Whichever way one looks at it, Murdoch, Kroger and Abbott have egg on their faces

The Age 5 August 2013:

                  

News Ltd has publicly apologised to a former student politician who was branded a serial liar by Liberal powerbroker Michael Kroger after she had accused Opposition Leader Tony Abbott of physically intimidating her.

In a remarkable twist that could reignite debate about Mr Abbott's alleged punching of a wall after losing a student election in the late 1970s, News Ltd's barrister read an extended apology in the NSW Supreme Court on Monday on behalf of The Australian to the alleged victim of the intimidation, Barbara Ramjan, as part of a settlement of a defamation action. 

In an essay by former Fairfax Media journalist David Marr, released last September, Ms Ramjan said that in 1977, after she beat Mr Abbott for the presidency of the Sydney University Student Representative Council, he put his face close to hers and punched the wall either side of her head.

Mr Abbott denied the incident occurred and a few days later, Mr Kroger described Ms Ramjan in The Australian and on radio and television as a serial manufacturer or false complaints, "a nutter", and "a nobody"….. 

An end run around transparent local government in the Clarence Valley

Letter to the editor published in The Daily Examiner 7 August 2013:

Glaring omission

What a masterful piece of misdirection on Clarence Valley Council’s part can be found in “Not so ‘sensitve’ after all” [The Daily Examiner, 2August 2013].

Point to the front cover of the “Review of Environmental Factors – Yamba Bypass Section 2”  report and cry; the consultant did it not us – nothing to see here!

Actually, the form Clarence Valley Council was required to submit with its referral documents, and which was co-signed by Council, listed two reports as "Not publicly available".

The “Review of Environmental Factors” (along with a second flora and fauna study) was ordered to be undertaken by unanimous vote of councillors on 26 July 2012  when considering Item 13.079/12 Stage 1 Yamba Urban By-pass Road and Urban Intersections Project and, should properly have been presented to councillors for their information by now.

The relevant motion in part resolved: "The scope of Stage 1 of the Yamba Urban Bypass and Urban Intersections project be: extend existing road from Yamba Road / Shores Drive intersection to Coldstream Street."

Management has now arbitrarily split Stage 1 of this bypass road into Section 1 and Section 2, in what looks suspiciously like an attempt to prohibit an integrated overview of flora and fauna along the length of the yet to be constructed road rather than a legitimate planning requirement.

However this does not remove its obligation to keep all councillors informed, as the motion went to the overarching Item 13.079/12.

Many Yamba residents will remember that the reason parts of this motion were put forward in the first place was the fact that neither councillors nor community has [sic] been aware that the Yamba Bypass was being progressed and in a different manner to earlier plans.

Thankfully, the Federal Environment Minister has been more obliging, so both councillors and Yamba residents can go to http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/epbc/epbc_ap.pl?name=current_referral_detail&proposal_id=6928 and download the referral form and all attachments - with the exception of the flora and fauna study/assessment as it is still missing from the public record.

If one believes Council’s referral form, all this need for sensitivity is supposedly an effort to protect one endangered species from public knowledge – which is laughable given Maclean Council documents openly mentioned its existence on the proposed bypass route, Clarence Valley Council documents helpfully point out what sort of vegetation clusters in Yamba are likely to contain this species and as late as 2006 was mentioning it in print and online media in relation to the bypass route
.

What this secrecy did achieve was to lock both the Yamba and Yaegl communities out of the ten day public comment period in which objections could be made to the Federal Environment Minister in relation to the contents of Council’s referral documents.

JUDITH M. MELVILLE

Yamba

Thought the O'Farrell Government had gone quiet on coal seam gas mining? Well think again. This is what Northern Rivers Nationals MPs Page, Gulaptis and George are about to help push through the NSW Parliament

This NSW draft legislative amendment set out below allegedly has the aim to increase confidence for investors and the community about how decisions are made on mining proposals by making the ‘significance of the resource’ the consent authority’s principal consideration under Part 3 of the Mining SEPP when determining a resource DA.

There are apparently five days left in the community consultation period and one can make an online submission.

Did anyone on the NSW North Coast see this amendment advertised in local newspapers? Did either Don Page, Chris Gulaptis or Thomas George alert local communities to this move by Premier O’Farrell and Resources Minister Chris Hartcher?

DRAFT NSW State Environmental Planning Policy (Mining, Petroleum Production and Extractive Industries) Amen... by clarencegirl

The Greens candidate in Cowper throws down the gauntlet in front of Luke Hartsuyker

The Greens candidate in Cowper, Carol Vernon, has sent out this letter to the media.

Letter to Editor

Dear Mr Hartsuyker

It appears that you will not debate your fellow candidates in Cowper, anywhere or at any time.

Are you so sure of being elected that you can't even be bothered to defend your National Party policies, policies I presume you enthusiastically believe and therefore want your electorate to know?

For example do the Nationals have costed policies on schools, workers rights, affordable housing, job creation from a renewable energy industry and climate change? Perhaps you just completely follow the secretively costed and deliberately sketchy policies of your big brother Liberals?

We would like to hear what you think about the coal seam gas mining that threatens the farms and water in the north of Cowper.

We wait with baited breath to hear if you believe the short term 'jobs ' of minerals mining in our rivers' headwaters will justify the pollution of our rivers and the ensuing shock to our tourism, dairying, beef, fishing and food production industries, let alone the poisoning of our water supplies. And yes, we have seen too many broken promises about mining safeguards to believe your reassurances. Too many National Party politicians move on to safe jobs in the mining industry for us to swallow environmental platitudes.

Are you concerned that your children and grandchildren will be living in a much warmer climate in a land devastated by fires, droughts, flood and storms or do you believe climate change is 'crap' like your coalition leader?

If the candidate for Richmond can debate the Prime Minister surely you are not reluctant to debate a sixty-eight year old female retired educator?

Yours sincerely

Carol Vernon

Greens candidate for Cowper

The Liberal Party's 'white bread' campaign advertisement

This official Liberal Party of Australia advertisement was uploaded to YouTube the day after the 2013 Federal Election date was announced.

Not a good look for a party historically perceived as representing Australia’s white upper and middleclass men and their business interests.

So few images of the traditional owners of this country or people from non-English speaking backgrounds and no specific policy details.

Full of blondes and hype……

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=nk0E3lyx4EU

A little fact checking of claims made by NSW Nationals candidate for Page Kevin Hogan

Kevin Hogan For Page 31 July 2013

So unemployment has risen in the Northern Rivers since Federal Labor gained government in 2007?

The Northern Rivers Regional Profile 2011 Update states that in 2006 the Northern Rivers unemployment rate was between 7.9 and 20.1 per cent and, this occurred when there was a Federal Coalition Government.

According to the NSW Regional Labour Force Trends: Statistical Indicators 3/2013:

In January 2013 the combined unemployment rate for the Northern Rivers and Mid-North Coast (from Tweed Heads down to Taree) was 6.8 per cent.

Which meant that there had been a 9 per cent increase in the number of people in the working age population who were employed compared to a 6.6 per cent increase for New South Wales generally.

The overall unemployment rate for the Northern Rivers and Mid-North Coast between 2008-2013 was 0.5 per cent.

This same document stated:

The number of employed persons in regional NSW grew by 7.2% (85,000 persons) between 2008 and 2013. Newcastle experienced the largest growth (22,600 persons) followed closely by the Richmond-Tweed and Mid-North Coast region (19,700 persons).

Here is a graph showing the percentage of the Northern Rivers population of workforce age who were unemployed between September 2008 and March 2012 according to Regional Development Australia: Northern Rivers (2013) and, one can clearly see that this figure fell after peaking during the Global Financial Crisis

What about Kevin Hogan’s claim that Northern Rivers regional economy is not doing as well as it could?

It would appear that, contrary to his claim, the Northern Rivers is not doing too badly compared with the rest of regional New South Wales.

Lawrence Consulting and Regional Development Australia: Northern Rivers documents show that the Northern Rivers Gross Regional Product (GRP) has continued to grow annually. In 2008/9 it was $7.8 billion, in 2009/10 it was $11.1 billion and, by 2011/12 the annual growth of GRP was 11.4 per cent compared with overall NSW GRP growth at 2.2 per cent.

As to the Kevin Hogan’s claims that the Northern Rivers families are struggling with the costs?

Here is a 2012 table showing the weekly personal incomes of the entire population across the Northern Rivers (from dependent children through to those aged 65 years and older) according to Regional Development Australia: Northern Rivers:

Click on image to enlarge

As for Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) determinations regarding the cost of living - it can be seen that cost increases are not generally rising sharply and in some categories appear to be falling over time.

ABS figures for the end of 2011:

The CPI rose 3.1% through the year to the December quarter 2011, compared with a rise of 3.5% through the year to the September quarter 2011.

Selected Living Cost Indexes, Australia, Jun 2013 

The living cost index for employee households rose 0.2% for the June quarter 2013. The main contributor to the rise was alcohol and tobacco (+1.3%), partially due to the flow–on effects of the federal excise tax increase on 1 February 2013. Clothing and footwear (+2.6%) and health (+1.8%) also contributed to the rise.
The most significant partially offsetting fall was recorded for insurance and financial services (–0.9%), driven by a fall in interest charges. Transport (–0.9%) and recreation and culture (–0.8%) also recorded falls this quarter.
The LCI for employee households recorded a smaller rise than the CPI (+0.4%) for the June quarter 2013. Employee households have a relatively lower proportion of expenditure on housing than the CPI population, which recorded a rise this quarter. This was further offset by the fall in interest charges, which for conceptual reasons is not included in the CPI.
The LCI for employee households rose 1.4% through the year to the June quarter 2013 compared to the CPI which rose 2.4% through the year to the June quarter 2013.

While the  Living Cost Index and Consumer Price Index comparisons for independent retirees and those receiving government pensions, benefits and allowances show that the percentage change has fallen from between June-September Quarters 2012 and March-June Quarters 2013:

What about Hogan’s claim that Northern Rivers debt is at record levels?

He does not indicate whether he means public or private debt which makes this assertion difficult to check.

If it is public debt, then The Australian has reported that under the O'Farrell Coalition Government the state debt projections (based on NSW Treasury figures) are as follows:

As for local government debt, one has to acknowledge that all Northern Rivers local government would carry some degree of operating debt and all would have a backlog of infrastructure maintenance/upgrade requirements. As local government is a creature of state government, one can hardly sheet home blame for its structural/funding inadequacies to the federal government  - especially since the Australian Constitution presently makes no mention of a direct funding relationship between the Commonwealth and local governments.

To place council debt into some sort of perspective, here are tables covering revenue sources for local government across the Northern Rivers in 2011-12.

Independent Local Government Review Panel:

Clarence Valley Council:

The quiet desperation that is McDonalds Australia

In 2010  thanks to a blindly pro-multinational and Grafton-centric Clarence Valley Council, the little coastal town of Yamba had an ugly prefab, generic designed and unwanted McDonalds fast food outlet foist upon it.

The only thing that this multinational appears to have brought to the town is a level of litter in Treelands Drive and environs that it never had before.

So it was with quiet satisfaction that I read this in Lifehacker at the end of July 2013:

When we heard about McDonald’s Free Breakfast Deal promotion, we were expecting long queues and a lengthy wait. However, you should be served pretty quickly if our local outlet is anything to go by…

Over the next month, McDonald’s Australia is offering free breakfast items each Monday morning, beginning with today’s free Bacon McMuffin. There’s no catch or additional purchase requirements (although there is a limit of 1000 freebies per store and only one item per customer).

The above photo is what the line looked like at McDonald’s Circular Quay restaurant at approximately 8am. As you can see, demand for the free breakfast isn’t particularly overwhelming…..

It would appear that in 2012-2013 McDonalds’ Yamba store is not alone in failing to draw in customers and now this multinational is reduced to giving away its product.