Clarence Valley Council draft customer service policy

Clarence Valley Council has released its Draft Customer Service Policy and invites comment until 30 January 2015.

Local residents and ratepayers who have frequent contact with the third tier of government should read this document for the comic relief.

In part it states that Council commits to:

Formally recognising that our customers are our first priority and nothing is more important than keeping our customers informed and providing accurate and timely responses to customer requests for information or services.

Developing a customer first culture throughout the organisation by providing staff with the tools they need to deliver excellent customer service including training and education and access to the appropriate systems, processes and technologies.

Ensuring equitable access to council services and information for all customers regardless of disability, ethnicity, language or age.

Regularly reviewing and updating the portals used for customer contact by seeking customer feedback on preferred contact methods, staying abreast of technological advancements, reviewing internal processes and procedures as necessary.

Developing measurable service standards for customer contact to guide officers in their dealings with customers, to provide certainty for customers on when they can expect their requests to be responded to and to ensure that standards are consistently being met.

Upholding the provisions of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009,and the National Privacy Act, including maintaining confidentiality for customers in all matters in strict accordance with those statutes.

Promoting mutually respectful and courteous interactions between customers and Council staff by applying Council’s Code of Conduct to the actions of staff and by protecting, supporting and equipping our staff to manage customers who display an unacceptable level of rudeness, profane language or aggression towards them.

Prompt and efficient services.

 Easy access to our services.

Friendly, professional service.

Accurate and consistent information.

In return Council asks that residents and ratepayers:

Treat our staff in a polite and respectful manner;

Be honest and accurate in your dealings with Council;

Work with us to solve problems;

Give us feedback on the things we do;

Respect community property.

Now this is a good policy and many ordinary members of staff and their 'customers' already interact well and within these guidelines.

However, Clarence Valley Council's executive and senior management have forgotten one basic truism - a fish rots from the head down and local government has been on the nose for years.

I suspect that for them, this policy will only come into play when office politics become heated and vindictive.

So, all those journalists who have been shouted at by senior level management, all the ratepayers that have had to fight to get any sort of written answer to their concerns, all the objectors to a development or rezoning application who were supplied with unconscionably late, incomplete, inaccurate or downright misleading information, as well as those that have joined the ranks of what appears to be a veritable multitude down the years who have been threatened with defamation for daring to raise issues – guffaw loudly in chorus now.

You’ll shake the eaves!

While North Coast Voices blog was on holidays the Northern Rivers once again showed its heart......

Letter to the Editor in The Northern Star on 27 December 2014 at Page 17:

Drought relief

On Saturday December 6, 567 Christmas hampers plus boxes of toys and gifts left the Eltham Hall and headed out to drought-stricken farming families with everything having been donated by the caring community of the Northern Rivers. Once again the response was amazing, not only the food; toys; gifts; laundry and toiletry products; but the boxes in which they were packed courtesy of Amcor; the freight as usual by Tamex whose local agent is Greg from Lismore Tenterfield Transport; the forklift and truck supplied by Mills Transport and driven by Dave their transport manager. The boxes were all loaded onto pallets once again by the wonderful Clunes RFS.

Thanks must also go to those who made cash donations ranging from $20 to over $1000 into the drought account that enabled us to buy what was needed. Thanks also to the churches who donated, particularly the Uniting Church of Mullumbimby that donated 40 boxes of goodies; the Bangalow Anglican Op Shop and the Seventh Day Adventist Op Shop which both donated $500. Global Care from Ballina once again showed they really care!

Thank you to the wonderful children from Wollongbar and Modanville Public Schools whose teachers encouraged them to collect for the farmers. All the local Lions Clubs who generously donated cakes and cash, particularly Kingscliff, Byron Bay and the Bangalow Lions who facilitate the Drought Fund. Even the district governor and regional secretary who drove up from Port Macquarie with hundreds of cakes and puddings!

It is impossible to thank everyone, but you know who you are and you can rest assured that your kindness is already making a huge difference out there in the dry and dusty outback.

The appreciation is already being shown and one dear old farmer spoke to me of having his credit card rejected on $27 of groceries; he only had $11 left in the bank, so you can imagine how overwhelmed he was to receive his hamper!

Thank you everyone for making this appeal such a success, all the wonderful volunteers, particularly Karen Hagley who has been helping with this project for years; those who picked up and delivered (including my husband John) and helped to sort and pack. It was a lovely to meet you all and work with such great people.

Happy Christmas to you all.

ANNE THOMPSON

Organiser North Coast Drought Appeal

A most telling blog description

This is an Islamaphobe father of six Australian blogger writing about himself:

Bernard Gaynor is a conservative Catholic who writes what normal men dare not speak out loud.

Before you start to cry copious tears for Community Housing Limited on the NSW North Coast......

Mainstream media on the NSW North Coast reported that Community Housing Limited had lost its NSW Land & Environment Court bid for rates exemption on its 1,368 properties in this state.

On its website the company asserts it is a registered charity. However, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission lists it as a public benevolent institution and the court decided that the company failed to prove it was a charity in its presented arguments.

In its Concise Annual Report 2014 Community Housing Limited stated:

At 30 June 2014 CHL had a portfolio of 4,309 properties under rental management in Australia across six States including Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania. Internationally in Timor Leste, Chile, and India….

Results for year

Total revenue and other income of the Economic Entity is $70,842,035 (2013: $88,406,634).

Total Members Funds are $315,033,844 (2013: $303,983,086). Net surplus for the year amounted to $11,050,758 (2013:$39,630,760)….

In 2014 the company had a surplus of over $11.1 million, total rental income of over $36.6 million and paid no income tax.

In Australia its combined grant and incentive income in 2014 was over $17.7 million.

In the Coffs Harbour area the company appears to have taken possession of 180 Coffs Harbour public housing properties (a mix of one & two bedroom units) in 2011, with the state government contributing a one-off payment of around $1.5 million and the company making a contribution of around $1 million to required property upgrades.

In the Clarence Valley it has fourteen housing properties (a mix of units, townhouses and houses) in Grafton funded by federal, state and local government in the form of land contribution, discounted land sale, capital grants and National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) as well as a loan taken out by the housing company.

These appear to be typical profiles of how this company funds its affordable housing expansion.

So the bottom line in all this is that a comfortably cashed-up international housing company (which already gets considerable assistance from all three tiers of Australian government) wanted more and didn’t get it.

Forgive me, if I cannot see why it shouldn’t pay its council rates, particularly in regional New South Wales where net surpluses running into many millions are rarely found in in local government coffers.

The ongoing Tony Abbott entitlement saga

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has an annual base salary of $507,338 per annum and a wide range of parliamentary entitlements.

In the second half of 2014 the Australian Department of Finance released the latest available list of paid entitlements.

On first glance, just looking at one 4-day period immediately raises suspicion about a claim for travel allowance by the Prime Minister.

Perth Now reported on 30 March 2014 that Abbott was in that city for party political purposes:

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott will fly his Cabinet to Perth this week in an attempt to rally last minute support for the Liberals in the upcoming Senate election.

With just one week to go before the re-run senate poll, Mr Abbott has decided to unleash his federal ministers on Perth as part of a week-long assault to muster support for the Liberals.

The move comes amid growing fears within the Liberal camp that they could lose a crucial third senate position in Saturday’s election – a result which would make it even more difficult for Mr Abbott to pass laws in the federal parliament.

Informed sources said yesterday Mr Abbott’s decision to fly his Cabinet to Perth was a strategic move to remind voters that there were already five West Australian ministers in the federal Parliament and that Liberal senators would be part of an already strong contingent of government representatives in Canberra.

While in Perth, Mr Abbott will also attempt to swell the coffers of the Liberal Party by being the headline act of a party fundraiser tomorrow night – charging $5000 a table to attend.

“Western Australia is at the heart of my Government. We have five Ministers from WA, three in the Cabinet, which means WA has an incredibly strong voice around the decision-making table and that will be on display when Cabinet meets in Perth on Tuesday,” Mr Abbott told The Sunday Times yesterday.

“If Western Australia wants a strong team and a better deal, there’s only one way to vote and that is to vote for the Liberal candidates who will have a strong voice within the Government…. [my red bolding]

On 31 March he squeezed in a visit to Pearce RAAF base in Perth and an appearance at a WA Telethon awards event, ahead of his headline appearance at the Liberal Party fundraiser on 1 April and the supposed official Cabinet meeting with his ministers on 2 April.

The Australian Dept. of Finance reported that between 30 March and 2 April 2014 it gave a travel allowance refund to Tony Abbott of over $2,000 for this particular visit to Perth:

Associated VIP flight costs totalled $17,470 to fly him and advisors/staff from Canberra to Perth via Sydney & Melbourne, plus a further $11,550 to fly both he and his entourage back to Canberra on 3 April.

Abbott has a long history of alleged abuse of parliamentary entitlements, including this instance as Opposition Leader and this example as Prime Minister of a manipulation of entitlement criteria.

Given that Tony Abbott tends to go into full electioneering mode ahead of any formal election campaign, I’m sure political tragics around the nation will be closely watching his expense claims this year.

The Daily Examiner: methinks it stinks!

The Daily Examiner, 31 December 2014, Page 3:

While the voting numbers varied between our online poll and votes lodged directly with The Daily Examiner, we decided to weight these views differently because many online voters were not buyers of our newspaper.

We're pleased to be supporting a majority of Australian-made cartoons - including Zanetti on our opinion pages - and we look forward to your feedback.

On the same day Bill Dickinson took to Facebook to express his displeasure - thereby joining a growing band of valley residents unhappy with a range of APN News & Media’s decisions:

Bill of course could have added that there is only one regular opinion page in the old Egg Timer and that page only carries one political cartoon per issue, despite the liberal use of plurals in The Daily Examiner quote at the top of this post.

He could have also pointed out that The Daily Examiner has an ePaper which is purchased online.

As far as the financial integrity of those who lodged votes directly - its an open secret that traditional print copies of the newspaper are often shared between households (sometimes between up to half the houses in a short street) with only one person being the purchaser, so there is no guarantee that the person voting directly in Grafton or by mail actually paid for the newspaper.

The Australian Minister for Women is clearly not capable of understanding his role

The Australian 26 March 2011

On 30 December 2014 The Sydney Morning Herald reported:

The number of women on government boards has slipped below the 40 per cent target and a new report says men made up 75 per cent of new appointees within Tony Abbott's own Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet this year.

The Prime Minister, who is also the Minister for Women, has assured voters he is committed to the gender diversity target but the opposition says the statistics should "set the bells ringing".

The annual Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards Report says overall female representation slipped from its peak of 41.7 per cent under Labor in 2013 to 39.7 under the Coalition in 2014.

The Coalition drastically slashed the number of board positions from 4039 to 3206 when it came into government as part of its deregulation agenda.

The report, prepared by the Office for Women, which sits in the Prime Minister's Department, PM&C, said there were 639 new appointments to boards as of June 2014.

63.5 per cent of those positions were offered to men, meaning 36.5 per cent went to women……

"The government is committed to the 40:60 target and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women is working with colleagues to ensure this target is achieved," said a spokesman for Mr Abbott….

Not only has female board representation slipped significantly, the self-appointed Minister for Women clearly does not understand the gender diversity policy he is supposed to support.

A 40:60 target? One presumably giving 40 positions to women and 60 to men?

No, the real target is 40:40:20.

Where women hold at least 40 per cent of Australian Government board positions, men hold another 40 per cent of these positions and the remaining 20 per cent can be held by either gender.

That he doesn’t understand or chooses to ignore this target is clearly demonstrated by his own Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet with its 16 boards and 170 active positions, where only 50 women (29.4%) hold any of these positions, and of the 87 new board appointments in this particular portfolio in 2013-14 only 21 were female.

The gender imbalance becomes more pointed when one realises that the Gender Balance On Australian Government Boards Report 2013-14 only includes those boards covered by the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) which have some level of input or sign-off from particular representatives of the Government.

That is:

* the Prime Minister alone;

* one or more Australian Government ministers;

* the Governor-General in Council; and

* the Cabinet.

Overall the Abbott Government is exceeding the gender diversity target’s set quota for male government board members and failing to meet the set board member quota for females.

Here is the breakdown of gender diversity by portfolio:

The Sydney Morning Herald 14 December 2014