Natural disaster relief announced for Ballina, Byron, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Tweed local government areas

Six out of seven local government areas in the NSW Northern Rivers region have been declared natural disaster areas in the wake of flooding caused by ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie.

Australian Government, Disaster Assist, 31 March 2017:

North Coast Floods: from 28 March 2017

The joint Australian, state and territory governments' Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) provide a range of financial assistance to the natural disaster-declared areas in each state or territory.

For the floods which commenced on 28 March 2017, the available assistance measures include:

* personal hardship and distress assistance

* restoration of essential public assets

* counter disaster operations

* concessional loans for small businesses, primary producers and voluntary non-profit organisations

* freight subsidies for primary producers

* grants for voluntary non-profit organisations.

For information on available recovery assistance, visit the Emergency NSW website.

For further information on recovery arrangements, visit the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements page.

The above assistance may be available in the following local government areas

Ballina

Byron

Kyogle

Lismore

Richmond Valley

Tweed

The Northern Star reported on 31 March 2017 that:

It's understood some adults will be eligible for payments of $1,000 each and children $400 each.

Images from the last few days which appeared in both mainstream and social media......

Photographs can be found at Google Images

Tweet of the Week

The clean up #auspol #CycloneDebbie pic.twitter.com/Unlc37P303

— Broelman (@Broelman) March 28, 2017

Err, watt?

Explaining the cost of electricity

https://youtu.be/ELaBzj7cn14

Just because it is beautiful.........(26)

Gwion Gwion rock paintings

North-west Kimberly region

Western Australia

Google Images

Famous for its rock art, Quinkan Country contains a large and dramatic body of prehistoric rock paintings. These galleries have been identified as being at least 15,000 to 30,000 years old and have been included on the Australian Heritage Estate and listed by UNESCO as being among the top 10 rock art sites in the world. People from many countries visit this remote location to view the rock art and gain some understanding of the Aboriginal stories associated with this magnificent sandstone landscape. [Quinkan & Regional Cultural Centre]

Clarence Valley Council: Yamba Hill landslip red alert extended throughout April 2017

Clarence Valley Council, media release, March 31, 2017:

Slippage risk in Yamba hill

HEAVY rain in Yamba over the past two days has resulted in the reinstatement of a red alert warning for possible land slippage.

Clarence Valley Council works and civil director, Troy Anderson, said the red alert would remain in place throughout April.

Mr Anderson said Council monitored rainfall at Yamba hill area as it provided a guide to the risk of landslip.

“Once again, the rain that has been experienced has reached the level requiring a red alert to be notified,” he said.

On March 18, council advised red alert level had been reached because of heavy rainfall at that time and reduced to threat level to orange on March 22.

“The situation can change within a day, especially when high rainfall events are experienced,” Mr Anderson said.

“It can take some time for the alert level to be reduced, but this also varies depending on how much rain has fallen in the previous days and weeks.

“With the extra rain that occurred this week, the red alert level will remain in place throughout April. This will continue to be monitored and council will advise of any changes.

“If the area gets another 50mm of daily rainfall owners/site managers/occupants should monitor their land and/or buildings for evidence of any movement during and after this rainfall event.

“Should evidence of any movement be detected, those people should consider evacuation, and immediately advise council of their action.”

Below is a chart indicating trigger levels for the Yamba landslide risk zones.

The shaded area shows the Yamba landslip zone

Turnbull Government opposes rise in minimum wage because 9 out of 10 Australian workers on a low wage are NOT from highest income households

The Daily Telegraph, 30 March 2017:

Read the full article here.

Other statistics the Turnbull Government helpfully offered up to the Fair Work Commission in its submission of 27 March 2017:

* More than 50% of low income workers are in the bottom 1-4 percentiles of the 1-10 percentile range of household incomes;

* 20% of all female workers and 15.5% of all male workers are low-paid;

* 26.7% of all low-paid women and 30.3 % of all low-paid men were in the bottom two deciles of household incomes (ie. these households are likely to have an average disposable income of less than $300 to no more than $375 per week);

* 24.7% of all low-paid workers with a partner are the only breadwinner in the relationship; and

* 46.9% of all low-paid workers have children living at home, with 35.9% having dependent children ranging in age between under 1 year and 17 years of age.

Based on the figures cited in the government’s submission (much of it derived from 2012-2014 data) it appears Liberal and Nationals members of parliament and senators are quite content with the fact that so many of their fellow Australians live in either absolute income poverty or relative income poverty, while they enjoy parliamentary base incomes in excess of $195,000 per annum plus allowances and entitlements.

And Donald Trump golfs on........

At the time this article below was published Donald J. Trump had been President of the United States of America for 62 days, his approval rating stood at 39 percent according to a Gallup Daily Poll, he had played golf at least 11 times since his inauguration, sent an est. 700 tweets from two verified accounts and was reported to be watching around 6 hours of television a day.

MSNBC, 23 March 2017:

Donald Trump told reporters yesterday he felt “somewhat” vindicated about his wiretap conspiracy theory following the bizarre press conferences yesterday from House Intelligence Committee Chairman David Nunes (R-Calif.). The president then turned to Twitter to promote messages saying how right he was.

This was an odd reaction. There’s more to this story than the specific details in the president’s tweets, but the fact remains that when he was making the case for his conspiracy theory, Trump said he was personally targeted, and Nunes said the opposite. He said the surveillance was illegal, and Nunes said the opposite. He said Obama was personally involved, and Nunes said the opposite. He said the surveillance was before the election, and Nunes said the opposite. He said this was all part of a campaign-related scheme, and Nunes said the opposite.

In other words, Trump was “vindicated” to the extent that the president got literally every detail wrong.

I mention all of this because it’s emblematic of a leader who continues to struggle, in alarming ways, to separate fact from fiction. If you haven’t read Trump’s newly published interview with Time magazine’s Michael Scherer, it’s well worth your time. The questions about the president’s awareness of reality and appreciation of objective truths are only going to grow louder as a result of some of his more ridiculous comments.

He started by arguing that Hillary Clinton’s emails were on Anthony Weiner’s laptop, the Democratic primary race was “rigged against Bernie Sanders,” and that he was “totally right” about Brexit. All three of these claims are plainly and demonstrably wrong.

Trump went on to say his conspiracy theory about Barack Obama conducting illegal surveillance of him has merit because, “I have articles saying it happened.” He does not actually have articles saying it happened.

This exchange soon followed:

TIME: One of my ideas here is that throughout the campaign and now as president, you have used disputed statements, this is one of them that is disputed, the claim that three million undocumented people voted in the election…

TRUMP: Well I think I will be proved right about that too.

TIME: The claim that Muslims celebrated on 9-11 in New Jersey…

TRUMP: Well if you look at the reporter, he wrote the story in the Washington Post.

When the conversation turned to Trump’s conspiracy theory about Ted Cruz’s father and the JFK assassination, the president said, “Well that was in a newspaper…. I didn’t say that. I was referring to a newspaper…. Why do you say that I have to apologize? I’m just quoting the newspaper.”

The “newspaper,” in this instance, was the National Enquirer, a supermarket tabloid with which Trump has an eerily friendly relationship.

It’d take hours to go point by point, fact-checking every error of fact and judgment, but Trump’s final comments stood as especially interesting: “I inherited a mess, I inherited a mess in so many ways… I mean we have many, you can go up and down the ladder. But that’s the story. Hey look, in the meantime, I guess, I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m president, and you’re not.”…….

* Image of Donald Trump playing golf found at Google Images