This blog is open to any who wish to comment on Australian society, the state of the environment or political shenanigans at Federal, State and Local Government level.
This email arrived in my Inbox this morning. If it is genuine copy, then NSW Nationals executive committee members have collectively lost their political minds and decided that comprehensively lying to their own membership is an acceptable proposition.
In order to remain calm Clarence Valley voters will possibly need to sit down with a restorative beverage before reading this arrant nonsense:
From: NSW Nationals [mailto:email@nswnationals.org.au]
Sent: 17 July 2012 10:17
Subject: A message from the State Chairman on the Grafton Gaol issue
Tuesday 17 July
A message from the State Chairman on the Grafton Gaol issue
Dear members,
I would like to take this opportunity to provide you with some insight to the Grafton Gaol issue. It is evident that this issue has struck a chord with many of our members and has been a very difficult period for the Grafton Community.
Obviously any decision to remove jobs from a local community is difficult and one that is only a last resort, however I am disappointed that some within our party have questioned the ability and relevance of The Nationals to fight for the Grafton community and that is something I would like to address.
The way in which the announcement was made and the manner in which it was delivered is regrettable. It placed the local member Chris Gulaptis in a very difficult position from the outset.
Chris took a stand for his local community and was quickly supported by his parliamentary colleagues, both state and federal who were in constant contact with messages of support and advice.
Head Office was also in constant communication with Chris and his office and also sent Ross Cadell to Grafton to provide on the ground support.
The Parliamentary leadership team led by Andrew Stoner met with a delegation from Grafton led by Chris and commenced discussions with the Premier on the issue.
I cannot understate the level of support and work that was carried out by all within the Party, largely behind closed doors, to try and rectify this issue for the people of Grafton.
I too was in constant contact with Chris and our Federal Candidate for Page Kevin Hogan over the last fortnight.
Although the original decision stood and was not delayed as requested by many, The Nationals were able to convince the Premier to determine what Government Department or jobs can be decentralised to Grafton and report back within eight weeks, in addition to the North Coast Jobs action plan which the Deputy Premier announced last week. This will result in a net increase in the number of Government jobs in Grafton in the near future.
There have been many lessons learnt from this exercise, but contrary to some of the comments from a number of sources (disappointingly even from some of our own members) The Nationals have made a difference in fighting for the Grafton community. We need to remember that it was the previous Labor Government that commissioned the construction of the Cessnock correctional facility, clearly with the view to relocating prisoners from older prisons like Grafton to Cessnock.
Although we would have preferred not to go through the last fortnight, Grafton will benefit in the long run due to the hard work that The Nationals have done throughout this difficult issue.
I truly believe that if it was not for The Nationals the jobs that will be lost due to the Gaol being reclassified to a remand centre would have been lost with no other opportunities provided.
While the Grafton community faces some immediate challenges, the future for jobs in the region is stronger as a direct result of The Nationals' actions over the past two weeks.
Yours sincerely,
Hon Niall Blair MLC
State Chairman
"The public service has shown it can't be relied on to have the community's interests at heart"; cries former Vice-Chairman of the NSW National Party and current Grafton Chamber of Commerce president Jeremy Challacombe in The Daily Examiner on the 17th July 2012.
Barely 5 days after the NSW Liberal-Nationals Coalition Government acted on its own executive decision and removed prisoners from Grafton Gaol leaving only a 60-bed remand facility to serve prisoners being held for local court appearances. Suddenly Barry O'Farrell, Andrew Stoner, Greg Hunt and Chris Gulaptis’ sly betrayal of the Clarence Valley community didn’t happen. Now it’s all the fault of the 107 people who lost their jobs when the last of the prison transport vans rolled out of Grafton and on to Cessnock. The Nats are proving once again that they are nothing but a political nest for gutless rodentsvipersidiotsfools men of uncertain moral fibre and weak intelligence.
Australian Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is on record as cheerfully admitting that he lies to Australian voters at the drop of the hat. It seems he has a mate in America, because Republican presidential canidate Mitt Romney has been discovered making his resignation for Bain Capital 'restrospective'. Something he neglected to tell the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. CNN News 13th July 2012: "The documents, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, place Romney in charge of Bain from 1999 to 2001, a period in which the company outsourced jobs and ran companies that fell into bankruptcy. Romney has tried to distance himself from this period in Bain's history, saying on financial disclosure forms he had no active role in Bain as of February 1999. Obama has labeled Romney a job killer in hopes of undercutting the Republican's claim that his private business experience gives him the ability to turn around the struggling economy. But at least three times since then, Bain listed Romney as the company's "controlling person," as well as its "sole shareholder, sole director, chief executive officer and president." And one of those documents — as late as February 2001 — lists Romney's "principal occupation" was as Bain's managing director." If Tony Abbott and Mitt Romney are both leaders of their respective nations in 2013, will anyone be able to trust official foreign policy announcemnts about the Australian-US alliance for the next four years or more?
I write to express my feelings of shock and dismay at the loss of jobs and other impacts caused by the New South Wales Government's downsizing of the Grafton Jail.
At the picket line on Ramornie Day, I was both inspired by the strength of the community's support for the workers, their families, the families of inmates and for Grafton and Clarence Valley, and saddened as I knew the trucks were in transit to take remaining inmates away, the final act in axing local jobs.
The NSW Government and the National Party representatives, including, and I hate to say this, the local State Member, got everything wrong - the downsizing, the immediacy of it, refusing to talk to locals directly, and no plans put in place for the workers, their families, and the city.
On site at the picket I met with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, who were there protesting the jobs going and deeply worried for inmates, up to 70% of them Indigenous, being moved to Kempsey, Cessnock or other faraway jails.
Despite what we know from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, which recommended inmates have regular contact with family members, there were no transition plans in place either.
There are many cruel impacts caused by this callous treatment; teachers who are offered a redundancy but then told they cannot go into teaching elsewhere for 12 months under some State Government rules. These rules could have been relaxed for them.
When the South Grafton Abattoir closed late last year, a State Government Rapid Response was deployed. Why couldn't there be a similar response for the jail?
We were told it cannot apply to the public sector, but this public service closure, is ripping the guts out of Grafton. Again, these can be fixed by political decisions.
Like all locals, the question we are asking is how much more can the Clarence Valley take? Grafton is a great city and the Clarence Valley is stocked with solid and stoic people, who will rebuild and pick up the pieces, but this betrayal is hard to accept.
I know Grafton Chamber of Commerce president Jeremy Challacombe said we should not be political, and I understand where he is coming from, but I am political and proudly call myself a politician, and one who speaks up for us locals.
That is my job, nothing more, nothing less. This is political and it was a political decision of the NSW Liberal Premier Barry O'Farrell and his Deputy, National Party Leader Andrew Stoner, to downsize Grafton Jail.
It could have easily been a political decision to not downgrade the jail to a remand centre, and at least, do what the local community kept calling for, 'to push the pause button'.
Where to from here? We must work together to ensure we attract whatever support we can to Grafton and the Clarence Valley, so that all can continue to not only survive but flourish.
We need to take advantage of all opportunities and openings, and go for them. This is what I shall be doing with the local community.
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
[Adopted and proclaimed by United Nations General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948]
Hi! My name is Boy. I'm a male bi-coloured tabby cat. Ever since I discovered that Malcolm Turnbull's dogs were allowed to blog, I have been pestering Clarencegirl to allow me a small space on North Coast Voices.
A false flag musing: I have noticed one particular voice on Facebook which is Pollyanna-positive on the subject of the Port of Yamba becoming a designated cruise ship destination. What this gentleman doesn’t disclose is that, as a principal of Middle Star Pty Ltd, he could be thought to have a potential pecuniary interest due to the fact that this corporation (which has had an office in Grafton since 2012) provides consultancy services and tourismbusiness development services.
A religion & local government musing: On 11 October 2017 Clarence Valley Council has the Church of Jesus Christ Development Fund Inc in Sutherland Local Court No. 6 for a small claims hearing. It would appear that there may be a little issue in rendering unto Caesar. On 19 September 2017 an ordained minister of a religion (which was named by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in relation to 40 instances of historical child sexual abuse on the NSW North Coast) read the Opening Prayer at Council’s ordinary monthly meeting. Earlier in the year an ordained minister (from a church network alleged to have supported an overseas orphanage closed because of child abuse claims in 2013) read the Opening Prayer and an ordained minister (belonging to yet another church network accused of ignoring child sexual abuse in the US and racism in South Africa) read the Opening Prayer at yet another ordinary monthly meeting. Nice one councillors - you are covering yourselves with glory!
An investigative musing: Newcastle Herald, 12 August 2017: The state’s corruption watchdog has been asked to investigate the finances of the Awabakal Aboriginal Local Land Council, less than 12 months after the troubled organisation was placed into administration by the state government. The Newcastle Herald understands accounting firm PKF Lawler made the decision to refer the land council to the Independent Commission Against Corruption after discovering a number of irregularities during an audit of its financial statements.The results of the audit were recently presented to a meeting of Awabakal members. Administrator Terry Lawler did not respond when contacted by the Herald and a PKF Lawler spokesperson said it was unable to comment on the matter. Given the intricate web of company relationships that existed with at least one former board member it is not outside the realms of possibility that, if ICAC accepts this referral, then United Land Councils Limited (registered New Zealand) and United First Peoples Syndications Pty Ltd(registered Australia) might be interviewed. North Coast Voices readers will remember that on 15 August 2015 representatives of these two companied gave evidence before NSW Legislative Council General Purpose Standing Committee No. 6 INQUIRY INTO CROWN LAND. This evidence included advocating for a Yamba mega port.
A Nationals musing: Word around the traps is that NSW Nats MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis has been talking up the notion of cruise ships visiting the Clarence River estuary. Fair dinkum! That man can be guaranteed to run with any bad idea put to him. I'm sure one or more cruise ships moored in the main navigation channel on a regular basis for one, two or three days is something other regular river users will really welcome. *pause for appreciation of irony* The draft of the smallest of the smaller cruise vessels is 3 metres and it would only stay safely afloat in that channel. Even the Yamba-Iluka ferry has been known to get momentarily stuck in silt/sand from time to time in Yamba Bay and even a very small cruise ship wouldn't be able to safely enter and exit Iluka Bay. You can bet your bottom dollar operators of cruise lines would soon be calling for dredging at the approach to the river mouth - and you know how well that goes down with the local residents.
A local councils musing: Which Northern Rivers council is on a low-key NSW Office of Local Government watch list courtesy of feet dragging by a past general manager?
A serial pest musing: I'm sure the Clarence Valley was thrilled to find that a well-known fantasist is active once again in the wee small hours of the morning treading a well-worn path of accusations involving police, local business owners and others.
An investigative musing: Which NSW North Coast council is batting to have the longest running code of conduct complaint investigation on record?
A which bank? musing: Despite a net profit last year of $9,227 million the Commonwealth Bank still insists on paying below Centrelink deeming rates interest on money held in Pensioner Security Accounts. One local wag says he’s waiting for the first bill from the bank charging him for the privilege of keeping his pension dollars at that bank.
A Daily Examiner musing: Just when you thought this newspaper could sink no lower under News Corp management, it continues to give column space to Andrew Bolt.
A thought to ponder musing: In case of bushfire or flood - do you have an emergency evacuation plan for the family pet?
An adoption musing: Every week on the NSW North Coast a number of cats and dogs find themselves without a home. If you want to do your bit and give one bundle of joy a new family, contact Happy Paws on 0419 404 766 or your local council pound.
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