The people of Ulmarra, Glenreagh and Iluka need to act now if they wish to keep their local public pools or establish a new pool

The Clarence Valley Aquatic Facility Strategy, a Strategic Leisure Group draft report commissioned by Clarence Valley Council, has been released and will be considered at the Civil & Corporate Committee Meeting (C&CC) on 9 April 2013.

This report recommends closing both the Ulmarra and Glenreagh public pools rather than upgrading infrastructure or continuing routine maintenance.

This would force Ulmarra residents to brave the Pacific Highway and travel to South Grafton if they want regular aquatic exercise or a dip on a hot day and, send Glenreagh locals into the next local government area if they want to use the closest public pool.

Iluka is not well served by this report either as it recommends that a public pool capable of servicing the community far into the future not be established there at this time. Instead it suggests that Clarence Valley shire councillors might either look at a smaller pool option or send residents on a circuitous drive to Maclean’s public pool to take advantage of vaguely proposed discounted entrance fees.

When it comes to Yamba, the report also missed the golden opportunity to put forward the idea of creating a competitive-level pool which would attract state and interstate sporting events to the Lower Clarence.

While across the board it would appear that; Pool patrons indicated very strong satisfaction with existing pool managers and staff. Recommendations in relation to future management arrangements have been made including continuation of the existing contractor model but with reconsideration of the revenue sharing process.

Which flies in the face of contrary opinions held by some council staff, who may have possibly been too vigorous in pursuing their personal views.

Departing staff members have made their feeling known about one pool in tomorrow’s C&CC business paper as it states; Unfortunately Ulmarra pool is already on the priority list for significant works (resolution 13.036/11) and has $150,000 identified in the Delivery Program as a starting point… [my red bolding]

While admitting that; Glenreagh pool, by contrast, has recently had significant refurbishment which places it in a favourable position for at least 10 years.

Anyone interested in swimming as a recreational or sporting activity needs to make their own positions known to councillors as soon as possible or by the end of any public exhibition period should Council decide to place the draft report on public exhibition.

Abbott's Young Lib Army shows its true colour again

Abbott's Young Lib Army shows its true colour again - White Supremacist Gloss.

https://twitter.com/SydneyUniLibs

What navigating a former war zone looks like from the air

Something to think about if you are ever on a Dubai to Paris flight……….

Flying in what looks like an old wartime convoy line over Iraq in the late afternoon of 31 March 2013 ADST according to FlightRadar24:

More Abbott hypocrisy

Nine News 7 April 2013:

"The prime minister shouldn't use an overseas trip to make domestic political comments," he [Abbott] said.

The Australian 18 July 2012:

Mr Abbott told the Heritage Foundation, a leading [American] conservative think tank, that he was concerned Australia's defence spending had fallen to its lowest level as a percentage of GDP since 1938.

The West 5 April 2012:

The Federal Opposition plans to retain a key part of Labor's mining tax package, convinced it will generate billions of dollars in the decades ahead.

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey has confirmed to The West Australian that the coalition would keep the Government's extension of the petroleum resource rent tax to onshore projects.

Until the introduction of the mining tax last year, the PRRT was restricted to offshore oil and gas projects including the North-West Shelf and Bass Strait.

By extending its footprint to onshore reserves, the PRRT will capture massive amounts of tax from the expanding coal seam gas sector in Queensland and NSW.

Mr Hockey said the coalition still intended abolishing the minerals resource rent tax and insisted the decision to keep the expanded PRRT would not come as a surprise to the mining industry. "The coalition has been consistent in its message that our abolition of the MRRT will not automatically extend to the PRRT," he said yesterday.

Abbott’s pre-election ‘discussion’ about absconding with GST revenue assigned to Labor states and giving the billion plus to Liberal mates:

Only one way that Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott will ever fix their budget deficit and that’s strong revenues from the mining industry and the mining industry’s basically Western Australia….

He made comments to me along the lines that, ‘I don’t think it’s sensible to hold back strong parts of the economy to simply prop up weaker parts of the economy’…..

*Abbott photograph found at Google Images

Twitterverse in 2013: Kath doesn't heart Mark the MP

Kath Crosby on her blog Begin Rant:

Mark Coulton had no right what so ever to tell me to go call my father if I didn’t like that the entire executive of the Warialda Branch of the National Party were members of his family. Was I stirring by alerting the Inverell Times to the situation? Yes, but I wasn’t the idiot who tweeted it in the first place – that was his daughter – and I wasn’t the idiot who didn’t make sure there was some diversity on the executive – that would be him.

Desperate to stem the downward trend to its share value Metgasco sneaks into the media 2,000km away from its coal seam gas tenements

 

Coal seam gas company Metgasco Limited on 4 April 2013 trying to talk itself up on Page 51 of The Advertiser in Adelaide, approximately 2,000km away from its NSW exploration tenements:

 

COAL seam gas miner Metgasco says it has been asked to consider gas projects outside New South Wales after new government regulations led to it suspending its operations in the state.

A day after CSG player Dart Energy announced it would suspend its NSW operations and sack 70 per cent of its staff, Metgasco chief executive Peter Henderson said his company is receiving invitations to invest in projects in other parts of Australia and overseas.

 

This company’s 5.5 cent share price at close of Australian Stock Exchange trading on 5 April 2013 does not support Henderson’s hype:

Remember when the Australian coal seam gas industry admitted it would contaminate aquifers?

The Sydney Morning Herald 3 August 2011:

THE coal seam gas industry has conceded that extraction will inevitably contaminate aquifers.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association told a fiery public meeting in Sydney that good management could minimise the risks of water contamination, but never eliminate them.

''Drilling will, to varying degrees, impact on adjoining aquifers,'' said the spokesman, Ross Dunn. ''The extent of impact and whether the impact can be managed is the question.''