A pictorial guide to why the 99% in America is so angry

On 2 November the UN 2011 Human Development Report,  which covers 187 countries, was released. It showed that Australia continues to rank second only to Norway on the global human development index with regard to equality within society, after adjustments were made for internal inequalities in health, education and income.

It shares equal first place with Italy when calculating life expectancy for those born in 2011 and, comes in third after Sweden and Norway in the overall life satisfaction category - a

placing it shares with a number of other countries.

On the issue of gender inequality Australia ranks at eighteen.

However, in the United States of America it is another story all together, with is ranking across the same indices resulting in an overall ranking of twenty-three.

From Business Insider this series of historical graphs demonstrates this level of inequality:

In fact, income inequality has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in "income equality." China's ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran.

Wages as a percentage of the U.S. economy

What will Hapless Gulaptis do?

The Federal Government and COAG committed to a course of action in February 2011 which resulted in the National Health Reform Agreement. The NSW Government at the time was led by Labor’s K-K- Keneally.

This agreement sees NSW receive federal health funding under the National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services. Specifically this state will get $526 million in New Subacute Beds Guarantee Funding from 2010-11 to 2013-4.

Because there is a byelection in the Clarence electorate and the Nats candidate Chris Gulaptis got caught out telling funding pork pies, the O’Farrell Government’s Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Health Melinda Pavey fronted the media instead to announce that the new subacute beds planned for Maclean District Hospital were part of the Nats grand plan for the Clarence Valley.

I wait in breathless anticipation for Chris to break loose from his minders, tunnel under the media fence and announce to the world that in fact those extra 14 hospital beds planned for Maclean were due to his good offices – after all he’s already claimed credit on behalf of the Nats for a private bequest to Maclean Hospital!

Clarence Valley Council - matured or over ripe?

The Daily Examiner letter to the editor 3 November 2011:

A mature council

THE Clarence Valley Council's recently appointed GM, Scott Greensill, reportedly claimed "the council was now maturing past amalgamation" (DEX, October 27). Well, just how much has our forced amalgamated council matured?
At the council's general meeting on September 13, the staff's recommendation to councillors seeking federal funding for a $7m extension to the Grafton Gallery was prepared (in part) by none other than the Grafton Gallery's director, Jude McBean (item 12.167/11). That privilege included "waiving development assessment and construction fees" of $40,692 as well as "identifying a potential $4.13m which could accrue from developer (contributions) over the next 20 years". But no mention was made that the developer's contributions plan showed Grafton's projected population growth to 2021 was only 494 and zero to 2031, thereby contributing little S94 revenues.
In contrast, at the same meeting, council staff recommended to councillors the "waiving of hire fees of $150 for the cost of council's events trailer" for Iluka's Family Festival to raise money to build a sports shed for Iluka (item 12-168/11). Yet the developer's contributions plan shows Iluka's projected population growth of 642 to 2021 and 627 to 2031, thereby generating far more S94 funds than Grafton, as well as experiencing significant pressures on its existing infrastructures.
It must be a niggle in the guts for Iluka's volunteers to work their butts off to raise community funds, but not be given the privileged opportunity to prepare their own recommendations to a mature forced amalgamated Clarence Valley Council.

RAY HUNT
Yamba.

Meandering through the mauves

Top:
Peregrine's Journey 1990 by Patrycia Buckland of Alstonville NSW
Centre:
Floral Festivals stamp by Australia Post 2011
Bottom:
Fly Away 2002 by Deborah Cocks of Bray's Creek NSW

Quote of the Week

Here was a man who wanted to get rid of the possums in his roof, so called in a napalm strike.

{Heathen Scripture writing about Qantas Airlines CEO Alan Joyce on 1^st November 2011}

Forest NSW illegal logging

Local environmentalists are disappointed with the small fines Forests NSW has received for illegally logging 15 hectares of endangered lowland rainforest in Grange SF near Jackadgery.

Lowland Rainforest is an Endangered Ecological Environment (EEC) that is excluded from Forests NSW harvesting operations.

EEC’s are protected by the National Parks and Wildlife Act. Under sections 118A and 118D of the Act it is an offence to pick or harm endangered ecological communities; currently the maximum penalty is $220,000 and up to 2 years jail, with an additional $11,000 for each plant illegally logged, picked, bulldozed out of the ground, trampled or squashed.

Environmentalists are concerned that the forest regulator, the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) may not have found the 15ha area of rainforest that was trashed because the two small fines issued were for offences in other forest compartments. Forestry regulation staff at OEH do not have  the requisite skills to identify EEC’s. The Clarence Environment Centre offered to show OEH the forest compartment in question but OEH declined the offer.

The value of the illegally harvested trees far outweigh the fines imposed to FNSW.

OEH minister Robyn Parker and OEH CEO Lisa Corbyn owe the people of NSW an explanation. Why is Forests NSW not subject to the full force of the law?

Does Chris Gulaptis the National party candidate for the seat of Clarence support Robyn Parker's lazy approach to regulating Forests NSW harvesting operations?

Chris Gulaptis brags about he had 10,000 bats tipped out of their home near Maclean.

Parker claims the government is working hard to save koalas but has approved logging in core koala habitat in Boambee State forest near Coffs.

Robyn Parker is proving to be a liability for the NSW government with a bad case of foot in mouth disease.  Luke Foley at the recent standing committee - " So you are an environment minister that just does what Forests NSW ask?"

In the last 2 years Forest NSW have been found to have breached the Integrated Forestry Operations Approval (IFOA) at Yabbra SF, Girard SF, Doubleduke SF, Grange SF and Wedding Bells SF.

In June 2011 Justice Pepper of the NSW Land and Environment Court commented that FNSW operations -  ‘suggests either a pattern of continuing disobedience in respect of environmental laws generally or, at the very least, a cavalier attitude to compliance with such laws’.

Chris Green

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at gmail dot com to submit comment for consideration.

2011 Clarence By-election Scorecard. Part Three - dumb show

NSW Nationals candidate Chris Gulaptis is having his hand held by party minders and has made no major statements in the mainstream media this week. He is finding the going tough on social media, where his presence can be best be described as inane with entries such as this:

Strange what issues you can find whilst out door knocking. I am going to see a person who is experiencing difficulties with truck drivers relieving themselves on their footpath.

NSW Country Labor candidate Peter Ellem in the local media this week:

Country Labor candidate for the Clarence by-election Peter Ellem described the announcement as bungled, saying they should get "fair dinkum about this important project". "There wasn't one single cent allocated for this multi-million-dollar project in the budget which was released only one month ago," Mr Ellem said.

Mr Ellem said the government needed to show budgeted funding for the health centre to ensure it is delivered for local residents. 

And with this yesterday:

Country Labor candidate for Clarence Peter Ellem said he was alarmed at NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith's response to questioning in budget estimates meetings.

"(He) refused to rule out closing further prisons across NSW and Grafton is one of the oldest in NSW," he said.

The department announced 13 redundancies at Grafton jail in August and it confirmed that 12 redundancies had been accepted.

Peter Ellem has demanded that the O'Farrell government guarantee the future of Campbell Hospital at Coraki and urgently fund repairs so the hospital can be re-opened.

The hospital was closed after storm damage on September 25 and residents fear that the 14-bed facility will be closed down.

NSW Greens candidate Janet Cavanaugh continues her social media presence at Janet4Clarence and she has more campaign information posted than all the other candidates combined. She has also seen her policy positions placed in local mainstream media through her use of Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham to call for a fast-tracking of a Strategic Regional Landuse Policy for the North Coast and lines like this:

IN Grafton on Tuesday to support the Greens candidate for Clarence Janet Cavanaugh, MLC Jeremy Buckingham warned the National Party to ignore farmers' concerns at its own peril. "The National Party has got a choice to make, are they the National Party or are they the Multi-National Mining Company Party?" he asked.

Independent Wade Walker has made no public statement for the third week in a row week.

Christian Democratic Party candidate Bethany Camac made only one major public statement in the media this week in which she gave unsolicited and misleading ‘advice’ to sacked workers:

"If they don't want to take up the job offer at Casino and sit around and whinge they can sit around and whinge, if they want to get off their bums and get a new job they can do that," she said.

Outdoor Recreation Party candidate Clinton Mead has had little to say so far – although as a serial election candidate his March 2011 less is more argument when it comes to government funding does not bode well.

Australian Democrat candidate David Robinson is another hopeful serial candidate, who appears to live in the Ballina state electorate and has business interest in Alstonville and Lismore areas. He was/is President of the Alstonville and District Citizens and Ratepayers Association. As Robinson left it to the last minute to nominate, this is all he has said so far:

Robinson is a small business operator, being born into his family’s farm on the North Coast. Robinson’s activity in small business saw him being involved with bringing local dial-up Internet assess to Grafton, through Big River Internet, now Linear G, in the 1990’s, and now operating his free-range poultry and cattle farm. His interests include the breeding of poultry, Simmental cattle, goats, ducks and pigs plus, broadband Internet, web hosting, amateur theatre and community politics. Robinson stood as an Australian Democrats candidate at the 2010 Federal and 2011 N.S.W. State Elections, and has recently been involved in re-establishing the party’s Grafton-Maclean Branch. [Media release 2 November 2011]

Independent Stewart Scott-Irving from Old Bar is another candidate who is a serial nominee of longstanding, having stood as a Queensland Federal Labor candidate in 1990, as an Independent in the North Coast federal seat of Lyne in 2007 and 2008, for the Senate in 2010. Although he is yet to make any form of  policy statement, there is an intriguing glimpse into past history:

What a shame our Senator John Faulkner didn't take some of the blame for the demise of the ALP himself. When I informed him personally on Old Bar Beach of my being sacked along with my School Council when we attempting in 2005 to enrol an Aboriginal family's 3 children, he just wished me luck in my seeking justice through the IR Commission and the Supreme Court. Did I hear anything from him or the ALP subsequently? Not bloody likely!!!
Stewart Scott-Irving | Wallabi Point / Old Bar / Taree - June 10, 2011, 1:40PM

Assessment:

1. Chris Gulaptis remains a policy free zone. He appears to be avoiding the media this week and is relying on meet and greets which involve little critical appraisal of his utterances. Being towed along by party heavies like an errant toddler is not a good look.  He goes deeper into minus territory on the scoreboard.

2. Peter Ellem falters this week after getting off to such a promising start with so many Gulaptis gaffes to bounce off. There is no clear policy vision emerging. His silence on the risks of mining in the Upper Nymboida area of the Clarence River catchment can only be described as deafening. This sees little movement in his score.

3. Janet Cavanaugh is the only candidate who shows any passion with regard to the issues she canvasses in her campaign and deserves brownie points for not just going through the motions like most of the other candidates.

4. Wade Walker is still playing dumb and presenting as a zero.

5. Bethany Camac had become very quiet by the end of the working week as the noise from her day job reverberates across the electorate. She is another deep in minus territory.

6. Clinton Mead last stood for election in the foothills of the Southern Highlands and, currently lives in Bradbury near Campbelltown which is many hundreds of miles away from the Clarence electorate – making one wonder just how serious this candidate is about his own chances.

7. David Robinson fails to establish that he has genuine contemporary links with the Clarence electorate. As he could not turn membership numbers around for his ailing ratepayers association, one wonders how well he would do steering the good ship Clarence.

8. Stewart Scott-Irving as a latecomer to the scorecard does not rate yet. However, as an unsuccessful candidate he has been known to spit the dummy and demand an inquiry with this predictable result.

Rolling Scorecard

Gulaptis -2

Ellem 2.3

Cavanaugh 2.5
Wade Walker 0
Bethany Camac -3

Clinton Mead -1

David Robinson 0

Stewart Scott-Irving 0