Editors Notes: I always admire the way .id Informed Decisions prepares and publishes its posts. I can further say that I tend to understand where they are coming from in this article. I would definitely suggest reading this article.
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31 May 2021
Shoalhaven City Council's brand-new Elsie Young Playground at Old Erowal Bay was officially opened Saturday by Shoalhaven Mayor Amanda Findley.
Fully funded by Shoalhaven City Council, the $100,000 cost to install the new playground has come from Council’s Playground Replacement Fund.
Shoalhaven City Council Mayor Amanda Findley hopes the new equipment will better meet the needs and desires of the community and will encourage families to spend longer periods enjoying the outdoors all year round.
“Old Erowal Bay is a growth area, located close to Jervis Bay’s white sand beaches and scenic Booderee National Park,” said Clr Findley.
“Providing fun play experiences for children is important. We have 128 playgrounds across our beautiful region and all playgrounds are designed to safely meet Australian Standards,” Clr Findley said.
Prior to replacing the playground, Council consulted with members of the Old Erowal Bay community to ensure the new playground facilities meet the current and future needs of the community.
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| Rylee Spencer - (Unkown) – Mayor Amanda Findley – Zoe Carrol – Gabrielle Delhaise-Cawood – Jacob Spencer - (Unknown)– Liam Vale |
The community have advocated for increased social infrastructure in the area. Items on the wishlist for the reserve include public toilets, increased seating, BBQ and a water tap.
The Old Erowal Bay Progress Association, nominated the
Elsie Marion Young worked hard for her community, raising funds for the Bushfire Brigade. She was a founding member of Huskisson RSL and was the main instigator in getting the Ambulance station and service for the Huskisson area and surrounding districts. With her family, she started the first deliveries of bread, meat and milk in Old Erowal Bay.
31 May 2021
The installation of a learn to ride facility at Yulunga Reserve, Manyana was officially unveiled on Saturday by Shoalhaven Mayor, Amanda Findley.
The project was funded by Shoalhaven City Council, with contributions from the Yulunga Management Committee with a total cost of the facility being approximately $51,000.
Clr Amanda Findley praised the Bendalong Manyana Community who strongly supported the project, with the community group conducting several working bees at the site, including the removal of the sandpit and installation of turf. “These projects have been identified by the community during extensive consultation and have been undertaken with the valuable assistance of community members and groups.
“The new learn to ride bike path will benefit the community by assisting
This facility is a complement to the recent playground upgrade, constructed in late 2019, and made available through funding from Council’s playground replacement program and funding from the New South Wales Government which provided 85% of the $135,000 total budget.
The design of this playground was developed in collaboration between the local community and Council. It contains a custom fire truck spring ro
cker identifying with the local Rural Fire Service brigade. It also boasts a crawl tunnel, triple swing set (nest swing, infant seat), spinner and see-saw.
27 May 2021
Applications for Category 1 ClubGRANTS are open now until Friday 18 June 2021, proudly hosted by Shoalhaven City Council. ClubGRANTS is one of Australia’s largest grant programs, providing more than $100 million in cash each year to a variety of worthy causes across NSW. Charities, sporting organisations and not-for-profit community groups are among the tens of thousands of worthy causes funded through the program each year.
Category 1 funding supports:
community welfare and social services
community development
employment assistance activities
community health services and projects aimed at improving the living standards of low income and disadvantaged people
Community organisations can apply for funding towards local community service needs and priorities.
Shoalhaven City Council Mayor Amanda Findley said, “We’re proud to push up our sleeves and help with the application and assessment process for this worthy initiative which supports our commitment to making the Shoalhaven an inclusive, thriving community.”
Community sporting and cultural organisations are at the heart of many of our communities. ClubGRANTS
Community groups such as Jindelara Disability Services, Lifeline South Coast, Culburra Volunteer Rural Fire Brigade, Shoalhaven Neighbourhood Services, Foster Care Angels Inc and Ulladulla Local Aboriginal Land Council are some of the many organisations that have benefited from the support provided by clubs through ClubGRANTS.
Applying for ClubGRANTS funding is quick and easy. All funding is processed locally and community groups can contact their local clubs easily and at any time for information and advice. ClubGRANTS is also flexible, allowing clubs to provide support quickly, efficiently, and often as soon as a need emerges.
How to apply
The ClubGRANTS are open now and will close on Friday 18 June 2021.
Applications can be lodged online on Council’s website or via the ClubsNSW website.
For more information, contact Joanne Seibright, Administrative Assistant, Community Connections, Shoalhaven City Council on (02) 4429 3440.
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27 May 2021
Shoalhaven City Council is set to receive $2 million from NSW and Commonwealth funding to better prepare the region for future natural disasters.
Shoalhaven City Council Mayor Amanda Findley joined Minister for Local Government and Member for South Coast Shelley Hancock at the Shoalhaven Emergency Operations Centre in Nowra for the funding announcement.
The event was also attended by Councillors John Wells, Patricia White and Kaye Gartner along with representatives from NSW Police, RFS and Fire and Rescue.
Mrs Hancock said the funding will be used to provide new resources for the Shoalhaven community including handy checklists and informative workshops, aimed at improving resilience in emergency situations and major incidents.
“The Recovery into Resilience Project by Shoalhaven City Council is designed to enhance the community’s resilience in emergency situations and capacity to respond to major incidents like floods and fires,” Mrs Hancock said.
“This is an exciting project which will strengthen community resilience and reduce the impact of future natural disasters in Shoalhaven.
“We’re going to see the Shoalhaven community working towards improving readiness to natural disasters in a practical way, including the development and distribution of information such as checklists and booklets.
“In the long term, Council will strengthen its partnership with Griffith University and run workshops focused on community-led resilience.
“A crucial part of the project is to deliver official, real-time local information and connectivity to the Emergency Operations Centre in Nowra which will be implemented across 23 community buildings in the Shoalhaven.
“I look forward to seeing this project progress in the coming months and would encourage all members of the Shoalhaven community to get involved.”
Shoalhaven City Council Mayor Amanda Findley said the community has endured a lot of challenges over the last year with several floods and fires and was very excited about the Recovery into Resilience Project.
“We are delighted to receive funding support from the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund and acknowledge the assistance of both the NSW and Australian governments to make it possible,” Clr Findley said.
“We want to do all that we can to help ensure our residents and the local community are safe and informed, now and into the future.
“Improving the short-term readiness will allow residents and visitors to feel prepared in emergency situations while long term resilience planning will ensure our communities can work together and bounce back faster.
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| from left to right: Front row: Recovery into Resilience Project Coordinator Vince Di Pietro, Mayor Amanda Findley, Minister for Local Government and Member for South Coast Shelley Hancock. Back row: CEO Stephen Dunshea, City Lifestyles Director Jane Lewis, NSW Police Regional Trish Malone, SES Richard Findsen, Fire and Rescue Rick Jones, Local Emergency Management Officer Kim White, RFS Angus Barnes, NSW Police Local Emergency Operations Controller Dave Cockram, Councillor Patricia White, Councillor Kaye Gartner, Councillor John Wells. |
“What we know from past experiences is that having timely access to up-to-date information in an emergency is critical to saving lives.
“I am really proud that Shoalhaven City Council is taking a lead to help this happen as effectively as possible.”
The Recovery into Resilience Project will be rolled out over the coming fifteen months.
For more information about the project visit Shoalhaven City Council’s Get Involved page.
Each day that I have been taking my Kayak down the Basin, I wanted to reach this island. It was a challenge to do so, within myself. It was a personal challenge. It was paddle after paddle and then 'Oh no, the weather is changing' or 'I'm too afraid to get there' in previous kayak trips.....
And so today was like discovering a piece of Australia but it was only my discovery of Scepulchre Island. This was the first time I had ever been on an island by myself and there was no one on the same land. Amazing!
Craig Isherwood‚ National Secretary
PO Box 376‚ COBURG‚ VIC 3058
Phone: 1800 636 432
Email: info@citizensparty.org.au
Website: https://citizensparty.org.au
The campaign to achieve justice for Christine Holgate and the thousands of licensed post offices (LPOs) she saved has exposed glaring deficiencies in the structure and management of Australia Post. Given the importance of post offices and postal services to Australian communities, reforming Australia Post to fix these failings would be good for the whole country, as well as LPOs. A post office people’s bank that guarantees financial services to everyone and the long-term financial viability of LPOs, is a win-win solution for all Australians.
The 2,850 small business LPOs are the most vested stakeholders in Australia Post; on average, they each have more than a million dollars of their own capital ($3 billion collectively) invested in their businesses that provide postal services to the Australian people. LPOs exist because the government corporatised Australia Post and established the model of running post offices under license as small businesses to make Australia Post a self-funding service. Before Christine Holgate became CEO, however, LPOs were going bankrupt, and had been for decades. “The busier they are, the more money they lose, which is a pretty crazy business model”, Senator Nick Xenophon said to ABC in September 2014, during a Senate inquiry into LPOs. Yet neither the government nor the management of Australia Post cared. All the years LPOs were going broke the government kept extracting around $200 million from Australia Post in annual dividends for the federal budget—the LPOs were effectively subsidising taxpayers out of their own pockets! The management of Australia Post were just as bad. Their callous advice for struggling LPOs was to combine their post office businesses with other businesses like coffee shops and florists. The community-minded LPOs were appalled, as this would mean cannibalising other small businesses in their towns to subsidise a service the government should have ensured was properly funded.
It is well documented how Christine Holgate turned around the fortunes of the LPOs, starting with the 2018 deal that required the major banks to pay a $20 million annual community representation fee for post offices to serve customers abandoned by the banks through branch closures. Achieving this deal was a miracle. The board of Australia Post predicted she couldn’t do it and gave her a deadline of 30 September that year to land a deal, otherwise they would scrap banking services at post offices. The big four banks did not want to pay, despite the fee being less than 0.4 per cent of each of their mega profits. They complained about Christine Holgate to then-Treasurer Scott Morrison, who didn’t lift a finger to help her. Only after Josh Frydenberg took over as Treasurer and Christine Holgate convinced him to support her plan, and he called the banks on her behalf, did three of the big four agree to pay. (ANZ refused, which is why ANZ customers can’t bank at post offices now.)
LPO Group Executive Director Angela Cramp revealed in an 8 February 2021 Citizens Insight interview that the deal increased payments to LPOs by 50 per cent on average, depending on how much banking LPOs do in their particular locations. This made a world of difference to their businesses—Angela Cramp said for the first time she was able to sleep soundly instead of fretting over whether her business would survive. It’s why the LPOs were so loyal to Christine Holgate two years later when she was attacked in Parliament for buying Cartier watches as rewards for the executives who worked on the deal.
By contrast, the government and Australia Post management were not loyal to Christine Holgate at all. Despite paying lip service to her brilliance as a CEO, they were treacherous, shunting her out as quickly as they could and then lying to cover up their intent. This underscores the ongoing problem facing the LPOs: the government and management don’t care if they survive. As for the two-faced banks, they may renew the deal, but only if it suits their management priorities; in the meantime, they have jacked up the fees on Bank@Post transactions to a ridiculous $4.50. This means the future viability of the LPOs is at the mercy of banks that continue to demonstrate their disregard for their retail customers by shutting down bank branches en masse and ripping out thousands of ATMs all over Australia, especially in the regions.
Win-win solution
The Citizens Party has drafted a bill for a Commonwealth Postal Savings Bank (CPSB) that will solve many problems, for Australia Post and the nation:
The CPSB would be a people’s bank that serves all Australians and breaks the monopoly of the Big Four banks, which makes it more than just a good idea—it’s an urgent necessity. Join the fight to make it a reality.
What you can do
Click here to sign the petition:
An Australia Post ‘people’s bank’—a win-win solution for the nation
Click here to join the Citizens Party as a member.
Click here to refer others to receive regular email updates from the Citizens Party.
