NSW North Coast MPs, the letter below was written for you

The letters section of today's Coffs Coast Advocate has a letter about funding the Pacific Highway in the north of the state, especially to the north of Port Macquarie.
It's quite obvious the letter writer wants to bring matters associated with the highway to the attention of MPs, especially National Party MPs.
In a sensible move the writer chose to send the letter to the editor of the Advocate who duly published it.
The other option the writer had was to send it directly to the National Party MPs on the NSW north coast, but that was a no-brainer; the recipients probably wouldn't be able to read it, understand it or be prepared to do anything about it, so they'd inevitably file it with much of the other correspondence they receive from their constituents in a section labelled "Too Hard".
Here's the letter:

Highway folly

It would appear North Coast members of parliament (state and federal) are afflicted by the mantra "It's someone else's fault".

The Pacific Hwy is not the national highway. Back in the '70s when the federal government took over the national highway it ran the circumference of Australia except for the New England due to the influence of the then leader of the Country (Nationals) Party, Ian Sinclair.

That folly has not been redressed but successive federal governments have accepted the need to fix the highway and entered into agreements with the state government.

Electorates to the north of Port Macquarie have always been the poor cousins and only received any semblance of largess to avoid embarrassment by the actions of our state neighbour to the north.

The NSW leader of the Nationals is quick to berate Canberra for perceived waste of funds on schemes for home insulation, NBN and the BER but utters not a peep about the extravagance of routing the Sapphire-to-Woolgoolga section through coastal swamp when a better route was available through the Nationals' heartland of the Orara Valley.

I have little time for Mr Oakeshott but it is hard to dismiss the observation that our Nationals members are found wanting with their views and attitudes to highway funding.

Independents in Canberra have shown how disproportionate funding achievements are possible when their support is needed; maybe it's time the Nationals exerted pressure on the Liberals instead of being Nodding Heads.

As a parting shot, I believe it is unconscionable to have our city drawn and quartered - east to west by the highway and north to south by the railway. Trucks are no less dangerous through Coffs Harbour than they are through Urunga. We haven't had our accident yet.

Peter Farquhar

Source: CCA, 7/3/12

A look at NSW criminal court conviction and imprisonment rates

In March 2011 NSW court statistics were released for the previous year in the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research’s annual summary NEW SOUTH WALES CRIMINAL COURTS STATISTICS 2010.

It would appear that 89 per cent of those persons appearing as defendants before Local Courts in 2010 were found guilty of at least one criminal offence. In the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) subset a lower 87.8 per cent were found guilty.

Of those persons included in total conviction numbers only 7.2 per cent were imprisoned, but in the ATSI group a much higher 20.9 per cent were sent to gaol.

The average duration of imprisonment for offences with the highest imprisonment rates (that is breach of custodial order offences, unlawful entry with intent/burglary, motor vehicle theft and related offences) was 5.9 months for both groups.

In the higher courts 84.2 per cent of all defendants and 86.5 ASTI defendants were found guilty, with 7.9 per cent more indigenous persons sent to gaol. The average duration of imprisonment for offences with the highest imprisonment rates in the District and Supreme Courts was 30.9 months.

In all criminal courts defendants were less likely to receive a suspended sentence if they were identified as indigenous.

In the Children’s Court juvenile defendants were less likely to have charges dismissed with a caution and more likely to be placed under a control order if they were indigenous. Indigenous children were also slightly more often the subject of a probation order.

Across most of the principal criminal offences identified in the BOCSAR summary, the NSW Far and Mid North Coast had a higher conviction rate than the rest of New South Wales.

Bob Carr, Federal Minister for Stoopid

Some people never learn that you can’t undo the Internet and Australia’s Foreign Minister designate Bob the Builder Carr has just shown that he belongs in that digitally stoopid group.

The Telegraph reported this on 4th March 2012:

“BOB Carr has removed an attack on the Dalai Lama from his personal blog where he described the spiritual leader as a "cunning monk."

Australia's next foreign minister, Mr Carr said his views on the Thoughtlines blog were personal ones, but he did not want them to distract from his plum job.

"I thought it might have been better expressed," Mr Carr said….”

Although Google Cache may be the first to give up what pollies intend to hide, The WayBack Machine is no slouch either when it comes to the contents of blogs like Thoughtlines with Bob Carr.

Snapshot of Google Cache for

Thoughtlines with Bob Carr

5^th March 2012

“The Prime Minister should feel no obligation to meet the Dalai Lama, indeed should feel an obligation not to meet him. He is a religious leader but also a cunning one with a political agenda. His agenda is not in Australia’s interest.
First, his plan for Tibetan autonomy goes well beyond religious affairs and veers close to separatism. Tibet has been part of China since the Manchu dynasty. There is no more reason China would accept a loosening of its ties with Tibet than we would accept West Australian autonomous status within the Australian federation.
Second, his definition of Tibet includes parts of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces – because they have Tibetan minorities. The Chinese cannot see this as anything other than an attack on their territorial integrity, their very sovereignty. It is an outrageous claim. It is designed to antagonize the Chinese.
His strategy is to keep coming here and forcing his presence on Canberra, presumably to generate ill-feeling between us and the Chinese. The Prime Minister is under no obligation to see him, no more than she would to accept a courtesy call from the Archbishop of Canterbury if he insisted on being here every 18 months. No, the case for not seeing the Lama is stronger: behind the self-effacing shuffle and the grins he has a mischievous agenda in pursuit of theocratic power.
Reinstating a theocracy over Tibet in opposition to China – and the UN and the entire world recognize Chinese sovereignty in Tibet – is not remotely a matter of Australian interest. Sorry, but the PM has a full agenda and other priorities.”

Australian Politics 2012. I have to say it.............

Kevin Rudd resigning as Australia’s Foreign Minister in order to challenge Julia Gillard for leadership of the Federal Labor Party and the country :-

Big Mistake

Prime Minister Julia Gillard appointing un-elected senator designate Bob Carr as Australia’s Foreign Minister:-

Even Bigger Mistake

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott telling the world that he will be Australia’s next "elected" Prime Minister:-

Huge Mistake

Gina Rinehart may yet rue the day she decided to become such as big player on the Australian political stage

When Georgina ‘Gina’ Hope Rinehart (reputedly Australia’s richest woman) decided that she didn’t want climate change mitigation addressed by any national government and also decided to buy a slice of the national media pie as well, she set herself up as a person of interest to the average voter as well the tabloid press.

So when three of her four children took her to court she attempted to suppress the details.

Unfortunately for But liddle ol’ me is really a very private person Rinehart she has been less than successful and finally may have to endure us all knowing more of the Hancock family’s soiled laundry than she might like if the High Court rejects her appeal next Friday.

Ah well, at least she can cry on the shoulder of her good friend Christopher Monckton.

Meanwhile, here is part of an intriguing judgement handed down by the NSW Supreme Court in October 2011:

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:
3. An order that the Defendant as Trustee of the trust established by the Deed of Settlement made 27 December 1988 by Langley George Hancock (" The Trust ") provide to the Plaintiffs:
(a) the accounts of the Trust for the years 1992 to date;
(b) the accounts of Hancock Prospecting Pty Limited for the years 1992 to date.
4. An order pursuant to s 90 of the Trustees Act 1962 (WA) or in the Court's equitable jurisdiction varying the Trust Deed by splitting the trust into separate trusts with one trust as to Gina Hope Rinehart's 17.7% interest in the ordinary shares and the cumulative special shares, as referred to in clause 4 of the Trust Deed (" the First Trust "); and a further trust as to the residue of the trust property in favour of the children of Gina Hope Rinehart (" the Second Trust ");
5. An order in the Court's inherent equitable jurisdiction removing Gina Rinehart as trustee of the Second Trust.
6. A declaration that the Defendant has misconducted herself in the administration of the Trust within the meaning of s 77(2)(b) of the Trustees Act 1962 (WA).

Cansdellgate - up to episode 10001 and there's more to come

A correspondent to The Daily Examiner has thanked the paper for running a piece last week (Was it the ghost of Steve? 29/2/2012) about Hansard inadvertently showing the former and disgraced MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell as having voted in parliament recently, despite the former MP having hastily resigned from parliament as a consequence of failing Stat Decs 101.

FUNNY STORIES

Thanks for your funny story about how Steve Cansdell still gets to have his vote recorded in the NSW Government six months after he resigned.

Would be even funnier if it wasn't serious.

Nevertheless, I'm sure there are some other funny stories with which you can entertain readers no end, by adding a little detail.

Firstly, isn't it funny that Mr Cansdell is still driving when he supposedly lost his licence due to losing all points as a serial speeder?

Secondly, who owns the car?

Wouldn't it be funny if the NSW Government has forgotten to repossess it?

And the ultimate funny story: if a statutory declaration is made falsely under the Oaths Act, there has historically been a mandatory four-year jail term - no ifs or buts.

If Mr Cansdell has admitted to such a falsehood, isn't it funny the law is not applied and taxpayers are pacified with the old "ongoing investigation" furphy?

Is this like the "ongoing investigation" of Wollongong council's planning decisions, involving many other state members?

How funny is that?

Mike Gorrie, Grafton

Source: The Daily Examiner, 5/3/12

Read Clarencegirl's piece on the Cansdell-Gulaptis Roadshow here. 

Mormon's posthumously baptise people who when living were likely to be very unwilling converts

Organized religion rarely disappoints as in a Los Angeles Times report of 15 February 2012:

The Mormon Church apologized Tuesday for a "serious breach of protocol" after it was discovered that the parents of the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal were posthumously baptized as Mormons. The church also acknowledged that one of its members tried to baptize posthumously three relatives of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

The efforts, at least in Wiesenthal's case, violated the terms of an agreement that the church signed in 1995, in which it agreed to stop baptizing Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Wiesenthal and Wiesel gained fame for careers spent grappling with the legacy of the Holocaust, Wiesenthal by hunting down war criminals, Wiesel by writing books that became part of the canon of 20th century literature.

Coming at a time when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in the public eye as perhaps never before, the revelations could prove embarrassing — and, conceivably, influence perceptions of presidential candidate Mitt Romney's faith…..

The latest revelations came from Helen Radkey, a former Mormon who independently researches Mormon genealogy. Radkey is perhaps best known for discovering in 2009 that President Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, had been baptized after her death.