Vehicles and beaches are not a good mix

The Daily Examiner on 11 January 2010
Click on image to enlarge

It's the height of summer once more and families with children are flocking to North Coast beaches for a day of sun and surf. Older residents are also seeking a little relief from the heat with a beach walk at the end of the day.

As usual the issue of vehicles driving onto and along the beach surfaces at this time of year, as is shown by the above opinion piece.

It always amazes me to see obviously healthy and otherwise active men take a four-wheel drive onto the beach, just so that they don't have to walk a mere quarter mile to set up their rods and reels for a little beach fishing.

However, what actually offends me is the sight of a carload of young adults, too lazy to use their legs, pelting down the beach on a bit of a sightseeing spree.

Old people, children and in leash-free areas the family pet (as well as the unwary tourist) are all expected to quickly move out of the way of these driving bullies.

At Minnie Water the curiously legless folk have even taken to using the beach as a carpark before they enter the surf.

Like the regular users of Pippi Beach at Yamba, I also get tired of the broken glass and dangerous mess (left behind after night time beach parties) which I am sometimes forced to skirt around on an early morning walk along local beaches.

It's no wonder that residents are becoming wary of going onto certain Clarence Valley beaches and permanently banning vehicles is being quietly discussed around more than a few dinner tables.

Update:

The Daily Examiner online comment gives Clarence Valley Council a hint.

Posted by yambaman from Yamba, New South Wales
12 January 2010 7:26 a.m.
Can't understand why Stafford Sheldon thinks he'll be unpopular for suggesting Pippi Beach be closed to 4 wheel drive vehicles, most of Yamba would agree - who wants the drunken yobbos driving on our beaches and leaving a mess behind, if they had to walk they'd drink at the pub!
Posted by janelle from Yamba, New South Wales
12 January 2010 11:37 a.m.
I absolutely agree with Stafford Sheldon and the comment above. I don't see why they have to drive onto the beach at all, ever. We apparently have an obesity problem so make them walk!!! And as far as leaving behind all that rubbish, well how hard is it to clean up after yourself. Shouldn't be allowed thru the tick gate I say.....
Posted by cherylmcc from Yamba, New South Wales
12 January 2010 7:23 p.m.
The 4 wheel drives are hazardous to people enjoying that part of Pippie Beach when they are gather speed for the climb back off the beach. A lot of families now use that part of the beach especially with the holiday units just across the road, maybe when it was decided to allow access to these vehicles at this part of the beach it was not used as much then. There should be a review of who uses the beach by the council before someone is hurt . Plus it is not a very very long beach that they have access to so what is the point of them going down there.
Posted by Popeye from Yamba, New South Wales
12 January 2010 7:30 p.m.
I hate it when people leave rubbish behind. I'm always picking it up when I walk around so that Yamba doesn't get like the Gold Coast. Have a look at the mess left on Hickey Is at the far end of Whiting Beach where people appear to have been camping and drinking heavily.

It's conspiracy theories and dubious 'facts' galore over at Agmates, as it falls under the spell of an articulate fantasist

But surely part of Mr Spencer's problem is the land he owns.
It's hilly, rocky marginal land that would be of little use for anything outside a few goats and rampant bushfires.
Bigpond News on 11 January 2010

When members of the Spencer family went public on 8 & 9 JJanuary 2010, with their concerns that the media, certain websites and fora had lost the plot when discussing Peter Spencer's hungerstrike protest, I wondered how one of the principal offenders Agmates Community Site would react.

On January 8 contributors at this site did indeed begin to react - just not to the criticism of the part they are playing in the silly little drama being played out at "Saarhanlee".

At one thread the Spencer family is attacked for going public, but the issue of the accuracy of what Agmates itself was publishing is not addressed.

For good measure one contributor also suggested that the police are monitoring Agmates - though why and what for is never fully revealed.

A call to blockade local government administrative centres across the country brought a smile to my face, as did the claim that the Peter Spencer issue will bring the Rudd Government down.

However, what I enjoyed most was watching the idea form amid the chatter that the somewhat anti-Labor newspaper, The Australian, was either slanting its coverage at the request of the Rudd Government or because it had been threatened by that same government.
I'm sure that the newspaper would be rather puzzled as to why some thought this might actually have happened in this instance and, perhaps even been a mite indignant that it was also thought to have completely ignored reporting on Peter Spencer for 47 days straight until the family spoke out.
It seems that the Agmates family never let facts get in the way of a good story, so casually brushed aside The Australian's articles published on 18 December 2009 and 5 January 2010.

Less amusing was the assertion that Kevin Rudd's "dirt squad put them [Spencer family] up to it" and the very strange X Files-style whisper that there is something extremely valuable on or under Peter Spencer's land which the government seeks to obtain by actively forcing him off it.

There was only one thread which advised caution when it came to some conspiracy theories, however this warning was from a representative of a lobby group/website which freely indulges in these theories itself at times. To its credit, as of 13 January this particular group continues (on another thread) to advise Agmates against going down the weird road.

Yet another Agmates thread has this audio statement by Peter Spencer. If you listen, particularly enjoy the fact that near the end he attempts to draw the Petrov Affair into the 1970 gun incident and, the crew on this particular discussion thread did not bat an eyelid when he implied this 1954 event actually occurred close to the time he threatened to self-harm.

On 12 January 2010 Agmates congratulated itself on the number of visitors to these discussion threads - I of course was one of these and I have to say that, although my jaw dropped on occasion and I laughed aloud at other times, little that was posted on this website was of any real value in looking at the issue of compensation for farmers who may be negatively affected by native vegetation legislation. As a lobbying effort it was going nowhere fast and, following Mr. Spencer's directions meant credibility became hopelessly lost somewhere in the back paddock many days ago.

Perhaps the final word should go to Geoff Cockfield quoted in The Australian yesterday:

SUPPORTERS of hunger-striking farmer Peter Spencer risk derailing debate on vital issues of property rights with their fringe views, a leading agri-politics expert has warned.
Heated online debate over Mr Spencer's 50-day protest atop a tower is continuing, often lurching into conspiracy theories.
Geoff Cockfield, a specialist in agri-environment policy from the University of Southern Queensland, said it was not helping the NSW farmer's cause that he should be compensated for not being allowed to clear his land near Cooma.
"You always have fringe populists in rural areas thriving around particular issues, whatever they might be," he said.
"They start plausibly enough, just picking on minor irritations people have about governments, but as you get more information we start to get into the worldwide conspiracy.
"There's quite a few mainstream agri-politicians and economists and public policy people who would be sympathetic to the argument that if we are actually preventing full use of property rights in the interests of some sort of supra-national agreement on carbon sequestration, then what's the case for everyone bearing the cost of that?
"I think it's a strong case," he said, "but it creates a problem for the various farm organisations who have been working away on the issue.
"Who do you associate with?"

UPDATE:
Peter Spencer reportedly ended his hungerstrike on 13 January 2010.

NSW North Coast Aboriginal Mental Health First Aid Training Course, South Grafton 22 & 23 February 2010

North Coast Area Health Service is offering the following training course, co-ordinated by The Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health.

Aboriginal Mental Health First Aid Training Course

When: Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 February 2010 at 8.30am – 4.30pm (both days)

Where: South Grafton Services Club, Wharf Street, South Grafton NSW

Cost: Free

Refreshments: Morning Tea, Lunch and Afternoon tea are provided at no cost for both days.

Enrolments Close: Friday 19 February, 2010

Course Applications: Contact Georgia-Lee Pollard
Drought Mental Health Assistance Package Project Officer
Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health
Locked Bag 6005
Orange, NSW 2800
Phone: (02) 6363 8426 Mob: 0429994025
Fax: (02) 6361 2457
Email:
georgia.pollard9@gwahs.health.nsw.gov.au
For venue details or any last minute issues call Andrew Little on 0488 229 699

Course Outline:
The course covers helping people in mental health crisis situations and/or in the early stages of mental health problems.
Participants will learn the signs and symptoms of common mental health problems, where and how to get help and what sort of help has been shown by research to be effective.
Presenters:
William Warner and Leanne Scholes-Asper
What to bring to the course?
All necessary resources are provided although participants are free to take a pen and paper for note taking if they wish.

Lower Clarence Aboriginal Mental Health First Aid Training Course 8 & 9 February - venue to be announced.

Fox News: what more can be said?

Still chortling over this NYT knifing of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes:
"I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes's horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to," said Matthew Freud, who is married to Ms. Murdoch and whom PR Week magazine says is the most influential public relations executive in London.
Hat tip to Larvatus Prodeo for tweeting a link.

Sh*t happens....

We finally decided to upgrade the old pit toilet on the farm.

It was a hard decision since it was agreed that a septic system would use too much flushed water and the potential to cause problems with the ecological balance of a swamp near the house was too great.

Not that toilet water would have been a problem in this year of five local floods, but dry years do occur.

We finally decided that a composting system would be the best in our situation.

It was then we had a great stroke of luck, the son-in-law was at an auction and there, large as life, was a brand new unused state of the art composting toilet.

The fact that he was over 1,000 kilometres away from the farm did not cause him to hesitate - at the fall of the gravel he was the proud owner of a massive virgin crapper at a bargain basement price.

So this Christmas he loads the dunny on the back of a trailer behind the family car and heads north to the farm, turning heads all the way up the Pacific Highway.

On the family's arrival at the farm we wander around the house yard, beers in hand, working out where the new toilet should be sited.

It had to be conveniently placed near the house, yet have a good view and not interfere with other aspects of the house yard design. A few beers later we agreed on the best site for the new toilet.

It was time to get the ditch dingo working, since the base section has to be buried over one metre into the soil.

About 800cm into the dig we struck solid clay - the heavy solid sticky type. It was useless to continue digging as this type of clay will expand quickly when wet. So the decision was made to build up the soil around the compost unit instead.

The new toilet now nick-named The FARTUS (apologies to Dr Who) was in place and waiting for the actual building of the toilet hut section. One of the cousins who had been in the Navy said he thought that the new installation looked like a submarine conning tower.

That night it rained and stormed, then it rained again.

The misty morning light revealed the sight of the composting toilet bobbing incontinently in a muddy sea. We now had a Collins-type sub.

So later that day we downed a few more beers (I had switched to rum and coke by this stage) and decided that this was a sign from Huey. The whole toilet situation had to be re-thought.

Graphic from My Little Family's Genealogy

Minister for Aging Justine Elliot shines a welcome light on aged care facilities

The Federal Minister for Aging and MP for the NSW North Coast Richmond electorate, Justine Elliot, promised last year to name and shame those aged care providers who were not meeting standards set for residential aged care.

Since then there has been a steady trickle of media reports on nursing homes which were found to be sub-standard in some manner. However, it is the Dept. of Health and Aging which has published the official non-compliance lists.

List by state and current as of 4 January 2010 (details of notices of non-compliance remain on this list until such time as a sanction is imposed on the relevant approved provider or the provider has addressed the non-compliances):

Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales

Northern Territory

Queensland

South Australia

Tasmania

Victoria

Western Australia

Archived Notices of Non-Compliance list aged care services, by state and in alphabetical order, which have remedied the problems within their facilities.

Although the low number of currently non-complaint facilities and the growing list of those which have fixed sub-standard practices is reassuring, it is of some concern to note that issues of reportable assaults and patient malnurition feature in details concerning some of these nursing homes.

I am sure that there would be many in the aged care industry who would not agree with the Minister's course of action.

Just as I am equally sure that families who have a member in aged care would be reassured that residential facilities are being regularly monitored for compliance -especially families faced with the limited choice rural and regional Australia has to offer.

Keep up the good work, Ms. Elliot.

** Aged Care Providers' Financial Data for 2006-2008 here. This is de-indentified data broken down by generic categories city and regional.

Photograph from Google Images

Is this the beach at the bottom of your backyard? Mapping predicted sea level rise (5)

BEFOREAFTER

This Google Earth mapping shows the effects of a 1 metre sea level rise on a residential area of the New South Wales coast, with the beach gone and surf reaching back boundaries of the houses shown.
The 2009 Federal Government report Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coasts contains a 'worst case' scenario involving a 1.1 metre sea level rise along the NSW coast sometime within the next 90 years.

A light-hearted look at the echo chamber of the Internetz

When cruising cyberspace it's obvious that there's a great deal of repetitive comment out there perpetrated by lazy mainstream media and the blogosphere - everyone wants to get in on the act when it comes to teh topix o teh dae but few are prepared to do any hard graft required to come up with an original angle.
Media releases are not looked at with a critical eye on source, content or motive, but are simply churned back out through the giant sausage machine which is online publication. {yes, I admit that's not exactly an original observation either!}
Here's a light-hearted look at that echo chamber section of the Internetz:

Monsanto's statements are part of a 21-page paper titled "Observations on Competition in the U.S. Seed Industry." In it, the company argues
That opening turned up seven times in Google's search engine results on the 9th January.

He says the state laws have robbed farmers across Australia
Thirty-six instances of this sentence beginning were found in indexed mentions of one farmer when I went a-Googling his name.

big words
This two word language summary featured in over 1,000 online discussions of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

silvertail
The particular descriptor used on more than 3,000 occasions when talking about former Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull.

dour Scot

Something British PM Gordon Brown has been labelled according to 15,000 Google items.

Paris Hilton scandal
This topic was an obvious favourite for in excess of 16,000 journalists, bloggers and YouTube video makers.

world government
A phrase which almost takes the cake when used over 300,000 times in discussions concerning a global response to climate change.

Barack Obama the antichrist
This characterisation turns up more than 700,000 times on Google when people are expressing views on the U.S. president.

I Can Has Cheezburger
Mention of this funny interactive website occurred in Google's index at least 7,670,000 times last time I typed the site name - which probably goes to prove that Internet users are a lot saner than our habit of parroting the latest gossip or rumour (without bothering to fact check) might otherwise lead sensible people to believe.

NSW Nationals Steve Cansdell has egg on his face over hungerstrike protest

NSW Nationals MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell has jumped on the Peter Spencer bandwagon and is spouting the usual inaccurate nonsense. It would appear that there is no political depth too low for this politician to plumb in his efforts to keep his name in print.

This is what Mr. Cansdell told ABC News on 6 January 2010:

A north coast politician has called for people across NSW to support a grazier on a hunger strike over a dispute in a land clearing application.
Peter Spencer today enters day 47 of his hunger strike in a wind tower on his Shannons Flat property outside Cooma, and reportedly does not have long to live.
He is arguing that state native vegetation laws have been used by the Federal Government to lock-up land to meet carbon pollution reduction targets.
Clarence MP Steve Cansdell says farmers across the state are experiencing the same frustration.
"I just hope that Peter gets the support of everyone across NSW to make this Government realise that we have to work together, not against the rural sector," he said.
"He's really there on behalf of all NSW landowners, all of NSW rural industries such as our timber industry, our cattle."

He was more circumspect a day later when quoted in The Daily Examiner:

"While I don't necessarily support Mr Spencer's tactics, it is time for the NSW Government to show some compassion and do something to break the deadlock before a tragedy occurs."

Cansdell is only one of many who are trying to make political capital out of Peter Spencer's situation and his family appears to have had enough.The Spencer family are clearly concerned about antics of the media, certain websites and politicians such as Barnaby Joyce and Steve Cansdell.

This is the public statement the family issued, as reported in The Australian on 9 January 2009:

WE do not proclaim to be speaking on behalf of all of our family, others may certainly feel differently however we do feel that every issue has different opinions so we would like to say the following.

Peter's brother, Graham, is a former farmer who recently sold his dairy farm and retired after 26 years of farming. He was on the board of the Dairy Farmers Association and an active member within his local community. He and other family members had been trying to work with the family members involved to prevent the issue being dragged through the media however we now feel the need to address some issues.

Peter, we love you, and think that it is fantastic that you are trying to help other farmers get due compensation from the government. However, we are concerned by some television, print media and niche internet publications coverage of the issue and its politicisation by various interest groups and parliamentarians to further their own agendas, at the expense of Peter's health and welfare.

Native vegetation laws enacted over 10 years ago by State Governments (and certainly not the ETS proposals and "Carbon Sinks" which are a far more recent development) are not the sole reason for the collapse of Peter's farm, and really have had a very small part to play. For MANY reasons the farm has not been profitable for a long time. Peter spent several years in Papua New Guinea on various business ventures, including an advisory role to the PNG government of the time. During this time he was unable to look after the farm adequately, an issue that was clearly a product of his then circumstance.

Over the years, Peter spent money on trying to develop some fantastic enterprises, including the development of high quality wool and wind farming which unfortunately did not pan out. In order to help Peter, some family members put their financial freedom in jeopardy to use their property as a guarantee for Peter's loan. These family members worked side-by-side with Peter, trying to get the farm up and running.

As any farmer knows, sometimes, despite your best intentions and incredible effort, farming is not always fruitful, especially in a time of drought. Interest payments on the loan could not be made, and faced with bankruptcy, the family had to issue a writ of foreclosure on Peter's farm. The intention is to sell the farm to recover the money from their debts and all remaining money will be returned to Peter. If the family members had not guaranteed the loan several years ago when Peter was facing bankruptcy the banks would have sold the farm only to recover their money and Peter would have been left with nothing. What is so incredibly sad, is that Peter and the family members who guaranteed his loan, were always very close. Now this has torn two families apart. To borrow such a huge sum to help a sibling is a remarkable gift, but to go into bankruptcy for that sibling is surely beyond the call of duty.

We are devastated with the conspiracy theories, innuendoes and utter rubbish sprouted by some members of news forums and websites declaring to support Peter who clearly know nothing about this situation but have taken whatever they have read at face value, and accepted it as gospel. Peter is an amazing, courageous man. But the loss of his farm is not due to governments, big business or climate change. There is no conspiracy by wind companies or any other organisation to rob Peter of his land. What we are concerned about is that certain people may be taking advantage of a vulnerable man faced with losing his property and using him to their advantage. The issues being touted are not wholly true and Peter's situation is a very poor example for any Native Vegetation/Kyoto/ETS/Rudd/Howard/State/Federal concerns and anything else which is being included in the argument. It will do no benefit to any disgruntled farmer's cause by continuing to use Peter as their martyr. If people are genuinely concerned for Peter please convince him to come down. Then find a more suitable way of expressing their concerns. Please remember this is an election year.

In conclusion, while there are some fantastic supporters of Peter's who deserve much praise, there are too many others taking advantage of him for their own political causes. We don't know why people want Peter to continue starving himself, and putting his health at such risk. Here is a man with TOO MUCH TO LIVE FOR and we urge the media to properly undertake research and check claims before merely producing them as "news" and encouraging Peter's plight through politicising it.

• Background post "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"

NSW North Coast councils & businesses that just have to lift their game in 2010

Not every local council or business on the NSW North Coast lives up to its promise (or for that matter its promises) and here is a short list of those who could do better this year.
Maud Up the Street wants me to lead this post off with her pet peeve so I'll oblige.

BUSWAYS - contracted by the NSW Government to supply transport across the Clarence Valley this was its inadequate response to holiday travel needs according to its own website:Friday 25th December: No services
Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie had similar bus timetables for the 25th December. Great Lakes had one of its three bus routes operating on Christmas Day. Seems Busways management thinks that people without cars don't deserve to move around on Christmas Day unless they live in Campbelltown, Blacktown or on the Central Coast. The north-east of the state can go hang!

COLES - this large supermarket chain has a captive market in certain NSW North Coast towns because of the absence of any real competition. In some stores it shamelessly rides roughshod over its customers with frequently understocked shelves and an ever-diminishing range of brandnames\goods for sale. Now after years of being presented with bananas stored too long before being presented for sale, The Australian Banana Growers' Council tells us that "bananas must meet very particular length, girth and colour specifications before Woolworths and Coles take them".
It's ROFL time to think that this supermarket chain likes to think it has fresh food standards!

CLARENCE VALLEY COUNCIL - under the leadership of Mayor Richie Williamson and General Manager Stuart McPherson certain council staff have been getting quite lax if mutterings round the traps are any indication. This Daily Examiner story of alleged council negligence is just icing on the cake and as usual council tries to squib out of responsibility.
There is also a persistent rumour circulating that councillors are not always aware that they're possibly allocating trust funds improperly on a regular basis, because management allegedly is careful to refer to funding sources in monthly meeting business paper items only by internal accounting codes in order to rob Peter to pay Paul in an irregular manner without challenge.

'Twas the whalers wot done it!

Peter Alford and Matthew Franklin writing in The Australian at 12am this morning are pretty certain of who hit whom on the high seas in Antarctica:
"Sea Shepherd and the Institute of Cetacean Research, which co-ordinates the Japanese whaling program, have released videos they claim demonstrate the other side was to blame for the dangerous collision.
Both appear to show the Ady Gil moving only slowly when the Japanese vessel swerved towards the speedboat, running over its bow and forcing it down into the water, as activists tumbled over on the deck.
The six crew members - one with broken ribs, according to Sea Shepherd - were rescued. The $2 million vessel, according to Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson, is unsalvageable."
As most of Australia is asleep right now, I wonder exactly which hemisphere is clicking on the article's accompanying poll question "Who do you think is to blame for the collision between a Japanese whaling ship and Sea Shepherd protest boat?"
At the moment the results are almost neck and neck in the blame game.
While over at the Herald-Sun another poll question this morning brings a vastly different response.

Could this mean that Japan's PR team over at Omeka Public Relations prefers to read The Australian first thing in the early hours of the morning rather than the Herald-Sun? I wonder......