NSW Government steals $2.5 billion from private land owners

The NSW Government today became the first government in Australia to propose
the stripping away of assets worth up to $2.5 billion from the States
property owners.

Working hand in hand with green groups, the Iemma Government, has proposed
to effectively introduced legislation that, for the first time ever in this
country would remove the right to carry out an existing land use. The draft
Private Native Forestry (PNF) code of practice is the instrument that will
bring rural NSW to its knees.

Not content with putting the States economy into the red, the Iemma
Government is hell bent on doing the same to private individuals. The NSW
timber industry is a vital part of Australia's second largest manufacturing
sector and as timber supplies dry up, as a direct result of this Code, the
flow on will have huge negative impacts across all sectors of the NSW
economy.

"The draft Private Native Forest code of practice, released today, will
drive many farmers and property owners to the wall", said TCA NSW Manager,
Peter Lezaich. It is unfair, unjust and will give the Government's
commercial business, Forests NSW, a competitive advantage over small private
growers".

The environmental protection and infrastructure measures outlined in the
draft PNF code will effectively remove up to 2.5 million hectares of
privately owned land from production, without even an offer of compensation,
and place them in defacto national parks, where the cost of management is
born by individuals and not the community. With more than 660 national parks
and reserves in NSW, totaling almost 6 million hectares and costing over
$200 million per year to maintain, the conservation of our natural and
cultural heritage is more than adequately catered for.

The draft code is open for public comments and submissions for only 28 days,
after which the Government may amend the draft before it comes into force on
the 1st October this year.

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has yet to make available a social
or economic impact study to determine the effect this Code will have on
rural communities. Minister Macdonald's staff have given a commitment that
the required social and economic impact studies will be released prior to
the Code coming into force on 1 October, but given only 5 1/2 weeks is
available between the close of public comment and the Code coming into force
it is difficult to expect that any study will be Comprehensive, Adequate or
Representative of the communities affected.

"Timber Communities Australia supports the introduction of a sensible
Private Native Forest code of practice, but not one that strips away peoples
right to manage their properties sustainably in addition to deriving an
income from them" said Peter Lezaich.

Peter Lezaich
NSW State Manager
Timber Communities Australia

Debus & the Dentist

Excerpt from Blue Mountains Gazette

Wed 20th Sept 2006

Member for Blue Mountains Bob Debus told the Gazette State Government
funding for oral health programs in NSW rose from $72.5 million to
approximately $131 million since July 2001 and will increase by $4
million next year and $36 for the next three years.

He said this will increase numbers of dental specialists and
therapists and blamed the Federal Government for "avoiding its
responsibility here.

"What an irony that it (Federal Government) now spends $350 million
each year on rebates for people who can afford private health
insurance with dental cover."

The Australian Dental Association (ADA) and the NSW Shadow Minister
for Health Jillian Skinner strongly refuted Mr Debus' claims, blaming
the NSW government for grossly underfunding the public dental health system.

"An additional $4 million will not even begin to tackle the problem
for the estimated 215,000 patients on the public dental waiting list
in NSW, some of whom now wait years for treatment." NSW ADA president
Dr Chris Wilson said.

"Funding for public dental services in NSW is the lowest per capita
of any State and Territory.

"It is no longer acceptable to promise that a full range of services
will be provided in the public sector if politicians are unable or
unwilling to match those claims with realistic and appropriate funding levels.

"The Commonwealth must also lift its game to address critical
workforce shortages through education and training."

Mrs Skinner said a NSW Liberal government will commit an additional
$208.25 million over four years "to bring the failing public dental
health system in NSW back in line with the rest of the nation.

"The Iemma Government's allocation of $4.6 million for a dog
education campaign compared to $4 million extra for public dental
care shows how skewed its priorities are," she said.

Greens candidate for Blue Mountains Pippa McInnes said "it's
appalling that so many in our community have to suffer so much pain
because of a lack of basic services.

"The NSW Greens will work towards increasing funding at the State
level to provide more public dental services to ensure access for
all, in both emergency and ongoing dental care," she said.

"And we will lobby the Federal Government to include dental care as
part of the Medicare rebate scheme."

KDC was fitted out with four surgeries in June 2006.

Greens True Colours Shine Again

The ACT Greens and an anti-school-closure group had engaged in a disgraceful
and selective misrepresentation of statistics, deeply insulting Canberra's
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in the process, Indigenous
Affairs Minister Jon Stanhope said today.

"Greens MLA Dr Deb Foskey has again done a disservice to those she claims to
be trying to help, by portraying Indigenous families affected by possible
school closures as being less able than non-Indigenous families to adjust to
a change of school, and by selectively using statistics to suggest that
Aboriginal Canberrans are being targeted by the proposed closures," Mr
Stanhope said today.

"I was appalled this week to hear Dr Foskey use Canberra's Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander children as her latest pawns in her bid to keep her
face in the news, essentially portraying Indigenous families as lacking the
capacity to successfully make the transition from one school to another,
labelling them as less resilient than other families.

"What she is actually asking, if you take her comments to their logical
conclusion, is that no school with a single Aboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander child should be considered for closure, because the families
involved would not be able to cope. It is hard to think of a more gratuitous
or ill-founded insult."

Mr Stanhope said Dr Foskey had selectively chosen statistics to
over-dramatise the impact of the Towards 2020 proposals on Indigenous
students, ignoring actual numbers and instead quoting percentages that,
given some shrinking school populations, often amounted to a handful of
students.

"The implication that schools with high numbers of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students have somehow been targeted for proposed closure is
simply not borne out by the facts," Mr Stanhope said. "There are five
secondary colleges with greater numbers of Indigenous students than the
single college proposed for closure under Towards 2020 - Dickson College.
There are three high schools with greater numbers of Indigenous students
than Kambah High - the single high school proposed for possible closure.
There are seven primary schools with greater numbers of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander students than Isabella Plains Primary and nine with
greater numbers than the school proposed for closure that is next highest on
the list in respect of Indigenous numbers.

"If every school proposed for closure in Towards 2020 ended up closing,
about 90 of the 900 of so Indigenous students in the public school system
would be affected. And, of course, there is no proposal to close a single
one of the five Koori Preschools this Government supports. The ACT
Government's success in boosting educational outcomes for Indigenous
students is exemplary and unmatched anywhere else in the nation. Dr Foskey
should be ashamed of jumping on every anti-school-closure stunt that comes
along, regardless of its logic or merit."

$6.9 Million Ministers Legal fees - YOUR MONEY

$7m spent to defend state MPs and staff
Frank Walker
August 6, 2006

THE NSW Government has paid lawyers $6.9 million to defend ministers and
staff who have appeared before official inquiries in the past three years.

The payments include legal representation before the Independent Commission
Against Corruption (ICAC), the Police Integrity Commission and the
Ombudsman.

Former premier Bob Carr had to appear before ICAC over the Orange Grove
affair last year, along with two ministers and an MP. All four were
exonerated, but the Government's legal bill was $1.1 million. Mr Carr's
barrister, John McCarthy, QC, was paid more than $400,000.

This was just the tip of the iceberg, suggest figures obtained under freedom
of information last week by the Opposition's Wastewatch Committee.

Millions more were paid in legal bills for ministerial representation before
ICAC, including for the then health minister, Craig Knowles, over claims he
had threatened whistleblowing nurses; for the then roads minister, Carl
Scully, over alleged leaks to a consultant, and for the assistant planning
minister, Diane Beamer, over Orange Grove. All were cleared.

Wastewatch chairman and Lane Cove MP Anthony Roberts said a fortune had been
spent on legal bills for interdepartmental turf wars and on conflicts with
local and federal government. "It is a ridiculous use of taxpayers' money,"
he said. "The only winners are the lawyers.

"If NSW were better run, you could have this money spent on teachers, nurses
and police. This is not the Government's money; it is taxpayers' money and
should go back to them in services.

"We want people to look out for government waste and let us know about it.
We will launch a Wastewatch hotline in the next few days."

The Government disputed the figure, saying only $4.7 million had been spent
on legal bills.

"The Opposition frequently calls for frivolous claims to be taken to ICAC
and government ministers have a right to be legally represented at such
inquiries," said a spokesman for Attorney-General Bob Debus.

Judge Not

SMH.com.au
Tim Dick
September 15, 2006

HOW judges are appointed is a mystery to most people except the pickers and
the picked, but support for changing the system is growing and a senior
judge is leading the way.
Federal Court judge Ronald Sackville, who heads the Judicial Conference of
Australia, wants the appointment process opened up to increase diversity,
transparency and avoid "unsuitable" candidates.
Vacancies on federal and state benches are filled on the recommendation of
the attorney-general, without any formal process. But concerns are growing
after recent controversial appointments.

The NSW Attorney-General, Bob Debus, last year made one of his advisers a
magistrate within a fortnight of her admission as a lawyer..........

Debus Upset His Electorate

From Blue Mountain Gazette
Debus accused of heritage back-flip
Wednesday, 13 September 2006

The Association of Concerned Mid Mountains Residents has accused State
Member for Blue Mountains, Bob Debus of doing a backflip on "heritage
destruction" in the Mountains.
This follows Mr Debus' confirmation and support for the go-ahead for "a
project which will see the demolition of a major part of historic mountain
village, Lawson, to make way for a parking service road alongside a Great
Western Highway widened to four lanes. Yet in 1998 Mr Debus was outraged at
the heritage destruction he believed would occur under a National Party
proposal for a four lane highway through the Mountains.

"Back then Mr Debus said: `. . . it would smash right through the middle of
Blackheath. A lovely, traditional mountain village . . . and the vandals
from the National Party would put a four-lane tollway right through the
middle of it. This Godzilla of a road would lurch onwards wiping out part of
the rhododendron garden at Blackheath, proceed through the middle of Mount
Victoria, wipe out the historical museum . . . (and) would wreak just as
much destruction in Bullaburra, Lawson, Hazelbrook.'

Flavian Vallance, chair of the Association of Concerned Mid Mountains
Residents, said this week: "Now Lawson will lose the majority of its highway
history except the hotel - including a 100 year old community hall, early
20th century highway shops and a 1914 explorers' monument.

"The part of Lawson village affected by this plan is currently the subject
of a draft heritage listing by Blue Mountains City Council. It's not as if
the RTA's plan delivers a great outcome for the community - the only way Mr
Debus can talk it up is to glorify two new sets of traffic lights and a
pedestrian ramp. Hardly a boon for traffic flow or improvement in access for
the disconnected communities on either side of this major artery.

"Our group has surveyed and proposed a viable highway alternative using the
RTA's own highway outline. It uses spare rail land to widen the highway away
from the existing shops and minimises the threat to our local economy posed
by wholesale demolition. It also allows for sensitive new development
alongside the heritage conservation area. All of which would promote tourism
and remain consistent with the heritage traditions of the Mountains instead
of wiping them out.

"The RTA has given no sensible reasons why this plan is not feasible - only
fob-offs such as it would not provide for a landscaped median. Has Mr Debus
allowed his former, more credible, stance about Mountains history to be
overridden by the concerns of developers wanting a clean slate for their
projects? Watch out Blackheath and Medlow Bath, with such poor commitment to
principle from your local member, you could be next.

Majority supports plan

Responding to the ACMMR's claims, MrDebus said: "The Association of
Concerned Mid Mountains Residents has no right to use the word credibility.

"The great majority of Lawson residents are tickled pink about the road
plan.

"What Mr Vallance and his people refer to as the 'RTA's plan' is in fact a
plan consulted over years, agreed to by Blue Mountains City Council and
accepted in a long succession of community meetings.

"No rhetorical tricks or spin by Mr Vallance can change that situation.

"The development of Lawson has anticipated road widening for 40 years, the
development of Blackheath and Mt Victoria has never had such anticipation."