal in the Pilliga.

Here is the Eastern Star Gas 2007 Review of Environmental Factors for the Pilliga gas well sites, which somewhat conveniently only finds four threatened terrestrial vertebrate species occurring in the study area - none of which are the Eastern Pygmy Possum. This review also finds some of the segmented study area conveniently distant from at least five of the six identified core hole sites.
This same review stated across the Bohena and Bibblewindi project areas have found no evidence of any endangered populations, communities or habitat and

To date, the flora surveying conducted across the CSG project area is yet to identify any individual or communities of threatened or vulnerable species within the operational area.

Perhaps there is a lesson here for Northern Rivers communities when it comes to how they assess material supplied to government by mining companies intent on furthering their own business aims.

Same old, same old from the NSW North Coast Nationals

Former Clarence MP Steve Cansdell (who resigned after being outed as having made a false stat dec to avoid losing his driver's licence) greeting the new Clarence By-election candidate tipped to be his successor in the NSW O'Farrell Government after 19th November 2011.
A dubious case of mutual endorsement?

Snapshots from 16th October 2011 NBN news clip

Are your blog's visitors coming with additional political spam?

Cartoon from Puzzlehead

Speaking with a fellow blogger this week he complained that his blog is receiving double the amount of spam it usually receives and all of this increase is anti-carbon tax propaganda and right-wing abuse. North Coast Voices also noticed a similar spike, along with a sudden rash of adult content.

Could this be the answer?

The Age 16 October 2011:

AS OPINION polls reveal Labor's worst results on record, largely on the back of plummeting support for the Gillard government's decision to put a price on carbon, ''grassroots'' anti-carbon tax websites have mushroomed.

But what appears to be a proliferation of community-based, anti-government activism sites is not necessarily what it seems. Several sites are part of an orchestrated political campaign by Liberal senator Cory Bernardi and conservative organisations he is linked with.

Using American Tea Party-style tactics, Bernardi has built a network of ''grassroots'' political websites that promote limited government, lower taxes, free enterprise and ''traditional'' values - as well as a campaign against the government and its policies, most potently against the carbon tax.

Bernardi is chairman of the Conservative Leadership Foundation, which has set up at least six websites, including the Conservative Action Network under the name CANdo.org.au and stopgillardscarbontax.com.

While membership is free, the sites do ask for donations. In most cases, it is only when attempting to pay that subscribers can discover who the backer is. The websites do not declare that the South Australian senator is behind them, and the majority do not reveal that the money raised goes to either the Conservative Leadership Foundation or its think tank Menzies House, which was co-founded by Bernardi.

Rumour on the NSW North Coast is that many of these winged monkeys and spammers are actually being paid by the Bernardi propaganda machine.

Saffin encourages increasing awareness of identity fraud

Media release from the Federal Member for Page on the NSW North Coast:

Page MP Janelle Saffin is encouraging people in her electorate to gauge how well they protect their identity, during National Identity Fraud Awareness Week which runs from 17-23 October 2011. 

“Our community needs to realise just how serious identity crime is and to understand the devastating effects it can have on an individual’s life,” Ms Saffin said.

A survey is available on the Australian Federal Police website as an innovative way of educating the general public on importance of being aware of identity crime.

The survey covers safety tips such as checking ATMs for any signs of tampering before using, shredding bank statements and other documents instead of putting them in the recycling bin, and deleting spam emails from the deleted email folder. 

 “This survey allows members of the public to test how vulnerable they are to identity crime and take remedial measures if they need to,” Ms Saffin said. 

“Many local people contact me about receiving unsolicited phone calls and emails claiming to be from the Australian Tax Office or other Government office seeking bank account details or other personal information.

“I can confirm that no Government department will ever ask people to offer confidential identity or financial information over the telephone.”  said Ms. Saffin.

“I encourage people interested in taking steps to protect their identity to complete the short survey and to also report any suspicious phone calls or contact to SCAMwatch.”

The survey is available at http://www.afp.gov.au/what-we-do/campaigns/national-identity-fraud-awareness-week.aspx.  

To find out more about identity fraud scams and how you can protect yourself from identity crime, visit SCAMwatch or call 1300 795 995.

Nats' candidate for Clarence ... business interests ...???

A search of the facilities provided by the Australian Business Register shows that the name Gulaptis is associated with a number of business entities with the postcode 2463 (Maclean, NSW). A couple of the other names that the Gulaptis name is associated with are, hmmmmm, interesting, to say the least.

Click on image to enlarge