Patriarchy and the Breeding Creed- end of semester work.

So every now and then I disconnect from my council duties and focus on my course work for University. Im one of those painful over achieving mature age students who busts her own butt in the efforts to get good marks and keep the academic options open. Rather than just leave the words of this semesters final essay moth balled on a hard drive somewhere I thought I would share my rant on women's reproductive rights being controlled by the patriarchy to support a breeding creed.

I really enjoyed writing it and hope that you enjoy reading it.

This essay aims to discuss periods in history that have had an impact on women’s reproductive rights, to find parallels in a modern context and conclude that further legislative reformation is still hindered by dominant ideologies of patriarchy, nationalism and pronatalism. Australian women have long campaigned for reproductive autonomy the history is complex with different states having different watershed moments. Women since the 1890’s have conducted campaigns for birth control and abortion within a social discourse that is dominantly patriarchal. Fervour for nationalism and pronatalism has either denied women their rights or created a barrier for legislative reform. Campaigns for reproductive rights have been entwined in a meta-framework of disadvantage and have ranged from being the number one issue for women to covert campaigns undertaken with the utmost discretion. This essay adopts the position that abortion is a major part of the contraception debate in Australia. Women’s reproductive rights are intrinsically linked to contraception and abortion.


At the 1975 Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) National Conference polling was conducted to enable prioritization of issues. Abortion/Contraception gained a small percentage and at 13% was certainly not the dominant issue of the day. A general category of women’s issues topped the poll with 42%. Although the poll represents a moment in time it reflects a trend that places the issues of abortion and contraception within the sphere of women’s business and not always as a headline grabbing campaign brief. Abortion has been an option for women wanting to limit their family size since the mid nineteenth century. Some critics, particularly those campaigning from a religious or Right to Life perspective, do not believe that abortion is contraception. Australian women have not passively accepted the gendered roles assigned to them. Since early colonial days women have sought to challenge their position within the colony and to bring to the fore women’s issues. The Suffragette movement which aimed to gain women the vote in Australia is a popular and well documented campaign that achieved its aim in 1902. However campaigning for reproductive rights in Australia from the 1890’s has often gone unreported or has been part of other campaigns that have been more focused on overall women’s rights.

Birth control is an ancient practice that has been and remains dominantly ‘women’s business’. Men have sought and succeeded in controlling the availability of contraceptive aids and hindered women’s ability for reproductive autonomy. Family planning options for men are limited mostly to condom use and sterilization. Methods such as withdrawal are unreliable and abstinence is simply unrealistic in a modern and sexually liberated context. Early contraception in Australia was mostly available to those who could afford it generally the middle and upper classes. Working class earnings didn’t stretch to such ‘luxury items’ as contraceptives. Exhausted women were desperate to control their fertility in an attempt to keep families from poverty and break endless pregnancy and child rearing cycles. The views of women in late nineteenth century Australia were seldom heard in a cacophony of calls for women to fulfill their duty to their Country by rearing many children. The 1903 Royal Commission on the Decline of the Birth Rate and on the Morality of Infants in New South Wales (RCDBR) is a defining document of the times and clearly maps the attitudes of the period. The Commission’s report is often quoted and has gained notoriety around the views that are espoused by the committee membership. Made up of seven men representing government, pharmacy and manufacturing the purview of the Commission was to

‘ Make a diligent and full enquiry into the causes that have contributed to the decline of the birth-rate in New South Wales and the effects of the restriction of child-rearing upon the well being of the community’.

Once the Commission met it made application to the government to add to its terms of reference the ability to make recommendations as to the remedies of the ‘various evils’ which are indicated by the evidence as the cause of the decline of the birth-rate and of the high infant mortality’. This clearly indicates that the commission found the very idea of contraception repugnant and ‘evil’. When perusing the list of witnesses the commission called to give evidence there is stark gender inequity with only six women discernible from a list of ninety six. Three of these six women represented Infant homes including the Benevolent Society Institution. Siedlecky and Wyndham describe the NSW Benevolent Society as pronatalist even though the Benevolent Society took this stance the organization was responsible for the death of many children held in its care. Siedlecky and Wyndham could well have quoted directly from the RCDBR report which recognized that deaths in infant homes were exceptionally high and needed a higher level of inspection and control. Close reading of the report leaves the reader no doubt that this period in Australia’s history was very patriarchal and driving a nationalistic, pronatalist agenda that left little space for the views and needs of women. Women who desired to keep their family numbers low conducted their contraception affairs with the utmost of stealth and in fear of the laws which rejected outright the sale and advertising of contraceptive related items. It is little wonder that illegal and poorly administered abortion was rife and that women often resorted to ‘baby farming’ or paying for their infants to be taken away and ‘cared for’ by another.

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the need for contraception and abortion was driving women to desperate measures. The literature shows that the patriarchal political position of the day ignored the needs of the female population and fervently supported an agenda of ‘populate or perish’ which described women who limited their families as unpatriotic. This provides us with a parallel situation between 1903 and 2010 where citizens’ actions and attitudes are in direct conflict with the political agenda of the times. Pringle asserts that 80% of the population is supportive of abortion reform yet the political will for change doesn’t match the attitude of the people. Summers also asserts that ‘populate or perish’ has been replaced by a conservative Government driven ideology of a ‘breeding creed’ a ‘powerful new ideology that defines women first and foremost as mothers’.

The pronatalist agenda in Australia has caused great suffering for women who have had to break the law in order to obtain abortions and contraception. The effects of World War One saw an increase in venereal disease in Australia and presented an opportunity for discussion around sexual hygiene. The interwar years were an interesting time for discussion about contraception as the debates were themed around reducing venereal disease and classic eugenics which proscribed limiting birth to those deemed ‘fit’ to reproduce and become the mothers of a strong nation. The proponents of eugenics managed to inculcate further the notion of ‘good’ domesticity and child rearing as national duty through domestic training for girls as part of the education curriculum. The Racial Hygiene Association (RHA) was successful in opening the first birth control clinic in Australia during 1933. Campaigner Ruby Rich confesses that the RHA adopted the name as a means to disguise the ‘threat’ of family planning which was considered ‘socially unacceptable’. Rich was responsible for sending back intelligence on British Birth Control Clinics, which aided the RHA in setting up the Sydney clinic in 1933. During the nineteen thirties the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) were campaigning on a number of fronts that included equal rights for women in pay, property ownership and child responsibility. The CPA also agitated for birth control. Jean Devanny a prominent member of the CPA was often jailed for her rousing speeches on numerous issues and believed that free birth control clinics should be available to women and abortion should be legalised. Devanny advocated sexual liberation for women and was considered a radical for taking this position. The notion was considered scandalous when Devanny pronounced ‘women had the right to enjoy sex as much as men did’. The political context during Devannys’ period of activism was still fiercely patriarchal as the federal sphere of politics was yet to see the influence of elected women, which didn’t occur until 1943.

The release of the contraceptive pill in January 1961 set the scene for the women’s revolution of the seventies. The ‘Pill’ gave women reassurance that they had a reliable and relevantly safe means to control family size. The release of ‘the pill’ was not simply a matter of supply and demand as it raised all sorts of moral and ethical dilemmas for medical doctors. Bongiorno discusses doctors using moral judgment when deciding whether or not to prescribe ‘the pill’ to unmarried women, a circumstance that catholic doctors in particular found challenging. According to Bongiorno, catholic doctors recycled old arguments of ‘infidelity, divorce, materialism, broken homes, delinquency, alcoholism, corruption, licentiousness, and marital disharmony’. The arguments of morality and ethics are a poor disguise for religious dogma, which raises its head some forty years later in discussions around the abortion drug RU486 discussed in further detail later in this paper.

The nineteen seventies are renowned for dominant themes of freedom and revolution. The political landscape, as reported by Sawer, was ready for change and it seems to be a period in history where there was a general feeling of optimism, youth and vitality. The Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) formed and became a well-organised collective of women who were determined to achieve policy reform on issues that affected women. High on that list of early priorities was contraception. Pushing the policy agenda WEL took an academic and direct action approach. Surveying women on their ‘experiences of contraception’ and holding marches such as the 1974 Victorian members march on Parliament with ‘condoms on sticks to protest against the statutory ban on advertising contraceptives’. Early in the formation of WEL the tactic of questioning election candidates revealed patriarchy and lack of knowledge on women’s issues. The importance of the campaign to remove the ‘luxury tax’ on contraceptives, lift the ban on advertising contraceptives and improved access to family planning was made all the more poignant with the revelation of WEL survey results. Women had difficulty in obtaining good advice on contraceptives and ‘more than half said they had suffered from fear of pregnancy at some stage on their lives’. WEL was successful in its aims and brought about legislative reform for contraceptives and family planning, but the ‘battle over abortion was far from won’.

Abortion reform has been slow and suffered from the highs and lows of community interest. More current headlines include the legislative reform case of abortion drug RU486 and the prosecution of young Queensland women who obtained RU486 from overseas and self-administered. Organisations within Australia such Reproductive Choice Australia still campaign for women’s access to legal and free abortion seems to fall on deaf ears in parliamentary structures at state and federal levels. Pringle defines this unwillingness of parliamentarians to raise the abortion issue as an ‘urban myth’ that is based on the false assumption that voters would not support a parliamentarian at the polls should they be supportive of pro-abortion position. This is also based on an assumption that there is a rise in religious practice in Australia. Pringle goes on to outline qualitative research into the opinions of Australian people in regards to their position on the availability of abortion which shows a high percentage of people (not just women) ‘support very liberal access to abortion, and this has been the case for at least 30 years’. Pringle unpacks the moral, political and legal arguments that surround the issue of abortion and points clearly to the conservatism of elected members as the real cause as the inhibiting factor in abortion legislative reform. Reforming legislation brought to the Federal Parliament for RU486 within the Therapeutic Goods Act, was supported by male and female parliamentarians in a vote that reflected the opinions of the population. Although Pringle doesn’t contribute the success of the RU486 debate on the gender balance of the 2004 Federal Parliament, it is noted throughout the article that the general increase of women within the political sphere has helped to readdress gender issues during the last thirty years.

Twenty first century pronatalism is thinly disguised under the new banner of a’ breeding creed’ and Right for Life, a group that vehemently opposes abortion. Right for Life advocates have also developed sexual education programs for adolescents that condone abstinence as a form of birth control. Harking back to an era of patriarchal conservatism Right for Life believes it is taking the ‘moral high ground’ but are teaching outdated modes considered impractical by the Family Planning Association which does not condone an ‘abstinence only’ approach as it is far less effective than a holistic approach to sexuality, relationships and contraception. Reading comments left on youth orientated website ActNow on the issue of sex education it is alarming that Australia as a progressive Country seems to be lagging behind in sex education, a campaign that was perceived to have been won during the 1970s. Conservative publication Quadrant published an article in 2010 declaring that modern day eugenics is all about choosing to abort fetuses that are highly likely to have genetic birth defects such as Down Syndrome. Author Deirdre Little declares that the practice of fetal selection is unethical and gives very little consideration to the quality of life for people born with severe birth defects. Little comes from a position of authority and seems to advocate for ‘life for life’s sake’. As a medical doctor and president of Obstetricians Who Respect the Hippocratic Oath , Little can invoke an argument from authority that undoubtedly would influence current decision makers when faced with legislative reform on abortion issues.

In attempting to appraise one hundred and twenty years of women’s struggles for reproductive autonomy, just the briefest of glances at particular times on the journey reveals that women’s struggles have always been defined within a patriarchal hegemony that still carries notions of nationalism and pronatalism. The modern context has changed the discourse for a new generation creating historical parallels such as the ‘breeding creed’ replacing the ‘populate or perish’ doctrine. Right for Life are modern day pronatalists rejecting abortion as immoral and teaching outdated doctrines for sex education. The sisterhood of the seventies which created the Women’s Electoral Lobby would be dismayed that the campaign wins from the 1970s have not been built upon in a substantial way. Women still do not have full reproductive autonomy and still have to deal with conservative, nationalistic government too fearful of electoral backlash to instigate further reforms.

Bibliography

ActNow , Accessed online October 2011 http://www.actnow.com.au/Issues/Sex_education_in_Australia.aspx

Allen, J., ‘Octavious Beale reconsidered: Infanticide, Babyfarming and Abortion in NSW 1880-1939’, in Sydney Labor History Group (ed), What Rough Beast? The Social Order in Australian History, Sydney: George Allen and Unwin, 1982, pp 111-129. [E-book]

Bongiorno, F. ‘January 1961 The Release of the Pill:Contraceptive technology and the ‘Sexual revolution’’, in Martin Crotty and d Roberts(eds) Turning Points in Australian History, Sydney: UNSWP 2008,pp 157-170 (accessed via e-reading)

Choices Decisions Outcomes accessed online http://www.cdo.net.au/

Ferrier Carole, ‘A ‘Red Revolutionist and Ranter’: Jean Devanny in the Early 1930s’, Hecate Vol.24, no.2 ,(1998) p121-148

Legislative Assembly, New South Wales (1904),’Royal Commission on the decline of the birth rate and on the mortality of infants in New South Wales, Vol. 1 Report, Joint Volumes of Papers presented to the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly [NSW Parliamentary Papers] 4 (second session): 791-853

Little, DT, ‘The Return of Eugenics in Australia’, Quadrant , Vol 54 No.5 , (2010) pp 46-5

Pringle, Helen, ‘Urban Mythology: the Question of Abortion in Parliament’, Australasian Parliamentary Review, Spring,( 2007). Vol.22 (2) 5-22.

Rodwell, G, ‘Domestic science, Race Motherhood and Eugenics in Australian State Schools, 1900-1960’, History of Education Review, Vol.29, No.2, (2000), pp67-83.

Sawer, Marian, Making Women Count, A history of the Women’s Electoral Lobby in Australia UNSW Press , Sydney , Australia 2008.

Siedlecky , S and Wyndham D, Populate or Perish : Australian Women’s Fight for Birth Control , Allen and Unwin, Sydney, Australia, 1990.

Summers, Ann. The End of Equality: Work, Babies and Women’s Choices in 21st Century Australia, Random House, 2003.

The Australian Women’s Weekly , Wednesday 17 August 1977, Page 141, Ruby Rich a Fighter for Family Planning. article.http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/51268914?searchTerm=Racial Hygiene Association birth control clinic 1933&searchLimits=l-availability=y


l-australian=y

Sound tracks of life - music, creativity and nostalgia.

Space today to do something creative, something that frees the spirit, for me it can be a simple pencil drawing an extravagant unfinished painting, a little bit of felting, collage- the options so endless. I love it most when I'm feeling fearless knowing that whats before me is mine not for someone else to critique. I'm generally fearless because I don't create for others I create for me and it doesn't matter what an others response is. One day I will make more time for life drawing- its so much fun to go through the short drawing sessions before the climax of the long pose, last time I experienced life drawing I was the muse taking other peoples pencils, pastels and charcoals on a journey.

Its amazing what bubbles up to the surface of your mind when at play, sometimes nostalgia, sometimes longing, sometimes hopeful for the unknown. What tumbles out can be a revelation, a catharsis or simply playful.

Always though I have music playing, creating the creative soundtrack. My taste in music is as eclectic as my artistic endeavours. A symphony one day, seventies punk another. The moods of the period preceding sort of blend into a  soundtrack that often ends with mother and daughters flinging themselves around the lounge room miming the words of some vacuous but fun pop song. The soundtracks are a bit like dream, song snippets from other times.

So nostalgia was the theme today for crafts long forgotten and albums less played. In between doing my bits I helped Tannar with her lemon meringue pie (oh sweet nostalgia how I love LMPie) and from the depths came some old Midnight Oil lyrics. I ha vent purposely played Midnight Oil since Peter Garrett joined the Labour Party and put on a suit!

Midnight Oil entered my play list when I entered Australia in 1982 as a impressionable 12 year old fresh from Belfast. My Belfast crowd were all younger brothers and sisters and we were trying ever so hard to emulate their older siblings depressed swaggers and wild playlsits of Dead Kennedys, Sex Pistols, Public Image, The Clash...mind you the New Romantics were emerging and when we though no one was listening switched to the softer tunes of Depeche Mode, Ultravox, The Cure and Co which still provided plenty of angst and unrequited love lyrics perfect for  pubescent pre teens.

Imagine my shock landing in the land of sunshine after two weeks in rainy season Indo- everything seemed so bright and pure- no goths- no punks- no jumpy people, no bomb scares, NO BODY SEARCHES!

When I finally went to school my first real  friend Shelley was quintessentially Australian - blond hair, blue eyes, beach babe in the burbs, who spent holidays in Queensland. It was either Shelley or the neighbours son Michael who rolled out the first copy of the Oils 10-1 and that was it hooked! It was sunshine angst that questioned the times, corny love songs, grunge guitar and Hirst's awesome drums. We loved the first album , and ep bird noises , place without a postcard was up there too- how could we not love lyrics like- 'theres a shit storm a coming' and 'when I'm screamin- I scream in blue'. Shelley and I somehow managed to get ourselves to an Oils gig at the Horden Pavilion and were carried away in the heaving crowd- I'm sure there were parts of that night where the manic up and down heave meant that my feet didn't touch the floor for about an hour we were so packed into the middle of the mosh. It was worth getting grounded for!

Its amazing how the memory recalls 'stuff' especially song lyrics that you thought had left long ago! How many times Shelley and I must have sung those songs at the top of our lungs ....'everyone says that loves on special  on sale and everything you ever wanted you gotta pay for it seems so easy and gettable yes its real, if you got money its such a steal'....grrlll power had nothing on these tunes.

I didn't buy every album after Red Sails I thought they were starting to sell out and the Hunters and Collectors were playing live everywhere and giving us what we wanted-thumping grinding base that would make the crowds heave. Seymour never seemed to sell out completely to the big bucks, corporate coats and cigars.

Wonder if your nostalgia remembers it like mine Shelley. Happy Birthday friend.

Councils Fear Community Scrutiny in Local Environment Plan Deliberations

Councils Ordinary Meeting 26 October 2011

Motion no 70.

1. During further future considerations of the Local Environment Plan 2009 (SLEP 2009), Council conduct all meetings, breifings etc as 'open' to the community.

2. Council publish on its website the submissions recieved from the community in regards to the SLEP2009

3. Council give greater weighting to the submission contributed by the 'Shoalhaven LEP Review Committee.



The public exhibition period for Shoalhavens Local Environment Plan ended a fortnight ago. Public sessions have been well attended and there is some level of interest from the community. The next steps in the building of the local environment plan is to review the submissions and consider how council will or will not incorporate the requests made into the final document.

Council staff will summarise the issues and present a report most likely to a series of breifings to get Councils direction on how to respond. These breifings are held in confidential session and are not supposed to create binindg decisions the public are not allowed to attend either as witness or particpant.

Bringing this motion to Council was inviting a hiding to nowhere as the dinosaurs at Shoalhaven Council have not yet evolved enough to understand that informed decision making and infomed constituients makes for a much better relationship and better outcomes. Councillor Brumerskji accused me of being  'irresponsible' and that it was 'problemtic' to include community who could go away and use our discussions against us.

Councillor Guile accused me of being audacious in bringing such a motion forward as it revealed my true colors in wanting to support my Green's mates and stack the room with SAC . Well that was a complement really as I certainly do want to represent the people who voted for me- who also see that community involvment is a 21st Century attitude.

It was obvious from the arguments that number three was the most abhorent part of the motion as the accusations were layed on thick and fast about trying to 'skew' the process by giveing one  submission higher weighting- I think that their argument just shows a lack of understanding in how a network of like minded people crafted a seriously challengeing submission to the Local Environment Plan. However I was willing to show some flexability and removed number three and amended number two to request  the summary that will be prepared be available publicly.

Still no joy though- I was only able to gain support from Clrs Ward and Fergusson for the revised version of the motion.

Check out the business papers in particular the General Managers Comments on page 69 of the reports. Im astounded that he claimed that the Local Environment Plan Review Group was less than representative as it was just over half of the groups sponsored by Council (13/24) and that 3 other community groups were included making it 16 groups which actually makes the representation more inclusive than the average 7/6 Council decision.

Over to you -Should Council include community in its Local Environment Plan breifings - vote in the poll and leave your comments

Ulladulla Civic Centre / Library complex gets an budget increase for the upgrade

It started out on a journey to fix the kitchen and airconditioning.

Then we found that there was more than a million dollars worth of defects to bring the building up to standard.

I thought it would be good to see if we could extend the value of money spent on the Civic Centre and pushed for a further upgrade to the Library and improved community spaces.

Councillors plucked a magic figure of $5.1 million out of the air as the price for the fix up.

After some constructive sessions with architects Brewster Hjorth, community reps, staff and Councillors it was decided that the $8mill model was the one that would satisfy the communities needs without going for the top shelf model.

Last night Council unanimously voted the extra $2.9 mill to get the project up and running.

It was an interesting evening with a lot of back slapping but still a lot of negativity about increasing the library size.
There are national Library standards that give Councils guidance as to how big the space should be for the number of people living in the service area. Ulladulla Library should be 10 times its small 150 sqms, but Councillors have agreed to a compromise of around 600sqm- positively luxurious compared to the current cramped conditions.

Councillors seem to forget that libraries aren't all about books, but great places of respite on cold / hot days to pick up a periodical or a newspaper and catch up on the happenings of the world. A place were babies ans small children take their first steps into the literary world of amazing big picture books, bright colors and phonetics. Were young people can meet with the idea of doing 'homework' but more often work on their relationships and in Ulladulla were a tourist can call in get the latest information on things to do and places to stay.

So now the staff have the task of preparing the plans for final exhibition and comment while also preparing tender documents to get the project underway- sometime in 2012 after the blessing of the fleet.

I look forward to one day soon sitting in the library searching the catalogue for interesting reads and not having to have my chair pulled in so tight that my elbows are on the computer screen. I look forward to the centre redefining its place as the heart of the town, were all people are welcome- not wanting to wish time away but roll on 2012!

Fill illegally dumped- The Times 26 October 2011

How would you answer this email?

I thought I would share with you a recent email I recieved- Its not unlike mail I have had in the past- yet it's a quandry. I was curious to watch the show that inspired the email and I was not surprised at all- It just about describes some of the areas in Shoalhaven. Equity was one of the reasons I joined the Greens and that mean equity in all areas not just the human dominated one. i did put together a reply for the author and like many replies I have written languishs in the draft box for it seems futuile to respond - leave me a comment and tell me what you think

Amanda.......

Email recieved 5 October 2011 sent to all Councillors, Local Members and Some Chamber of Commerce people.


I suspect many of you were too busy or unmotivated to partake of “Four Corners” tonight. It was the best commentary and lesson for the politicians and corporate thieves that I have seen in the last ten years and demonstrated the pitiful performances of governance and empathy that has had me screaming at the television set for the last 12 years since leaving corporate life myself and watched the demise of our manufacturing industries and employment in Australia.

 But...... I wonder if you are all capable of understanding what you are seeing Listen carefully to the “Words from the Mouths of Babes” & “the man that lost his $800 a month job” in Leicester and now  brings up 3 children on $200 per month as his job was lost offshore ( probably to Eastern Europe – our equivalent to Asia).
 The statistics that are presented as graffiti on the brick walls throughout the show are quite staggering and you should take special note of these if you watch the rerun............ if you missed it.

 Overall it presents a frightening picture and don’t be blasé about it as you will find comparisons related to issues ( albeit of a lesser nature) fermenting in our paradise brought about by extreme unemployment ( especially in the area where we want to resolve the problem by putting in a 24 hr police station).. What a resolution.
This Four Corners presentation addresses the problems and if you listen carefully you should get an answer –get them jobs – not youth or student allowances... give them opportunities to take pride in their work and themselves –it’s not rocket science—it worked for 200 years before the do-gooders came along

This four tiered economy of ours, with its focus on mining, mining and more mining  is leading us down the same path as what you will see in this episode.......... so I suggest that the “Top of the Tree” starts to wake up and realises that if the bottom of the tree is starving and rotting the top of the tree comes crashing down

What does that mean to the South Coast, Gilmore and our beautiful Shoalhaven?
 If Sydney gets a cold we get pneumonia...

 We have to liberalise our LEP, Expand and upgrade  our hospitality standards  to attract higher financially endowed tourism as well as our current emphasis on Family Tourism, expand our thinking beyond JB because its at saturation capacity, get those marinas going in JB & especially Ulladulla to develop diving and deep sea fishing industries,
Sink a few navy wrecks ( not just one)  in key locations adjacent to our struggling coastal villages. By expanding and upgrading our tourism we will also increase fringe service industries and increase turnover and jobs  in existing businesses-----
I know you all keep saying these things but for gods sake do something about it before its too late ............again
Don’t be frightened to take the hard decisions now and build a couple of 6-8-10 storey hotels in key tourist positions ( with views for a change).
The Ulladulla Civic Centre should be a JV with a major hotel group and encompass a 200 hundred hotel overlooking the harbour with a  convention (civic) centre, library and tourism centre incorporated in it...
.Can you all handle that???????
 Then when your done with that build the marina ( or do both at once) –wow what a feature that would be????/
You keep talking about creating jobs and a future for our youngsters –here’s one start in the underprivileged and cash starved Southern Shoalhaven that would turn it’s economy upside down....
 Not only that we have top TAFE facilities turning out excellent chefs, waiters, administrators etc and then they have to go away to work?????????????
Are you all frightened that Ulladulla with a beautiful harbour, marina and smashing accommodation would become the NICE or MONACO of NSW or Australia----what a fantastic thought???????????
Think of the fringe benefits for all locations in the Shoalhaven –Nowra may need a domestic air terminal to handle the traffic –wow.......... more jobs.......heliport at Ulladulla........more jobs.........Marina.....stacks of jobs...........

 Tough One Amanda????

 Let’s get something going for a change---talk is cheap---and it’s only money.......what the hell Have a good day

Deliberative Democracy and the Grassroots Forum.

It was cold and rainy last Wednesday and I really didn't feel like leaving home- more like curling up in front of the fire with the kids -listening to their chatter, reading, drinking tea.

My vehicle was playing up so I had to borrow a car to get to Nowra.

What a lovely surprise to see a packed room of people interested in better decision making!

Organised by Huskisson identity Graeme Gibson- Grassroots was a night not just talking about democracy but a two way conversation on how we can work together better with government.

The panel of four provided short  stimulating presentation which gave the crowd  ideas and the confidence to be bold in their own responses to the questions.

The 'world cafe' model was used for the second part of the evening. All gathered got to brainstorm ideas on how we can all 'do' democracy better and what ideas we had as a collective to improve process.

I was reminded of the attempts I have made at Shoalhaven Council to get meetings more open to community needs and even though these ideas have been boo-hooed out the door, I think that some osmosis is happening and the benefits may be reaped in other ways,(see earlier blog posts)

So I came away from the night feeling more positive about the future- 100 people had braved a cold wet evening to come out and talk about doing democracy better and there were even two persons under 25!

I look forward to looking at the spectrum of ideas that are currently in the process of being written up for distribution- hopefully the ideas will inspire me to raise them with Council.