Your water supply ON November 19, the voters of the... [Derived headline]

Your water supply

ON November 19, the voters of the Clarence electorate will haveto go back to the polls, not long after the last state election,because their elected local member had to fall on his own swordafter getting caught out doing something very inappropriate. After afairly short selection process, the National Party was able to finda National Party candidate who could both read and write, so theyselected him as their nominee.

Now, if you want someone to represent the Clarence Valley in NSWParliament, who likes to do photo opportunities and sound bites forthe media, then this might seem like a suitable representative foryou. You know, like standing outside Grafton Hospital while yourphoto is being taken, is doing something about local health, orstanding next to the Pacific Highway while the press takes yourphoto is doing something to improve local roads, or standing outsideMaclean High School for another photo-op to garner red neck votesover the bat issue. You get the idea? The usual National Party fareto gather the country bumpkin, or local red neck votes.

However, if you want someone to represent the whole of theClarence Valley and its diverse needs, you should consider castingyour vote more wisely this time. If you want someone who will standup for local interests in NSW Parliament, and fight tooth and nailto represent us, and not big business, then cast your vote for theGreens. Recent history has shown that independents such as localGreens candidates are able to get much more for their electoratesthan party hacks can.

Your previous National Party representative tried to assume aslow a profile as he could in the O'Farrell Government. Hardly likelyto bring much benefit to the Clarence Valley, or protect the localenvironment and local jobs from greedy big businesses or O'FarrellGovernment razor gangs.

The National Party has failed to stand up to the Liberal Partywhen it came to the best interests of their electorate time and timeagain. When the Liberal Party says jump, the National Party says howhigh, please sir. You are starting to hear all about coal seam gasextraction, fracking and the like, and how much damage it can do tothe environment, farmland, damage to the Great Artesian Basin andunderground water supplies. Then there is the likelihood of anantimony mine being opened up in the catchment of the Nymboida River- your water supply. If this gets polluted it will be for hundredsof years.

Don't expect a Liberal/National party government to do anythingto stop these, other than making lip service statements. They aredeeply in the pocket of big business and vested interests, andeveryone with two eyes and tolerable hearing knows it.

They can hardly wait to sell off the rest of the State electricalgeneration system, completing the job started by the Labor Party. Ifyou think your electricity bills are high, wait until big businessowns it all and the only thing that matters is keeping the stockholders happy. Screw the customers and the staff. They don't matter(and this has nothing to do with a carbon tax despite all themisinformation and deliberate lies being put out by the Liberal/National parties).

So, if you want to save your bacon, so to speak, you have oneclear choice, vote green. Janet Cavanaugh is your local Greenscandidate. She is well educated, intelligent and motivated to lookafter the local environment and local jobs; she already has a greattrack record in those areas. Already there are reports of governmentjobs being lost from the Clarence Valley, plus loss of services thatare already poor enough.

Police, nurses, teachers, etc., will be leaving the NSW publicservice in droves soon because of O'Farrell Government policies.Stop the rot - cast your vote wisely. If you don't and get what iscoming to you from that choice, then don't whinge about itafterwards. You had your chance and blew it.

M CASEY,

Grafton.

Don't rattle the cage

I KNOW I shouldn't rattle Fred's cage, but I can't help it inregard to the Patrick dispute (a conspiracy by Howard/Reith, theNational party and The Farmers Federation training in some casesserving military) to break a legal union's right to fight for itsmembers work and pay.

The Howard government met all costs paid by Patrick plus $280million in forced redundancies to stevedoring workers, who in themain were asked to return as casual (SEAL) labour within a month(companies needed trained men).

All the stevedoring companies were given loan assistance to re-tool with state-of-the-art container cranes and handling equipmentwhich, in the main, replaced cranes that were past their use by dateby 10 years, hence speeding up container transit time from ship toshore.

Corrigan then sold Patrick and made over $130 million for hisstake in his company.

The overseas companies that held patents on container handlingequipment would not sell products to Australia till almost 100% ofstevedoring companies were in overseas companies' hands and therebycreating a monopoly (profits sent overseas) on costs and preferenceon who and what is loaded or discharged first. How Fred knows somuch about stevedoring (reading the Murdoch press?) is amazing for alandlocked bulldozer aimer.

PS: When Menzies put the army on the wharves to load scrap forJapan when the wharfies wouldn't, it came back as bombs and gunsagainst us and others.

RUSSELL FITCHETT,

Brushgrove.

No to Smart Meters

RECENTLY I returned from a trip to Melbourne visiting friends andfamily.

To my unpleasant surprise, one friend was absent the day Iarrived.

He was having a CT scan for possible tumours. The surprise beingthat only a month before he was given a clean bill of health by hisdoctor.

My friend is in his mid-50s, is a reiki practitioner and lives avery healthy lifestyle.

He had been experiencing constant headaches, sinus congestion,irritability and fatigue for several months.

The next day a TV current affair program reported a Melbournefamily with young children were also suffering constant headaches,dizziness and other symptoms as were their neighbours in the samestreet.

The blame was pointed at the newly installed Smart Meters.

Checking my friend's house, sure enough there was a Smart Meteron the wall just metres from his office and working space.

Searching the internet we soon found an enormous number ofreports about Smart Meters, which are a powerful radio/microwavetransmitter that generate intense electromagnetic fields 160 timesmore powerful than a mobile phone when it transmits your power usageto the billing company as frequently as every half hour.

The reported health complaints and increased billing complaintswere extensive in all the countries where they are installed. Insome countries they are banned, in others entire cities have placeda moratorium on their installation. So where does this leave myfriend?

An international power company seeking more revenue has installeda dangerous transmission device on his wall which is causing illnessto the occupants and possibly his neighbours as well. In the longterm it will cause tumours.

With the recent sale of NSW state-owned power assets to OriginEnergy, who have recently announced plans to install these sameSmart Meters throughout NSW, you will soon be at risk fromelectromagnetic radiation exposure in your own home like those inMelbourne.

Not only do we have multinational gas companies threatening thehealth and lifestyle of rural residents, but now the corporate powercompanies are about to severely impact the health, wealth andsecurity in everyone's home, both city and rural. Say no to SmartMeters now, before it is too late.

N HOWE,

Lismore.

100% local

IN reply to the letter from Anne Burgess, printed on Friday,November 11, I too have volunteered to distribute how to votepamphlets - for Peter Ellem of Country Labor.

I am the newest member of the Lower Clarence Branch of CountryLabor and perhaps this is why Ms Burgess thinks that there arepeople from outside the area working at the pre-poll booths.

All Country Labor workers at pre-poll booths during this currentelection have been 100% local and from the country.

Apart from the misinformation in the letter, I question MsBurgess' definition of politeness, when she seems to believe it isappropriate to abuse and interfere with other polling booth workersas she claims to have done in the past.

I assure all National Party "volunteers" that any such harassmenton polling booths will be immediately reported to the electoraloffice and if necessary the police.

CHRISTINE ROBERTSON,

Woombah.

Not rocket science

WHY should people who live in Grafton be penalised by the no leftturn onto the bridge at Clarence St? The traffic is caused by thoseliving across the river or from around the valley commuting intoGrafton.

It's not rocket science that we need a second bridge locatedelsewhere, which not only helps on a daily basis, but alsoalleviates the massive congestion when evacuation orders are given,or accidents close the bridge.

TRISH BURGESS,

Grafton.

Your water supply ON November 19, the voters of the... [Derived headline]

Your water supply

ON November 19, the voters of the Clarence electorate will haveto go back to the polls, not long after the last state election,because their elected local member had to fall on his own swordafter getting caught out doing something very inappropriate. After afairly short selection process, the National Party was able to finda National Party candidate who could both read and write, so theyselected him as their nominee.

Now, if you want someone to represent the Clarence Valley in NSWParliament, who likes to do photo opportunities and sound bites forthe media, then this might seem like a suitable representative foryou. You know, like standing outside Grafton Hospital while yourphoto is being taken, is doing something about local health, orstanding next to the Pacific Highway while the press takes yourphoto is doing something to improve local roads, or standing outsideMaclean High School for another photo-op to garner red neck votesover the bat issue. You get the idea? The usual National Party fareto gather the country bumpkin, or local red neck votes.

However, if you want someone to represent the whole of theClarence Valley and its diverse needs, you should consider castingyour vote more wisely this time. If you want someone who will standup for local interests in NSW Parliament, and fight tooth and nailto represent us, and not big business, then cast your vote for theGreens. Recent history has shown that independents such as localGreens candidates are able to get much more for their electoratesthan party hacks can.

Your previous National Party representative tried to assume aslow a profile as he could in the O'Farrell Government. Hardly likelyto bring much benefit to the Clarence Valley, or protect the localenvironment and local jobs from greedy big businesses or O'FarrellGovernment razor gangs.

The National Party has failed to stand up to the Liberal Partywhen it came to the best interests of their electorate time and timeagain. When the Liberal Party says jump, the National Party says howhigh, please sir. You are starting to hear all about coal seam gasextraction, fracking and the like, and how much damage it can do tothe environment, farmland, damage to the Great Artesian Basin andunderground water supplies. Then there is the likelihood of anantimony mine being opened up in the catchment of the Nymboida River- your water supply. If this gets polluted it will be for hundredsof years.

Don't expect a Liberal/National party government to do anythingto stop these, other than making lip service statements. They aredeeply in the pocket of big business and vested interests, andeveryone with two eyes and tolerable hearing knows it.

They can hardly wait to sell off the rest of the State electricalgeneration system, completing the job started by the Labor Party. Ifyou think your electricity bills are high, wait until big businessowns it all and the only thing that matters is keeping the stockholders happy. Screw the customers and the staff. They don't matter(and this has nothing to do with a carbon tax despite all themisinformation and deliberate lies being put out by the Liberal/National parties).

So, if you want to save your bacon, so to speak, you have oneclear choice, vote green. Janet Cavanaugh is your local Greenscandidate. She is well educated, intelligent and motivated to lookafter the local environment and local jobs; she already has a greattrack record in those areas. Already there are reports of governmentjobs being lost from the Clarence Valley, plus loss of services thatare already poor enough.

Police, nurses, teachers, etc., will be leaving the NSW publicservice in droves soon because of O'Farrell Government policies.Stop the rot - cast your vote wisely. If you don't and get what iscoming to you from that choice, then don't whinge about itafterwards. You had your chance and blew it.

M CASEY,

Grafton.

Don't rattle the cage

I KNOW I shouldn't rattle Fred's cage, but I can't help it inregard to the Patrick dispute (a conspiracy by Howard/Reith, theNational party and The Farmers Federation training in some casesserving military) to break a legal union's right to fight for itsmembers work and pay.

The Howard government met all costs paid by Patrick plus $280million in forced redundancies to stevedoring workers, who in themain were asked to return as casual (SEAL) labour within a month(companies needed trained men).

All the stevedoring companies were given loan assistance to re-tool with state-of-the-art container cranes and handling equipmentwhich, in the main, replaced cranes that were past their use by dateby 10 years, hence speeding up container transit time from ship toshore.

Corrigan then sold Patrick and made over $130 million for hisstake in his company.

The overseas companies that held patents on container handlingequipment would not sell products to Australia till almost 100% ofstevedoring companies were in overseas companies' hands and therebycreating a monopoly (profits sent overseas) on costs and preferenceon who and what is loaded or discharged first. How Fred knows somuch about stevedoring (reading the Murdoch press?) is amazing for alandlocked bulldozer aimer.

PS: When Menzies put the army on the wharves to load scrap forJapan when the wharfies wouldn't, it came back as bombs and gunsagainst us and others.

RUSSELL FITCHETT,

Brushgrove.

No to Smart Meters

RECENTLY I returned from a trip to Melbourne visiting friends andfamily.

To my unpleasant surprise, one friend was absent the day Iarrived.

He was having a CT scan for possible tumours. The surprise beingthat only a month before he was given a clean bill of health by hisdoctor.

My friend is in his mid-50s, is a reiki practitioner and lives avery healthy lifestyle.

He had been experiencing constant headaches, sinus congestion,irritability and fatigue for several months.

The next day a TV current affair program reported a Melbournefamily with young children were also suffering constant headaches,dizziness and other symptoms as were their neighbours in the samestreet.

The blame was pointed at the newly installed Smart Meters.

Checking my friend's house, sure enough there was a Smart Meteron the wall just metres from his office and working space.

Searching the internet we soon found an enormous number ofreports about Smart Meters, which are a powerful radio/microwavetransmitter that generate intense electromagnetic fields 160 timesmore powerful than a mobile phone when it transmits your power usageto the billing company as frequently as every half hour.

The reported health complaints and increased billing complaintswere extensive in all the countries where they are installed. Insome countries they are banned, in others entire cities have placeda moratorium on their installation. So where does this leave myfriend?

An international power company seeking more revenue has installeda dangerous transmission device on his wall which is causing illnessto the occupants and possibly his neighbours as well. In the longterm it will cause tumours.

With the recent sale of NSW state-owned power assets to OriginEnergy, who have recently announced plans to install these sameSmart Meters throughout NSW, you will soon be at risk fromelectromagnetic radiation exposure in your own home like those inMelbourne.

Not only do we have multinational gas companies threatening thehealth and lifestyle of rural residents, but now the corporate powercompanies are about to severely impact the health, wealth andsecurity in everyone's home, both city and rural. Say no to SmartMeters now, before it is too late.

N HOWE,

Lismore.

100% local

IN reply to the letter from Anne Burgess, printed on Friday,November 11, I too have volunteered to distribute how to votepamphlets - for Peter Ellem of Country Labor.

I am the newest member of the Lower Clarence Branch of CountryLabor and perhaps this is why Ms Burgess thinks that there arepeople from outside the area working at the pre-poll booths.

All Country Labor workers at pre-poll booths during this currentelection have been 100% local and from the country.

Apart from the misinformation in the letter, I question MsBurgess' definition of politeness, when she seems to believe it isappropriate to abuse and interfere with other polling booth workersas she claims to have done in the past.

I assure all National Party "volunteers" that any such harassmenton polling booths will be immediately reported to the electoraloffice and if necessary the police.

CHRISTINE ROBERTSON,

Woombah.

Not rocket science

WHY should people who live in Grafton be penalised by the no leftturn onto the bridge at Clarence St? The traffic is caused by thoseliving across the river or from around the valley commuting intoGrafton.

It's not rocket science that we need a second bridge locatedelsewhere, which not only helps on a daily basis, but alsoalleviates the massive congestion when evacuation orders are given,or accidents close the bridge.

TRISH BURGESS,

Grafton.

Your water supply ON November 19, the voters of the... [Derived headline]

Your water supply

ON November 19, the voters of the Clarence electorate will haveto go back to the polls, not long after the last state election,because their elected local member had to fall on his own swordafter getting caught out doing something very inappropriate. After afairly short selection process, the National Party was able to finda National Party candidate who could both read and write, so theyselected him as their nominee.

Now, if you want someone to represent the Clarence Valley in NSWParliament, who likes to do photo opportunities and sound bites forthe media, then this might seem like a suitable representative foryou. You know, like standing outside Grafton Hospital while yourphoto is being taken, is doing something about local health, orstanding next to the Pacific Highway while the press takes yourphoto is doing something to improve local roads, or standing outsideMaclean High School for another photo-op to garner red neck votesover the bat issue. You get the idea? The usual National Party fareto gather the country bumpkin, or local red neck votes.

However, if you want someone to represent the whole of theClarence Valley and its diverse needs, you should consider castingyour vote more wisely this time. If you want someone who will standup for local interests in NSW Parliament, and fight tooth and nailto represent us, and not big business, then cast your vote for theGreens. Recent history has shown that independents such as localGreens candidates are able to get much more for their electoratesthan party hacks can.

Your previous National Party representative tried to assume aslow a profile as he could in the O'Farrell Government. Hardly likelyto bring much benefit to the Clarence Valley, or protect the localenvironment and local jobs from greedy big businesses or O'FarrellGovernment razor gangs.

The National Party has failed to stand up to the Liberal Partywhen it came to the best interests of their electorate time and timeagain. When the Liberal Party says jump, the National Party says howhigh, please sir. You are starting to hear all about coal seam gasextraction, fracking and the like, and how much damage it can do tothe environment, farmland, damage to the Great Artesian Basin andunderground water supplies. Then there is the likelihood of anantimony mine being opened up in the catchment of the Nymboida River- your water supply. If this gets polluted it will be for hundredsof years.

Don't expect a Liberal/National party government to do anythingto stop these, other than making lip service statements. They aredeeply in the pocket of big business and vested interests, andeveryone with two eyes and tolerable hearing knows it.

They can hardly wait to sell off the rest of the State electricalgeneration system, completing the job started by the Labor Party. Ifyou think your electricity bills are high, wait until big businessowns it all and the only thing that matters is keeping the stockholders happy. Screw the customers and the staff. They don't matter(and this has nothing to do with a carbon tax despite all themisinformation and deliberate lies being put out by the Liberal/National parties).

So, if you want to save your bacon, so to speak, you have oneclear choice, vote green. Janet Cavanaugh is your local Greenscandidate. She is well educated, intelligent and motivated to lookafter the local environment and local jobs; she already has a greattrack record in those areas. Already there are reports of governmentjobs being lost from the Clarence Valley, plus loss of services thatare already poor enough.

Police, nurses, teachers, etc., will be leaving the NSW publicservice in droves soon because of O'Farrell Government policies.Stop the rot - cast your vote wisely. If you don't and get what iscoming to you from that choice, then don't whinge about itafterwards. You had your chance and blew it.

M CASEY,

Grafton.

Don't rattle the cage

I KNOW I shouldn't rattle Fred's cage, but I can't help it inregard to the Patrick dispute (a conspiracy by Howard/Reith, theNational party and The Farmers Federation training in some casesserving military) to break a legal union's right to fight for itsmembers work and pay.

The Howard government met all costs paid by Patrick plus $280million in forced redundancies to stevedoring workers, who in themain were asked to return as casual (SEAL) labour within a month(companies needed trained men).

All the stevedoring companies were given loan assistance to re-tool with state-of-the-art container cranes and handling equipmentwhich, in the main, replaced cranes that were past their use by dateby 10 years, hence speeding up container transit time from ship toshore.

Corrigan then sold Patrick and made over $130 million for hisstake in his company.

The overseas companies that held patents on container handlingequipment would not sell products to Australia till almost 100% ofstevedoring companies were in overseas companies' hands and therebycreating a monopoly (profits sent overseas) on costs and preferenceon who and what is loaded or discharged first. How Fred knows somuch about stevedoring (reading the Murdoch press?) is amazing for alandlocked bulldozer aimer.

PS: When Menzies put the army on the wharves to load scrap forJapan when the wharfies wouldn't, it came back as bombs and gunsagainst us and others.

RUSSELL FITCHETT,

Brushgrove.

No to Smart Meters

RECENTLY I returned from a trip to Melbourne visiting friends andfamily.

To my unpleasant surprise, one friend was absent the day Iarrived.

He was having a CT scan for possible tumours. The surprise beingthat only a month before he was given a clean bill of health by hisdoctor.

My friend is in his mid-50s, is a reiki practitioner and lives avery healthy lifestyle.

He had been experiencing constant headaches, sinus congestion,irritability and fatigue for several months.

The next day a TV current affair program reported a Melbournefamily with young children were also suffering constant headaches,dizziness and other symptoms as were their neighbours in the samestreet.

The blame was pointed at the newly installed Smart Meters.

Checking my friend's house, sure enough there was a Smart Meteron the wall just metres from his office and working space.

Searching the internet we soon found an enormous number ofreports about Smart Meters, which are a powerful radio/microwavetransmitter that generate intense electromagnetic fields 160 timesmore powerful than a mobile phone when it transmits your power usageto the billing company as frequently as every half hour.

The reported health complaints and increased billing complaintswere extensive in all the countries where they are installed. Insome countries they are banned, in others entire cities have placeda moratorium on their installation. So where does this leave myfriend?

An international power company seeking more revenue has installeda dangerous transmission device on his wall which is causing illnessto the occupants and possibly his neighbours as well. In the longterm it will cause tumours.

With the recent sale of NSW state-owned power assets to OriginEnergy, who have recently announced plans to install these sameSmart Meters throughout NSW, you will soon be at risk fromelectromagnetic radiation exposure in your own home like those inMelbourne.

Not only do we have multinational gas companies threatening thehealth and lifestyle of rural residents, but now the corporate powercompanies are about to severely impact the health, wealth andsecurity in everyone's home, both city and rural. Say no to SmartMeters now, before it is too late.

N HOWE,

Lismore.

100% local

IN reply to the letter from Anne Burgess, printed on Friday,November 11, I too have volunteered to distribute how to votepamphlets - for Peter Ellem of Country Labor.

I am the newest member of the Lower Clarence Branch of CountryLabor and perhaps this is why Ms Burgess thinks that there arepeople from outside the area working at the pre-poll booths.

All Country Labor workers at pre-poll booths during this currentelection have been 100% local and from the country.

Apart from the misinformation in the letter, I question MsBurgess' definition of politeness, when she seems to believe it isappropriate to abuse and interfere with other polling booth workersas she claims to have done in the past.

I assure all National Party "volunteers" that any such harassmenton polling booths will be immediately reported to the electoraloffice and if necessary the police.

CHRISTINE ROBERTSON,

Woombah.

Not rocket science

WHY should people who live in Grafton be penalised by the no leftturn onto the bridge at Clarence St? The traffic is caused by thoseliving across the river or from around the valley commuting intoGrafton.

It's not rocket science that we need a second bridge locatedelsewhere, which not only helps on a daily basis, but alsoalleviates the massive congestion when evacuation orders are given,or accidents close the bridge.

TRISH BURGESS,

Grafton.