Total Environment Centre goes to bat against NSW Planning Minister Sartor's poor policy

MEDIA RELEASE – 3rd April 2008

Planning reform groundswell:
104 groups reject Sartor's changes

Over 100 peak and regional environment and community organisations have today written to the NSW Premier outlining 6 key areas where the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) must be reformed to restore (EP&A Act) must be reformed to restore community participation in the planning process.
The letter also tells The Premier that changes to the NSW Planning System, proposed by Planning Minister Sartor, will only serve to further alienate the community from the process.
"There is a growing sentiment among the general community that the NSW Government is going too far and the Premier would do well to listen to these concerns," said TEC Director Jeff Angel.
"Since the introduction of Part 3A into the EP&A Act, the balance has shifted from an Act that guarantees public participation and environmental assessment to one that hands developers more exemptions and less accountability.
"The planned reforms will only see an increase in the number of loopholes developers can jump through to avoid scrutiny. They also open the door for unhealthy relationships to form between developers and private certifiers.
"What is required is an EP&A Act with strong principles of ecologically sustainable development, contains genuine environmental assessment provisions and reinstates genuine public participation."

Contact: Jeff Angel or Leigh Martin on 92613437
TOTAL ENVIRONMENT CENTRE INC.
LEVEL 4, 78 LIVERPOOL STREET, SYDNEY, NSW 2000
Ph: 02 9261 3437 Fax 02 9261 3990
www.tec.org.au

Young Liberals: deluded, dangerous and at university

I would like to think that this piece in The Sydney Morning Herald was a leg pull. Unfortunately it isn't. The Young Liberals have started a campus witch hunt worthy of Salem.

The black posters started cropping up on university campuses early this month. A gagged, wide-eyed youth stares out from the top corner. "Record biased lecturers," the posters scream. "Scan biased textbooks. Report incidents of bias. Education. Not Indoctrination."---
"Lecturers and tutors are brazenly forcing students to agree with their political or ideological views and we want to catch them doing it," Noel McCoy, president of the Young Liberals, told reporters at the recent launch of the campaign.
Collating evidence of bias is the first step before asking the university senate to conduct an inquiry, McCoy says.

Ah, conservative uni students. Those poor (only a figure of speech because those coming from true comparative poverty rarely progress to higher education) deluded souls who always kick and buck when their own inherited world views are even mildly challenged.

This quadrangle tantrum would be barely tolerable if most were attending lectures in the pursuit of knowledge and informed debate, but all they are chasing is that piece of paper which allows them entry into a lucrative profession.

Modern professions of course demand a demonstrable degree of conformity of thought or practice to gain entry to what is sometimes almost a closed shop, so before Noel McCoy begins to make some tutor's life miserable he might like to consider the possibility that he is/was at university to be 'trained'.
Mr. McCoy would be the first to cry foul if he found the university hadn't provided him with this guild handshake.
Any knowledge or exploration of ideas that may come a student's way in pursuit of a degree are icing on the cake and deeper exploration of any subject must ultimately be on his/her own initiative.

Oh so earnest Young Liberals, here's the reality - you are not brighter than the average bear, you possess no unique pearls of wisdom, neither are you in some way special. You just happen to be there.

So try to at least leave your alma mater as you found it - still attempting to hold its head above the black pall created by Joe McCarthy's putative heirs and John Howard's tertiary education funding parsimony.

North Coast Area Health Service 'surge beds' issue still not resolved

The NSW Nurses Association is still waiting for the North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) to release an explanatory statement concerning its introduction of 'surge beds' in local public hospitals.

Surge beds are by definition additional inpatient beds which become available during epidemics, natural disasters and bioterrorism events.
Though in the case of NSW Health and NCAHS it appears that the label 'surge beds' is being used to withdraw existing hospital beds from daily use and reduce staffing levels.

After the fact consultations with the 14 hospitals involved do not appear to have engendered confidence within medical circles.
Which leaves many North Coast residents concerned about the present focus of regional health planning, if word games and bean counting are considered more important than people.

After twelve long years Brendan Nelson discovers Australia

Now into the fourth day of his 'listening' tour and Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has discovered that the average Aussie is struggling with grocery bills, petrol prices and interest rates.

Hello? Drop a stone down that well and see if there is water at the bottom.

We've all been struggling for years, mate. Years and years and years.

So why wasn't Nelson all that concerned when he was part of the recently deceased Howard Government.

Little Brennie has been buzzing like a blue ar*ed fly around Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia in quick succession and the superficiality is beginning to show.

Leader of the alternative gov'ment - don't make me laugh.