Pokies Part Two

You might like to read the first installment of this discussion.

Today has been interesting, I have had many discussions about my stance on the poker machine increase issue many of them supportive.

One conversation contemplated 'the good old days' of clubbing in NSW.

There were pokies in the clubs- but not the massive gaming rooms of today-many of the machines were 'one armed bandits' at 20c a spin (or 10 or 5c) and people were surprised when they changed and you could put a 'goldy' in.

The clubs were often 'the' place to be on Friday or Saturday nights- in fact some towns seemed to specialise in one night or the other.

My old local used to have a fantastic sports bar, to play pool, darts, cards, even table tennis. It was cheap entertainment and lots of fun challengeing your mates to a once a week match of madness.

The upstairs bar had a 'crooner' for the older set.

and the auditorium had a fantastic disco or live band. The bands were excellent and often were the talk of the week, especially at footy/hockey/softball training.

If you were asking club punters why they went to the club, entertainment would have topped the list, followed by flirting and drinking, pokies didnt seem to figure as much, not many people would have answered "I go to the club to gamble".

But the club landscape seems to have changed.

Clubs seem to be now dependent on gambling money to keep them alive, many clubs have reduced their entertainment spaces to put in more pokies and its the gaming rooms which dominate the atmosphere of clubs.

Sure clubs sponsor sports, they give venue's free of charge, and put money towards community grants, but what I would like to see is a bit more transparency in the accounting.

Yesterday, I asked you to have a look at the clubs financials, what did you find?

Well what I found was that it was quite difficult to tell what percentage of a clubs income went back to the community. How much lost revenue on special deals for community- and because these things are tax deductable- what kind of deduction was attributed for these good deeds.

Also you would have noticed that clubs report their poker machine revenue differently.I thought Milton Ulladulla Bowling Club were very clear with their poker machine trade

                                          2011                           2010

Gross Clearances        5,378,285                         5,185,199

Less: Payouts            (3,454,629)                       (3,317,359)

 Gross profits before deductions                                                                                                                         1,923,656                          1,867,840

Donations & Sponsorships                    9,080

The directors are also clear in their opinion on poker machine reforms

"Following the Federal Election in August 2010 a “deal” was made between Julia Gillard and Andrew Wilkie the Independent member for Tasmania to introduce mandatory pre commitment for poker machine players. The Club Industry is facing a very uncertain future. I urge all members to fully support your local clubs and Clubs NSW in their efforts to stop this unwanted policy from being implemented."  Robert G Bell Chairman

     

This is just an excerpt from the full picture  Click the link to go to statements.

So perhaps a little reform in the reporting is required so that it is easy to compare one club to another with their Gross Clearances less payouts and actual income  per number of machines.

Also some clear reporting on donations and sponsorships would go a long way in helping the community decide what level of commitement the club has to the district.

After all- if the community think that the club has strong links and should have access to more poker machines the appropriate submissions can be made.

Meanwhile I think the status quo of no more new machines should be addhered to.

Pokies submission 'dodged' by the masters of spin

Council ducked for cover this week when it came to making a submission on extra poker machines for the Ulladulla area.

Council’s community development group put forward a report asking Council to send a submission to Liquor and Gaming opposing the application by the Ex Servos for more machines and to take a stand and create a policy position on poker machines generally in the area.

Councillor’s Guile and Watson put a motion forward that the club be allowed to address Council on their position, when I questioned if there was enough time to receive a submission from the club before the submission date closed a barrage of poor commentary came my way- accusing me of all sorts of things. I wanted to know when the submission closed and no one could tell me. As we worked our way through the item it was revealed that submission closed on the 19 July.

I wasn’t suspicious that Councillor’s were buying time and trying to avoid sending a submission at all, but the debate certainly revealed that without putting a closing date on it Council would effectively dodge a decision.

The application had been made by the Ulladulla Ex- Servos Club for an extra 20 machines- doesn’t sound like much, but when you consider that each machine nets about $55000 per year, that’s a potential income increase of $1.1million.

Poker machine revenue in the 2011 financial year was $4.4.mill from the $7.1 mill total revenue for the club.

An aggregated figure from the four clubs in our small area shows about $12million making its way into the machine slots.

You can check out the financials of all the clubs online at their websites as they must declare openly their incomes. ( See Links Below)

I found these figures absolutely staggering for an area that has roughly 19% of its working age population receiving Centerlink payments, and over 50% of the population considered low income and suffering from underemployment.

In some of the financial statements it’s impossible to gauge what amount of the clubs profits are being returned to the community through grants and sponsorships, I think this should be something more readily identifiable in their financial statements.

Some of the clubs offer up space for functions at zero or little cost for community fundraisers, but this is surely balanced by bar take and pokies spend.

After skimming through the four clubs financial statements I came away thinking that more pokies in this area are not called for, especially high loss machines that can draw $1500 an hour.

So I think I will make an independent submission to the liquor and gaming authority advising that any new machines in this area should only be replacing old and out-dated machines.

Council had some guts earlier in the year when it told Dan Murphy’s not to build a super grog shop in a socially disadvantaged area, so saying  no to more pokies would be a good way to help protect the vulnerable.

Links to Clubs to examine their financial statements.

 Ulladulla Ex Servos Club.

Mollymook Golf Club

Milton Ulladulla Bowling Club

Mollymook Bowling Club

One Association : But only if its Liberals style

Battle Begins Over One Association

      Liberal MP Gareth Ward has engineered a vote at Shoalhaven Council to have fellow Councillor Amanda Findley stripped of her voting rights on the merger of the rural based Shires Association and the larger, and metropolitan based, Local Government Association.

Clr Findley introduced the One Association motion at the May meeting and was unanimously supported by the Council as one of four delegates to vote on the merger issue, along with Clrs Guile Fergusson and Green.

“It makes sense for Local Government in NSW to have one peak lobbying body not two, but the current structure is poorly thought through and leaves Shoalhaven Council at risk of paying more in fees and have less votes than smaller metropolitan  Councils’. Clr Findley said.

      There has long been speculation that the keenness with which Liberal and National Party aligned Councillors have been supporting the merger is due to the massive advantage the voting rules will give to conservatives in the new Association.

      Larger regional Councils have been devalued in the proposed rules therefore allowing the smaller, but numerically greater number of Shires to dominate.   The result is likely to be a more conservative association with stronger ties to the Coalition.

      'Clr Ward should be acting in the interests of the residents and community of the Shoalhaven and not playing party politics with this.' said Clr Findley. “I put forward a balanced group of Councillors to vote on the issue of amalgamation and he has once again manoeuvred in his conservative mates”.

“Cl Ward wants to sell out the Shoalhaven in favour of the team Liberal project, even though we will de disadvantaged with less votes and likely paying more fees”. Said Clr Findley.

Bullying in the Kangaroo Court of Shoalhaven City Council

Bullying is not a thing of the past- its alive and well in many forms and available at an outlet near you-today!

At Shoalhaven City Council things seem to be going from bad to worse with Councillors becoming more brazen in their attacks on citizens who have actually taken the time and care enough about issues  to turn up and participate. We should be cultivating an inspired and inclusive community not trying to turn everyone who turns up to speak to Council into nervous jelly, chewed up and spat out.

This weeks development committee meeting was a case- a real basket case- when a community member dared to challenge the Council to answer questions on how a development control plan and the height limits contained in it happened to be up for renegotiation.  The staff presented a report that favoured increased heights and density for large developments even AFTER the Council had voted THREE times to limit the height to 10m and a floor space ratio of 1:1 as recent as 5 days prior to Tuesday's meeting.

So of course community felt suspicious that a particular developer had access to Councillors and had been given the privilege of influence.

 Its happened before-there is documented evidence of what is known as 'cash for influence and positive political outcomes'.

 I don't believe that has happened in this term of Council but the behaviour makes people wonder.
Also annoying is the continued mantra that those who turn up don't represent all of the community- well of course they don't but they are certainly representative of those who care and I'm sure we would find many more people sympathetic to the views represented if we collectively had the time and resources to poll everyone of the citizens in Shoalhaven.

I went away wondering how the aggressors would feel if the shoe was on the other foot- mind you politics does create a harder shell and for some this is almost impervious.

As a woman and a Green, I feel that I have been consistently treated with aggression often by a group of people and have had to 'put up'

so to the press release I sent the South Coast Register............

Bullying in the Kangaroo Court

Shoalhaven Greens Councillor Amanda Findley has this week accused fellow Councillors' Bohdan Brumerskyj and Andrew Guile of bad behaviour towards members of the public.

'Rate payers and residents are entitled to address Council meetings and should expect to be made welcome and not grilled like they are on trial in a Kangaroo Court' said Clr Findley. Tuesdays development committee meeting was like a schoolyard episode where the chief bully is encouraged by his gang to keep taunting the target.

The comments come after Huskisson resident Mrs. Leslie Lockwood was grilled after making a submission to Council about the process for making development policy decisions.

'Mrs Lockwood merely asked Council for an explanation of the decision making process on a particular planning issue so that the community could feel they had not been deceived. Especially as the Huskisson community had already been through a long and fruitful public consultation’.

"The arrogance displayed from amongst the Committee was astonishing and the line of questioning unreasonable and insulting, it seems that perhaps Mrs Lockwood had hit on raw nerve. I had to intervene and point out to the chair the behaviour in my view was unacceptable'.

Mrs Lockwood was supported by a group of people from the Huskisson area but I couldn't let what I perceived as bullying behaviour persist said Clr Findley.

For some people it's terrifying enough to have to address the Council in such formal circumstances, and I believe that the bullying of those who come and speak to Council is escalating in the dying days of this term.

Councillors' have a position of privilege given to them by the people and should be humbled by that and respect and include the public where possible. Councillors' are also privileged with additional information when it comes to decision making that often the public are not aware of.

It's little wonder that the population is so disenfranchised with politics and it's little wonder that more women don't put their hand up to be elected when bullying behaviour is so rife especially towards women.


Heres how the paper reported ..........

15 Jun Resident Complains of Council Hostility

make sure to look at the comment threads too

13 Jun No way to treat a representative

20 June Deception a heavy call

Nowra CBD what's the issue?

A 'photoreal' graffiti image from down near the foot bridge in Nowra

Just over week ago I attended a Friday afternoon walk around Nowra Central business district with business and building owners, council staff and of course the obligatory political patrol.

I attended as I was interested to see the point of view of other people as personally I don't find Nowra to bad. Having lived in Belfast Northern Ireland as a young person nothing could be as depressing as it was in the 80s.

But I could see the point made by the company of folk in attendance. Cracked and raised footpaths, dirty buildings, vandalised glass, heaps of poor quality graffiti-mainly senseless tags and the current dust bowl rest area in the Egans Lane vicinity.

The Egans lane dust bowl is an interesting location, I have seen it used by many an older person during summer to stop and rest under the cool tree canopy, reading a newspaper and taking general respite out from a hot day. Why is it that Nowra always feels three degrees warmer? It is a tired location but getting rid of the trees isn't the answer to this pocket park problem.

One conclusion I did come to was the existence of 'class warfare' in Nowra. I'm not saying that the graffiti and vandalism is all young people's fault, but the folk who live fairly close to the CBD would have to be some of the most disadvantaged in the state, we rank around 12 on the socio economic indicators range beaten by places such as Brewarrina and Moree.

Our community is a victim of the classic two speed economy- except I think we might fit in the stalled category rather than slowed. With a high amount of welfare dependence it is little wonder that the chasm between the haves and have nots is widening- in fact it is remarkable that the main street of Nowra has not given in to a plethora of two dollar shops. At least the public service and the navy has created enough free income to allow a diversity of business to survive.

I digress..the point is that the cracked footpaths and maintenance issues can be address by Shoalhaven City Council but the general appearance needs effort from all stakeholders including the disenfranchised. We need to somehow get those on the outer edges in. So this propelled me to put together a discussion paper on legal walls for graffiti artists...a 'if you cant beat them, join them' attitude to street art which has been recognised world wide as a meritorious way to address graffiti problems.

Heres a copy -

Graffiti: Turning things around in Nowra CBD.



Nowra CBD is located in a densely populated, socio economically disadvantaged area. The CBD suffers from a high rate of vandalism in particular graffiti. The opportunities for graffiti artists are many, due to the configuration of buildings and lane ways, the physical environment is near impossible to change.

People who carry out graffiti are often disenfranchised from everyday social order. Anti- social behavior in particular graffiti gives them ‘presence’ within the town that they do not have normally through traditional avenues such as employment or other social activities.

It needs to be acknowledged that fixing the socio- economic gap in and around Nowra is a large job and one that will not be achieved overnight. Meanwhile the CBD suffers from an unkempt appearance which adds to the overall economic disadvantage. Many businesses’ are subject to large bills to repair damage from vandalism.

Punitive measures to tackle do not work on their own, but can be part of a range of strategies.

Reclaim the lanes.

There are a couple of ways of tackling anti- social behavior this paper focuses on non-punitive socially inclusive measures that seek to build community pride, create a talking point and provide a sense of energy in the CBD.

Legal walls or approved street art spaces are one way to ‘reclaim the lanes’ it is an approach that is employed around the world- some places even capitalize on the quality of the artwork in their neighborhoods and provide guided tourist tours.

In a recent presentation to the Shoalhaven City Council tourism board, Rand and Associates advised the board that links to Arthur Boyd’s Bundanon were not used to the best advantage. A street art project could link Bundanon resident artist to street artist or could be part of a prize structure for the best group / artist.

Nowra has many ideal sites in great locations. The abundance of sites can be a driver for prominence in the ‘tag’ scene, but could also act as a competitive catalyst for a street art competition.

Business owners / operators may believe that a clean white walled town is desirable, but a compromise approach needs to be taken and to be inclusive of the users. The current strategy is not working and social indicators would suggest that in the short to medium term the situation is unlikely to change.

‘Reclaim the lanes’ could identify say 6 sites with approval from landholders for the installation of a large mural/street art design.

The sites could then be competed for by teams or individual street artists.

Each project would have the materials paid for, but the participants would complete the artwork on a voluntary basis.

A set time limit could be negotiated with the artists for completion of the walls.

A cash prize of reasonable value for the best wall could be awarded by the Business Chamber ( or CBD ratepayers or retail association).



Advantages of ‘reclaim the lanes’

Gives street artists a legitimate claim to ‘walls’ around Nowra in a coordinated and open way that gives the best opportunity for a quality art project.

Assists in breaking down the barriers of the ’us and them mentality’.

Win / Win situation for landholders as it would reduce the costs of dealing with random graffiti.

Provides a point of interest and invites people to linger longer in the CBD to enjoy the artworks.

Could become highly competitive and run on a cycle once the existing walls become tired.

Creates community pride and drive down random acts of poor behavior.

Possible Funding Sources

Attorney Generals safer communities program and anti graffiti program.

Donations from the CDB business community.

Walls sponsored by building owners.

Community development grants

Tourism grants

Arts grants

CBD Promotions committee

Possible Partnerships

Nowra Youth Centre

PCYC

Bundanon

Koori Habitat

Nowra City Arts Centre /Shoalhaven City Council

Shoalhaven Business Chamber

CBD Ratepayers Association

Tourism

Additional information

Society for Applied Anthropology: Volume 51, No 2 Summer 1992, p 188-196

Hip Hop Graffiti Writers' Evaluations of Strategies to Control Illegal Graffiti

http://sfaa.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,13,14;journal,81,281;linkingpublicationresults,1:113218,1



Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 2002

Halsey and Young , The meaning of graffiti and Municipal Administration

http://anj.sagepub.com/content/35/2/165.short

Dealing with Graffiti in New South Wales, Rachel Callinan, Parliamentary Briefing paper 8/02

https://143.119.255.92/prod/parlment/publications.nsf/0/9C425494BD3AE384CA256ECF0007BBDD/$File/08-02.pdf

Politics blurs the benefits of renewables

MEDIA RELEASE FROM AMANDA FINDLEY

In a bid to address Shoalhaven City Councils rising electricity costs Greens Clr Amanda Findley put forward an ambitious motion that would have placed Council well in front should grant funding for renewable energy schemes become available. Instead of celebrating good sense Clr Findley has criticised her Councillor colleagues as ‘dinosaurs’ unable to accept change.
Clr Findley called for  the preparation of a report that would look at energy systems available to Council, their payback periods and a cost benefit analysis.
 “ I’m shocked that the conservative Councillors don’t believe that reducing Councils electricity costs is ‘Core Business’- electricity costs us a small fortune and Councillors have an obligation to look at every means available at keeping that cost down’ she said.
 In bringing forward the proposal for the investigation in renewable energy options Clr Findley said “it would put Council on the front foot to receive Federal Funding from the Carbon Tax and lived up to community expectations’.
“ In some ways I’m not surprised the conservatives slammed the idea- even though it makes good economic sense- for they use any opportunity they find to try and invalidate Climate Change’.
During consultation for the Community Strategic Plan – Shoalhaven residents declared loud and clear that they wanted their Council to react to Climate change implications and to be part of low carbon economy.
 “ By supporting the renewable energy industry we show confidence in and boost a new sector of our economy that can go ahead in leaps and bounds” said Clr Findley.
 “the motion would have advanced Council in buffering against rising electricity costs- but instead we saw politicking for the sake of it and no real consideration for the long term.”

 Copy of the motion put to Council.
A report be prepared for Council addressing the following.
1)Council investigate opportunities for a significant investment into alternative energy generation systems including but not limited to co or tri-generation
2)That the significant investment should address a minimum of ½ the required power needs of Council’s total energy requirements.
 3)A cost benefit analysis including but not limited to the payback period of the investment, the life time of the equipment and projected savings.
4) Any development services implications
 5)Funding opportunities either internally or externally.
6) Council approach the University of Wollongong to carry out the investigation and should they refuse a further report be brought to Council on how it can be advanced.
  Background
During Councils budget deliberations over the last 4 years electricity prices have continued to rise. This trend will continue into the future. Shoal water are making a significant investment in buffering the costs of electricity by installing alternative energy technologies. Shoalhaven Council can continue to be an early adopter of new technologies and buffer itself for rising electricity costs by investing in renewable technologies. Council has a significant amount of strategic funds that could possibly be accessed to pay for such a project with energy ‘savings’ being the loan repayments. This proposal satisfies Objective 2.3  Community Strategic Plan, A COMMUNITY THAT SEEKS TO REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING IMPACTS AND INCREASE OUR ABILITY TO ADAPT TO THE EFF ECTS AND IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE 

So Much Happening, So little time to report

Council has been pretty intense over the last few months, the tension over the creation of a new major planning document (LEP) has been boiling over on all fronts.

Community representation to the meetings has been strong and those that attend the meetings should be commended for their stamina.

There have been in depth deputations made to the meetings and it is quite obvious that citizens of the Shoalhaven care deeply for the area they live in and do huge amounts of research to back up the positions they present- often quoting from higher order government documents.

A lot of the time it's easy to say that the community reps are better prepared than the majority of Councillors- self included on occasions were the necessary preparation time just wasn't available between meetings.

At the recent Ordinary meeting of Council to ratify committee decisions things came to a steaming head when in the heat of the moment I accused Councillors of doing favours for mates, a comment I was made to withdraw and apologise for.

My frustration with the process came to this head when I believed that inconsistent practices and process were being applied.

Three separate applications were made to up zone land in the Little Forest locality, another submission had been made outlining to Councillors the rigorous consultation that had taken place during the early 2000's and why further upzonings should not be supported.

The position that didn't support the upzonings was not presented to Council but buried away in a submissions folder which took some time to locate the document ( it still hasn't been presented to council).

Two of the applicants didn't receive a look in at all- and their justification for up zoning was just as valid as Mr Hancock's. So you get the picture on my outburst- why favour one and not the others when the rationale is the same i.e. 'looks like a good idea at the time'.

These types of decisions are all over the making of this new plan- there is no balancing of the environmental needs of our area, but blatant attempts to overrun previous consultations ( Such as the urban lands review)

Here's how the South Coast Register covered this aspect of the story.

MP’s brother-in-law gets the nod


25 Apr, 2012 07:00 AM

PLANS to rezone part of a farm along Little Forest Road have been slammed as “absolute, arrant nonsense” during discussions on draft LEP provisions at last week’s Shoalhaven City Council meeting.

Cr John Fergusson slammed the proposal to allow three one-hectare blocks on the farm, submitted on behalf of property owner John Hancock.
“There is no strategic justification for this,” Cr Fergusson said.
“We are going to end up with a total disaster of an LEP.”Cr Fergusson accused his council colleagues of “totally emasculating the LEP process”.
Cr Amanda Findley said the application, and the support it obtained on the council floor, “stinks of mates doing favours for mates,” because Mr Hancock was the brother-in-law of South Coast MP Shelley Hancock.
Cr Greg Watson said the claim was “outrageous”.Cr Andrew Guile said the application had merits and to claim otherwise was “character assassination”.“This is definitely in keeping with everything else that is happening there,” Cr Guile said. While he had earlier championed retaining and protecting valuable farming land, Cr Robert Miller said the land proposed for subdivision did not fit the bill. “It’s not a viable agricultural property now,” he said, adding it was the sort of property that should be considered for large rural residential lots.A staff report to the special development committee meeting that considered the application recommended against the application because it was inconsistent with the South Coast Regional Strategy.
It also noted the block was beside other rural residential blocks created through a spot rezoning at the H Ranch in 2002. The rezoning was supported, with Crs Robert Miller, Andrew Guile, Nigel Soames, Greg Watson and David Bennett voting in favour, and John Fergusson, Bohdan Brumerskyj, Amanda Findley and Paul Green against.