Lake Wollumboola- Listing as a RAMSAR site

Shoalhaven Council is it so narrow minded that it will not support taking a step forward in listing a lovely wetland in the RAMSAR register? seems so.

Department of Environment and Heritage have approached Council to advise that they wish to begin the process of talking to the community about listing this special little lake as a significant wetland- local campaigner Frances Bray sent the following letter to Council to try and influence tonights decision making.

Thanks Frances for allowing me to share this and your great photo of the swans and teals.


To General Manager and Shoalhaven City Councillors,


Please circulate this message to all Councillors,

I understand that at your meeting on Tuesday next, that you will consider a recommendation to oppose the listing of Lake Wollumboola as a Wetland of International importance under the Ramsar Convention.

Today I have been on a bird counting walk at Lake Wollumboola with ornithologist, Ms Joy Pegler. The Lake is an astonishing site, with Joy counting 1100 Black Swan, 957 Grey Teal and 536 Chestnut Teal, as well as 9 other species.

Here is a photo of some of the birds which are easily viewed from the north shore. Do come and enjoy this wonderful experience.

I urge you to think carefully about the benefits of Ramsar listing. Increased monitoring and research into this unique Lake would benefit its management, whilst maintaining current recreational activities. There would be significant benefits for the Aboriginal community from employment in management and Cultural tourism opportunities if community members choose to support Ramsar listing. The local and wider Shoalhaven community would benefit too from carefully promoted and managed national as well as international tourism.

The Lake Wollumboola Protection Association Inc as well as many Culburra Beach residents and ratepayers strongly support Ramsar listing, knowing the special qualities of the Lake especially for birds and understanding that Lake Wollumboola meets the relevant Ramsar criteria.

We understand that the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage is in the process of consulting the Aboriginal community regarding its views and we respect the need for that consultation to continue before the Office proceeds with consultation with the wider community.

Please do not jeopardise the planned consultations and the opportunities represented by Ramsar listing.
Yours faithfully,
Frances Bray.
President Lake Wollumboola Protection Association Inc

OFarrells Work Choices where does Tony Abbott Stand

DAVID SHOEBRIDGE MLC

MEDIA RELEASE

13 June 2011

O’Farrell’s WorkChoices: Where does Tony Abbott Stand? 

With Federal unions now bringing pressure on the NSW Coalition's radical attack on industrial relations laws, it is time for the Federal Coalition to state its position.  With Tony Abbott refusing to reject the NSW Coalition’s plans to slash the wages of nurses, teachers, firefighters and other public servants by nearly $2 billion, it is now clear that NSW is just the first stage in the Federal Coalition’s plan to relaunch WorkChoices.

See SMH page 1: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/unions-declare-war-on-premier-20110612-1fzgk.html110612-1fzgk.html

Greens NSW MP and Industrial Relations spokesperson David Shoebridge said:

"The newly-minted industrial relations laws being forced on the NSW Public Sector look like being the basis for a new federal IR system for the Coalition."

"These laws, which give direct control over wages and conditions to a single government minister, while retaining the pretense of an Industrial Relations Commission, are even more radical than John Howard's WorkChoices.  

"Despite all its flaws, even under WorkChoices unions could approach the Commonwealth IRC to set minimum entitlements without being threatened with a veto by the Government.  

"Under O'Farrell's new laws, all bets are off, and the Government of the day will get the power to veto wage rises, and cut back on conditions, by simply issuing a regulation."

"This is a real test for Tony Abbott, will he distance himself from the NSW Coalition's radical new IR laws or will he embrace them and risk having a fresh federal battle on industrial relations."

"If WorkChoices was dead, buried and cremated in 2007, then O'Farrell has just resurrected it, and it hasn't got any prettier in the meantime.

"A failure by Tony Abbott to reject the NSW Coalition's IR plan can only mean one thing - that this is the new IR model for the Federal Coalition."

More information:  Contact David Shoebridge on 0408 113 952

Missing in Action- South Coast Register Style

My quick comment before reading- I made sure that during the election campaign I attended to all Council matters. The meetings I seem to have missed are committee that I am either not a member of or just can't change my timetable to fit!

MISSING IN ACTION


BY JEFF STEPHENSON South Coast Register
15 Jun, 2011 08:21 AM

Minister’s claim you can’t be a councillor and an MP is borne out by the roll call

THE difficulty in combining state and local politics has been demonstrated by figures showing attendance records at Shoalhaven City Council meetings and council briefing sessions.

Both Mayor Paul Green and Cr Gareth Ward are under pressure to terminate their local government roles after the Local Government Minister Don Page voiced growing concerns about MPs continuing to hold roles on council.

Cr Ward’s attendance at council meetings has dropped dramatically since he won the seat of Kiama in March this year.

Figures released recently show Cr Ward has attended only 17 council meetings this year out of a possible 45 until the end of May.

This compares to Cr John Fergusson, who has attended 44 meetings and Cr Greg Watson with a record of 42 and Cr Amanda Findlay with an attendance record of 36 meetings from the 45.

Cr Ward’s attendance at briefing meetings is worse.

He attended only one briefing meeting this year until the end of May.

Cr Amanda Findley tops the count with a 100 per cent record of 12 out of 12.

Cr Green has managed much better than Cr Ward.

The mayor has attended seven of 12 briefing sessions this year and 24 of 45 council meetings.

Cr Ward had attended 90 briefing sessions from October, 2008 until May 2011, while Cr Green’s record for the same period is 149 from 180 meetings.

Cr Green insists he can manage the two roles.
He was elected as Shoalhaven Mayor in 2008 and a Member of the Legislative Council as a Christian Democrat in March.He has conceded the two roles “can be a strain” but he believed the advantage the city gained outweighed the disadvantage of him being out of the city on occasions. He said his time was “worth millions to the city if we get it right” and said the cost to the city could be as much as $250,000 should he relinquish the role which would be brought on by another election.

Mr Page sent shockwaves through the state government when he targeted people trying to fill the dual roles.

Solar Industry debacle- feed in tariffs not the only problem in NSW

I'm in the mood for a good whinge so I thought I might give you a dose on my perspective of the Solar industry.

Firstly- when I encouraged fellow Councillor John Ferguson to support the outrage of Shoalhaven constituents and raise an urgency motion condemning the changes to the NSW solar tariff scheme, John was pretty much booed out of the Chamber by the dominant Liberal faction on Council.-Funny that (Not).

The moves in NSW politics to reduce the tariff for those who were promised a 60c rebate for the next seven years is just part of the problem for the Solar industry which is used to the storms created by government around rebates and has many times before put the industry through a rush / bust cycle.

The move mostly effects the bank balances of those who have counted on a level of income return to payback their system. New people wishing to purchase solar power are still doing so knowing that the scheme is suspended but that they are safe guarding themselves from rising energy costs and helping manage Australia's carbon footprint.

I would argue that they are also contributing to the micro energy generation which will mean that there is less reliance on coal fired power and therefore less need to build a new coal fire energy plant.

Some simple maths for you to keep in mind throughout this blog.

100kwh of electricity = 1 tonne of carbon emission

1tonne of carbon = 1 Renewable energy certificate

The current rebate scheme CREATES 5x the value of the Renewable Energy Certificate meaning that for every tonne of carbon offset by a renewable energy source 4 more tonnes are emitted but not offset as the generation capacity doesn't EXIST!

The rear action in this debacle comes from the Federal Governments - Renewable Energy Certificate Scheme or RECS.

The Federal Government has been offering a 5 times multiplier on renewable energy certificates since it took away the flat $8000 rebate early last year.Effectively that meant that on an average two kilowatt system the rebate would be about $6000 once the RECS were sold into the RECS market. Of course markets are volatile places-but what the federal government failed to see that this creation of FALSE CARBON CREDITS has flooded the market and there are not enough mandated buyers to purchase the 3 million extra certificates ( at this point the market needs 9 million certificate not 12). This has driven down the price of RECs from around $36-38 each to a measly $20-25 almost half .

For some owners / installers 4-6 weeks ago when they sent their paperwork of to create RECS they had an expectation to make around $6000 to offset the costs of installation. It takes four weeks for the government to create the certificates and by that time the market had crashed and people were left with a considerably smaller rebate i.e. between $2000-$4000 depending on the price in the spot market. Some installers who had entered into contracts that allowed buyers to just pay the difference are out of pocket by 25% of the value of the system. A big hit for a small business.

Solar still isn't cheap with 2kilowatts costing approx $11600 and that is mostly the cost of equipment- not the old formula of 50% for materials 50% for labor as you just end up out pricing yourself with competitors if you took on that simple formula.

But to put the icing on the cake the government doesn't guarantee the price of $40 to the householder but to the polluter. Example if Endeavour Energy needs 5 million certificates to reach its 5% renewable energy target and goes to the market place and the market price is $60 per certificate- they can then go to the government and purchase certificates at $40.

 (REMEMBER: 4 million of those certificates have no generation capacity behind them as they are multiplier certificates! and effectively only offsetting 1% of the targeted 5%)

Like I said this is one confused country when it comes to solar rebates no wonder the installers/suppliers have been faced with rush / bust cycles before and I am sure will continue to in the future. Government really needs to talk to the industry and how it can do it better. I would suggest a small cash rebate, plus the real value of RECS not the multiplier and  a national feed in tariff mandated  by the federal government- I might have it wrong too but surely anythings better than the mess the industry is in now facing down another bust cycle!

Go to Energy Matters web site for the full version of this chart the Closed state is NSW!

Liberals and Christian Democrats gang up to strip back workers rights



cartoon from inkcint.


With the ink barely dry on their inaugural speeches, the first 100 days of Liberal party rule in NSW has seen an outrageous attack on the ordinary people of NSW.


Firstly, trying to renege on contracts with people over the Solar Bonus Scheme and now an attack on public sector wages and entitlements.

Speaker of the House and South Coast Member Shelly Hancock an ex teacher at Ulladulla High School knows the difficult work conditions that teachers endure yet she is willing to turn her back on her fraternity and freeze wages.

Kiama member Gareth Ward just gave a maiden speech extolling the virtues of his school teachers is part of the Liberal back bench who will support this wages grab against teachers and police along with many others who will suffer loss of pay conditions that includes penalty rates.

Christian Democrat MLC Paul Green, Mayor of Shoalhaven has also shown his contempt for his industry, nursing, by joining the cross benchers who will support the bill. For anyone who listens to Mayor Green his speeches are always about supporting family- well I would like to ask him how this bill supports families reliant on nursing wages and overtime payments to make ends meet.

Can Mayor Green also tell this community if his plan to support this bill came about through party dealings with the Liberal Party to strengthen Religious Education in schools?

All three of our local MPs talk about the need for policing in our area, better nursing and support for teachers yet they are willing to support this attack on public sector workers so what’s it called people “StealthChoices”, stealing workers’ rights while their noses are to the grind!

Congratulations to the Greens and Labor Party for a long debate which allows us more time to get people informed about what is happening to their pay packet.