Letters To The Editor

Mungoitis

There I was having a chuckle to myself about Mungo McCallum's bleatings and rantings on John Howard and then my jaw dropped. I couldn't believe my eyes, they had to be playing tricks on me, I had to read it again. In the midst of his perambulations "Howard has improved".

Then I managed to pick myself up off the floor to try to read the rest of his missive. At last I found out where his problem was. He had been to a "gathering" of the few, down at the "beach" I guess, and they must have slipped him a couple of full strength ales that he wasn't used to.

Maybe one day when the next generation are not be aware of the disasters that were inflicted on the Australian economy by the succession of previous Labor governments (remember Bob Hawke's "no child will be in poverty by 1990" and Paul Keating's "banana republic" and "the recession we had to have") Mungo will get his want and we will be left to contemplate the debts that our country will have to recover from.

Will Mungo McCallum still be issuing his vitriol against the government of the day?

He also missed the passing of one of his old mates Al Grassby... that one went through to the keeper.

Keep up the laughs for me Mungo.

Colin Paull
Ballina

Sin taxes

In the years BC (before Carr) poker machines were limited to clubs, and the government collected a licence fee from them. The Carr Government became addicted to this nice little earner, so they decided to promote the proliferation of poker machines (and the fees there from) by also allowing them into hotels. The Government's poker addiction has grown again, now wanting an increasing turnover tax that may threaten the future solvency of many clubs. So Carr's pokie addiction may cause communities to lose their clubs and facilities, and also even more people to lose their homes and families.

The club membership and entry laws did give clubs some control (which could have been increased) over problem gamblers, but the public exposure to gambling in hotels will mean many more people will get hooked, and may lose their rent and food money, frequently. A case can be put to ban pokies entirely, because of the misery gambling can cause addicts, but State and Federal governments just love their sin taxes, with bingo, keno, lotto, blotto (alcohol), smoko (tobacco), pokie taxes and even some licensed brothels adding to their income.

Where pokies are concerned the Carr Government seems to be addicted (pronounced with a silent "t"?)

Do we have to wait for the years AD (after Debus) for any sensible reductions in the proliferation and taxes recently allowed?

Ken Macdonald
Lennox Head

Behaving badly

After a hiatus of several years I attended the Nimbin MardiGrass and was well pleased to see so many happy faces, laughing tourists and all in a relatively peaceful arena. My disappointment came from a local though. While a large line waited patiently and in good spirits at the bottle shop a very large woman pushed ahead of everybody proclaiming in a loud voice "Bundjalung elder. Bundjalung elder. Make way!" just to get to the counter to purchase alcohol. I was unaware that being a Bundjalung elder gave someone the privilege of going immediately to the head of a very long queue. If this is not the case then an Aboriginal woman has abused the respect given to the Bundjalung people by all those from other nations who were patient in the line and on Bundjalung land. I would hope the Bundjalung people would also be as offended as I was by this disgraceful behaviour.

Derek Langley
Lismore

Bus service dismay

My two children aged 11 and six travel from Meerschaum Vale to Wollongbar School. They travel by private bus to Alstonville then change to a Kirklands bus to get to school.

Before the change they had a maximum 10-minute wait between buses. Now they have a 40-minute, unsupervised wait outside Alstonville Public School, without shelter from the heat and rain.

They have not been getting to school until 9.50am! I find this situation completely unacceptable and my children are finding it unnerving.

Kirklands seem more interested in the dollar than our children's wellbeing, and why wouldn't they, considering they get subsidised by the government at a rate of per child/per km. Considering our kids have to travel huge distances to the school, Kirklands have got it made!

I personally have not heard of any positive comments that these changes have brought and as a Northern Rivers resident of 14 years, I am dismayed at the lack of concern by a once community-minded bus company.

Amanda Charnock
Meerschaum Vale

Bus safety concerns

I am writing on behalf of concerned parents in regards to child safety issues when using the local school bus service.

At present there have been 14 children in First Ave and Bright streets, the youngest of which is five years of age, safely catching the school bus near their homes.

Kirklands Bus Company have decided to save money by cutting out the availability of this service in our area at the risk of children's safety and possibly lives.

Only after phoning Kirklands was I informed of this change.

I was told that children could catch the bus in the next street at 7.35am instead of 8.15am, which would then arrive at school 20 minutes before the school gates are opened. (A very unsafe practice for young children.)

The alternative given was that they could walk three streets away and in the afternoons cross Dibbs Street (a very busy road any time of day.)

In wet weather there is no shelter and the danger factor of crossing roads is increased.

To quote Steve Biddulph, a clinical psychologist who has written many books concerning children and their development: "Under 10yrs of age, children are not yet ready for the traffic on busy roads. Their peripheral (sideways vision) is not fully developed for judging traffic speed."

Apart from having to cross roads alone, we are all aware of "stranger danger" and unfortunately what often happens to young children walking or waiting without parental supervision at bus stops.

Parents choose the school bus service as a safe means for their children to travel to school as work commitments do not always permit the time to drive their children at school times or walk their children to a bus stop streets away or go to that bus stop after school to walk them home.

The school bus is advertised as the safest method of transport for our children. This is not so if they must take unsafe measures to get to that bus. It seems that Kirklands has decided to ignore a whole section of East Lismore and leave children no alternative but to take unsafe methods to use their bus service, knowing that there is no other bus service to turn to.

It seems that Kirklands have decided to save money at the risk of children's lives. Indeed they are sacrificing children's safety for private gain.

F Robertson
East Lismore

Street disgrace

What an improvement to Keen Street with the new gardens and impressive bollards. It complements Molesworth and Magellan streets. Council is to be congratulated. Now for Woodlark Street and then, who knows!

Let's be innovative. Why not, within a couple of blocks of the CBD, even have footpaths and kerbing and guttering on both sides of the road? And give motorists a decent surface to drive on that's not potholed, humped and cracking up. But also accept that pedestrians might want to cross Dawson and Uralba streets without fear of being knocked down.

Make something of Uralba Street, at least where it connects the CBD with Lismore Square. Do the muddy edges have to be permanent? Beautify this strip. Use some imagination.

And if we can't have, adjacent to the CBD (as many country towns do), nice gardens with picnic tables, water features that attract birdlife and provide a pleasant setting where people can spend a relaxing hour or so, then at least let's get rid of that stinking, overgrown, rubbish-strewn, trolley infested stormwater canal that stagnates under the Uralba Street bridge.

In 30 years I've lived in this town and district that canal has been a visible reminder of what successive councils can get away with in terms of neglecting a potential public health hazard. Why is this open sore allowed to remain exposed less than five metres from the boundary of the caravan park?

It's a disgrace and it shames this city and all its residents to have visitors judge us by this foul waterway.

Isn't it about time Council got its priorities right? Money can be found to fund gardens and bollards, Russian roulette type roundabouts and Olympic pools but not to cover up this disgusting eyesore.

Barry Walsh
Lismore

Question time

The government wants to ensure there are less people on welfare without ensuring we have employment. This is good for statistics as there will be less numbers unemployed, but there is no insurance people will have a job. So they will join the ever-increasing homeless being fed by volunteers. Should our volunteers, whether they be 'early retirees' or any of the thousands of Australians willing to help, decide to stop work tomorrow, what would happen to Meals on Wheels, the SES, Rural Fire Brigades, Lifeline, the RSPCA, P&C Associations, Landcare and the multitude of organisations being voluntarily run in Australia? How many millions of dollars is the government saving with voluntary workers and then putting these funds into warfare not welfare?

We commend our volunteers as we should but how much can this government squeeze out of those who are not greedy to prosper those who are? When was the last time one of our glorified politicians tried to register an old car, rent an affordable house, take care of children on their own, pump water, mow lawns, volunteer to help the aged or sick, or care for a behaviourally challenged foster child?

Who pays the politicians wages? Isn't that the tax payer? They themselves are our biggest recipients of welfare.

Amanda Clyde
Federal

Help carry on Dr Holt's treatment

Before taking up the private practice in which he is presently involved, Dr Jon Holt (whose medical qualifications are as follows: M.B., Ch.B., S.R.C.S, F.R.C.R, R.A.C.R, D.M.R.T., D.R.C.O.G) was head of the West Australian Cancer Institution, and was in that position for many years. His method of cancer treatment is recognized by Australian health funds.

The television program A Current Affair, hosted by Ray Martin, investigated Dr Holt's radio wave cancer treatment therapy for six months before airing their first segment on Dr Holt some or eight months ago. So, the initial and subsequent programs by A Current Affair and Ray Martin, supporting Dr Holt's form of cancer treatment, have not been taken on board lightly.

Ray Martin has now advised us that Dr Holt will be retiring on June 13 this year and medical practitioners are now needed to carry on his work and be trained in his radio wave technology.

A number of doctors from other areas are now receiving training, but as yet we don't have anybody from the Northern Rivers volunteering to go.

We as a community now need to unite to achieve the following:

1. Send a suitably qualified medical practitioner to Perth, from our area, with the purpose of learning how to effectively operate Dr Holt's radio wave therapy machine.
2. Begin to raise enough money to purchase a radio wave therapy machine and have it installed in this area for local cancer patients.

To achieve our goal we need your help. We need your family's help. We need your friends help. We need your workmates help. So ask these people to join you.

If you were suffering from cancer, and your GP or specialist told you that you only had a short time left because there was no more he/she could do for you and chemotherapy and radium treatment had failed to keep your cancer in remission, wouldn't you then like to be comforted by the thought that you still have one option left - that option being Dr Holt's cancer treatment? Also, wouldn't you like to be comforted in the knowledge that many others who have been told this devastating news and have had Dr Holt's treatment are still alive and well to this day?

Terminally ill people must be allowed freedom of choice and if a terminally ill person has exhausted all other options, then Dr Holt's radio wave treatment should be available to them.

We have now started Dr Holt's Cancer Treatment Campaign Fund for the Northern Rivers. We need people to help - form a committee, go on a committee, become a volunteer, do secretarial work, help fundraise, photocopy etc etc. If you'd like to lend your support and help our cause in any way write to PO Box 655, Lismore, NSW, 2480 or contact 6624 4879 or 0414 704 879.

Marshall Fittler
Goonellabah

What's the plan?

An astonishingly protracted debate about Condon's Hill, Lennox Head, at the last Ballina Shire Council meeting, resulted in rezoning of the hill's escarpment being placed on hold.

Condon's Hill was part of the five-year, exhaustive Council/community planning process for Lennox village... a shire first.

Sheryl Johnson, of the committee which drafted the Lennox Head Community Aspirations Strategic Plan, told the Council meeting that rezoning of Condon's Hill was seen as a test case for the plan's integrity. If this Council did not proceed with rezoning Condon's Hill, the community would conclude that the whole process had been a waste of time, she said.

But the rights and wishes of the landowner, Margaret Condon, to develop her land with a 148-unit seniors living complex will be considered first, the Council decided. State Environmental Planning Policy Seniors Living 2004 allows three storey (8.4 metre high) units to be built right on side boundaries in low density areas, if one occupant of each dwelling is either over 55 years or disabled. Lennox Head has a two-storey (6.4 metres high) building limit.

The Council decided at its February 2005 meeting to complain strongly about SEPP Seniors Living, and seek amendments to that policy. If three-storey buildings are allowed on Condon's Hill, will the remainder of Lennox Head follow suit?

Cr Keith Johnson, who led the push for Margaret Condon's development application to be considered before the rezoning proposal, said the Council had the obligation to take time out and proceed in a measured, objective, professional fashion. The Lennox Head strategic planning committee did just that, for five years.

Community consultation can be genuine or farcical. Yes, we elect councillors to make decisions on our behalf, but nowadays we expect to be kept informed about decision-making, even consulted about it beforehand. Yes, we do ask some awkward questions, particularly around election time.

So, if Ballina Council cannot proceed with its December 2004 motion to seek to amend Ballina's Local Environment Plan for part of Condon's Hill, when will the whole shire have a contemporary, meaningful, visionary, comprehensive, balanced, environmentally and people-friendly etc etc, overall plan?

Marelle Lee
Lennox Head

ANZAC thanks

I am writing to express my appreciation to the citizens of Lismore and all who helped to make the 2005 ANZAC observance one of the best for many years.

Record crowds at both the Dawn Service and the march clearly demonstrated that the Spirit of ANZAC is alive in our community.

Spectators watching the march could be forgiven for thinking that the march just happens each year. The march requires a huge amount of planning and effort on the part of a large group of people and I would be remiss if these unseen workers were not thanked and, therefore, I am taking this opportunity to place on record my thanks to the following people or groups who contributed so greatly to the success of the day.

The team of volunteers from the sub branch who cleaned the memorials, set up the chairs, marshalled the marchers both at the commencement and at the cenotaph, and handed a sprig of rosemary to each person at breakfast, the cadets who contributed so willingly and proficiently, the staff and students of all the schools represented, the media, the management of the Lismore Workers Club and the ladies of the Sub Branch Ladies Auxiliary who served over 500 breakfasts and still remained cheerful, and the staff of both Lismore City Council and the contractors at the pool site who contributed to making the day a resounding success.

All of you please accept both my personal thanks and also the thanks of the veteran community of Lismore for your outstanding efforts.

Bob Mowle
President
City of Lismore Sub Branch

Get on with it

Many decades ago the NSW Government commissioned a study into the relative expensiveness of settling extra people in spots other than Sydney. I think it selected Wagga, and found it was 10 times cheaper than in Sydney. If our NSW Government urgently planned some centres for conversion to significant urban, commercial, industrial cities, Sydney could be spared the final idiotic over-population and inefficiency and the NSW Government could get on with such long-recognised urgent developments as the Ballina and Alstonville bypasses.

Nat B Wheatley
Alstonville

Top cops

A big thank you to the local police for their efforts at this year's MardiGrass festival/protest in Nimbin.

The boys in blue need congratulating for their discretion, keeping an eye on the peaceful crowds and especially for keeping those out of town revellers from driving drunk on our roads.

Mary Wainer
Larnook

Aerodrome antics

The 196-page Draft Plan of Management for the State Heritage listed Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome is on public exhibition.

It's been clear for a long time [Richmond Valley] Council wants to carve up the southern end of the Aerodrome for residential development. It cannot help itself. Whether it's the 145 unit retirement village with nursing home complex or not is irrelevant. Cr Jeffery's recent comment in the press that "...if the nursing home [doesn't] go ahead, the Council could and would subdivide the land into 51 residential units" tells us that the Ex-Services development is a 'fundraiser' for Council and nothing more.

Readers will remember Council initiated discussions with the retirement village to sell the land at the Aerodrome (public letter, Feb 2, 2005). All the right words were muttered about getting the essential approval from the NSW Heritage Council. But this was 'wedge' politics at its best: Council as 'good guys', saviours of the nursing home. Nursing home 'heart string' as leverage for development. It's called pre-empting the planning process.

Council and the retirement village's joint letter of February 2 states that "Once the Aerodrome site was identified as the most suitable for the retirement village, arrangements were made for that project to be considered as part of the Plan of Management processes. Those processes included consultation with various groups/organisations, including those with interests at the Aerodrome."

As one of those 'interested' organisations, we weren't consulted. Council's consultants told us what was going to happen, and gave us a map showing a small section of the proposed retirement development. Two thirds was left out. Disgraceful.

The Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome is one of only 1500 items listed on the NSW State Heritage Register. It's a memorial to the 11,000 men and women who served Australia during World War II, and not a poker chip to be cashed in when local government runs out of money.

The State Government should put the Aerodrome into a community trust out of the reach of Council. They've already ripped off some of the Aerodrome's 'maintenance and development fund' of around $900,000 by using it for purposes other than those for which it was originally intended. We've asked for $500,000 of those funds be set aside for appropriate development. It's time for this important historic World War II RAAF base to be treated with the respect, care and dignity it deserves.

Dr Richard Gates
President
The Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome Committee Incorporated