Mayor: Richie Williamson
16 May 2013General Manager: Scott Greensill BOIL WATER NOTICE – Lower Clarence water supply areas Regular monitoring for E. coli bacteria in the Lower Clarence water supply system is conducted by Clarence Valley Council. Recent monitoring has shown E. coli to be present in the Lower Clarence water supply system. As a precaution you are advised that water for consumption should be brought to a rolling boil. Water should then be allowed to cool and stored in a clean container with a lid and refrigerated. This boil water notice applies to consumers in the Lower Clarence including the following areas: Maclean, Brooms Head, Yamba, Harwood, Ashby, Iluka, and areas in between these towns Cooled boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, cooking, washing raw foods (such as seafood or salads), making ice, and cleaning teeth. Dishes should be washed in hot soapy water or in a dishwasher. Children should take bottled or cooled boiled water to school. Precautions should be taken until further notice. You will be advised when the boil water notice is lifted. E. coli itself is generally not harmful but its presence in drinking water indicates that the water may be contaminated with organisms that may cause disease. The NSW Department of Health advises that special care is advisable for certain consumers at this time, these include people with severely weakened immune systems (the immunosuppressed), individuals receiving dialysis treatment, and aged individuals. Please contact your doctor or local Public Health Unit (02 6620 7585) for more information. Council, in conjunction with the NSW Department of Health is investigating the problem and is carrying out rectification works including cleaning reservoirs, flushing of mains, supplementary chlorine dosing, and additional surveillance. Residents may notice elevated chlorine levels in the water supply. If you require further information please contact Council’s Customer Service staff on 6643 0200. Schools: For Precautions for Schools and Child Care Centres during Boil Water Alerts refer to NSW Department of Health website: Release ends. Authorised by: Scott Greensill, General Manager 02 6643 0212 For further information contact: Rob Donges Deputy General Manager |
Thursday 16 May 2013
Lower Clarence residents need to boil their water due to E. coli contamination
Tony Abbott's Budget Reply Speech 2013 Translated
Translation of the ABC News Online transcript of Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s Budget Reply Speech of 16 May 2013:
Bad guvmin, bad guvmin, look at my RM Williams boots, bad guvmin, I have a wife, bad guvmin, I’m just like you, bad guvmin, no carbon tax, bad guvmin, lower taxes, bad guvmin, me stand for good guvmin, bad guvmin, wasteful spending, bad guvmin, I can use clichés, bad guvmin, ministers can’t guarantee anything, bad guvmin, you can believe my promises but not the other guy’s, bad guvmin, count the billions, bad guvmin, in 121 days there will be an election, bad guvmin, trust me, bad guvmin, lotsa parliamentary sitting days will be dedicated to repealing laws, bad guvmin, I haz monies!, bad guvmin, IR law? look over there not over here, bad guvmin, boats there are boats, bad guvmin, kill the public service, bad guvmin, I will rob low income earners and stop bi-annual Centrelink benefit increases so vote for me, bad guvmin, your boss doesn't have to pay you extra super nah nah nah, bad guvmin, I own Howard & Costello's past surpluses, bad guvmin, we have A PLAN, bad bad Labor guvmin.
Post-Budget 2013 reaction on the NSW North Coast? Yawn......
After all that pre-Budget heat in the national media over the last few weeks, a quick Google search this morning revealed a surprising level of what might be described as post-Budget apathy here on the NSW North Coast.
Two days after the Federal Treasurer’s 2013 Budget Speech the Nationals candidate standing for election in the Page fereal electorate in four months time, Kevin Hogan, had no post up on his Twitter account that even mentioned the budget. While his Facebook entry was barely more than a photo opportunity and a mention of a televised NBN interview. Hogan’s campaign website has one lonely post which merely responds to a pre-Budget Pacific Highway funding newspaper article and he had a brief highway funding quote in local media on 16 May.
Luke Hartsuyker, the National’s Federal Member for Cowper, had a single website post on Budget night and nothing else two days later. His Twitter account is still tweetless and the Facebook page carrying his name remains silent.
Curiously both men appear to have sent out almost identical media releases, which probably means that there was a Budget night Coalition cheat sheet for sitting MPs and candidates.
A point picked up by APN media the day after the Budget speech:
Similarly Janelle Saffin, Labor’s Federal Member for Page, was very low key post-Budget. With no media releases concerning the Budget posted on her personal web page by the morning of 16 May. Ms. Saffin’s Twitter account and Facebook page also had nothing to say on the subject. However, she was quoted in local media on 16 May concerning health and education measures contained in the 2013 Budget.
Labor's Richmond Federal MP Justine Elliot was quoted in The Northern Star as backing the Budget the day after its delivery, but appears to have had nothing to say on the subject on her Facebook site.
Matthew Fraser, the Nationals candidate standing in the Richmond electorate at the September federal election, was quoted by APN media the day after the Budget speech and was predictably staying on message allegedly big debt and broken promises. His campaign website has had nothing to say since 10 May. Fraser’s Facebook page links to that APN article and a campaign propaganda site, with one lonely post on alleged overspending.
By Wednesday 15 May 2013 ABC North Coast’s Facebook page could barely give ABC News a handful of budget quotes from local residents and the Clarence Valley Rate Payers, Residents & Business Owners had nary a mention of budget issues by Thursday morning.
Also on Thursday morning the Rural Doctors Association of Australia had what was essentially a generic response on budget changes to indexation of Medicare Benefits in a brief The Northern Star article and, in the same issue there was a mixed response to health, education, superannuation, housing and cash transfers by two members of the business and community sectors .
No local residents appear to have been so hot under the collar on Budget night that they fired off letters to editors in time for inclusion in Northern Rivers newspapers over the last two days and, the main online community newspapers haven’t caught up with the budget details yet.
Perhaps tonight’s Budget Reply Speech by Opposition leader Tony Abbott will draw more of a response from voters on the North Coast?
Richmond Beef has a gripe?
In July 2011 the Australian Government lifted its month long ban on the export of live cattle to Indonesia.
In August 2011 the Richmond River Beef Producers Association went to the local media, not to express concerns about this ban which did not directly affect the small group of producers in the Kyogle region, but to highlight concerns about Kyogle Council’s Draft Local Environment Plan potentially devaluing rural properties.
Thirteen months later the Richmond River Beef Producers Association wrote to the Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin concerning the alleged flow-on effects from the now defunct Live cattle ban.
Then this letter to the editor appeared in The Northern Star 15 May 2013:
Has the Federal Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, gone into hiding?
Our beef industry organisation has written two letters to Janelle Saffin, one in October last year, the second in February this year, regarding important issues in relation to the beef industry.
To date we have not even had an acknowledgement of those letters, let alone a reply.
The issues we raised alerted her to the flow-on effect that we could expect from the Government's irrational banning of the live export of cattle to Indonesia.
These warnings have now been realised, as the cattle producers here, and all over the country, are being dealt a severe blow, with prices well below the cost of production as the market is now saturated.
The very least we would have expected from our elected representative was an acknowledgement of our letters.
Kathy Day
Acting Secretary
Richmond River Beef
Now I will accept Ms. Day’s word that these letters received no reply, however I do note the following:
The market is not saturated solely by cattle which were not sold off twenty-three months ago - these cattle were successfully withheld from the market until dry conditions in the northern half of Australia resulted in more cattle across the board being sold off to meat processors in the first quarter of this year.
However, Meat and Livestock Australia reports that this sell-off is not affecting all regional markets: In contrast, pockets of the eastern third of Queensland and NSW had well above average rainfall through summer, causing flooding in some regions and in the process building sufficient feed banks for the winter. This has, to a small extent, eased some of the pressure on cattle markets.
However, Meat and Livestock Australia reports that this sell-off is not affecting all regional markets: In contrast, pockets of the eastern third of Queensland and NSW had well above average rainfall through summer, causing flooding in some regions and in the process building sufficient feed banks for the winter. This has, to a small extent, eased some of the pressure on cattle markets.
On 8 May 2013 the yarding of export cattle at Casino Saleyards consisted of a few pens of grown steers/heifers and a mix of cows from a pool of 1,584 beasts, which suggests that export cattle are not a large part of the local market.
It would appear that cattle producers in the Northern Rivers may not be as affected by any residual flow-on from the short-lived 2011 live cattle export ban as Ms. Day suggests.
One has to wonder if the Day family's association with the North Coast Nationals, rather than concerns over cattle prices or unanswered letters, prompted a return-the-favour letter to the editor in an election year.
Brandis as Australian Attorney General if the Coalition wins government?
This was one response to the proposition that made it into the media on 10 May 2013:
Unidentified Australian marsupial ready to throw his hat into the A-G ring
* Brandis photograph and Norman Lindsay drawing found at Google Images
Wednesday 15 May 2013
Coal Seam Gas and one greenhouse gas emissions myth doing the rounds
THE MYTH
A RESPONSE
Letter to the Editor in The Daily Examiner 23 April 2013:
I’ve noticed recently that there has been some discussion in both mainstream and social media concerning coal seam gas mining and levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
Various assertions has been made that the reduction in these emissions is both considerable and due solely to gas produced by fracking replacing coal as the main energy source for the U.S. population.
Some have attempted to use this argument to justify coal seam gas (CSG) mining in Australia.
What no-one mentions as they spread this myth is that natural gas has not yet replaced coal as the main source of energy, as where America primarily draws the raw materials supplying its energy generators varies across any one year but coal has generally remained dominant since at least 1973.
There is complete silence on the fact that shale/unconventional gas mining has been conducted on a widening scale since the late 1980s and early 1990s when U.S. national greenhouse gas emissions stood at an estimated 6,183 to 6,912 Tg CO2 equivalent and never a word is said about the fact that government agencies still expect emissions to be back around 6,320 million metric tons in 2035.
Neither do they point out that gas production from coalbed methane (coal seam gas) has been falling since the 1990s. So currently CSG is only an estimated 7.5% of America’s natural gas production profile.
Nor does anyone mention that annual greenhouse gas emissions began to fall significantly only after U.S. superior courts held in 2007 that these emissions were in fact pollutants under that country’s Clean Air Act and that the Environmental Protection Agency had the right to control emissions emanating from both moving and stationary sources.
Other facts that don’t rate a mention are that America’s national greenhouse gas emissions levels (including methane) are higher now than they were in the 1980s and, that annual emissions from “natural gas” use have been steadily climbing again for the last four years so that it remains the fourth highest source of greenhouse gas emissions ahead of both cement/lime production and the incineration of waste.
So yes, America has made reductions in its emission levels since these peaked in 2007 and its federal and state governments should be congratulated. However, the reductions are in the context of slowing not stopping inevitable rises over time and no single energy source is the hero of the hour.
All this is easily checked at U.S. Energy Information Administration, Energy Protection Agency and Dept. of the Interior websites.
JUDITH M. MELVILLE
Yamba
Tuesday 14 May 2013
Nationals MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis has his work ethic - or lack of it - questioned
From Clarence Valley Rate Payers, Residents & Business Owners Facebook page:
I finally got a copy of Page Federal MP Janelle Saffins letter of response from the NSW Health Department in relation to her representations on our behalf about the closure of the Haemotology Unit at Grafton Base hospital.
Ironically I suffered quite some flack in certain quarters for daring to question the work ethic of the State Member for Clarence's in particular the electorate office team that purports to work for all the electorate not just their preferred residents and business owners.
A copy of the State Members letter from the same NSW Health Department official details that they received representation from his office via a letter on the 7th of March and a telephone call from his office on the 12th of March. You'll note that Janelle's letter was received by the Health Department on the 24th of January, a good 6 weeks prior to Gulaptis'.
When I contacted the Gulaptis' electorate office in January to advise them of the situation with Haematology Unit the chap that answered the phone told me they had already been contacted by other constituents prior to Christmas about the problem.
Correct me if I am wrong but issues in relation to operational NSW Health matters are the purview of the state governments, and therefore the responsibility for these matters in our electorate are the responsibility of the State Member and his staff.
The situation wasn't some minor issue. The Haematology Unit is vital to the delivery of services to constituents and their families who suffer from bone/blood related cancers. Surely if the state members office was aware prior to Christmas they should made representations then, not three months later.
Our Federal MP realised the import of the situation to our community and made representations on our behalf even though this was an operational NSW Health matter and not in the purview of her responsibilities.
I've been criticised and even threatened because of willingness to openly discuss this issue and the fact that I consider I have the right to comment publicly on what appears to be the failure of our elected state representative and his staff to act in a timely manner for our best interests.
Apparently having the hide to openly discuss the service delivered by our representatives, who are paid to represent us - by us, isn't popular in some quarters. Those quarters are also using tax payer funded time to target people who have the hide to question them. Very curious ... and somewhat indicative of the issue at hand.
If you do your job properly you won't have to waste our money covering your ar*e.
Ironically I suffered quite some flack in certain quarters for daring to question the work ethic of the State Member for Clarence's in particular the electorate office team that purports to work for all the electorate not just their preferred residents and business owners.
A copy of the State Members letter from the same NSW Health Department official details that they received representation from his office via a letter on the 7th of March and a telephone call from his office on the 12th of March. You'll note that Janelle's letter was received by the Health Department on the 24th of January, a good 6 weeks prior to Gulaptis'.
When I contacted the Gulaptis' electorate office in January to advise them of the situation with Haematology Unit the chap that answered the phone told me they had already been contacted by other constituents prior to Christmas about the problem.
Correct me if I am wrong but issues in relation to operational NSW Health matters are the purview of the state governments, and therefore the responsibility for these matters in our electorate are the responsibility of the State Member and his staff.
The situation wasn't some minor issue. The Haematology Unit is vital to the delivery of services to constituents and their families who suffer from bone/blood related cancers. Surely if the state members office was aware prior to Christmas they should made representations then, not three months later.
Our Federal MP realised the import of the situation to our community and made representations on our behalf even though this was an operational NSW Health matter and not in the purview of her responsibilities.
I've been criticised and even threatened because of willingness to openly discuss this issue and the fact that I consider I have the right to comment publicly on what appears to be the failure of our elected state representative and his staff to act in a timely manner for our best interests.
Apparently having the hide to openly discuss the service delivered by our representatives, who are paid to represent us - by us, isn't popular in some quarters. Those quarters are also using tax payer funded time to target people who have the hide to question them. Very curious ... and somewhat indicative of the issue at hand.
If you do your job properly you won't have to waste our money covering your ar*e.
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