Saturday 25 June 2016

Just because it is beautiful...........(11)

Quote of the Week


All the major economic sectors in the lower Clarence Valley are dependent to a considerable extent on understanding and protecting the estuary’s and floodplain’s natural processes and values. [DLWC, Umwelt (Australia Pty Ltd, 2003, Clarence Estuary Management Plan: The Clarence Estuary - A Valued Asset]

Keeping the pens steeled in Iluka


Clarence Valley Independent, letter to the Editor:


The author of this letter asked me to note that to be factually correct line fourteen should actually have read “28 of the 50 accompanying species that make up the endangered ecological community of which there now exists only 200 hectares in the whole of N.S.W.”

Friday 24 June 2016

Des Euen warned off Yamba by an online supporter


Not that Des Euen needed any hint that many Yamba and Iluka residents would be against the industrialisation of the Clarence River estuary…..

Facebook, 23 June 2016

Mr. Euen is rather sensitive about the few comments on the Australian Infrastructure Developments Pty Ltd Facebook page.

He recently removed comments from two Clarence Valley residents (at least one of whom attended the “summit” he organised at Casino on 2 June 2016) but left his accusations of selfishness against individuals living in the region which would be most affected by this highhanded attempt to make his fortune at the expense of so many ordinary people.


Here's one Clarence Valley councillor losing votes ahead of local government elections in September 2016


Only around 77 days until the Clarence Valley local government election and this is one councillor who has been losing votes all year….

Letter to the Editor in The Daily Examiner on 8 April 2016:

Maclean 'sold out' by council

Councillor Andrew Baker has clearly underestimated the local position in Maclean in regards to council flogging off its strategically valuable property at No 1 MacNaughton Place, Maclean.


No, Andrew, there has been no subsidence of 'anxiety'; the fact is that 'the anxiety' never got off the ground in the first place as many people in Maclean are still quite unaware of what Council is up to here, it was all done so very quietly.

Let's make it quite clear - along with other properties in Maclean, Council is selling off our prime waterfront property at No 1 MacNaughton Place, right in the heart of Maclean's riverfront and historic precinct, and whisking the funds away upriver to help pay for the new "super depot" in Grafton.

It's a prime case of asset stripping, and an open and shut case of being yet another kick in the guts for our town.

There is every reason why this valuable waterfront property should remain in council's (public) ownership - it is in a vitally strategic riverfront position, right in the heart of a prime historic precinct, and integral to the future CBD development for Maclean.

In short, we already own it and it is a property vital to Maclean's future development.

No problem to rent it for now and keep it for future needs when a more enlightened mindset will actually plan our town.

Maclean you are being dudded yet again, "sold out" is the term.

In this case, Cr Baker's plan is that we will end up with a thin strip of land with the levee wall through it.

Fully fits Council's new policy for Maclean, which is "Something Is Better Than Nothing".

Warren Rackham, Maclean

Australian Federal Election 2016: the Nationals funding bandwagon rolls on along NSW North Coast


National MPs and candidates on the NSW North Coast are rolling out the funding promises with a vengeance now the old 2013 Debt & Deficit Disaster campaign slogan has been hidden under the bed.

Sitting MP Kevin Hogan in the Page electorate:

$1.8 million for a boardwalk along Maclean's Riverside Precinct
$200,000 on CCTV coverage of Grafton and South Grafton business districts
$5,300 for the purchase and installation of two reverse cycle air conditioners in Casino's Community Men's Shed 
$1 million for rebuilding the Woolgoolga Surf Life-Saving Club
New mobile phone towers at Ramornie, Nammoona, Yorklea and Kyogle
$2 million to replace wooden bridges in Kyogle
$500,000 towards an ampitheatre at Casino

Federal candidate for Richmond Matthew Fraser:

$1 million for a second story on Kingscliff's Salt Surf Life Saving Club

Sitting MP Luke Hartsuyker in The Cowper electorate:

$12,000 for Capacity Building for Sustainable and Biological Farming in the Bellingen/Coffs Harbour region
$45,400 Local Blueberry Industry Market Segmentation Research to improve targeting of behaviour change tools for Best Practice
$12,000 in grants for Coffs Harbour community radio station CHYFM
$27,695 training grant for Macksville business Mid Coast Trucks
$4,700 Reap Coffs Harbour
$4,460 Pregnancy Care Coffs Harbour
$1,619 Coffs and Woolgoolga Mental Health and Wellbeing Support Group
$3,950 Sanctuary Australia Foundation
$2,250 Special Needs Support Group
$4,004The Friends of the North Coast Regional Botanic Garden
$2,500 Swimming North Coast – Coffs Harbour  
$2,800 Boambee East Community Centre
$3,333 South Coffs Community Garden  

Somewhere in all this is Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s $25 million promise to the Northern Rivers and Mid-North Coast - rather vaguely called the Coalition jobs package for NSW North Coast and aimed at new, creative and innovative local businesses in the Page, Cowper and Lyne electorates. 

Of course all these businesses, from Taree and Port Macquarie up to Lismore and Ballina, will be competing with each other for a slice of this relatively small amount of money.

* My apologies to North Coast Nationals MPs and candidates if I omitted any funding pledges which have been made to date, but that's the sort of thing that will sometimes occur when election campaign press releases aren't sent out to social media.