Letters To The Editor

Stink continues

Re: Kicking up a stink (Echo, Sept 16).

Thank you for The Echo's quick action in getting information out to the Shire. The community knows now that it is out in the open and we have a base to proceed from.

The planned community meeting will be at the Eltham Hall on October 16.

Council is pushing to have it at Clunes, though as we called for the meeting and the meeting is for the Eltham community, we have always wanted it here and will not negotiate the location. We hope to have as many reps from Council and the waste water committee as possible.

Mark Perkins
Eltham

Parking pointers

I am responding to Laurence Keane's letter (Echo, Sept 9) regarding disabled parking.

I wish to clarify Mr Keane's misunderstanding and ensure that the general public are informed of the intention behind the item appearing in my fortnightly column.

I utilise my columns to keep constituents informed and aware of local matters of interest. The Committee and I felt that my column was an avenue to educate those in receipt of a permit, of their access to more parking options.

As a representative on Lismore City Council's Traffic Advisory Committee, it was brought to my attention that some people, who were already in receipt of a mobility parking permit or possibly entitled to one, were not aware that their permit provides access to more parking options.

Information conveyed in an RTA pamphlet which is available from my office upon request categorically outlines parking concessions for permit holders.

I trust this clarifies the matter.

Thomas George MP
Member for Lismore

Water the problem

What a Holy Trinity - the developers, the Catholic Church and the pursuit of the almighty dollar. I read with disgust your story 'Agents claim property drought' (Echo, Sept 9).What about the other drought - you know the one caused by global warming, in turn caused by an unsustainable economic growth upon our planet?

As we face yet more severe water restrictions, the greedy dollar worshipers want to house 4000 more people in North Lismore. If they don't get their way they are threatening council with a negligence claim for any economic loss. Unless these 4000 people don't need jobs or water it would be truly negligent of council to approve this. Tell the developers and dollar worshipers to go to hell instead of allowing them to create it here.

I remind Lismore Council of its obligation to manage our shire sustainability for the benefit of its residents and future generations I urge ratepayers to lobby the NSW Dept of Infrastructure Planning and Natural Resources in support of their opposition to this mindless development. Lismore means business means development means global warming means global catastrophe and economic ruin.

Round and round we go on the round about to hell.

Des Layer
Nimbin

Green on red

Normally, I like to passively read the letters section and choose not to get involved in the ongoing debates. However, in this instance I have been moved to cry out in response to recent information come to light about serious censorship occurring at our own Echo. Why is there an anti-green brief at The Echo I wonder? Where else can green opinion have an accessible community voice? Green issues are clearly on the local agenda, so why can't the journalists at The Echo compile their reports as they see fit?

Gary Georgeson
South Lismore

• As the editor, I can only assume I'm in charge of this alleged edict, which I hasten to add hasn't been made. Green issues are reported along with other election issues. If you have some specific examples, rather than hazy innuendo, I'd be interested in hearing it. - Ed

No show

Sadly the Australian Electoral Commission has ruled that I am ineligible to stand as a candidate for Page in this election.

I wish to thank my supporters for their assistance with all the work we have done and express regret that we can't vote Democrat in the lower house of parliament this time.

I want to remind Page voters, though, that we can vote Democrat in the upper house - the Senate, where Democrat Senator Aden Ridgeway, NAIDOC person of the year for 2004 and the Federal parliament's only indigenous member is standing for re-election to represent the State of NSW.

Supporting Aden will allow him to continue in his valuable work keeping the Senate a powerful watchdog on dishonest and unfair Government and making sure that Governments are open and accountable, and that they listen and do something about the issues that really matter.

Julia Melland
Lismore

History repeats

In our country's involvement in overseas wars many of our prime ministers have displayed a sorry history.

In the First World War (killed 59,000, casualties 290,000) the patriotic Scot Andrew Fisher wholeheartedly supported the British cause 'to the last man and the last shilling'; the rampant imperialist Welshman Billy Hughes was defeated in two referenda to conscript men for overseas service; the Cold War Warrior Bob Menzies, who resigned his commission in the Melbourne University Regiment when war broke out in 1914, hit the headlines in 1953 with his declaration of 'War in 3 Years' and the threat of conscription, and then, introduction of the conscription ballot of 18 year olds in the Vietnam War; Harold Holt, with his welcome speech to President LB Johnson: 'all the way with LBJ'...

And now... John Howard. Many of his photo opps somehow feature a background Australian flag, Australian troops. In his bellicose way he relentlessly maintains his illegal commitment to the occupation of Iraq.

These stout warriors, who have never been to war, have rejoiced in dispatching our youth to war - with dire consequences.

Our country has even set up a special government department to deal with the aftermath of war. It used to be called the Department of Repatriation. It is now called Department of Veteran Affairs.

My father and I served a total of eight years as volunteer foot soldiers in the two World Wars. All my life I recall some connection with this department through my old man and me. As a kid, many Anzac Days for me were a time of limbless soldiers drinking and laughing around the house.

Isn't it about time we rid ourselves of this culture? How about adopting an aggressive policy of peace and friendship with all peoples, aid to the needy, cultural and educational exchanges, saving the planet...

We well could afford to do this if there was no arms race.

Arthur Pike
Mt Nardi, via Nimbin

No worse than now

If returning a Labor Government will raise interest rates surely returning the Howard Government could mean a return of the worst drought and bushfires in our history.

World economies, and the reserve bank set interest rates. The fact that a Labor Government was in power when there were high world rates is about as relevant as this Government being in power when we had our worst drought.

Howard would be first to justify us currently having one of the highest interest rates in the developed economies as due to outside influences. Could it be then that if Labor could manage to cause high world rates in the past they have much more control over interest rates than the Libs?

Lets not dabble in logic and try to spoil a good scare campaign. It may be the best they can do, short of a home- grown terrorist scare. This is a real possibility now that Howard has made us a prime target. But more likely it will be a "heightened terrorist alert” if the spindoctors feel the interest rate scam is not working.

Don't be too surprised. Given their record, who knows to what lengths they will fiddle with the truth to stay in power? Be alert and alarmed and get rid of this manipulative Coalition. Surely it's not the government we deserve.

Stuart Gibbons
Goonellabah

Vocal voices

I travel around the state quite a bit and nowhere do we have such an array of newspapers with lively opinions as we do in the Northern Rivers.

From this paper, the Star and the Byron Echo come scribblings of the most interesting nature. Some however are very ill-informed. Take for example the one in last weeks issue "Vote Jesus”. Your letter writer may like to remember that Jesus was a Jewish King and voting was not even in his lexicon, despite his humanitarian and for the poor beliefs. He was in fact living the code of the Grail family. For more details read Laurence Gardner's book The Bloodline of the Holy Grail. The Grail code stipulates protecting the rights of the poor, protecting the environment and protecting the feminine as a source of the earth's largesse.

Empire building is the oldest profession known to humans -apart from that other notorious one - and the US has just about perfected it to a fine art. Propaganda, misinformation and outright lies are the standard tools of the trade coupled with good old fashioned firepower, something the Romans used to great success against the Jewish uprising of 600 AD, murdering every man woman and child who stood up against their evil empire. Sound familiar? All hail Emperor Bush and his quisling John Howard.

The Greens are more like Jesus but no one got to vote for Jesus - that is the gift of the Greeks and it is called democracy, a right many in Australia are apathetic about but many people around the world continue to die for.

In honour of all those who have died for this privilege use your vote wisely and make it count. The future beckons. Will it be more of the same or a new paradigm for the west?

M Mizzi
Tabulam

Great pets

The annual pet expo (ape) was held on Sunday, it was our groups first time at the expo and what a good day it was.

Not only did we talk to many pet lovers, which for us is a change as our group deals with a lot of sadness seeing the way some people treat their pets, but being part of the expo gave us a chance to see the other side.

Many people who had adopted animals from us in the past attended the expo, some entered their pets in the fun competitions while others just enjoyed the day. It was great to see these pets who were once frightened, unwanted and unloved with their new owners now confident, safe and happy.

We would like to thank Kerry Johnston and all of the hard working volunteers from RDA (riding for the disabled) for running such a great event and making it a top day for everyone. Thanks.

Robyn Mostyn
Northern Rivers Animal Services

Cancer risks

What next? This morning I received a letter from Breast Screen NSW North Coast offering me an appointment ("it could save my life”) for a breast x-ray. I have no previous contact with this organisation so how did they get my name?

They were "given approval by the Electoral Commissioner to access the state electoral records under public interest guidelines”. I am not happy about this clash with public interest.

Just how far is it going? Am I to await notification that I have not had my flu shots, my pap smear, my brain scan, my mental health test?

And what qualifies the Electoral Commissioner to say what is in the public interest and who is advising him?

I already knew of this service and have chosen not to use it. I know the risk factors that pertain to me - I had few children and late in life; I know the safeguards against breast cancer, which include non-use of the contraceptive pill and taking each pregnancy to a natural conclusion, ie. birth or miscarriage; and I know that x-rays have their own risk factors.

If the breast cancer establishment would put more emphasis on the real risk factors I would take them more seriously.

Angela Martello
Lismore

Sure bet

So Mungo McCallum thinks getting 55 % nett profit on a sure thing (the Coalition winning the election) is a mug bet. I say lets have more mug bets.

As for blaming the PM for the terrorist outrage in Jakarta, that's just plain too stupid to comment on.

Darcy PMckee
Alstonville

Baited breath

Is it time government bodies were made more accountable to the public purse? Lets take the National Parks & Wildlife Service as an example. In their recently published Northern Rivers Region 2003-2004 Annual Review, the only mention of money spent by the NPWS is $1,000,000 on contractors which, NPWS claim, provides "a substantial input to regional businesses”. Nowhere is there any other monetary detail provided of what the NPWS or their programs have cost the taxpayer. But shouldn't we be told what the administration costs are, in view of the fact that the government sold off part of Telstra to increase our national estate?

The Deputy Mayor of Ballina asked many questions about the cost of fox baiting, and I forwarded these questions together with six questions of my own to the NPWS. A response from the NPWS was received which carefully sidestepped the issue of cost. It did, however, provide details that 70 fledgling pied oyster catchers have been hatched between the Richmond River and Bundjalung National Parks over the last seven years.

Digging deep for information, I have now ascertained that this year's three-month contract for fox baiting under the Fox Threat Abatement Program along the South Ballina beaches has cost the taxpayers in the vicinity of $24,000.

Digging even further, I have ascertained that, at best, 15 foxes per annum have been killed over the last seven years by injecting chicken heads with 1080 poison and burying them at bait stations along 20km of our best beaches where children play.

I, therefore, believe that it has cost us, the taxpayers, around $1,600 per fox killed, or $2,400 per pied oyster catcher fledgling hatched.

In 1991 the Victorian government initiated "fox lotto” in which farmers and shooters were given lottery tickets for fox scalps. About 15,000 foxes were killed that year. Then on July 1, 2002, the Victorian government offered $10 bounty on the tails of all foxes. At the end of the first month 25,000 foxes had been shot.

Perhaps the government can explain why it is sanctioning these astronomically expensive programs at the taxpayers' expense when the community has a very big wish list for much more important items?

Cr Margaret Howes
Ballina

Freedom of choice

One of the hallmarks of a democracy is the freedom of choice. Australia, as a democratic country, allows me plenty of choice.

For example, I can choose whether I want to work as a casual or a permanent employee. Working casually gives me the benefit of deciding all by myself how many hours I want to work and how much money I want to earn. Whereas, permanent work puts me in the weekly treadmill with the same hours and the same reliable pay every week. What a bore!

Our PM is well aware of this situation and has thus been promoting casual work throughout his terms of office, to my advantage.

Or, I can choose whether I receive medical treatment through an increasingly ailing public system or through private insurance which is increasingly becoming unaffordable. I have the choice whether I want to wait for an elective operation until it's too late or pay money I don't have and have it fixed now. It's completely up to me!

Also, I can choose whether I send my kids to an under-funded public school or to a well-funded, but for me unaffordable, private school. I have the choice.

When I do my banking, I can choose between a multitude of banks who all rip me off exactly the same way - if you average out the fees and charges, that is. Or I can do my banking with a credit union, where it is rapidly becoming the same. Can it be any easier to make the right choice?

When I go shopping, I have the choice between CM and W, both offering the same range of stuff that makes me and my kids sick for the same prices. Hang on, not quite true: While one product is on special at CM on Monday, it's on special at W on Thursday. Great choice!

I can choose to live in a place I own or in a place I rent. Renting a decent place is becoming very expensive for everyone on a modest income, so buying a place appears to be the choice - if it were not for the inflated prices or the skyrocketing council rates! Well, there is always a number of rent-free bridges to choose from. Remember: I have the choice!

One of the most exciting choices is coming up in October: I can choose my preferred PM. I can choose between a blatant liar and cheat and someone who is quickly catching up. The one I really want has no chance whatsoever to be elected. Anyway, I'm happy to live in a democratic state. Contrary to a tyranny, where I have to put up with the bastard in charge, I can at least choose between two bastards.

Michael Qualmann
Modanville

Poor record

So Prime Minister Howard is now telling us to judge him by the economic record of his Government. Well, if we are to do this, what is that record? What kind of economy has the Howard economy been?

It has been an economy in which thousands upon thousands of ordinary, hardworking, decent people have lost their jobs in the last three years, as businesses downsize, go off-shore for cheap labour, or simply go to the wall, while corporate CEOs wallow in their obscenely high payments. Casual work and contract employment has become ever more the order of the day, with the result that employees no longer have any sense of ongoing security about their employment or the necessary financial security to enable them to borrow money to buy a house. We now have one of the highest levels of unpaid overtime in the world, and according to Commonwealth Bank research (July 2002), more people than ever before are having difficulty meeting their living costs.

The most rapidly growing group within the work force has been the least productive, ie. the accountants, and it is appalling that no-one running a small business, lodging their tax papers, or taking out superannuation can now do so without going to a professional financial adviser. The Government, according to its own Auditor-General (January 2002), has been the most heavily taxing Government in Australia's history and, despite pre-election promises to the contrary, the public has been slugged with big increases in the cost of health insurance, not only in premiums but also indirectly through taxpayer subsidising of the health insurance industry.

The doctrinaire worship of deregulation, competition and privatisation has seen airport fees raised, a quarter of Australian farms shut down since the year 2000, the dairy industry crippled, the cane industry sold out to the Americans, major transport and communication lifelines and water supplies allowed to wither on the vine, the cost of prescription medicines increased, with God knows what future fee increases and service deterioration to come if Howard gets his way and privatises Telstra.

That is the past economic record on which this man is asking us to vote him back into power. They say that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. When we go to the polling booths on October 9, let us not forget the true nature of the Howard economy.

Peter Bowler
Ballina

Criminal candidate?

Some questions are so confronting it is hard to put them in words.

And whilst I've been very vocal in my criticism of our Prime Minister I find this one shocking; yet it's a question that absolutely must be asked.

If John Howard is returned to power on October 9, will Australians have elected a war criminal? Before his supporters rush to defend him, would they please carefully consider the following:

1: On 15th January 2003 a statement made by a large international body of eminent jurists stated unequivocally that the proposed war against Iraq by the United States and its allies would be illegal.

2: A few days ago, in an interview with the BBC World Service in New York, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said this of the war in Iraq: "I have indicated it is not in conformity with the UN Charter, from our point of view and from the Charter point of view it was illegal”.

To the best of my knowledge this is the first time Mr Annan has been this clear about the issue and used the word "illegal” to describe the war.

Just as tobacco companies were able to find doctors to assert that smoking does not cause lung cancer, so were Bush, Blair and Howard able to find lawyers willing to present a legal argument in support of the war.

Presenting these arguments loudly and repeatedly does not make them correct.

History has a cautionary tale to tell: two of the Third Reich's lawyers (Hans Frank and Wilhelm Frick) gave pre-war advice to Hitler that Germany could use the pretext of an imminent threat to "pre-emptively” invade Poland. For this war crime they were both executed by hanging after being found guilty by the International Military Tribunal at Nüremberg.

In the end, perhaps what is relevant is not the number of lies John Howard has told, but the enormity of just one in particular.

Cloud
Horseshoe Creek