Nationals' Hartsuyker receives a slap down form Labor's Saffin

On the matter of a formal application to disperse roosting bats from land adjoining Maclean High School, last week Federal Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin finally had enough of Federal Nationals MP for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker:

“I can say in response to Luke Hartsukyer’s silly comments, that the only one feeling the pressure is Luke himself, for not doing his job and helping to resolve it much earlier, and for deceiving the people, by not working on the plan from the beginning; a plan that requires, short, medium and long-term goals, which is what I have done since I was first asked for some assistance.
“Luke, I am going to offer you some unsolicited advice, and it goes like this:
“The best thing you can do, is to leave the people alone, leave the public servants alone and let them get on with their job of resolving this problem to the satisfaction of the students, staff and parents.
“It really does not need any more grandstanding and attacks on me ... people are weary with it.
“You carping does nothing to advance the safety and health needs of the school community.
“Given it is your electorate, I am trying to help you do your work, that you seem unable or unwilling to do.”

Keneally for Canberra? Bite your tongue!

Crikey was peddling a rumour last Wednesday, which if true might see NSW Premier K-K-Keneally neutralised on the Canberra back bench or holding a federal ministry if one unnamed electorate was silly enough to fall in behind her.....
"I have heard a rumour that Kristina Keneally has been promised a federal seat if she can do a "good enough" job at the next election..."
Just what the country needs. Yet another über-ambitious pollie down in Canberra who mistakes media bites and PR spin for actual policy creation.
The ethnocentric Keneally would be a disaster on the national stage.

Setting the council cat among the ratepayer pigeons in the Clarence Valley

The Daily Examiner reported on 19 March:

CLARENCE Valley residents may be hit with a rate increase of 8.15 per cent next year.
The Minister for Local Government recently announced that all councils could raise their general rate revenue by 2.6 per cent above the current level, but in a bid to raise an additional $1.3 million to finance capital works, Clarence Valley Council is seeking approval to raise rates by an extra 5.55 per cent.
.....the average rate for properties across the Valley varied between minimum and fixed rates and were determined by dollar value....
“It is hard to compare rates between shires because we have 15 different rate structures Valley-wide,”

Mention of a possible rate increase always raises the collective blood pressure of Clarence Valley ratepayers and differences of opinion between the Hinterland and Coast surface.

Clarence Valley Council is expected to run a series of community consultation meetings some time in the future and ratepayers would do well to attend these as well as keep an eye on proceedings as set out below.

Media Release: 17 March 2010

Clarence Valley Rates get a Special Meeting

An Extraordinary Meeting of Clarence Valley Council will be held in Maclean at 5.00 pm Tuesday 23 March 2010.
The single topic for discussion is whether to increase property rates next year to finance specific capital works.
A Workshop held on 16 March and attended by all Councillors and senior Council staff considered aspects of the Council's budget for 2010/11. A report to the Workshop from the Council's General Manager, Stuart McPherson, encouraged consideration of asking the Minister for Local Government, the Hon Barbara Perry MP, for approval to increase general rate revenue by an additional 5.55% in 2010/11. The Minister recently announced that all Councils could raise their general rate revenue by 2.6% above the 2009/10 level.
Mr McPherson reported that an extra 5.55% above the 2.6% increase, would provide an additional $1.3m next year and in subsequent years and would be used for clearly identified additional capital works and programs. These programs were described in Mr McPherson's report as "Main Street Programs", "Public and Community Halls and Libraries", "Town and Village Footpaths and Cycleways", "Rural Roads Improvements" and "Community Recreation Facilities Improvements".
The Extraordinary Meeting is open to the public and attendance is invited.

Authorised by: Stuart McPherson, General Manager 02 6643 0212 or 0429 903 758

Greenpeace & Rest of the World v Nestlé & Others

Greenpeace advertisement from Holland

From the Greenpeace website:

What can we say? You all rock! You've taken our Kit Kat campaign and made it your own and we just have to stand back in awe of it all. We'll keep this blog post updated with all the latest creative Kit Kat campaign tactics provided by you - the online community who has taken our video and our campaign message and really run with it!
Views on all the versions of our 'Have a break?' video (some uploaded by us - some uploaded by you) are now 281.085 and rising!
Nestle suffering social media rampage as company stocks falls

An example of what's happening now on the Nestlé Facebook page:

Mark Wood Dear Nestle, not a greenie, but your business isn't worth the damage palm oil does. Please discontinue using palm oil in all your products, not just Kit Kats. It's not even a high grade ingredient. You're one of the world's largest companies, perhaps it's time to become one of the most responsible?

Next time you reach for a chocolate, lolly, biscuit, cake, icecream or frozen dessert on the supermarket shelf - ask yourself if it is really worth all that environmental destruction.

Greenpeace's Caught Red Handed PDF file.
Nestlé Australia official response and a news report on the company's 'unofficial' response.

Orangutan baby photograph from Google Images