Are Clarence Valley ratepayers expected to pay for rehabilitating the reputation of the Nationals MP for Clarence?

A little history courtesy of Clarence Valley Council ordinary monthly meeting minutes of 20 May 2008:

Council has supported a Clarence Valley presence at Country Week NSW in 2005 (organised by the former Clarence Valley Business Enterprise Centre), and 2006 & 2007 (organised by the Grafton Chamber of Commerce & Industry). Council’s support has comprised a financial contribution of $2,000 each year, collateral, advertising in a locally produced feature (produced by the Clarence Valley Review) and Sydney based event marketing managed by Pallamedia. In 2007 Council extended its support to include a senior staff member who attended all days of the event. It is estimated that this total package is valued at $8,000.

In 2008 Council voted not to attend Country Week (now rebadged as The Country & Regional Living Expo) given significant budget constraints, difficulties associated with measuring return on investment from the activity and the complexity of the Sydney relocation market and decided not to financially support Clarence Valley groups who decided to attend.

It is my understanding that Cr. Richie Williamson attended this meeting and voted to abandon Council support of Country Week – agreeing that Clarence Valley’s community of interest is not with Sydney.

I have yet to hear that since becoming mayor he has changed his mind on this subject. Indeed it would appear to be his long-held view.

Such a view is supported by the fact that the Clarence Valley annual population growth rate over eleven years between 2001-2011 was only 0.5% - and although there was migration into the valley from Sydney it appears to have lost more residents permanently relocating into Queensland.

So one has to wonder if his attendance at the 2012 Expo is not simply an effort to help rehabilitate the battered reputation of fellow National Party member, Clarence MP Chris Gulaptis, who was reported in The Daily Examiner  on 31 July 2012:

The NSW Government agreed to provide $8000 to assist with costs associated with having a site at the expo.

"Both Richie and I sought support from the Government given the recent job losses in the area, and we are pleased they have listened and provided assistance," Mr Gulaptis said. "This is an opportune time to promote the Clarence Valley where we have a captive market."

Especially as one of the official state-wide exhibitors just happens to be the NSW National Party – the only political party with a site presence.

Apart from being listed as an exhibitor on the second to last page of the Expo’s promotional magazine, so far the Valley’s ‘promotion’ mostly comprises a sad list of business up for sale from the Clarence Coast up to Grafton City. With very few jobs on offer – some of which include Roads & Maritime Services contract positions which will disappear within two years.

Now mayoral travel to and from Sydney, accommodation and meals over two days will definitely cost over and above the $8,000 in government funding mentioned. Such funding is only part of the estimated $9,077 fee for Clarence Valley’s two adjoining 3x3m floor space sites which will be competing for attention with around sixty other groups at the Expo being held at Rosehill Racecourse.

So who is paying the mayor’s costs? I  imagine that ratepayers will be less than amused if Richie tries to bill Council after the event.

And who are the council representatives (plural) which The Daily Examiner editor writes about on 2 August? Are ratepayers expected to financially support multiple weekend trips south?

There is nothing wrong with promoting the Clarence Valley, especially in the face of O'Farrell Government regional cost-cutting. A well-planned strategy can potentially perform above expectations.

However, one cannot escape the feeling that this particular manifestation has not been thought through by local government. Clarence Valley Council should have been planning its expo participation a year out from the event and it obviously didn't do so.

NSW local government elections: there's to be no party politics, unless ...

A correspondent writing in The Coffs Advocate (Wednesday, 1 August) has caught the local member Andrew Fraser with his pants down.

It seems Fraser doesn't want candidates in the September council elections to have any political affiliatiions. If that's to be the case, Fraser should have added a retrospective factor to his comments and called for a number of his parliamentary coalition mates to be shown the door. Chris Gulaptis, the local member for Clarence who is still on trainer wheels would have to go. Hey, that idea has some merit! Plus, Steve Cansdell would never have got a guernsey in the chamber. Oh, by the way, what's happening on the Scansdellsgate scene? Have federal authorities finally got their act together? Are they going to throw the book at Cansdell? Or, has that matter vapourised into thin air?

Here's John Vernon's letter in yesterday's Advocate.

Coffs Harbour MP Andrew Fraser said people interested in running for local government should not have political affiliations - "Coffs MP wants 'independent' future councillors" - ABC posted July 6, 2012.

How many current National Party MPs started their career in politics as an "independent" councillor? Chris Gulaptis, Stephen Bromhead, John Barilaro and Paul Toole come to mind as "independent councillors" who have graduated to being a National Party MP. There are many more examples from past governments and many councillors who are National and Liberal party members although they have campaigned as "independent" councillors.

Why would Andrew Fraser make these comments? Is he concerned the Greens believe in honest and transparent government and are calling for all prospective councillors to pledge to abstain from voting when they have a conflict of interest, pecuniary or otherwise? The O'Farrell government has of course changed the law so abstention from a vote when a councillor has a personal interest is no longer required.

Is it because the O'Farrell government is pushing through new planning laws that will severely restrict the right of residents to oppose inappropriate planning developments? Indeed the deadline for submissions on these proposals will be an astonishing, restrictive six days after the local government elections. The same date is also the restrictive deadline for submissions on the future of local government. That review opens the door to further local government amalgamations.

Greens' councillors will work to maintain council's powers and protect residents' rights in regard to planning. It is therefore no surprise a National Party MP is stating that "people interested in standing for local government should not have political affiliations".

JOHN VERNON

Will the Chinese Government eventually dominate the NSW electricity transmission network?

One 26 July 2012 Nationals MP for Clarence Chris Would I Lie To You? Gulaptis told The Daily Examiner that there are no plans to sell poles and wires as part of the O’Farrell Government’s plan to fully privatize the NSW power industry.

Yet government is in the process of consolidating all poles and wires networks into a single corporation and, on 26 October last year the Premier told a Budget Estimates committee hearing that there had been no election promise to retain poles and wires in public ownership.

It cannot be clearer than this exchange from the hearing transcript; The Hon. Luke Foley: Did you not give a commitment in Lithgow that poles and wires would be retained in public ownership? Mr Barry O'Farrell: No.  

The Premier then went on to claim that he had been misquoted by Lithgow media on 28 January 2011 when one paper attributed this statement to him; We have absolutely no plans to privatise either the generators or the poles and wires.

By March 2012 the O’Farrell Government had legislation in place which would allow privatisation of state-owned power generators which is expected to bring in between $3-$4 billion in total when eventually sold.

Here on the NSW North Coast privatisation of state-owned assets is a sensitive issue given that historically such state sales are often accompanied by job losses or price hikes to consumers. One estimate is that up to two hundred jobs would be at risk in the Clarence Valley alone.

So it is with some trepidation that I read this in the Business Spectator on 31 July 2012:

The NSW Liberal government is devising a plan to attract greater foreign investment in the state's assets that will see more than $40 billion worth of infrastructure assets made available to Chinese state-owned companies, according to The Australian.

On a tour of China, NSW Liberal Premier Barry O'Farrell said that Chinese state-owned companies would be able to bid on asset sales that will be outlined in an infrastructure blueprint due in September.

Will the NSW Liberal-Nationals Coalition Government decide to offer North Coast poles and wires to the Chinese Government if it shows an interest or to sweeten a deal?

An alternative perspective on the NSW Planning and Assessment Commission

According to the Mid-North Coast Greens, an analysis of 461 development applications considered by the supposedly independent NSW Planning and Assessment Commission (PAC) since the O’Farrell Government came to power in 2011 shows:

In 97.6 per cent of cases the PAC approves the development;
- In 98.87 per cent of cases the PAC ticks off on the recommendation of
the Planning Department bureaucrats; and
- In 98.64 per cent of cases the planning department bureaucrats
recommend approval of the development.

This would appear to be a remarkably high number of complying applications and, an unusual number of developers fervently embracing the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979 and other relevant planning instruments.

Perhaps Brad Hazzard as Minister for Planning and Infrastructure and, current Commission members Gabrielle Kibble AO (Chair), Donna Campbell, John Court, Lindsay Kelly, Garry Payne AM, Dr Neil Shepherd AM, Emeritus Professor Kevin Sproats, Janet Thomson, and Richard Thorp ( along with Dr Lloyd Townley, Emeritus Professor Jim Galvin, Dr Steve Perrens, and Dr Graeme Batley), might like to explain this almost unnatural behaviour on the part of developers of projects as diverse as coal mining and high-pressure natural gas pipelines through to shopping centres, residential subdivisions and marinas.

Their explanations would make for fascinating reading.

Are Clarence Coast homeowners becoming too greedy?

National Australia Bank (NAB) Quarterly Australian Residential Property Survey: June 2012:
"According to the survey, national house prices fell -2% in the June quarter, from -1.3% in Q1’12, with all states reporting price falls in the 3 months to June.
House price declines were most pronounced in Victoria, down -2.9% (-1.8% in Q1’12). Heavier falls were also seen in NSW (-2.3%), compared with -0.4% fall in Q1’12. Capital values held up best in WA, although they also fell -0.6% (-0.1% in Q1’12). Marginally slower price declines were recorded in Queensland (-1.7%) and SA/NT (-1.6%).
The housing sector is expected to remain under pressure in the next year, with property professionals expecting national prices to fall by -0.7% (-0.2% forecast in Q1’12). There is, however, wide variance between the states.
Prices are expected to continue falling in Victoria (-2.1%), NSW (-1.5%) and SA/NT (-0.5%), but grow in WA (1.6%) and Queensland (0.5%)."
ANZ Research is slightly more optimistic; "prices, capital values and property market confidence in NSW should edge gradually higher through the second half of 2012 in the absence of further deterioration in the global economy."
These reports might explain why First National Real Estate Yamba in its July 2012 property update flyer is stating “some vendors pricing does not reflect the current market” as contributing to the fact that only forty-five homes have been recorded as sold in Yamba in the last six months.
Apparently many of those million dollar plus waterfront ‘mansions’ are only worth a million dollars plus in the eyes of their owners at the moment. Which might explain why they have been very publicly languishing in online property listings representing around three hundred and twenty Yamba properties currently for sale.

Australian Carbon Price Liable Entities - 24 July 2012 Update

The Clean Energy Regulator has released an updated list of corporations and councils liable to pay a price for their greenhouse gas emissions in the financial year 2012-13.

Clarence Valley Council appears to be the only Northern Rivers local government on this list, presumably due to landfill emissions.

Full list here.

Update:

As usual the Federal Nationals local Cassandra Luke Hartsuyker is yelling the sky is falling over the issue and making sure not to mention Council's new residential and business waste management scheme which will divert 60% of the valley's domestic waste away from landfill and see greenhouse gas emissions begin to reduce from 30 July 2012.

Residential supply customers carrying the can for gold-plated electricity industry infrastructure upgrades

Granny Herald points out the blindingly obvious on 27th July 2012:

"If any further evidence were needed to demonstrate how the power companies, both state-owned and private, have been foisting unnecessary price hikes on their customers, it can be found in the industry's own energy forecasts.
Forecasts of demand for electricity have a significant impact on the price of electricity. The higher the forecasts, the more money earmarked by industry for network upgrades in order to cater for this supposed increase in demand. In turn, the higher the financial returns for the industry players.
Ironically, as the transmission and distribution companies earn a regulated return on their assets, they have a perverse incentive to spend for the sake of spending.
Yet the great conundrum of the radical rise in Australian electricity prices
- up 70 per cent in six years and poised to ratchet another 30 per cent higher this year and the next - is that consumer demand has actually been falling, and falling for years.
Actual consumption in the National Electricity Network has been way out of whack with forecasts. For the past three years, the industry has had to downgrade its forecasts, and by a considerable margin. Still, they persist with forecasting large rises in energy consumption, even in the face of a clear downtrend in actual demand - and huge price rises at the retail level to boot.
Not only has the electricity industry failed to recognise a change of trend in total demand, but in peak summer demand and peak winter demand too."