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Letters
LETTERS, FEEDBACK AND OPINION
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letters@nrtimes.com.au
Please keep under 250 words & include address and phone number This material from the originating organization/ author(s) may be of a pointin-time nature, edited for clarity, style and length. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s).
DEFENDING AUSTRALIA
We know now who we cannot trust with ‘keeping Australia secure’; it is not the ALP. The MorrisonJoyce (Kevin Hogan) government has been missing in action in the
Defence Minister Peter Dutton has been talking up a war with China (one we have $billions on defence spending that has left us virtually unarmed. As the Australian’s Greg Sheridan remarked on penguins could invade us at the moment.’
Younger readers need reminding that it was the John Curtin Labor government which pulled us through World disintegrated under the pressure.
John Drysdale
CLUNES
AN INDEPENDENT TO BE PROUD OF
I see from last week’s edition that already the National Party apologists are out attacking the standing for Page at the election. It seems that because the independents are standing in Coalitionheld seats they’re criticised as not being really independent and should state whether they would support Labor if they win the election. Perhaps the reason these predominantly women are standing in predominantly Coalition seats is that they want this current government way of ensuring they do.
Instead of sledging more about them and see what makes them different to Coalition candidates. As just one Luke is an amazing young woman. She is a scientist and teacher who developed and runs a course in regenerative farmers now see as essential to their ongoing productivity. She is a woman of great personal bringing victims of the rescuing Marine life as a volunteer and right through to more recently humans or other animals.
Hanabeth has gone out of her way to personally provide in the Evans Head area where she and her family attention – or lack of it - by politicians and the media. Her commitment decency and honesty housing for our families and addressing climate www.hanabethluke. com.au. How refreshing it would be to see someone with those commitments and of that calibre representing us in Page and not unacceptable position on climate change and failure to address disasters in an equitable and speedy way!
Ros Irwin
Caniaba.
HEARTLESS HOLIDAYERS
Many outsiders who have Holiday Let’s choose to go ahead and visit or rent out to other tourists instead victims who have lost everything and have nowhere to live. Greed over empathy and kindness has prevailed. The Govt should have made it compulsory for all Tourist properties to be made vacant and have shelter. In ILUKA alone there are. hundreds of places used as holiday season they sit empty. Realtors who didn’t put their hands up should hang your heads in sha me. TNL logo
Sue Lee ILUKA
INDEPENDENTS - ATTACK BY G. MACDONALD
I must comment on G. MacDonald’s attack on the Independents contesting the Federal Independent for Page.
Who does he think he is? Most of his letters show a complete righteous “it’s my way or no way” attitude. He thinks only the Liberal Party have the right to govern. That is the attitude that has propelled the Independents to contest of true democracy. electoral funding disclosures need to be examined closely”. What a hypocritical comment to make!
How many millions do the major parties receive for election campaigns?
I wish the Independent HL for Page all the best & hope she topples that other hypocrite Kevin Hogan
John Heaton
Uralba
THANK YOU
I would like to commend Cadwallader on her dedication to the community.
On Wednesday morning 2nd of March the elements to drive to my house to check on me. The phones were in Armidale and one in Sydney could not contact
TWEED REGION COMMUNITY RADIO
www .memphismayhemradio. com Ph: 07 5633 4430
so she drove through the water on to my driveway signal and I was able to put my daughters’ minds to rest.
She then left to continue; I imagine on a very busy day. Thank you sincerely Sharon Cadwallader.
Grateful
Diana deKautzaw
Ballina
ELECTION
Before you put pen or pencil to paper on of that famous speech by John F. Kennedy and I quote “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” end of quote.
What you can do for your country is to put the Greens and the loopy independents last on your ballot paper.
After listening to the the Greens or the loopy independents hold the balance of power after will go into reverse at a rate the likes of which we have never seen before. you vote.
Tim Donnelly
Alstonville
BALLINA TRAFFIC
Is it possible that Ballina Shire Council might consider more major road works and closures to coincide with next Xmas and New year’s holiday season??!! The around Ballina over Easter is nothing short of a chaotic disaster.
Whilst they might say that inclement weather this would have only been a few days but the Bangalow Rd is ongoing and would not have been completed before the holiday season started.
This farce compares with the Fisheries Creek bridge bottleneck.
I offer no comment on the amount of carbon pollution created by mainly using overpriced fuel.
Peter WALTERS
Ballina
TNL
tnl.net.au SERGE KILLINGBECK for PAGE
$9 million to keep our youth on track
The NSW Government has today announced $9 million to extend the highly successful Youth Justice NSW early intervention program, Youth on Track.
Deputy Premier, Minister for Regional NSW and Minister for Police Paul Toole said the Youth on Track program provides support for 10 to 17-year-olds who are at risk of longterm involvement in the criminal justice system.
“This is about giving young people who’ve had a brush with the law the tools to stop them re-offending – and we know it works,” Mr Toole said.
“Since its inception in 2013, the program has supported more than 350 young offenders each year to reduce their risk of reoffending and halved their contact with police.
“The extension will help even more young people right across the state, whether they live in Bingara or Blacktown, get their lives back on track.”
Minister for Families and Communities and Minister for Disability Services, Natasha Maclaren-Jones said the extension will allow more young people across the state
program.
“When a young person comes into contact with the criminal justice system, it is imperative we do everything we can to turn their life around,” Mrs Maclaren-Jones said.
“By intervening early and providing young people with the support they need using a multiagency approach, we can engage them in education, mental health services, family supports, and behaviour change that
reduce their risk of reoffending.”
Case managers work closely with young people and their families, identifying triggers and supporting those with behavioural and mental health issues.
Member for Coffs Harbour Gurmesh Singh said the program’s extension will change the lives of young people.
“It is wonderful to see the extension
program for our young people in Coffs Harbour,” Mr Singh said.
“Ensuring young offenders in the area receive individualised intervention is vital to empower them to avoid reoffending and make positive decisions.”
Social Futures Acting CEO Katrina Luckie said that the Coffs Harbour region is thrilled at the extension of such an incredible program.
In addition to Coffs Harbour, Youth on Track operates in the Hunter, Central West, Mid North Coast, New England, Blacktown and Riverina areas.
Referrals to the program are made by police, schools and a range of family support services.
Reconstruction Corporation a step forward, but where was the Federal Government
PATRICK DEEGAN Labor candidate for Page
The creation of a Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation will be a step forward in the following the devasting
I congratulate the local State Member for MP, for her tireless
It was telling however, that the Federal Government was nowhere to be seen at
Scott Morrison was missing in action during missing in action after missing in action from the recovery effort as
This is simply not good reconstruction effort
Cedardale Park Pet Pet Crematorium Crematorium
Personalised, Individual Pet Cremations
Please feel free to phone Andrew Pittaway at Cedardale Park on 02 6688 8304 www.cedardalepetcremation.com.au
must be a partnership between all levels of
The people of the Northern Rivers deserve a Federal Government its sleeves and open its
I note there is still a lot of information that we are yet to see about the Reconstruction Corporation, and the
For example, it appears that the Corporation will not have a case
Local residents and businesses need a one assistance so they can get off the treadmill of paperwork and being hand-balled from one Case management is
There must also be broad representation on including the community sector and trade unions,
BACK TO THE FUTURE by Nigel Dawe
Prophetically, the French-Algerian wordsmith, Albert Camus, once said during the darkest days of WWII: “To save what can still be saved just to make the future possible: that is the great motivating force, the reason for passion
Without a sense of the future (in which to in a meaningless, or at best limited, selfreferring stupor that is guided by nothing but its own fast-ticking Similarly, Noam Chomsky once noted: “Optimism is a strategy for making a better you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility
Like a mirage, we never experience the future, it remains ever in the distance, just out of reach, a construct of our imagination that pushes forth in time, As a kid, I remember watching the show that date were some kind of magical, experience to be lived at some distant point believe that we are now 22-years beyond that chronological threshold!
The future though, will be what the future has always been, an uncertain canvas that decorates and makes itself known soon a time we enter into its all-encompassing clutches, and as for what it really is, no Relatedly, the Nobel Prize winning poet, Wislawa Szymborska once suggested: “When I pronounce the word already belongs to the the word Silence, I
In similar fashion, lone philosopher king, Marcus Aurelius years ago: “Never let You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you And it is reason, or more so the ability to reason here and now that helps to lay the foundation for futures
Groundbreakingly, the American futurist, 50-years ago in his of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn…Our moral responsibility is not to stop the future, channel our destiny in humane directions and to ease the trauma of
In many ways, individually and is a conscious choice and something we ought never leave to chance through looking decisions we either make or unmake each and every moment of our lives determine the reality, albeit quality of
Akin to a personal ethic, if not a prescription for making the most of what the future entails, Wilfred Peterson once said: “Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their within you to leave this world better than when
Candidate calls for judicial inquiry into flood impact and recovery
Dr Hanabeth Luke, Independent candidate for Page, is announcing her community backed call for a judicial inquiry into the Federal Government’s policy for disaster response, including the new highway’s impact on flooding and a review of recovery spending.
Citizens of Woodburn, Coraki and Broadwater have raised the issue that the new highway has contributed significantly to the extent of the recent flooding.
Dr Luke supports calls for an inquiry into the Government’s handling of this catastrophe, as well as the influence of the new highway on the extent of the flood damage.
She has been listening to many families, business owners and farmers who are convinced that the highway acts as a ‘dam wall’ that changed the flow of water, increased the flood height, and held the water. Citizens have been raising concerns about the impact of the highway since 2005, with the Upper House Interim Inquiry into the planned Pacific Highway.
“Farmers and residents feel their local knowledge was ignored by experts who instead relied heavily on flood modelling. Modelling is only as good as its inputs combined with the mathematics. We need to look at both. The data used is important. If at all flawed, it may well have led to the extent of this catastrophe.
“What we do know is that the flood height was 1.7 meters higher than previous records in Woodburn. I saw this first-hand in the height of the flood,” says Dr Luke.
“I also call for a review of the flood funding on offer and the basis of its allocation.
“It is outrageous that in a time of greatest need, support for many of our struggling families, business owners, and farmers post-flood is little more than ‘aid by media release’.
“It is heartbreaking to have people on one side of the Richmond River getting help that families on the other bank are not – that’s what’s happening in Woodburn right now.
“The latest “top up” payment has gone to Lismore residents only, and the initial flood funding that excluded flooded areas outside the Nationals held seat of Page, is a complete “Nationals” disaster. Postcode should not determine whether you deserve help.
“Excluding communities from support in desperate times is un-Australian, and exactly why we need a federal approach to ensure an equitable response. Ensuring this also requires having a Federal Integrity Commission with teeth.”
“As your Independent, I will fight to ensure that our taxpayer money is allocated on a needs-basis and spent on the things that matter most and determined by our united community voice. I will champion a community petition to ensure this judicial inquiry happens. Elect me and I will present it myself!
“But promises are cheap. Only good governance and leadership will ensure that funds promised are spent where most needed. It’s what will ensure that the billions of dollars announced for flood-relief will go to the families, farmers and businesses who so desperately need them right now.”
Major new art prize a boost for artists
Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre is thrilled to announce the establishment of a new major art prize, Wollumbin Art Award (WAA), with a total prize offering of $30,000.
The award, named for the sacred mountain which the Gallery overlooks, will be held biennially and is open to artists living and working in the Tweed, Byron, Ballina, Kyogle and Scenic Rim shires, as well as Lismore and Gold Coast cities. prize of $15,000 and a two-week residency at the Gallery’s Nancy Fairfax Artist in Residence Studio. The Gallery has also established a $10,000 First Nations Bundjalung Award, which includes a solo exhibition in the Gallery and a $5,000 Emerging Artist Award.
Gallery Director Susi Muddiman OAM said: “We are so thrilled to be able to present this new the calibre of talented artists we have living in our region. Launching the Bundjalung Award, with the support of the Gallery Foundation, is an important, timely and critical addition to the prize.”
Ms Muddiman said the Gallery was committed to supporting regional artists.
“Initiating the Emerging Artist Award, as well as the opportunities provided through a residency and exhibition are all key strategies in supporting an artist’s career at any stage,” Ms Muddiman said.
“Announcing the award at this time is bittersweet as we are also keenly aware that many artists would have lost work and materials during the grateful to be able to offer opportunities for artists at a time like this.”
The inaugural judge for WAA 2022 is writer, curator and editor of VAULT Magazine, Alison Kubler.
“Alison brings a wealth of knowledge, from art history to contemporary practice, and as a resident of the Gold Coast region she is the perfect choice for an award that celebrates the visual arts on both sides of the border,” Ms Muddiman said.
For young artists aged between 5–18 years areas, the Wollumbin Youth Art Award (WYAA) will also be calling for entries.
Entries for the WAA 2022 will open on Wednesday 27 April 2022 and close at 5pm, Sunday 17 July 2022.
See gallery.tweed.nsw. gov.au/prizes-awards for Conditions of Entry.
