Belligen Readers Writers Festival 23-25 March 2012

For further details
http://bellingenwritersfestival.com.au/

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Quotes of the Week

From Tony Wright, National Affairs Editor of The Age on 15th March 2012:

“TAKE one pinch of asylum seeker, add a spoonful of smuggled handgun, stir with a good ladling of drive-by shootings and a cupful of border protection, and what have you got?

Why, the Abbott-Morrison Patented Elixir for a Pain in the Tax Policy. It might taste like offal and stink worse than last week's bottled carbon emission, but when you're short on ingredients you cook up what's on hand.”

From Bushfire Bill commenting over at The Poll Bludger on 16th March 2012:
Costello has done it again. He’s put himself and his preening expectations at the centre of a divisive shit fight, spitting the dummy one more time over not getting a job he had decided was his by right. Everywhere this bloke goes he causes trouble with his colleagues due to his implacable belief that he should be the boss.

Provest haz teh problems

Geoff I No Nothing Provest, the NSW North Coast MP for Tweed, is having a few problems. Not only is a local business & residents group taking in the him to court, he appears to have been caught taking a suspect political donation.

14  March 2012:

* THE lobby group looking to torpedo plans for a new $8 million Tweed police headquarters on the Kingscliff foreshore want local MP Geoff Provest to front up to a public meeting on the issue later this month. Officials from The Tweed Business and Residents Focus Group, which launched a Land and Environment Court challenge against the proposed headquarters, have invited Mr Provest to the meeting to be held at the Kingscliff Beach Bowls Club on March 27 from 7pm.

Mr Provest, also the Parliamentary Secretary for Police, is one of the respondents served with a court notice as part of the legal challenge to the project…. 

15  March 2012:

* TWEED Nationals MP Geoff Provest has been accused of accepting an illegal political donation says he did not realise the company involved was a property developer.
In question time today, Opposition Leader John Robertson asked Premier Barry O'Farrell what action he would take against the parliamentary secretary for police, Mr Provest, who he claimed had accepted a $2500 donation from developer Power Group. Under NSW laws, donations from property developers are banned, and at the time of the Power Group donation in March 2011 were restricted to a $2000 cap per individual candidate. In a personal explanation following question time, Mr Provest said he had always been "full and frank" with his pecuniary interests. "I did not realise that Power Industries and or (managing director) James Power may have been prohibited donors," Mr Provest said.

16 March 2012:

* In a statement, Mr Provest blamed the blunder on a volunteer.
"I have held myself at arm's length from the financial side of my campaign and relied on my agent to adhere to the new legislation," he said.
"I am disappointed that this has happened and have today revoked the appointment of my agent."
"My former agent was a volunteer within the party organisation and was not an expert in the very complex legal issues surrounding the new legislation.''

* "I did not realise that Power Industries and/or (managing director) James Power may have been prohibited donors," he said. "I'm now seeking advice from the NSW Election Funding Authority and if those donations are not permitted under the legislation they will be dealt with accordingly." He issued a statement yesterday denying the company was a property developer in NSW, but admitted the amount breached the cap.

Yellow Pages online entry at 19 March 2012

'My dirty little secret' is out

ABC Open

WINNERS of the ABC Open project 'Up Close' were announced yesterday, with Wooloweyah photographer Louise Gumb receiving a special mention for her photograph titled 'My dirty little secret'.

The image, a self-portrait of her own feet was the only entry made by Maelstrom Made Design, the design company owned by Louise and her husband Dan Gumb.

[The Daily Examiner,14 March 2012]

Maelstrom Made Design can be found here.

Newspaper nicknames

Readers of newspapers can, at times, be very cruel. For some, all they have to do to get their daily fill is stroll out through the front door and pick the day's copy up off the driveway (if the deliverer has been on target), out of the rose bushes or (and I swear this is true) if the deliverer has it really in for you, off the roof.

Column8 in today's Herald provides further samples of homework it set its readers. The task was simple enough. All that was required of readers was to tell the Herald (aka Granny) the nickname they gave their newspapers. Previously, The Courier-Mail was said to be the 'Curious Snail', The Cairns Post is the Cairns Ghost (it's thin and wispy at times), The West Australian is the Wet Alsatian and the SMH is The Sydenham Awning Herald ("it works better said than read".

Today, the Western Advocate is the Western Abdicate, The Canberra Times is The Crimes and our own local rag, The Daily Examiner, is 'the one minute's silence' (that's how long it takes to read it).

 

Our neighbours are somewhat kinder, they call it the 'Egg Timer' but Elsie, who lives up the street, calls it 'The Daily Exterminator'. At our place it's referred to as 'The Rapper' - most mornings it takes longer to get the plastic wrap off it than it does to read it, but that's nothing to whinge about. In fact, that task can be quite a challenge and test the grey matter a lot more than a Rubic Cube.

Note to DEX editor and staff: don't get your knickers in knots over those comments. DEX is just like our pet greyhound - you're 'family' and we still luvs ya, warts and all.

Julie Bishops other life?

One for the Only On The Internetz  file…..

An Oz pollie who’s still going strong at 97 years of age. How do you do it, Julie?

"Julie Bishop mini bio:Julie Bishop wos born on 30 Aug 1914in Denver, Colorado, USA.Jacqueline Brown is 5' 3'' (1.60 metres) height.Now actors age is 97 years.Worked like: Actress, Soundtrack.Julie Bishop has appeared in more than 91 films.First work was: 1923 - Bluebeard's Eighth Wife and last was: 1957 - The Big Land."
Seems someone out there in cyberspace got Julie Death Stare Bishop confused with a deceased American actor.

Lismore protestors redecorate Christian Democrat anti-gay marriage truck

StarOnline on 18^th March 2012:

“Lismore’s gay and lesbian community has grounded a truck displaying signage with anti-gay messages which warn of the dangers of same-sex marriage to children.

Locals staged a protest throughout the night and this morning, blockading the truck by parking another vehicle in front it while around 10 – 15 protesters sat behind it to demand the signage be taken down.

Overnight, slogans featuring the words ‘equal love’ and ‘love not hate’ were graffitied over the truck’s signage and the vehicle was covered with coloured streamers and glitter.

A local demonstrator, who requested not to be named, said the protest was not formally planned but was a, “groundswell community response.”

“There were a lot of families there who were distressed and offended by the message,” she told the Star Observer.

“This truck has been travelling the state and no-one is doing anything about it.”

Pics from @ABCNorthCoast