Has Clarence Valley Council brought a pup?

Two conflicting sides to the same story reported by newspapers from two different stables.

Clarence Valley Council’s new general manager Scott Greensill (left) defends himself in The Daily Examiner on 15^th December 2011:

“Scott Greensill said he had nothing to fear from a Supreme Court judgment handed down on Friday in a case involving his former employer, Singleton Council.

Mr Greensill said although the judgement went against the council there were no adverse findings against him.

"At the end of the day it is something that I've moved on from," he said.

"At all times I acted in good faith and on legal advice. I'm confident I handled the matter professionally."

Mr Greensill said the Singleton Council had a lot of "issues" and he was happy to have left them behind.”

Other side of the coin over at The Singleton Argus on 13th December 2011:

“Judge Schmidt’s findings were also critical of Mr Greensill, pointing out he “certainly acted inconsistently” with the council’s code of conduct by delegating “all responsibilities” in the Nichols matter to assets manager Gary Thomson yet continuing to still work on the case.
After his delegation, Mr Greensill twice sought and received advice from Mr McKelvey and wrote a memo for Mr Thomson which brought Mr Smith’s report on Cr Nichols to the full council.
While Mr Greensill, as general manager, may give advice or make recommendations to the council he did not have authority to direct councillors in the performance of their duties, Judge Schmidt accepted.
Mr Greensill could not forbid councillors from speaking with the Jones’, his advice could be rejected and did not bind councillors.”

As the full judgement is published in The Singleton Argus as Nichols v Singleton Council [2011] NSWSC 1517 Hearing Date(s): 22 August 2011, 23 August 2011, 24 August 2011 Decision Date: 9 December 2011 Jurisdiction: Common Law - Administrative Law Before: Schmidt J you can make up your own minds about Mr. Greensill’s role in the Singleton saga.

Pic from The Daily Examiner

“The Tribunal is conscious that the cost of the Parliament and of federal parliamentarians is borne by the taxpayer” ROFLOL

"The Tribunal is conscious that the cost of the Parliament and of federal parliamentarians is borne by the taxpayer", sez the so-called independent Remuneration Tribunal as it gives Australian federal politicians a free ride on the gravy train this week – with more pay increases to come by the looks of it.

According to Granny Herald; "Tribunal president John Conde told reporters in Sydney the prime minister's new salary would be $481,000 - up from $367,000."  Reading the actual report shows that in reality current senators and MPs are also giving up almost nothing to place their political snouts in this overflowing feed trough and future parliamentarians will lose very little - while if they get so much as an ego bruise during Question Time it is recommended that worker's compensation should be available to the wounded.

Here are some quotes:

"The Tribunal intends to determine parliamentary base salary of $185,000."

"The Tribunal has accepted electorate allowance as a business expense payment and intends to maintain it in its current form."

"The base electorate allowance is now $32,000 per annum, distributed to members and senators monthly…..

Members do not have to seek approval for how they expend the electorate allowance, nor do they have to acquit the expenditure of their allowance to the Chamber Departments which pay it."

"Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives, at 27.5% additional salary;

 Shadow Cabinet minister, at 25.0% additional salary;

 Shadow minister outside shadow Cabinet, at 20.0% additional salary."

"The Tribunal recommends that overseas travel provisions for the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Leaders of minor parties be enhanced."

"In preparing this recommendation I am mindful that Backbench Members of Parliament who are either a Chair or Deputy Chair of a substantive Committee of the Parliament, receive additional remuneration for the fulfilment of that obligation, that Officers of the Parliament also receive additional remuneration as do Ministers of the Crown and the Prime Minister.

This report has not focused on those allowances or the established relativities between a Backbench Member of Parliament and office holders within the Parliament, which I understand will be the subject of further enquiry by the Tribunal."

'Suse me – have to leave the room to chunder!

Telstra fails to inform bundled account customers in writing of major privacy breach

This is the full text of the only correspondence from Telstra and BigPond sent on 13 December 2011 to a ‘bundled account’ customer whose name, address, phone number and account password/s may have been amongst the hundreds of thousands potentially publicly available on the Internet for an unspecified period.

See any mention of the breach or of this customer’s possible vulnerability to hacking/identity theft and advice on how to protect their account?

No, I didn’t either.

As you're aware some of our online services were unavailable from late Friday 9th to late Saturday 10th December due to an earlier internal systems issue.

I want to sincerely apologise for any inconvenience you may have experienced this weekend because of the disruption.

Services are now back up again for the majority of our customers, and your BigPond services should be working as normal.

The decision to temporarily reduce access to these services was not taken lightly and I know that our actions resulted in a poor online experience for you and was a source of frustration.

So if you have any technical difficulties after logging into your BigPond email account please see our online help, visit us on CrowdSupport or just call us on 133 933. We’re here to help any time.

Once again, I apologise for the disruption to your service and thank you for your patience.

Best regards,

Peter Jamieson
Executive Director, Customer Service

Stirrup the bitch! Why the medical experience is still a feminist issue

Because women as a group are constantly being told “You’ve come a long way”  when compared with their grandmothers, it is easy to overlook the fact that misogyny and chauvinism are still slyly woven into much of the female experience in developed countries like Australia.

So it is often only cases such as this which draw any mention in the mainstream media of the fact that the medical experience is frequently one fraught with the risk of physical and/or psychological damage for many females.

The Northern Star Rogue obstetrician faces 15 counts of abuse, malpractice by Natasha Wallace 13 December 2011

She alleged he forcefully put his hand on her vagina

and said, ''Who is the boss now?''

Read the rest here

How far does Australian mainstream media masthead readership reach?

From the AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY GROUP NEWSLETTER No 65 December 2011:

MASTHEAD READERSHIP: PRINT AND ONLINE COMBINED

Roy Morgan Research has released a new readership metric for newspapers, combining print and website audiences into one "masthead readership" number to meet demands from the publishers for data that quantifies their total reach (Australian, Media section, 14 November 2011, p.25). According to the latest Roy Morgan Single Source data (July 2010-June 2011), Melbourne's Herald Sun has the highest net masthead readership in Australia: nearly 2.7 million. This is 258,000 more readers than the Sydney Morning Herald (with a masthead readership of nearly 2.4 million), which is just ahead of Sydney's Daily Telegraph (with a masthead readership greater than 2.3m). Brisbane's Courier Mail ranks fourth with a masthead readership of over 1.84m, placing the Brisbane title just ahead of Melbourne's Age with its masthead readership of nearly 1.78m. Seventy-one per cent of the Australian's masthead readership read the printed version; the website, theaustralian.com.au, has a readership of 619,000 readers, which is more than 4.6 times the readership of national rival, the Australian Financial Review's website, afr.com. The Australian Financial Review's masthead readership appears to owe more to its printed version of the newspaper than its website. Eighty-two per cent of the Australian Financial Review's masthead readership read the printed version of this newspaper, but only 30,000 readers (or 5pc of its total masthead readership) read both the printed version and the website. Perhaps there is a connection between the existence of a paywall on afr.com, and that this newspaper brand has the lowest duplication of readers between its printed version and website. With a readership of 1,115,000, smh.com.au has the highest readership of all the Australian metro daily newspaper websites.

So you thought the Gillard Government had promised you would control your own e-Health database information?

You thought the Gillard Government had promised you would control your own personal, social and medical information included in the e-Health national database and whether this information was ever accessed by health professionals?

Well Brisbane GP Dr Steve Hambleton (left) is one of many who don’t think so and, who as Federal President of the Australian Medical Association set out to create the legal right to trawl for information without the consent or knowledge of the individual.

It is inevitable that this information (often anecdotally filtered through the biased eye of family members) will in many instances be included in the e-Health database and, because it is included in someone else's files there will be no right to insist inaccurate information is corrected or deleted.

Having worked in multidisciplinary teams in the past, I know that in certain areas of public health hard copy patient files often contain what can only be described as elements of  unsubstantiated gossip. There is no reason to believe that Dr. Hambleton's desire to trawl for information will be any better at sorting the wheat from the chaff. 

Dr. Hambleton’s application to the Privacy Commissioner.

The result…………………………

Legislative Instruments

Privacy Act 1988 - Part VI - Public Interest Determination No. 12 - Collection of Family, Social and Medical Histories This Determination permits a specific health service provider to collect third party health information from an individual (or a person 'responsible' for an individual) without the third party's consent, for inclusion in the individual's family, social or medical history.

Some or all of this item commenced

http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2011L02569

Privacy Act 1988 - Part VI - Public Interest Determination No. 12A - Collection of Family, Social and Medical Histories

This Determination gives general effect to Public Interest Determination No. 12 to permit health service providers to collect third party health information from an individual (or a person 'responsible' for an individual) without the third party's consent, for inclusion in the individual's family, social or medical history.

Some or all of this item commenced

http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2011L02573

Photograph found at Google Images

The barely literate Bolta commits yet another LOL so that I can approach year's end on a laugh

“I may be becoming a Marxist as I age,

with class power becoming only too obvious,

even if the classes are defnined {sic} less by money

and more by political and and {sic} institutional power.”

Andrew Bolt – Sunday, December 11, 11 (07:54 am)

Sometimes the young make my heart sing - Part Five

http://youtu.be/Ko3e6G_7GY4

"Get It Done":

Urging Climate Justice,
Youth Delegate Anjali Appadurai

Mic-Checks UN COP 17 Summit

Durban Climate Change Conference
November/December 2011

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, Durban 2011, brings together representatives of the world's governments, international organizations and civil society. The discussions will seek to advance, in a balanced fashion, the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the Bali Action Plan, agreed at COP 13 in 2007, and the Cancun Agreements, reached at COP 16 last December.

The Sydney Morning Herald 11 December 2011 - 7:14PM

A United Nations climate conference has reached a hard-fought agreement on a far-reaching program meant to set a new course for the global fight against climate change.

The 194-party conference agreed to start negotiations on a new accord that would ensure that countries will be legally bound to carry out any pledges they make. It would take effect by 2020 at the latest.

The deal doesn't explicitly compel any nation to take on emissions targets, although most emerging economies have volunteered to curb the growth of their emissions.

Currently, only industrial countries have legally binding emissions targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Those commitments expire next year, but they will be extended for at least another five years under the accord adopted on Sunday - a key demand by developing countries seeking to preserve the only existing treaty regulating carbon emissions.

The proposed Durban Platform offered answers to problems which for years have bedevilled negotiations on global warming.

Controversial issues include sharing the responsibility for controlling carbon emissions and helping the world's poorest and most climate-vulnerable nations cope with changing forces of nature.

The US was a reluctant supporter, concerned about agreeing to join an international climate system that was expected to be opposed in Congress....

Environmentalists criticised the package - as did many developing countries in the debate - for failing to address what they called the most urgent issue, to move faster and deeper in cutting carbon emissions.

"The good news is we avoided a train wreck," said Alden Meyer, recalling predictions a few days ago of a likely failure. "The bad news is that we did very little here to affect the emissions curve."

Scientists say that unless those emissions - chiefly carbon dioxide from power generation and industry - level out and reverse within a few years, the earth will be set on a possibly irreversible path of rising temperatures that lead to ever greater climate catastrophes.

Sunday's breakthrough capped 13 days of hectic negotiations that ran a day and a half over schedule.



Nalliah's prayer organisation applies to become a political party

The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 November 2011

An early Christmas present for all those political tragics with a sense of humour.

On 6 December 2011 the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) sent out notification that it has advertised the following applications for party registration: Australian Christians and Rise Up Australia.

Catch the Fire Ministries' prophesying pastor Daniel Chelvendran Nalliah, (along with John Excell Shanasy, John Gerard Crock, Chandi Kroone, Estelle Mary O' Brien, Dennis Arthur Cecil O'Brien, Lynette Ann Hannie, Alexander Cornell Stewart, Wendy Ann Crook, Gary Timothy Hannie, Hendrik Bayly Kroone, Susan Margaret Shanasy) has decided that Rise Up Australia Ltd should become a political party, blessed with five hundred and fifty full members and an unnamed number of lesser affiliate members.

The aims and principles of the Party are as follows:

• To maintain and promote our Christian heritage, culture and institutions as the foundations of a free, socially cohesive and democratic Australia - Keep Australia Australian.

• To retain, maintain and promote our national sovereignty.

• To uphold the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia with its Preamble which affirms that this nation is "humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God".

• To acknowledge that our inalienable civil rights came to us through the Westminster system of government which recognises the ancient statues such as the Ten Commandments, The Magna Carta and the 1688 Bill of Rights as a primary source for our freedoms and responsibilities.

• To retain our current national flag as the one for which our brave service men and women have fought and died.

• To restore honesty, integrity, honour and courtesy within the Parliament and to encourage accountability of elected representatives.

• To keep the size of government to the minimum, with the least possible intrusion in private lives while maintaining adequate social services, and discouraging political

correctness and unnecessary supervision of private life.

• To simplify and reduce taxation to allow the aspirations of hard working individuals, families and businesses to flourish.

• To create and promote social and economic conditions under which people are free to pursue prosperity and individual freedom within a just and peaceful society.

• To restore and reinvigorate our national manufacturing base.

• To maintain freedom of speech.

• To maintain freedom of religion.

• To uphold the institution of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

• To uphold the traditional family unit as a man, woman and children, as the building block of a stable and healthy society.

• To promote compassionate treatment and acceptance of genuine refugees, and to discourage the arrival of illegal immigrants.

• To be responsible stewards of our environment, balancing the needs of food security, protection of fragile areas and industry.

• To support the sovereign nation of Israel with Jerusalem as its undivided religious capital.

Aims and objectives which [ahem] fit in so well with 2009 Ernie Award Winner and former Family First party member Pastor Nalliah’s known views on the desirability of God’s wrath being visited on the followers of Islam, women, gays, naughty school children, bushfire and flood victims, multicultural societies or anyone else who doesn’t agree with his very narrow world view.

Nalliah is apparently eyeing off a seat in the Australian Senate at the next federal election.

From the Carmelites - a cry from the heart as they face a mining juggernaut

Property Observer November 25, 2011:

Carmelite nuns have little faith in AGL Energy maintaining the rural tranquillity of Scenic Hills.

The Catholic religious order is concerned the “supportive environment for prayer would be lost with the noise of construction and operation of gas wells nearby and heavy vehicle traffic on local roads”.

“AGL plans to locate up to six gas wells on the Serbian Orthodox property next door to us,” writes Sister Jocelyn Kramer.

The nuns settled in the region more than 20 years ago after the region was made an environmental protection (scenic) zone in 1974. The zoning specifically prohibits extractive industries and mines.

“In contravention of the zoning, AGL Energy Ltd (AGL) has applied to the NSW Minister for Planning to put up to 72 coal seam gas (CSG) wells across Campbelltown's Scenic Hills from Mount Annan to Denham Court,” she wrote.

The nuns are concerned about damage to historic area. They raise its important Aboriginal history and its “rich colonialist heritage”.

They are also concerned about damage to Upper Canal, part of Sydney’s water catchment area, and possible damage to Mount Annan Botanic Garden’s plants and animals.

“The sheer audacity of this proposal epitomises the problem residents have with AGL's plans for the Scenic Hills.”

“If the NSW Minister for Planning approves AGL's proposal for CSG mining in the Scenic Hills, much of its beauty and tranquillity will be lost forever.”

The group asks that no new licenses are approved until there has been extensive research on the impact of coal seam gas and associated practises and that research has been made publicly available.

“As a religious community, we recognise that economic development is necessary and we welcome research and development into renewable energy sources,” Kramer writes……

The Order of Discalced Carmelites, which includes these nuns, made a Submission to the Upper House Inquiry into Coal Seam Gas in September this year which stated:

For us Carmelites, a small and poor religious community our present situation is that our needs and hopes have not been heard.  It feels like we are collateral damage.  Our very viability and the viability of this heritage landscape is threatened by a 'blue chip' company determined to exploit the resources under our land.  We do not have the resources to mount an advertising campaign as AGL has done in recent days.  Our appeal to this committee of the Legislative Council is for justice.  There are many things more important than money- among them there is a sacred land where people  come for healing and refreshment, a connection with nature, our Aboriginal heritage and the colonial history of our state.

Will the O'Farrell Government heed this plea from the heart or will Big Business prevail?

The Plibersek Industrial Relations Philosophy - I own you body and soul

The not-for-profit workforce

It was estimated that 5.2 million Australian volunteered in 2007 (ABS 2007b). Of these, 4.6 million were estimated to volunteer with the NFP sector. Around two-thirds of these volunteer with NFPs that do not have employees. The volunteer workforce was estimated in the ABS satellite accounts to provide over $14.6 billion of unpaid labour in 2006-07.

[Dept. Prime Minister and Cabinet,research report,2011]

The theme of the 10th anniversary of the International Year of the Volunteer is ‘Inspire the Volunteer in You’. Pierre, your work as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development and your fundraising for Habitat for Humanity has certainly inspired many here today.

Thank you for asking me to be with you today to help launch the Australian Volunteers for International Development Program.

Australians are a generous and compassionate people. In 2006, over 5 million people – that’s more than one-in-three adult Australians – volunteered for an estimated 700,000 not-for-profit and non-government organisations.

[Minister for Human Services and Minister for Social Inclusion Tanya Plibersek, Transcript: Launch of the Australian Volunteers for International Development, 2011]

LAST week, Tanya Plibersek challenged Australian governments and businesses to create a stronger and more sustainable volunteering sector. This week, 37,000 employees in her department were told that if they wished to engage in volunteering activities in the future, they would have to get their manager's permission first…..

For the first time, unpaid weekend volunteer work will come under the scrutiny of departmental supervisors, and public sector employees must get approval before undertaking such work. Employees must apply for a renewal of that approval every 12 months and will also be subject to a ''regular review'' of their activities.

The new policy also requires public servants to tell the department if the nature of their volunteering duties within a charitable or not-for-profit organisation changes during the 12-month period.

[Brisbane Times,10 December 2011, Public servants told to seek approval to volunteer]

Last week the Federal Department of Human Services tried to turn Australia’s volunteering culture on its head.

Ms. Plibersek denies any input into this new policy, however the minister of the day sets the tone for such changes to occur.

She personally, the department she heads and government generally need to recognise that their workers are neither serfs, indentured servants nor outright slaves – they do not own them body and soul.

An employer has a right to direct an employee for the period of each day which represents the agreed work day – not one jot more than that. Traditionally this broke each day of the working week down into Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest.

The sort of skewed thinking which demands 24/7 allegiance to the wishes of an employer more properly belongs to the likes of the Liberal and National parties not the Australian Labor Party.

Ms.Plibersek needs to remember to which political party she actually belongs, as does the Prime Minister under whose leadership this attitude towards public servants has obviously been allowed to flourish.

Cartoon from ClipartOf

"There's a better way to help problem gamblers."

And any better way doesn't involve Fr. Chris Riley who admits to his charity receiving millions from the Australian clubs industry and that certainty means statements made by him on the subject as loaded down with pecuniary interest.
Last week CathNews reported:
"Father Chris Riley, the latest face in the clubs' campaign to block pokies reform, accepted $50,000 for a youth centre operated by his charity from Len Ainsworth, the founder of Australia's largest gaming machine company, Aristocrat Leisure, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Father Riley's charity, Youth Off The Streets, also appears to have a longstanding connection with the Ainsworths - Mr Ainsworth's daughter-in-law, Anna Ainsworth, has been on the board of the charity since 2002 and was its chairwoman from 2008 until early this year.
Like many charities, Youth Off The Streets also receives funding made available by clubs - $122,325 in 2011............
The Catholic Social Services Australia executive director, Paul O'Callaghan, said Father Riley's stance was disappointing given the evidence that showed counselling alone was not enough to deal with problem gambling.
According to The Australian, Youth Off the Streets has received more than $3.5 million, nearly a decade up to 2009, from hundreds of clubs in NSW.
"Youth Off the Streets and ClubsNSW have worked in partnership for nearly a decade," Fr Chris Riley reportedly wrote in a 2009 submission to a Productivity Commission's inquiry into gambling reforms."
A bad move from a man who is shamelessly trying to parley his dog collar into dollars.

Privacy Breach: Telstra was going to tell its customers, when?

Image from The Age 10 December 2011

http://telstratccmail.custhelp.com/app/bundles_search/

Sensible Telstra customers will be changing their passwords promptly as a first measure after reading this in The Australian this morning:

TELSTRA faces the wrath of the federal Privacy Commissioner after leaving details of potentially millions of customers exposed on the web, reportedly including their user names and passwords.

The details were exposed on a search page used by Telstra customer service agents that was left unprotected and openly accessible on the web.

The page, titled "Telstra Bundles request search", was reportedly discovered by a user of the community broadband forum Whirlpool.

Telstra hastily took down the site after it became aware of the breach yesterday afternoon, but not before computer security experts showed it could be used to access customer details including their account numbers, broadband packages, technician visits, and in some cases their email user names and individual passwords.

Media reports suggested credit check details (but not credit card details) were also accessible, but that has not been confirmed by Telstra.

Telstra said it was uncertain how many customers' details were potentially breached.

"It's unsure at this stage -- it appears to be limited to bundled customers but we don't know how many," a Telstra spokeswoman said.

In its annual report for this year, Telstra said it had sold 659,000 new product bundles in the year to June 30.

Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has been made aware of the breach and a full investigation and report will be completed as soon as possible.

The Telstra spokeswoman said the carrier's priority was to close the security gap.

The company would move as quickly as possible to notify customers of the breach and maintain transparency in reporting details of the incident….

Whirlpool forum regular exposes this privacy fail (emanating from what looks suspiciously like an internal company database whose creation and management may have been outsourced) at 1.08pm 9 December 2011:

Ugh, well, after a series of good experiences dealing with Telstra over the last eighteen months it feels like we're back in the bad old days. Tl;dr: Telstra is an enormous corporation with a seemingly endless number of autonomous departments, none of which knows what any of the others is doing. Telstra have leaked customer information onto the Web. I signed up for the $78 deal on 24th November—hadn't previously had a bundle on my account, or a Bigpond connection. Got my bill by email yesterday and, sure enough, the discount wasn't applied. First thing I did was to jump onto online chat. Had to wait over 10 minutes for a consultant (which was fine because I could basically just get on with my work). He didn't know anything about the $78 offer, but I gave him the link, it felt like he was about to apply the discount both to my current bill and to future bills, but then he told me that I would have to ring 1800 330 192. OK. I rang 1800 330 192 and after some humming and hawing the guy there gave me the $13 credit on my bill for this month ($10 plus the discount for the pro-rata initial period), but said that they don't in fact know anything about the $78 deal, and that I would have to ring the 'Bundles' department at 1800 008 851. Incidentally, if you do a Google search for that number, you get a very interesting result. Um, Telstra, that's customer information just sitting out on the open Web… That page also seems to suggest that he shouldn't have given me the number, but should have put me through…….

Despite this unforgivable privacy breach, I'm told Telstra is not making it easy for customers to access their accounts to change passwords as its My BigPond is currently offline due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems.

The art of the small

From the wonderful lens of Pieces of Contentment, a Northern New South Wales blog……..

A classic two-faced political balfastard?

And Aussie pollies wonder why they have such a credibility problem…………..

Nationals Lismore MP Thomas George, whose son Cr. Stuart George (who reportedly owes him a considerable pile of dosh) is currently employed by the coal seam gas industry:

“Mr George said he had been working behind closed doors to make representations {concerning coal seam gas issues} on behalf of his constituents to Resources Minister Chris Hartcher.”

Betcha didn't know this APN staffer was so talented

The Daily Examiner is always guaranteed to provide a bit of light relief and Thursday's edition was no exception. It carried wine reviews by a bloke who previously paraded around the Clarence valley posing as a newspaper editor. Nowadays the bloke's associated with APN on Queensland's Fraser coast.
Thursday's Examiner treated its readers to the bloke's reviews of three Aussie wines. His reviews of Taylors 2011 Sauvignon Blanc, Mandala 2010 Blanc De Blancs and Yellowglen NV Spritz Chilled White provided enough evidence to confirm that Huon Hooke, James Halliday et al can sleep comfortably at night, knowing Pete isn't going to take their jobs.

 Image credit: The Daily Examiner, 8/12/11

On feeling OLD........

Whatever happened to liquorice straps, sherbet cones, slate pencils, genuine musk sticks, rainbow balls, allsorts, mint leaves, bulls eyes, candy hearts, snow balls, caramel chews, tiny macaroons, freckles made with quality chocolate, big fat jelly babies with faces and navels, cobbers the size of doorstops and stick jaw toffees?

Oh, I feel OLD when I read this Roy Morgan graph with its list of sterile, globalised lollies:

Oi, Richie! Please explain that extra council rate gouge

This is what NSW Independent Pricing And Regulatory Tribunal said when it set the council rate peg percentage for 2012/13 at 3.6% on 6^th December 2011:

* we took the increase of 3.4% in the Local Government Cost Index (LGCI) for the year to September 2011

* we deducted a productivity factor of 0.2%

* for this year only, we have added a carbon price advance of 0.4%.

This is what Clarence Valley Mayor and recently unsuccessful Nationals pre-selection candidate, Richie Williamson, told ratepayers in The Daily Examiner on 8^th December:

“..council's costs would rise by between .4 and .5% as a result of the tax, and the local government minister had factored in a carbon tax increase of .5% when determining the rate-pegging limit.”

Now if Bazza O’Farrell and Local Government Minister Don Page have indeed granted Clarence Valley Council an extra .1% increase above the IPART ruling, fellow travellers Richie, Bazza and Don need to explain why this isn’t an attempt to gouge local ratepayers based on an ideological desire to cast the Federal Gillard Government in a bad light.

Dorrigo Environment Watch contradicts Anchor Resources claims concerning community consultation

Community consultation contradictions

In early November 2011 Dorrigo Environment Watch Inc undertook a survey of local residents near the Wild Cattle Creek Mine to substantiate Anchor Resource’s claims of wide community consultation. The results of the survey contradict these claims.

In an interview with Katya Quigley Coffs Coast ABC Radio on October 6^th  2011 Anchor Resources General Manager Ian Price quoted ‘Anchor since it started exploration drilling, in about 2009 has consulted widely with the local residents particularly in the area affected by the project. We continue to do that as there are changes and we planned to do activities that’s included letter drops and face to face meetings with people. We are continuing that consultation into the local community, distributing an updated brochure to people in the community and will continue to do that work.’

A follow on interview on the 18^th November 2011 reiterated Anchor’s claims about widely consulting with the local community and their community engagement project. 

Results from the survey found that 52% of landholders had received no communication from Anchor Resources, whilst 26% were contacted in 2009 with no further communication since. 17% of landholders had communications in 2009 and 2010 and 13% of landholders have been communicated with between 2009 to 2011. One of these landholders received over 96 emails from Anchor Resources in a 2 year period, mostly in relation to access agreements. The landholder survey conducted included 88% of known residents along Lower Bielsdown Road.

DEW is alarmed by the comments made by Mr Price in relation to community consultation. It is very misleading to state publicly that Anchor Resources has been consulting widely with the community and specifically with those living near the area most affected by the project when the survey findings clearly showed that a very small proportion of residents have actually been consulted. We feel false and misleading information about our community is being presented by Anchor Resources. Given this and Anchor Resources' refusal to attend or accept invitations to community public forums it follows a pattern occurring in communities throughout NSW affected by mining, where mining companies use tactics that have been described in parliament as ‘divide and conquer’.  We invite Anchor Resources to adopt best practice community engagement including organising and hosting an open public forum in Dorrigo where all community members are welcome.

Dorrigo Environment Watch Media Release 7 December 2011