Clarence Valley LGA Election 2012 Candidate Scorecard: Week One

Candidates standing for the nine councillor positions at the 8 September 2012 Clarence Valley Local Government Election are being rated on their individual campaigns to win over voters.

The score range is -10 to 10. Every candidate starts at zero (0)

Candidate nominations closed last Wednesday and ballot paper positions were assigned, so one could say that all candidates are now on the blocks.

This week degrees of separation (or lack thereof) come to the fore on nomination forms.

Name                       Designation            Running Score

Rod Morrison        Independent            0

Margot Scott          Independent           0

Paul Parkinson                                  -3 for being unable to decide exactly where he lives, for not supplying local media with a photograph so voters can ‘see’  who it is that is asking for their votes, referring to himself online as an “indigenous white fella” when he admits he has no claim to culture or country  

                                                                                 

Craig Howe            Independent          -1 with a LOL for informing the world on his nomination form that he won’t be born until 12 days after election day – thereby creating what would have to be the world’s first in utero candidate

Andrew Baker       Independent            0

Ursula Tunks        Independent             0

Joy de Roos                                       -1 for not mentioning on her nomination form that she belonged to a political party (ALP)

Jim Simmons         Independent           0

Greg Clancy           Independent           1 for being a only candidate with professional training/background which will be directly relevantif elected to council

Jane Beeby            Independent          -3 for taking down her election campaign Facebook page before the week ended and for trying to spin the reason for doing so

Sue Hughes           Independent            0

Karen Toms                                        1 for being a candidate who stated on her nomination form that she belonged to a  political a party (NATS)

Michael McIvor       Independent           0  

                                                                           

Jeremy Challacombe Independent       0.5 + -2  = -1.5 for mentioning on his nomination form that he was a member of a political party but ignoring the fact being an office holder in that party is also relevant (NATS) and then deciding it was a good idea to have his nomination form witnessed by a staffer working for Andrew Baker’s former business partner Nationals MP Chris Gulaptis 

                                                                                

Richie Williamson                               1 for mentioning on his nomination form that he belonged to a political party (NATS)

Margaret McKenna  Independent          -2  deciding it was a good idea to have her nomination form witnessed by a yet another staffer working for Andrew Baker’s former business partner Nationals MP Chris Gulaptis       

Jason Kingsley        Independent           1 for being a candidate who stated on his nomination that he belonged to a  political party (ALP) 

Councils across Northern NSW resolving to oppose CSG mining

From Mid North Coast Greens a list of Northern NSW local governments opposing Coal Seam Gas mining and the date decisions were taken:

Northern Rivers
Tweed 01-Apr-11
Byron 12-May-11
Lismore 01-Nov-11
Kyogle 20-Dec-11
Clarence Valley 21-Feb-12
Ballina 28-Apr-12
Richmond Valley 15-May-12

Mid North Coast
Greater Taree 01-Dec-11
Great Lakes 10-Apr-12
Coffs Harbour 26-July-12

Hunter / Newcastle
Cessnock 01-Oct-10
Gloucester 21-Dec-11
Port Stephens Dec-11 (Security of Water)
Newcastle 5-Jun-12 (Security of Newcastle's Water)

The Northern Rivers region can be justifiably proud of the fact that every one of its local government areas are on this list.

And you thought your local government election ballot paper was going to be unwieldy?

Pity the poor voters in Lismore LGA who cannot possibly separate the wheat from the chaff in this paddock absolutely chocka with candidates for the 1 mayoral and 10 councillor seats on offer.

Councillor Candidates Lismore City Council

Local Government Elections 2012 - Saturday, 8 September 2012

Draw Status: Not Complete

Candidate Ballot Name	Locality	Party Affiliation or Independent
BATTISTA Gianpiero	GOONELLABAH	Independent
BENNETT Greg	NIMBIN
CLOUGH Simon	LISMORE HEIGHTS	Our Sustainable Future
DOWELL Jenny	GOONELLABAH	Country Labor
GRINDON-EKINS Vanessa	LISMORE HEIGHTS	The Greens
LARSEN Peter	TUNTABLE CREEK
MARKS Neil	GOONELLABAH	Independent
MEINEKE Graham	EAST LISMORE	Independent
OLIVIERI Kate	GOONELLABAH	Independent
SCHEIBEL Mathew	GOOLMANGAR	Independent
YARNALL David	TERANIA CREEK	Independent
BATTISTA Rebekka	GOONELLABAH	Independent
BEOHM Katrina	KEERRONG	Independent
BONNER Marny	SOUTH LISMORE	Our Sustainable Future
CHANT John	EAST LISMORE	Independent
GRAHAM Kel	WYRALLAH	Independent
MATHEW Angela	GOONELLABAH	Independent
MURPHY Paul	CANIABA
RODEN Tony	TUNTABLE CREEK	Independent
SMITH Isaac	EAST LISMORE	Country Labor
STOCK Susan	NIMBIN	The Greens
BATEMAN Clive	NIMBIN
BORDIN Adrian	TULLERA	Independent
DARDENGO Denis	GOONELLABAH	Independent
HARLOW Ruth	LISMORE	Our Sustainable Future
HOUSTON Ray	GOONELLABAH	Country Labor
KAVANAGH Catherine	GIRARDS HILL	Independent
O'NEILL Paul	LISMORE	Independent
SALMON Shae	SOUTH GUNDURIMBA	The Greens
SYMONS Scout	EAST LISMORE	Independent
VERARDO Sante	SOUTH LISMORE	Independent
ALBERTINI Angela	MODANVILLE	Independent
CASSON Nancy	GOONELLABAH	Independent
COLES Marilyn	WYRALLAH
DAVISON Leigh	TERANIA CREEK	Our Sustainable Future
JOHNSTON Shanelle	THE CHANNON	Independent
LAWRENCE Terry	LISMORE	Independent
MCDOUGALL Ross	NUMULGI	Independent
PILATI Anthony	NORTH LISMORE	Independent
RITCHIE Glenys	GIRARDS HILL	Country Labor
SHELLEY Beth	BOOERIE CREEK	The Greens
BARNES David	TUNTABLE CREEK
BELL Kevin	REPENTANCE CREEK	Country Labor
BREASLEY-SMITH Vicki	TERANIA CREEK	Independent
BRUCE Matt	LISMORE	Independent
DEEGAN Paul	GOONELLABAH	Independent
FINDLAY Vicki	NORTH LISMORE	Independent
GUISE Adam	LISMORE	The Greens
HENRY Brian	GOONELLABAH	Independent
KIA Annie	THE CHANNON	Our Sustainable Future
MILLER Dusty	NORTH LISMORE	Independent
ANDERSON Stuart	TUNTABLE CREEK	Our Sustainable Future
GORDON Andrew	GIRARDS HILL
KING Amanda	EAST LISMORE	The Greens
MARKS Deborah	GOONELLABAH	Independent
NOTT Belinda	TUCKI TUCKI	Independent
PEARCE Brendan	GOONELLABAH	Independent
WOODHAM Nick	EAST LISMORE	Independent
WORRALL Naomi	NORTH LISMORE	Country Labor
ROBINSON Barry	EAST LISMORE	Independent

One of the painful truths many on the North Coast and the rest of NSW have to live with

Being a NSW region high on the aging demographic tree and lower on the average weekly household income scale, with a consistently higher than national or state unemployment levels, there is often real pain attached those quarterly electricity bills for many local people.

So it was good to see the Prime Minister articulate the some of the difficulties faced,  in her keynote speech to the Energy Policy Institute at a gathering of the worst power industry price gougers at the Sydney Intercontinental Hotel on 7 August 2012:

People are paying a lot more – in some states, bills have gone up almost a thousand dollars in just a few years.

It is very clear that working Australians, pensioners, the sick, the aged, people who need the most help, the people Labor Governments are elected to represent. These are the people who are feeling the most pressure.

Meanwhile, some states, like New South Wales and Queensland, are doing very well out of this financially and their revenue from some electricity assets is growing much faster than in the private sector.......

As a recent AGL Energy review noted, while wealthier households can cut power costs through more efficient devices and solar panels, the poorest customers are exposed to the full cost of the increases.

As a Labor Prime Minister, I feel very deeply concerned about the plight of pensioners and poorer families who spend a greater proportion of their income on power.

The less disposable income you have, the harder it is to manage large lumpy bills, like power bills.

And buying clean energy appliances – everything from new and more efficient whitegoods to rooftop solar panels – is plainly easier if you earn more........

Fifty per cent price increases in many states over four years – linked to demonstrable inefficiencies in resource allocation in the market.

Or in this state, New South Wales – nearly seventy per cent increases.

With half the extra cost due to increased network charges.

People are paying much more for the so-called “poles and wires” – not to produce electricity but just to move it around the system.

A long term trend of price increases like this cannot be sustained.

Not economically, not socially. No market can sustain this, let alone a market which delivers one of the essentials of life.

It’s a huge cost to our economy.

Full transcript of the Prime Minister's speech is here.

Premier Barry O'Farrell, Energy Minister Chris Hartcher et al may huff and puff all they like, but Julia Gillard is speaking a solid truth

From Teh Book Of Little Known Aussie FAQS

The NSW Inmate Census 2011 revealed that only 7% of the state’s 10,068 strong prison population is female – that’s only 703 inmates, with just one in maximum security, none under 18 years of age and 203 of these women in the system had yet to be sentenced by the courts when the census was taken.
Does this mean the average Aussie sheila is a lot more law-abiding than her bloke?

Grab a few tinnies and argue it out among yourselves fellas - but quietly and as far away from your better halves as you can get.

Clarence Valley local government election candidates - the final list and ballot positions

Clarence Valley local government election candidates in order of their ballot paper positions and how they will classify themselves on 8 September 2012:

Rod Morrison Independent

Margot Scott Independent

Paul Parkinson

Craig Howe Independent

Andrew Baker Independent

Ursula Tunks Independent

Joy de Roos

Jim Simmons Independent

Greg Clancy Independent

Jane Beeby Independent

Sue Hughes Independent

Karen Toms

Michael McIvor Independent

Jeremy Challacombe Independent

Richie Williamson

Margaret McKenna Independent

Jason Kingsley Independent

Commencing this week North Coast Voices will be rating these 17 candidates on performance and policies over the course of the election campaign.

In 2012 Facebook became a social networking site of which its participants could be ashamed

On 4 June 2012 someone reputedly from Perth, West Australia (and rumoured to be a 16 year old boy) began a Facebook page called Aboriginal Memes.

Racist and hateful are the terms which best describe this site, which tries to excuse its venom by labelling it humour.

These are two snapshots taken of this page by The Vine with the deceased Aboriginal elder’s faced blurred for privacy/cultural reasons:

The Vine asks:

Moreover, the people who are creating these images have actually claimed credit for their horrific displays of intolerance, captioning the pictures on Facebook as “credit: Hunter Green”, “Credit: Kurt Christidis”, “Credit: Mitchel Warmington”. Besides the obvious that these people should be deeply ashamed of their unabashed vilification, did it not occur to them that potential employers/ colleagues/ workmates/ friends/ family/ the media could see their names up in the proverbial Facebook lights?

Facebook management has been contacted by at least two journalists and this is what it said to one:

The Australian put concerns to Facebook yesterday."We don't have anything to share on this but if that changes, we'll let you know," a spokeswoman said.

Perhaps it’s time for sensible individuals to walk away from this social networking site if it is going to support such vile trash - but not before hitting the report this button.

How to make a paper bin liner for that little green kitchen bin

This was The Daily Examiner editor in the 7 August 2012 issue, on the subject of how to make the most of the new Clarence Valley Council waste management system of which both she and most local residents heartily approve:

My first effort at using the little green kitchen bin ended pretty badly, with a lot of  newspaper used and even more disinfectant used afterwards……

We'll help each other get used to the change and make it work. The first step of that is the origami newspaper competition we launched today (see page 5).
Fully aware it leaves us open to a plethora of jokes and I can already imagine the spray we're going to cop on at least one local media observers' blog site ("We've always said The DEX is rubbish etc"), I'm still going to push the message: Forget the Tele, wrap your scraps in The DEX - a thoroughly decent read and thoroughly useful product.  

To help everyone who is finding the bench-top kitchen scraps bin a bit of a challenge, here are a few paper bin liner instruction videos that may possibly be adapted to accommodate the smaller sheet size of many Australian newspapers.

http://youtu.be/BfEX85V9n8w

http://youtu.be/IhzKEeCmOfc

http://youtu.be/PWcMlIsXWdo

A simple to follow paper folding diagram can be found here.