Rant 1 - Fluoridation

Rant 2 - Gay Marriage

Rant 3 - Coal Seam Gas Poll

Rant 4 - Counterfeit Currency

Rant 1

Fluoridation has been an interesting issue to watch at the local level. As far back as June 2006, fluoridation of our water seemed to have support. Only two of the eight nominated Rous Water Councillors spoke out against fluoridation with only three voting against it. Fluoridation was expected to occur within two years. Things seemed to change soon after as opposition to fluoridation began to grow.

It was not until April 2010 that support for fluoridation returned after Rous Water Councillors received advice that they may be personally liable for fines of up to $500 per day if approval was not forthcoming. Lismore City Council’s Councillor Yarnall changed his vote to allow fluoridation even though he publicly expressed concerns about environmental issues. He did a similar thing regarding a coal seam gas poll to be run at the next election which will be addressed shortly. The fluoridation vote was then evenly split with the chairman approving fluoridation with his casting vote.

The NSW Department of Health was pushing for fluoridation and local council seemingly had no power to oppose this.

Lismore City Council’s Councillor Ekins went a step further and sought her own advice which indicated Councillors could be liable if they did not insist on a delay until an adequate toxicology report was received. She went on to say that it was a Councillor’s duty to ensure they were satisfied with the review of environmental factors before proceeding

 It seemed Councillor Yarnall crumbled purely to protect his own well being to the detriment of the residents of the four member councils of Rous Water. Is this really the type of Councillor we want to represent us on such important issues?

Rous Water then secured an extension in March 2011 allowing them to delay directives and approvals until 2012. In May 2012, Al Oshlack, an anti-fluoride campaigner, was unsuccessful in the Land and Environment Court. Rous Water Chairman Councillor Silver denied Councillors were pressured into voting for fluoride as Councillor Yarnall suggested and expressed his disappointment with the Department of Health for placing local Councils in such a difficult position.

The current position sees Rous Water being asked by the State Government’s Department of Health to add fluoride to drinking water with the Land and Environment Court’s Justice Biscoe deciding that Rous Water was required to comply with requirements of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act requiring an environmental impact statement to be completed.

Fluoridation was never Rous Water’s fight. They supply water and have done so very well for many years. They are not in the dental health business and should not be required to incur expenses in relation to the process of fluoridation or the associated legal battles.

The bottom line seems to be that fluoridation is coming and it is just a question of when. The State Government will always trump a local council’s decision.

This is Big Rob on 92.9 River FM.

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Rant 2

On Saturday, 18 March 2012. Christian activist Peter Madden parked his truck in Cathcart Street Lismore. He woke on Sunday, 19 March 2012 to a vandalised and blockaded truck with protestors chained to the vehicle.

The truck carried anti-gay marriage messages including an image of a man embracing a boy and the words ‘the dark side of same-sex marriage’. Protestors and Mayor Jenny Dowell believed that this suggested a link between homosexuality and pedophilia. Peter Madden responded that this was not the intended message and that it was trying to portray that if the legal construct of marriage was changed, it would change the education system and this is the risk to children.

Although I support gay marriage, I do not support committing any offence to portray this message. This was also the position of Mayor Jenny Dowell. However, she went a step further and told Peter Madden that his message and his truck was not welcome in Lismore.

Mayor Jenny Dowell’s message was then widely reported in the media. As a result, considerable media attention was directed at the truck and the message on the truck was seen locally, nationally and internationally. Peter Madden could not have bought this amount of publicity.

The truck’s journey before arriving at Lismore, and much of the journey after leaving Lismore, have gone almost unreported in the media. There was very little controversy similar to what was seen in Lismore.

What was concerning in Mayor Jenny Dowell’s message was that she made one activist who was seemingly not breaking any laws feel unwelcome to satisfy a larger group of activists who were clearly breaking various laws. She used the term ‘vilification’ to describe the message on the truck.

Police had to secure the truck at Lismore Police Station for reasons of safety. There was no evidence that police were looking at charging Peter Madden with any offences but they were investigating the protestors for various offences.

Various questions were asked by those reading the media reports that followed the truck protest. Some asked what she was doing officially getting involved in a matter she had no power to get involved in as the Mayor of Lismore. Others asked if her reason for getting involved so publicly was nothing more than another publicity stunt to secure more votes for the forthcoming local election. Whatever her reason, way too many people saw the anti-gay marriage message that would have if she did not go to the media.

The LGBTI community seems to be very supportive of Mayor Jenny Dowell’s performance in this matter. It is unclear why this is so when the community was portrayed negatively so widely in the media for breaking the law and such a negative anti-gay marriage message was so widely publicised.

If Mayor Jenny Dowell was genuinely concerned about what she described as vilification of the homosexual community, she would have better served the community by lodging a complaint through the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board. The Board would have investigated the complaint and tried to resolve it if a law was broken. However, Mayor Jenny Dowell would not have received any publicity if she chose the most appropriate path.

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Rant 3

Mayor Jenny Dowell and her quest for media domination are featuring very heavily tonight. Her next major effort was the coal seam gas poll that was approved in April to be conducted during the forthcoming September local election.

Lismore City Council’s Mayor Jenny Dowell went to the media in March with her idea to conduct a coal seam gas poll once it was obvious that the overwhelming majority of ratepayers in the area were opposed to coal seam gas mining. She could not lose on this one.

In April, Mayor Jenny Dowell took her request to her fellow Councillors with a Mayoral Minute asking for approval to conduct the poll. I spoke against it for various reasons including the unnecessary expenditure of ratepayer money to conduct a poll where the outcome will be obvious. It is not compulsory or enforceable, the issue with delaying doing anything until election day and the apparent attempt to secure ratepayer funded publicity. Some heated debate followed.

Mayor Jenny Dowell made comparisons to a similar poll being used in the past to determine the level of support in the community for the recognition of local government in the Australian Constitution. What she failed to mention was that changing the Australian Constitution requires a double majority. This means a national majority of electors in the states and territories and a majority of electors in a majority of the states. Since Federation, only eight out of fourty four proposals to amend the Constitution have been approved.

What was also seemingly ignored was that the process to conduct a referendum is outlined in the Australian Constitution, it is compulsory and it is enforceable. It is also very expensive to run a referendum. A poll is not compulsory and not enforceable and still costs a lot of money to run.

For the record, the local government referendum held in 1988 was not carried, gained no support from any State and only received 33.62% of votes in favour.

Mayor Jenny Dowell also mentioned fluoridation of our water supply where no poll has been suggested even though some would argue the water supply is being threatened in a similar way to the threat posed by coal seam gas mining.

During the debate, Councillors made the following comments:

Mayor Jenny Dowell, in addition to those comments mentioned earlier, absolutely disputed a quote from the NSW Electoral Commission exceeding $40,000 to conduct the poll and confirmed she had only received a single negative email which seemed quite aggressive towards protestors. All her other communication supported opposing coal seam gas mining.

Councillor Marks stated a figure of $25,000 and made his opposition to coal seam gas mining very clear and also made his opposition to spending so much money on a poll quite clear.

Councillor Ekins supported the poll.

Councillor Meineke stated the Mayor was conducting a publicity stunt.

Councillor Smith mentioned a division between urban and rural ratepayers and that the poll would provide a result. He also passed the buck in relation to the cost issue to Mr Wilson by saying he said it was in our budget.

Councillor Graham supported coal seam gas mining and was opposed to wasting so much money. He reinforced the non-compulsory nature of the poll and the estimate exceeding $40,000 from the NSW Electoral Commission as being way too much money for this Council to be wasting.

Councillor Marks stated that no new coal seam gas mining licenses were issued since the Liberal Government took control of the State and mentioned that the former Labor Government took hundreds of thousands of dollars from coal seam gas mining.

Councillor Clough rambled about a few things but came to the conclusion that there was no other way. He also made comment that all licenses had been issued before the Liberal Government took control.

Councillor Yarnall said he thought the Mayor was being genuine but expressed his concern about the cost and very clearly said he would vote against it. He said it was up to the community.

Councillor Chant made a point about setting an example for future Councils to conduct polls at future elections.

During her right of reply, Mayor Jenny Dowell mentioned the NOROC Mayors being aware of her request. She also mentioned some other minor matters and stated her view that a poll was the only way to get a full picture of the community’s position. She estimated the cost at $1,000 and then gave an example using $10,000 as costing 25 cents per person to send a strong message. She believed it would be a foolish government who would ignore the results.

When the question was put to Councillors, only five initially raised their hands to support the poll. They included Mayor Jenny Dowell and Councillors Houston, Clough, Smith and Ekins. Everyone in the room thought the Mayoral Minute was to be voted down for a brief moment and then Councillor Yarnall, after clearly stating his opposition to the proposal during debate, raised his hand and the Mayoral Minute was carried.

I would have thought Councillor Yarnall would be very keen to get his hands on that much money to fix roads since he has had very little success finding money elsewhere during his council term.

The media were all over the decision the next day and Mayor Jenny Dowell was getting a lot of publicity yet again. The question was eventually formulated some weeks later. It will be:

‘DO you support coal seam gas (CSG) exploration and production in the Lismore City Council area?’ 

To sum it all up, Mayor Jenny Dowell sought and obtained approval to spend ratepayer’s money to run a poll at the forthcoming September local election. It is not a compulsory poll and it is not enforceable. The NSW Electoral Commission, who are the experts, estimated the cost at over $40,000 to run the poll. Mayor Jenny Dowell believed it would be more like $10,000. The result of the poll is to be included in a letter to the State Government which could have easily been written back in March to reflect the obvious sentiment of the majority of the community.

On 27 July, Mayor Jenny Dowell posted yes and no cases for coal seam gas mining on her Facebook account. The media picked it up and she was back in the news. It is not surprising that she is seeking publicity from this. After all, it was expected and the election is looming.

What is very surprising is that she is now saying that the cost is included in the budget allocation for the election and will require no further expense. This indicates that this poll will not cost ratepayers anything at all. This is impossible to believe.

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Rant 4

The question must be asked if Lismore is a hub for counterfeit currency.

In recent years, there were counterfeit $100 notes in the area towards the end of 2004, counterfeit $50 notes were passed in mid 2005, more counterfeit $50 notes appeared in mid 2009, counterfeit traveller’s cheques did the rounds in late 2009, quite a number of counterfeit $20 notes were circulated earlier this year around Lismore and Nimbin and a counterfeit $10 note appeared just last week. These are just the ones we know about.

I was personally a victim of the $20 notes having received one through my business and being required to hand it in to police. It is an offence to pass a counterfeit note and the person receiving a counterfeit note is not reimbursed when they hand it in. It is such a bad position to find yourself in especially if you are struggling.

As a result of this problem, it is very important that as many people are notified as quickly as possible so that they can keep a lookout for counterfeit notes and not find themselves the victim of someone passing counterfeit notes. This is particularly important to high cash turnover businesses.

How I came to be in possession of a counterfeit $10 note was quite interesting. I had shown photos of and discussed the counterfeit $20 note I had received with some businesses I deal with. One of those businesses called me late on Wednesday afternoon to let me know they thought they received a counterfeit $10 note and wanted me to check it out. I told them I would be in the next day.

After seeing the $10 note, it became pretty clear that it was counterfeit. I took the note and tried to contact Lismore police by phone. After stating my name, the police officer hung up on me. Lismore police are not my biggest fans but it was surprising that I was not even given the opportunity to state the reason for my call before being cut off. Counterfeiting is a serious crime but I could have been in urgent need of assistance.

I then tried to call the police assistance line. The calls are recorded. I advised them of the reason for the call and what had happened when I called Lismore police station. I advised them someone could call me back. No-one did.

My next call was to the Australian Federal Police. Their receptionist advised me that their counterfeit people only worked from 8am until 4pm. It was after 4pm. She said to try again the next day on the same number and she would put me through.

I sent copies of each side of the counterfeit $10 note to a media outlet and posted the images on my Facebook page. Nothing appeared in the media on Friday so I tried to call the Australian Federal Police again. I was advised to give it to local police or send it to Victoria by registered post. I tried the police again on Saturday evening. They promptly came to my business and took possession of the counterfeit $10 note.

This particular counterfeit $10 note was the best copy I have ever seen. It felt like a real note and looked very similar. It would be very difficult to pick them out in a busy or dark environment. It is unusual that the public was not promptly made aware that they were circulating.

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