Visitors, words of caution

Initially, a letter to the editor in Saturday's Daily Examiner touched my funny bone. However, it didn't take long for reality to return and all I could think was, "Been there. Done that. BUT, this is bl##dy serious!"

Bev's letter (read it below) is cause for many businesses and organisations to give a lot more serious thought to their workplaces' health and safety, especially in relation to their provisions for all persons' egress from their workplaces.

The Examiner might just as easily have titled Bev's letter "Enter at your own risk!"

Remember, employers also have responsibilities associated with the health and safety of visitors to their places of work. The legislation does not only relate to their employees.

The joys of marriage - just jokin'!

Source: The Voice, CPSA, March 2012

A little NSW North Coast National Party history

It seems that the former Member for Clarence Steve Cansdell is not the only NSW North Coast National Party MP who fell afoul of the rules and lost his seat.

Here is mention of the former NSW Minister for Administrative Services and former member for Coffs Harbour, Matt Singleton, who was previously the Member for Clarence from February 1971 to August 1981.

That makes two out of the last four Nationals MPs representing Clarence coming to a sticky political end.

Hansard NSW Legislative Assembly 8 April 1998:  

Mr CARR: …… But I have done the National Party a great disservice, because the coalition had barely been elected to government and ICAC had not even begun its work on the north coast land deals when Matt Singleton was sacked overnight by Greiner. Matt Singleton had a great deal going. He was busily promoting to his Minister the rezoning of a nice little territory in his electorate. But he forgot to declare that he owned the property - a pretty big thing to overlook…

Hansard NSW Legislative Assembly 24 June 1992:  

Dr REFSHAUGE: …… The most grave of these omissions was that of the former Minister, Matt Singleton, whose failure to declare shareholdings in finance and property development companies was brought to light. The Deputy Premier also had failed to declare shareholdings in Matt Singleton's company, STR Finance. Mr Singleton not only failed to include shareholdings in a declaration to the Parliament; he completely ignored the former Premier's demand for a separate pecuniary interest file exclusive to him. Mr Singleton's indiscretion did not end there. He was found to be lobbying a ministerial colleague to have land rezoned for development. If the rezoning had occurred, Mr Singleton would have benefited substantially. It took Opposition pressure to have this disgraced Minister forced from office. This is the cleanskin Government. Matt Singleton, within a year of the Government coming to office, was forced to resign because he lacked the probity and the propriety to perform his ministerial responsibilities appropriately.

Antarctic: When is the Government of Japan going to get its priorities straight?

Photograph from Hervey Bay Tourist Centre

When is the Government of Japan going to get its priorities straight?  Hopefully before 2013. Its state-sponsored whale killers must be must be near a financial bottom of the ocean by now.

News.com.au March 9, 2012:

JAPAN has ended this season's whale hunt in the Antarctic Ocean having caught less than a third of its original target, the Fisheries Agency says.

Japanese whalers killed 266 minke whales and one fin whale, the agency said, well below the roughly 900 they had been aiming for when they left Japan in December.

The West Australian March 9, 2012:

The Japanese whaling fleet has pulled out of the Southern Ocean and is heading home three weeks before the whale hunt was scheduled to end.
The Japanese consul in Perth and the Institute of Cetacean Research have both confirmed the whalers are heading back to Japan.

You know you're an Aussie when..............

Currently doing the rounds on the Internet.

YOU KNOW YOU’RE AUSTRALIAN WHEN

You believe that stubbies can either be drunk or worn. You've made a bong out of your garden hose rather than use it for something legal such as watering the garden. You understand that the phrase 'a group of women wearing black thongs' refers to footwear and may be less alluring than it sounds. You pronounce Melbourne as 'Mel-bin'. You believe the 'l' in the word 'Australia' is optional. You can translate: 'Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas'.

You call your best friend 'a total bastard' but someone you really, truly despise is just 'a bit of a bastard'. You think 'Woolloomooloo' is a perfectly reasonable name for a place. You're secretly proud of our killer wildlife. You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin. You understand that 'Wagga Wagga' can be abbreviated to 'Wagga' but 'Woy Woy' can't be called 'Woy'.

You believe that cooked down axle grease makes a good breakfast spread - you've squeezed it through Vita Weats to make little Vegemite worms. You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they stuff up, at which point they again become Kiwis. Beetroot with your Hamburger... of course! You know that certain words must, by law, be shouted out during any rendition of the Angels' song 'Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again' And 'Living next door to Alice'. You wear ugg boots outside the house. You believe that every important discovery in the world was made by an Australian but then sold off for a pittance.

You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you like them. Whatever your linguistic skills, you find yourself able to order takeaway fluently in every Asian language. You understand that 'excuse me' can sound rude, While 'scuse me' is always polite. You know what it's like to swallow a fly, on occasion via your nose. You know it's not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle and a seat belt buckle becomes a pretty good branding iron. Your biggest family argument over the summer concerned the rules for beach cricket. You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what they call 'Anzac Cookies'.

You still think of Kylie as 'that girl off Neighbours'. When working in a bar, you understand male customers will feel the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer. You know how to abbreviate every word, all of which usually end in "o": arvo, combo, garbo, kero, lezzo, metho, milko, muso, rego, servo, smoko, speedo, righto, goodo etc... You know that there is a universal place called 'woop woop' located in the middle of nowhere, no matter where you actually are! You know that none of us actually drink Fosters beer, because it tastes like piss.

You sleep with Aeroguard on in the summer and don't mind it as a perfume. You've only ever used the words - tops, ripper, sick, mad, sweet, to mean "good" and when you place 'bloody' in front of it then you really mean it. You know that the barbecue is a political arena. You say 'no worries' quite often, whether you realise it or not. You understand what no wucking furries means. You've drank your tea/coffee/milo through a Tim Tam. You own a Bond's chesty - in several different colours.

You know that some people pronounce Australia like "Straya" and that's ok. And you will immediately forward this list to other Australians, here and overseas, realising that only they will understand!

Not happy B0F! The Clarence electorate responds to Cansdell's get-out-of-gaol-free card in NSW

By bandicoot from Palmers Island,

Rather strange that this stat. dec. was acceptable to get him off after breaking a state-based law but not good enough to charge him!

By bertson from Yamba,

What a neat little loophole for Mr Cansdell! Was he advised - perhaps by some of his police friends - to use a Commonwealth stat. dec.? And why has it taken over five months for anybody to point it out? Something very fishy here!

By yambaproud from Yamba,

No wonder so many were lining up for the Nationals pre-selection, it apparently comes with it's very own 'Get Out of Jail Free" card.

By yambaman from Yamba,

Well there you have it - 40 odd comments (compared to the usual 2 or 3 on normal issues) and none supporting Steve Candell - get the message government?

An absolute disgrace - the guy has admitted to a lie and isn't charged - now that destroys all of the public's faith in the judicial system - no politician is exempt, in fact all pollies must adhere to a higher level of accountability than ordinary citizens and yet here we have a perfect example of pollies doing the reverse!

By Jonnny2b from Maclean,

Deceit by people we trust why do we accept it?
We all know Steve Cansdell committed a crime and now the DPP says no charges.
They must be sitting back laughing at us.

The Daily Examiner online polling on 8 March 2012:

It must be true - it's on the Internet! according to one NSW climate change contrarian

One example of climate change contrarianism found in a Sydney Morning Herald report on 6 March 2012 where the financial trigger is more than obvious:

But a property developer, Jeff McCloy, said he was contemplating leading a class action suit against the council, which he said was ''falling for this unjustified, worldwide idiocy about sea level rises''.

Mr. McCloy recently arranged for climate change sceptics Ian Plimer, Bob Carter and David Archibald to address residents and councillors,…..

Mr. McCloy is seeking to gain approval for a subdivision of 24 homes that is likely to be affected by the Lake Macquarie planning guidelines…..

He said he had studied sea level rise on the internet and concluded it was rising at only a very slow rate, and that rate had slowed in the past decade, so any planning restrictions were unjustified.

As the Lake Macquarie mayor has observed; "Jeff is unashamedly a climate change sceptic and he won't be swayed, but he expects other people will be swayed by him" .

He is also Chairman of the McCloy Group which says of itself that it is a Hunter-based property group with a diversified portfolio of commercial and residential assets. Our portfolio currently holds more than 21,000 m2 of commercial office space in the heart of Newcastle’s CBD, attracting long-term, quality tenants, including Telstra, The Wests Group and Wesfarmers’ subsidiary, Blackwoods. The McCloy Group is staging construction of over 1,600 council-approved residential lots geographically spread in the Hunter. And we have almost 2,000 lots in the pipeline.

That he is seeking to publicly pressure Lake Macquarie Council and the NSW O’Farrell Government at this time probably has some relationship with the fact that Lake Macquarie Council has recently reviewed its  Draft Lake Macquarie Waterway Flood Study (2012) and Draft Lake Macquarie Waterway Flood Risk Management Study and Plan (2012) to include the effects of predicted sea level rises to the year 2100.

During this review climate change contrarians and local residents received a fair hearing in the community consultation phase (more than 90% of workshop participants were residents who own foreshore properties that are vulnerable to flooding and sea level rise) and it appears no additional properties were identified as affected by flood or sea level rise.

So it would appear that Mr. McCloy already knew his own residential property was in an ‘at risk’ area and his present concerns are purely commercial in nature.

Sadly the McCloy Group stance is typical of developers operating along the NSW coast.