Before Clarence Valley Council moves further with this park theft, local people might like to write or email councillors (details here) and tell them just how 'thrilled' they are at the prospect of losing more of Maclean's public, passive green space.
Wednesday 27 June 2012
Clarence Valley Council rips the green heart out of Maclean, the 'Scottish Town'
Before Clarence Valley Council moves further with this park theft, local people might like to write or email councillors (details here) and tell them just how 'thrilled' they are at the prospect of losing more of Maclean's public, passive green space.
Carbon Pricing: If any of these businesses put up their retail prices between July 2012 and December 2013 by more than 0.01% to 0.05% on any item they will probably be fleecing their customers
Tony Abbott and Federal Coalition MPs encourage the butcher, baker and candlestick maker to put up their prices after 1 July 2012. Knowing that, in most cases, it would be difficult to justify any price increase above one cent per food or beverage item over the next eighteen months.
A big thankyou to journalist Latkia Bourke for uploading these letters and accompanying posters to Scribd.
See Bakers
Are you a right-thinking Australian? Nationals start a 'Get Rid Of Rob' campaign
Are the NSW North Coast Nationals and their federal counterparts on the money, or paranoid and desperate? You be the judge……………
Election campaigns aren’t cheap and we need your support to help get rid of Rob.
All money raised through this site will go directly towards supporting The Nationals’ campaign in the seat of Lyne.
Please click on the amount you wish to donate (an estimate of what assistance that support could provide is listed) or choose your own amount.
All right-thinking Australians thank you for your support.
Contributions | Estimated Expense Equivalent |
$16.00 | Campaign T-Shirt for a volunteer |
$35.00 | 5 pack of corflute signs to erect around the electorate |
$69.00 | 30 second radio ad on 2MC highlighting Rob Oakeshott's betrayal of the community |
$100.00 | 1000 how to vote cards, showing people how to Get rid of Rob. |
$400.00 | Small newspaper ad in The Manning River Times about stopping the carbon tax |
$750.00 | Medium newspaper ad in The Port News detailing The Nationals' plan for Lyne |
$1325.00 | Production of 2000 "Get rid of Rob" Bumper Stickers |
$2500.00 | One month's rent for the "Get rid of Rob" Campaign Office |
Donate Your own donation amount |
* Every cent donated will go towards helping The Nationals get rid of Rob
Tuesday 26 June 2012
What Manager of Opposition Business Christopher Pyne doesn't want canvassed in the Australian House of Representatives
Update
The Australian 27 June 2012:
LNP president Bruce McIver has conceded that Howard government minister Mal Brough approached him, and possibly party donor and mining magnate Clive Palmer, searching for a job for a Slipper staffer, believed to be Karen Doane, who in April proposed launching a harassment case against the Speaker.
The Queanbeyan Age 27 June 2012:
NEWS Limited and one of its journalists were involved in an elaborate plot to bring down parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper, according to documents filed with the Federal Court.
The documents expose private communication between News political correspondent Steve Lewis and Mr Slipper's former staff member James Ashby, including one in which Lewis says: ''We will get him.''
The documents also reveal that News - the Australian arm of Rupert Murdoch's media empire - paid for Mr Ashby to stay in a Sydney hotel and meet Lewis on April 10 this year. In one text, the reporter told Mr Ashby: ''I will sort out payment'', and: ''Just tell hotel to book u in again and News will sort''.
Response of some Yamba residents to Clarence Valley Council Deputy Manager's statement - ROFLOL
Clarence Valley Council deputy general manager Rob Donges said council already spends a fair amount of money and time trying to ensure footpaths and other well-used public spaces are safe for residents. [The Daily Examiner,Skateboarders a 'danger': Elderly man wants them off the footpaths,25 June 2012]
Borsak baulked
The Leader of the NSW Shooters & Fishers Party Robert Borsak has been caught out trying to slip clauses into legislation before the NSW Parliament allowing unsupervised amateur hunters the right to bear semi-automatic weapons.
Now who on earth told a local journo that?
“LOCAL Federal member Luke Hartsuyker tabled the concerns of Cowper constituents during Thursday's House of Representatives sitting in Canberra.”
Now who on earth told The Coffs Coast Advocate journo that?
What actually happened was that Hartsuyker got to his feet and made a speech unsupported by any piece of paper outlining Cowper voter’s concerns – absolutely nothing was “tabled”.
In fact his speech contained the same old dodgy claims about a Coffs Harbour butcher’s power bills he’s been trotting out since 2010.
Monday 25 June 2012
Dirtgirl helps launch Clarence Valley Council's innovative waste management strategy
It was a bright sunny morning at Yamba Markets on Sunday 24 June, when Dirtgirl came to lend a hand at the launch of Clarence Valley Council’s new waste management strategy.
A cry from one Aussie heart.................
http://youtu.be/12PN66IBoPs
http://youtu.be/Tc5ljcri6Nk
http://youtu.be/ZvYzLIywCiA
http://youtu.be/GLAu2aY5UgY
http://youtu.be/pJTX0iWYX9A
Sunday 24 June 2012
When NSW Government funding decisions cost lives
IT WAS 7am, the platform was wet and slippery and when the doors to my first western suburbs Sydney train opened, the only free seat was covered in spilled coffee.
The two women standing nearby warned me we were in for track work delays so I opened the morning paper, took a deep breath and thought "life in the big city could take some getting used to".
It was 4pm that day, in a different part of the state, when a car travelling along a wet and slippery stretch of the Pacific Hwy north of Coffs Harbour, spun out of control and changed the lives of the family inside forever.
As I cursed the hour-long train trip home, a 10-month-old baby boy was pulled from the highway wreck and flown to hospital in a critical condition.
While I was enjoying a night out with friends the next night, that little boy died.
It would be ridiculous to compare the frustration I had felt getting to work late on that cold autumn morning with unimaginable grief those parents live with every day.
And yet, the politicians in this country who have the power to dramatically reduce the possibility of other parents facing the same horror, have decided taxpayers' money is better spent making my trip to work that little bit more comfortable.
The Coalition's cry that they did not have the funds to match the Federal Government's offer to fund half of the Pacific Highway duplication is disgraceful.
What about the $5.5billion set aside in this week's NSW Budget for Sydney's transport network?
The people using public transport in Sydney are not dying from sitting in overcrowded or slow trains.
Waiting another four years won't kill them.
It could kill Sydney votes though and the majority of people living along the most deadly road stretch in Northern NSW live in cosy National seats.
In the lead-up to last week's budget, "honour" was a word which was thrown around freely by State and Federal MP's.
Both governments called on each other to "honour" election promises and funding split agreements.
There is nothing honourable about playing with people's lives.
The only way to honour the families of those whose deaths could have been avoided is for the people who have failed them to fix the damned road.
Hey, Minister Berejiklian, heed the call for safer travel on school buses
Come on, Minister Berejiklian, get out and listen to what the community is repeatedly saying: Improve the safety of travellers on school buses.
Coffs Harbour school principal, Mr Michael Carniato, is the latest contributor to the letters columns in the Coffs Coast Advocate calling upon the Minister to lift her game and do something constructive by announcing the outcomes of the NSW School Bus Safety Committee's consultative processes.
Mr Carniato politely reminded Minister Berejiklian that the chair of the NSW School Bus Safety Committee, which was set up by the Minister, told a community meeting in Coffs Harbour in November 2011 the outcomes of this committee's process would be made public in the second quarter of 2012.
Well, Minister Berejiklian, today's Sunday 24 June so that means there are just six, yes 6, days left in the second quarter.
Get on with it, Minister, and announce the outcomes.
Here's the complete text of Mr Carniato's letter.
School bus fear
Last week's state budget failed to deliver the funding needed to complete the Pacific Highway upgrade by 2016.
While we wait for a safer road to be built, we have many old and unsafe school buses travelling at high speed on the highway. These buses were not built to withstand the 20g forces likely to be experienced in a high-speed crash.
They are up to 25 years old and were built before the legislation introduced for all Australian coaches after the horrific bus crashes near Clybucca and Cowper that killed 55 people.
Why doesn't this legislation apply to school children who travel up to 200 times a year in a bus? Many of these older school buses have hard, low-backed seats which were banned in 1977 by the US federal government.
Buses with safe seats and seatbelts are needed on the road and all children should be seated, not standing or sitting in a bus aisle.
At a community meeting in Coffs Harbour in November 2011 the chair of the NSW School Bus Safety Committee, set up by the Transport Minister, announced the outcomes of this committee's process would be made in the second quarter of 2012.
We are now waiting for Minister Berejiklian's announcement.
Mr Michael Carniato
Principal, John Paul College