Camac tries to wrap her political gaffe around The Cross of Ages

Bethany of The Cross would've been wiser to leave her gaffe to sink to the bottom of the bowl. Instead she went to The Daily Examiner Editor:

In his story on Monday, Mr Deefholts quoted Ms Camac as saying if displaced abattoir workers did not want a job in Casino and preferred to "sit around and whinge" they could do that.

"If they want to get off their bums and get a new job they can do that," she was quoted as saying.

Ms Camac said that as the abattoir's human resources manager she had been caring for employees for the past two years.

"I continue to be concerned for their employment and their future opportunities for continued employment," she said yesterday.

"But even more importantly, as a Christian candidate, care for people and their families is absolutely central to my whole way of life.

"As a Christian I stand to defend the rights of the underprivileged and those who have been treated unfairly as evidenced clearly by my volunteer work in India and other places.

"I now find myself at the centre of public accusations of un-Christian behaviour by Grant Courtney, the leader of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union, based on an entirely false report by Mr Deefholts, accusing me of doing this as a 'cheap political stunt'. This has got to stop…..

Mr Deefholts yesterday stood by his original report.

He said that, realising her comments were potentially inflammatory, he had repeated her comments back to her and asked if they were accurate.

"I was surprised she said it, which is why I read it back to her," he said.”

If she keeps this up the only vote Camac is likely to get from the Clarence Valley is the donkey vote.

A pictorial guide to why the 99% in America is so angry

On 2 November the UN 2011 Human Development Report,  which covers 187 countries, was released. It showed that Australia continues to rank second only to Norway on the global human development index with regard to equality within society, after adjustments were made for internal inequalities in health, education and income.

It shares equal first place with Italy when calculating life expectancy for those born in 2011 and, comes in third after Sweden and Norway in the overall life satisfaction category - a

placing it shares with a number of other countries.

On the issue of gender inequality Australia ranks at eighteen.

However, in the United States of America it is another story all together, with is ranking across the same indices resulting in an overall ranking of twenty-three.

From Business Insider this series of historical graphs demonstrates this level of inequality:

In fact, income inequality has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in "income equality." China's ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran.

Wages as a percentage of the U.S. economy

What will Hapless Gulaptis do?

The Federal Government and COAG committed to a course of action in February 2011 which resulted in the National Health Reform Agreement. The NSW Government at the time was led by Labor’s K-K- Keneally.

This agreement sees NSW receive federal health funding under the National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services. Specifically this state will get $526 million in New Subacute Beds Guarantee Funding from 2010-11 to 2013-4.

Because there is a byelection in the Clarence electorate and the Nats candidate Chris Gulaptis got caught out telling funding pork pies, the O’Farrell Government’s Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Health Melinda Pavey fronted the media instead to announce that the new subacute beds planned for Maclean District Hospital were part of the Nats grand plan for the Clarence Valley.

I wait in breathless anticipation for Chris to break loose from his minders, tunnel under the media fence and announce to the world that in fact those extra 14 hospital beds planned for Maclean were due to his good offices – after all he’s already claimed credit on behalf of the Nats for a private bequest to Maclean Hospital!

Clarence Valley Council - matured or over ripe?

The Daily Examiner letter to the editor 3 November 2011:

A mature council

THE Clarence Valley Council's recently appointed GM, Scott Greensill, reportedly claimed "the council was now maturing past amalgamation" (DEX, October 27). Well, just how much has our forced amalgamated council matured?
At the council's general meeting on September 13, the staff's recommendation to councillors seeking federal funding for a $7m extension to the Grafton Gallery was prepared (in part) by none other than the Grafton Gallery's director, Jude McBean (item 12.167/11). That privilege included "waiving development assessment and construction fees" of $40,692 as well as "identifying a potential $4.13m which could accrue from developer (contributions) over the next 20 years". But no mention was made that the developer's contributions plan showed Grafton's projected population growth to 2021 was only 494 and zero to 2031, thereby contributing little S94 revenues.
In contrast, at the same meeting, council staff recommended to councillors the "waiving of hire fees of $150 for the cost of council's events trailer" for Iluka's Family Festival to raise money to build a sports shed for Iluka (item 12-168/11). Yet the developer's contributions plan shows Iluka's projected population growth of 642 to 2021 and 627 to 2031, thereby generating far more S94 funds than Grafton, as well as experiencing significant pressures on its existing infrastructures.
It must be a niggle in the guts for Iluka's volunteers to work their butts off to raise community funds, but not be given the privileged opportunity to prepare their own recommendations to a mature forced amalgamated Clarence Valley Council.

RAY HUNT
Yamba.

Meandering through the mauves

Top:
Peregrine's Journey 1990 by Patrycia Buckland of Alstonville NSW
Centre:
Floral Festivals stamp by Australia Post 2011
Bottom:
Fly Away 2002 by Deborah Cocks of Bray's Creek NSW

Quote of the Week

Here was a man who wanted to get rid of the possums in his roof, so called in a napalm strike.

{Heathen Scripture writing about Qantas Airlines CEO Alan Joyce on 1^st November 2011}

Forest NSW illegal logging

Local environmentalists are disappointed with the small fines Forests NSW has received for illegally logging 15 hectares of endangered lowland rainforest in Grange SF near Jackadgery.

Lowland Rainforest is an Endangered Ecological Environment (EEC) that is excluded from Forests NSW harvesting operations.

EEC’s are protected by the National Parks and Wildlife Act. Under sections 118A and 118D of the Act it is an offence to pick or harm endangered ecological communities; currently the maximum penalty is $220,000 and up to 2 years jail, with an additional $11,000 for each plant illegally logged, picked, bulldozed out of the ground, trampled or squashed.

Environmentalists are concerned that the forest regulator, the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) may not have found the 15ha area of rainforest that was trashed because the two small fines issued were for offences in other forest compartments. Forestry regulation staff at OEH do not have  the requisite skills to identify EEC’s. The Clarence Environment Centre offered to show OEH the forest compartment in question but OEH declined the offer.

The value of the illegally harvested trees far outweigh the fines imposed to FNSW.

OEH minister Robyn Parker and OEH CEO Lisa Corbyn owe the people of NSW an explanation. Why is Forests NSW not subject to the full force of the law?

Does Chris Gulaptis the National party candidate for the seat of Clarence support Robyn Parker's lazy approach to regulating Forests NSW harvesting operations?

Chris Gulaptis brags about he had 10,000 bats tipped out of their home near Maclean.

Parker claims the government is working hard to save koalas but has approved logging in core koala habitat in Boambee State forest near Coffs.

Robyn Parker is proving to be a liability for the NSW government with a bad case of foot in mouth disease.  Luke Foley at the recent standing committee - " So you are an environment minister that just does what Forests NSW ask?"

In the last 2 years Forest NSW have been found to have breached the Integrated Forestry Operations Approval (IFOA) at Yabbra SF, Girard SF, Doubleduke SF, Grange SF and Wedding Bells SF.

In June 2011 Justice Pepper of the NSW Land and Environment Court commented that FNSW operations -  ‘suggests either a pattern of continuing disobedience in respect of environmental laws generally or, at the very least, a cavalier attitude to compliance with such laws’.

Chris Green

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at gmail dot com to submit comment for consideration.