THE TWEED
HEALTH AND BEAUTY
Volume 2 #38 Thursday, June 3, 2010 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 Fax: (02) 6672 4933 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au www.tweedecho.com.au
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LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
Probe on rally funding sought Luis Feliu
Emma blowin up a storm Emma Lasker: swapping clarinet for saxophone gave her the chance to fly like Charlie Parker. Photo Jeff ‘No Musical Puns Please’ Dawson Tania Phillips
When you think saxophone, a freshfaced school student is probably not your first thought (unless you watch The Simpsons). But while Emma Lasker, 18, doesn’t look like the stereotypical ‘saxophone’ player, the year 12 Wollumbin High School student can put any doubts out of your mind when she picks up her instrument and plays. Despite still being in her teens, the jazz-mad youngster is so good she has already played the Sydney Opera House, twice, this week. Emma was one of just 44 talented young musicians (and just one of two saxophonists) from throughout NSW chosen to be part of the NSW School’s State Wind Band. She was selected after regional band camps were held earlier in the
year around the state. The Far North Coast one was held at Lennox Head and little did Emma know how far she would go when she put herself up for selection, which wasn’t bad for someone who was once considered too small to play the saxophone.
All grown now ‘Originally my arms were too short to play the saxophone,’ said Emma, who started her music career playing clarinet at Crystal Creek in Year Two. ‘But I was always interested in jazz and I loved the saxophone. My parents said if I practised the clarinet a lot, they would let me swap.’ In Year Five she finally got her hands on her first saxophone and she hasn’t looked back since (or even put it down for any great length of time).
In fact she intends to take the instrument with her on student exchange next year to Belgium and ‘do a lot of practising’ before returning to apply for the Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane for 2012. She currently studies with jazz musician Martha Baartz and while the average teen may have never heard of him, her hero is the legendary Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker. She hopes to be a professional musician, although this week, with its long hours of practice (six hours on Saturday and Sunday), has been an eye opener. ‘My mouth was pretty sore!’ she admitted. But when you’re playing to a packed Opera House two nights running, and the audience includes your younger brother and parents, it makes it all worth while.
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The No Rally Group (NRG) has called for the NSW Audit Office to investigate the secret funding of the controversial world rally held in the Tweed and Kyogle shires last year in the wake of revelations that state development minister Ian Macdonald pushed Sydney’s V8 super car event through Cabinet without proper controls to deal with conflicts of interest. A damaging draft auditor-general’s report, parts of which were published by the Sydney Morning Herald last Saturday, showed that a close friend of Mr Macdonald, who forced the world rally onto Tweed and Kyogle residents last year using last-minute special legislation, helped proponents of V8 Supercars secure at least $35 million in government support for the races, held at the Olympic venue at Homebush last December. The SMH said the NSW Auditor General’s report revealed it took four months for the minister’s department to note the potential conflicts on the file, yet cabinet agreed to support the event with $35 million over five years. The report says the event would cost around $10 million more than the $35 million budget and accuses him of pushing it through Cabinet without a ‘robust financial analysis’. This, according to the report, was despite the minister’s department rejecting the proposal in 2006 and 2007 and the government’s specially created Events NSW also having recommended against it. Events NSW is the body which secretly funded the rally, believed to be around $8 million over five biennial events. As a result of the damning revelations, NRG wrote to the NSW Audi-
tor-General, Peter Achterstraat, this week to draw his attention to the ‘inadequacies of processes involved in the approval and organisation of the World Rally Championships’ and calling for an investigation. ‘This car racing event was organised with financial and “in-kind” support from the NSW government, similar to the V8 Supercar event at Olympic Park,’ NRG wrote via secretary Andrea Vickers. NRG said that under the agreement with Rally Australia, the government provided several million dollars in cash plus additional support from government departments and agencies ‘at no cost to the organisers’.
Government hides costs Despite numerous requests, NRG says the government refuses to reveal the cost of taxpayer support for the rally, including the support, at no cost to the organisers, from all government departments and agencies such as police, fire and ambulance, council and the RTA. ‘The legislation contained an amendment that required a review after the running of the first event. Minister Macdonald appointed Mr Mike Cahill, of IMC Communications, to undertake this review. Mr Cahill is also a ministerial appointment to the NSW Agriculture Ministerial Advisory Council. His appointment to that body has been recently renewed by minister Macdonald. This raises a clear potential conflict of interest.’ Tweed Council’s general manager Mike Rayner, who sits on the rally board despite an outcry of a conflict of interest from rally opponents and some councillors, also came under fire continued on page 2