Review of the rate peg to include population growth - NSW IPART

 

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NSW COVID-19 Cases by Location Analysis as of 29th July 2021 - Raul Arregui

 Here is the link to today's report (PDF attached too):

https://arregui.net/covid-19/nsw-covid-19-cases-by-location%202021-07-29.htm

Summary:

- data up of 29th July but incomplete (only 218 of the 240 cases reported)

- we have passed the highest number of daily new cases in NSW ever (since the start of the pandemic)

- the number of cases under investigation is now extremely high (327 total from last 4 days, 88 more than yesterday) -- contact tracing is in trouble with numbers like this ...

- virus has spread into a new LGA during the last 3 days: Goulburn-Mulwaree

- if cases start reducing daily from tomorrow, it would take until 11h Aug to progressively reduce new cases to 0

See the chart of new cases per population by LGA for the last 4 days below. The Strathfield LGA is 6th on the top-10; and it has higher cases per population than the Blacktown, Parramatta or Georges River LGAs. However, Strathfield is not one of the 8 LGAs that are currently in "tight" lockdown, while Blacktown, Parramatta and Georges River are. Why not? 

Applications for the Shoalhaven Local Heritage Assistance Fund are now open - Shoalhaven City Council - Media Release

 

29 July 2021

Shoalhaven City Council is pleased to announce that the 2021-22 Shoalhaven Local Heritage Assistance Fund, which is proudly part-funded by the NSW Government, is now accepting applications. 

This year’s theme is tourism within a heritage setting, which will see applications to restore heritage buildings and items that will increase exposure and promote heritage tourism within the Local Government Area prioritised, when allocating grants.  

Shoalhaven City Council Mayor Amanda Findley said this year’s programs focus on heritage tourism, will ensure the restoration of important Shoalhaven community and heritage assets, that may have otherwise been lost.  

“I am pleased to announce the Shoalhaven Local Heritage Assistance Fund is now accepting applications.” Clr Findley said.  

“Following the devastating bushfires and COVID-19 the Shoalhaven’s tourism has seen a significant decline. It is important we restore our items of heritage which bring tourism to the area for not only our own history, but for the local economy.” Clr Findley noted. 

The fund will offer small grants for local heritage projects as an incentive to assist heritage items listed in the Shoalhaven Local Environmental Plan (LEP) 2014 and other items of heritage significance.

The grant amounts offered by the fund are merit-based and successful applicants will be required to match the funding amount from their own finances. With individual grants ranging from a few hundred dollars to a maximum amount of $5,000.  

“I encourage all owners of heritage items or heritage-related projects in the Shoalhaven to apply for assistance under the program, by completing the online form on Council’s website.” Clr Findley said.  

Applications close on Friday 27 August 2021 at 5PM. 

For full eligibility criteria and to find out more, please view the application form on Council’s website: https://www.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au/Council/Grants-Funding/2020-2021-Shoalhaven-Local-Heritage-Assistance-Fund

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Plenary Post - Catholic Plenary Council - July 2021

 

Welcome to PlenaryPost With much of greater Sydney in lockdown and two other states having just emerged from lockdown, there is a sense of comfort in knowing that all the planning for a multi-modal Plenary Council assembly in October means we are ready for all eventualities. That is not to say there aren't a lot of plans to be finalised, but we are well prepared to support the Council's members and the Catholic community through the days of the assembly. We've been hearing lots of stories from parishes, schools and other Church communities about how people are engaging with the Council's agenda, which was published last month. We encourage you all to find ways to reflect upon and pray with the agenda and the 16 questions it poses. The Council agenda emerged from three years and several layers of prayer, listening, dialogue and discernment. It will shape the program of the Council’s assemblies – the first of which opens in 66 days on October 3. More stories are also emerging about how Council members are engaging with their local communities, how they are responding to the agenda and even how the pandemic is affecting how they will participate. There are some stories on those themes below. Keep an eye out for editions of PlenaryPost on the last Thursday of each month through 2021. Send suggestions on local content that can be included to plenary.council@catholic.org.au

FacilitatorFocus: Walking towards the Council's second stage: Celebration by Lana Turvey-Collins

Dear Friends,  Greetings from the Facilitation Team, coming to you virtually from all over Sydney -- all working from home in lockdown!     We hope you all are well, and if you are also in lockdown, anywhere in Australia, please go gently, take care of yourselves and one another and try to get some sunshine on your face each day. It really does help! If you need support, please don't hesitate to reach out to your friends, family or other support networks for encouragement, support and a little connection.     This month's edition of PlenaryPost comes to you after the completion of four sessions (one program, offered four times) of formation for Council Members. We are delighted to share that the experience was a great success! Thanks to the hard work of our wonderful Microsoft Teams tech wizards over in the West, the formation experience was one that provided time and space for Members to listen and speak with one another, to pray together, to learn and to connect. The sessions included training in Microsoft Teams, the platform on which the first assembly will take place, formation on discernment and the practice of Spiritual Conversations for decision-making, teaching and learning on conscious and unconscious bias when working in groups, and we also spent time unpacking the Statutes and Regulatory Norms. There was time for open questions and answers, broad discussion and contemplative prayer. In future editions of PlenaryPost, we will include some of the formation, tools and resources with you all -- in particular the online approach to practising Spiritual Conversations, which could be wonderfully rich for many of our parishes and local groups right now.     The Plenary Council webpage tells me that it is less than 70 days until we open the first assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council in Australia, and you all have been a part of bringing it to life. I look forward to coming weeks, as we reignite the flame, reconnect with one another and step towards the second stage of the Plenary Council: Celebration. Yours in mission,  Lana

CuriosityCorner

We will address a new question in each e-newsletter. To catch up on previous editions, you can check out the Plenary Council FAQ page. If you have a question, email it to us and we will include it in future editions of PlenaryPost. The question for this edition is… Can I pray for the success of the Plenary Council?  Yes, you can. And we’d be most grateful if you did. The Plenary Council prayer was composed to coincide with the opening of the Plenary Council process at Pentecost 2018, but it will guide the journey towards the final assembly in 2022. You can access the prayer here in multiple formats.

TalkTheology

'On The Gifting of the Holy Spirit'  A reflection by Fr Andrew Doohan, Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle [The Holy Spirit is] continually guiding the life of the Church as it has done for more than two millennia, and which will continue to guide the life of the Church into the future – if only we are prepared to listen to the often soft and sometimes hard promptings of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers individually and the Church corporately. But how do we identify and acknowledge the presence of the Spirit in our lives, both individually and collectively? How do we ensure that it is, in fact, the Spirit that is capturing our attention and prompting us to move from where we are? In other words, is what we are thinking about, both in words and actions, truly the actions of the Spirit, or is it ‘just us’ having a brainwave, coming up with a thought that might have its origins in any number of places, including our agendas and preferences? The discernment of the Spirit, unsurprisingly, has had a long history in the life of the Church, and there are many approaches that could be, and have been, adopted across the history and the life of the Church. Common to many approaches – and to the one I prefer to use personally – is what I like to term "hastening slowly". And by that, I mean that we take the time to stop, to pray, to reflect, and to come to understand what the way forward might be. Click here to read Fr Doohan's reflection in full.

News&Notes

Bishop Long names his 'hope' for Plenary Council The Catholic Church in Australia has a chance to blaze a trail for the faithful around the world, Parramatta Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv said when delivering the recent Dom Helder Camara Lecture. While acknowledging the great number of challenges the Church in Australia is facing, including the aftermath of the child sexual abuse royal commission, Bishop Long said the Plenary Council process offers an opportunity for meaningful change. "In many areas, Australia punches above its weight. Could we be a leading light in the struggle for a more fit-for-purpose Church in this place and in this time?" Bishop Long asked. "Could Australian Catholics rise to the challenge and co-create the synodal Church that Pope Francis has envisaged? "While the Plenary Council may not address all of the issues of importance, it is certainly worth the effort in discerning the roadmap for the future." Click here to read Bishop Long's full lecture, entitled "My hope for the Plenary Council".

Brisbane members encouraged by Council agenda With the Plenary Council agenda having been published in June, Council members and the wider Catholic community have been reflecting on and praying with the 16 questions that form the agenda. Brisbane's Tom Warren, one of the Council's youngest members, told The Catholic Leader he is "very optimistic and very excited to see where the Council goes". He said he hoped he and other younger members will find their voice during the assemblies. “The youth are the leaders of tomorrow and it doesn’t seem to me to be too much focus on that,” he said. “But at the same time, I think a lot of that will come through the questions if we dig deep enough, we will have a youth focus at the end." Sr Maeve Heaney, a formator at Holy Spirit Seminary and another Council member, called the phrasing of the questions that form the agenda "quite beautiful". The openness of the questions, which allowed the Church to breathe, reflects the journey the Church had embarked on, she said. Click here to read more from The Catholic Leader.

Member from Adelaide takes Council on the road Kiara Ryan is taking a slightly different path to the Plenary Council, as the member who is currently "on the road" with her family prepares to participate in the first assembly. A fifth lay delegate named for the Adelaide Archdiocese, Mrs Ryan will be attending one of the assembly’s province hubs, most likely in Queensland, because she and her husband Dan and four young sons are heading on the adventure of a lifetime. “Life has changed since I put in my nomination to be a member…lockdown changed our direction as a family and changed Dan’s work and we have decided to go travelling around Australia for six months in a camper trailer,” she told The Southern Cross. “I put my nomination in to be involved in the Plenary because I felt called to do it and I am interested in and excited about the process. I also knew I had the availability to be involved, something that not all young mums might be able to commit to. “I really believe that the Holy Spirit is guiding the Plenary process, and I am constantly praying for guidance.” Click here to read more from The Southern Cross.

Canberra-Goulburn women meet with members The Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn Women's Taskforce has taken the opportunity to meet with several of the Archdiocese's Plenary Council members to help them understand some of the issues local women are facing. As well as hearing from the four Council members, the members of the Taskforce were able to express their concerns, especially those of young women and their families, about the changing nature of society and therefore of the Church and its role in society.   The position and role of women and their inclusion within the governance of the Church was highlighted, as was the need for a more inclusive language in all church liturgies and documents. Click here to read more from The Catholic Voice.

'There's no synodality without the Spirit' With the next global Synod of Bishops to address the question of synodality, Pope Francis and key advisers are working to unpack the notion of synodality. Speaking in April, Pope Francis said: "We must be precise, when we speak of synodality, of synodal journey, of synodal experience. It is not a parliament [...] Synodality is not only the discussion of problems, of different things that there are in society [...] There cannot be synodality without the Spirit, and there is no Spirit without prayer." Sr Nathalie Becquart, Under-Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, expanded on the Pope's thinking in an interview with Vatican News, particularly examining the relationship between spirituality and synodality. "What is fundamental and certain is that there is no synodality without spirituality because synodality places at its centre the fact of walking together with Christ and listening to the Holy Spirit," she said.  "This spiritual dimension is therefore truly an essential dimension of synodality that we must continue to explore." Click here to read more from Vatican News. Another interview with Sr Nathalie, conducted by The Tablet's Christopher Lamb, can be accessed here.

What's happening with Germany's 'synodal way'? Among a number of closely-watched Church processes that have been established around the world, the Church in Germany has commenced a "synodal way". A less structured approach than a plenary council or a national synod, the "synodal way" has been criticised in some circles as too unstructured to achieve genuine renewal.  An article and podcast from America magazine has tried to explore the situation in Germany. The journalist interviewed four people involved in the process: A bishop involved in the synod’s forum on power, a theologian involved in the forum on women’s roles, one of the synodal way’s spiritual guides, and a critic of the process. Click here to access the article and podcast.

Celebrating a key Plenary Council partner The Plenary Council is a pivotal journey for the Catholic Church in Australia and has sought to engage all parts of the Church. One key partner in the process has been the National Centre for Pastoral Research (NCPR). The NCPR has produced hundreds of pages of research and analysis for the Plenary Council, including Listen to What the Spirit is Saying, the report on the Listening and Dialogue phase of the Council, and diocesan reports from that same process. It has also supported the development of the Thematic Discernment Papers and the working document, Continuing the Journey. The NCPR recently celebrated 25 years supporting the life and mission of the Church in Australia, and the Plenary Council will be part of the ongoing legacy for the Centre. We are extremely grateful for the work of Dr Trudy Dantis, its director, and the team that works alongside her. Click here to read more about the NCPR's milestone.

Feast of Mary MacKillop, Social Justice Sunday Feast of St Mary MacKillop: The Church will celebrate the feast of Australia's first saint, Mary of the Cross MacKillop, on August 8. Born in Melbourne, Mary went on to found the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and among her many focus areas was the education of girls. The Josephites have run hundreds of schools across Australia and New Zealand over the past 150 years. Mary was canonised on October 17, 2010, with thousands of Australians in Rome for the ceremony. Click here to learn more about St Mary MacKillop. Social Justice Sunday (August 29 this year) is a day to celebrate the Church's deep commitment to social teaching and is marked with the release of an annual Social Justice Statement. The 2021-22 Social Justice Statement, Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor, affirms that “we human beings need a change of heart, mind and behaviour”. It draws from Scripture, from the theological tradition, from Catholic Social Teaching and from the wisdom of the world, including the insights of the First Nations. Find out more on the Office for Social Justice website.

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Schedule of Meetings Amended following the postponement of the Local Government Elections - Shoalhaven City Council - Media Release

 

29 July 2021

On 24 July 2021, the NSW Minister for Local Government revoked the previous order for Council elections to be held on 4 September 2021 and appointed 4 December 2021 as the new date for the NSW Local Government Elections. As a result of this amendment, Council endorsed an amended schedule of meetings at the Ordinary Meeting of Council on Tuesday 27 July. 

The scheduled meeting dates for the period from August 2021 to November 2021 is as follows: 

·        Tuesday 3 August 2021 at 5pm – Ordinary Meeting 

·        Tuesday 31 August 2021 at 5pm – Ordinary Meeting 

·        Tuesday 7 September 2021 at 5pm – Development & Environment Committee 

·        Tuesday 14 September 2021 at 5pm – Strategy & Assets Committee 

·        Tuesday 28 September 2021 at 5pm – Ordinary Meeting 

·        Tuesday 5 October 2021 at 5pm - Development & Environment Committee 

·        Tuesday 12 October 2021 at 5pm – Strategy & Assets Committee 

·        Tuesday 26 October 2021 at 5pm – Ordinary Meeting 

·        Tuesday 2 November 2021 at 5pm – Ordinary Meeting  

For more information on upcoming meetings visit Council’s website: https://www.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au/Council/Meetings/Upcoming-Meetings

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LIKES & FOLLOWERS REQUIRED FOR UPBEAT SING WITH JOHN @ 92.7FM - Facebook Page

 

HELLO ALL! TAKE TIME TO READ!

Thank you to all Upbeat Songs With John @ Bay & Basin 92.7FM that have liked and/or Followed this Page. It is important to increase listeners of the show and this is very important to get a wider audience to Follow And Like. I'm sure you'll all have listened to the program or if not, you will.

Now, the Good NEWS is we have increased the Followers to 91, so far and my current target is 100 - 9 more to go.

The Other Good News is Likes have reached 86 - we need another 14.

So, if you haven't Followed and/liked this Page before, this is your chance to do so. If you have then 'Reach Out' to others by sharing and asking them to do follow and like as well.

#upbeatsongswithjohn #upbeat #Nice #upbeat #audience #Likes

#followers #radioshow #easy #92.7FM #BAB92.7FM #bayandbasin92point7fm

The Wolfe Brothers - Bandinstown

 

The Wolfe Brothers
G'day! We are so excited for our new album 'Kids on Cassette' to come out this Friday, 30 July 2021! Both of us are really proud of the record and can't wait for you to hear it. There is still time to pre order from our online store - https://thewolfebrothers.square.site . There are some epic bundles, including a throwback cassette and player. If you order before 30 July 2021 you will automatically be entered into a chance to win a Fireball prize pack that includes sweet gear from Fireball, a Kids On Cassette Ultimate Bundle and a online 'one on one' with us. We are grateful everyday for your support - thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see you at a live show. We hope you like the album as much as we do! Nick & Tom

Culburra Local Owen Wright claims Bronze Medal at Olympic Games in Tokyo -Shoalhaven City Council - Media Release

29 July 2021

Shoalhaven City Council wishes to congratulate Culburra Beach surfer and Australian Olympian Owen Wright for his outstanding performance in the inaugural surfing competition claiming a Bronze Medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.  

Shoalhaven City Council Mayor Amanda Findley said his nail-biting performance yesterday in the surfing heats was an outstanding performance and that he has done both the Shoalhaven and Australia proud. 

“I would like to offer a massive congratulations to Owen Wright and his family, Tyler and Mikey, all local surfing legends born and bred on Shoalhaven waves – we couldn’t be prouder”, Clr Findley said.  

"As a Shoalhaven local Owen Wright is an inspiration to many in the local surfing community. We are fortunate in the Shoalhaven to enjoy a number of world-class surfing breaks, which will hopefully continue to produce future olympians”, Clr Findley said.  

Find out where you can find your next victory wave in the Shoalhaven at shoalhaven.com/surf.  

IPART has commenced two reviews to support reform of the infrastructure contributions system - NSW IPART

 

 

IPART has commenced two reviews to ensure local infrastructure contributions plans reflect development-contingent costs only.

We have been asked to provide advice to inform an essential works list that would apply to all s7.11 contributions plans and an approach to considering efficient infrastructure design and how nexus is established.

We have also been asked to develop standardised benchmark costs for local infrastructure that councils can use to prepare contributions plans.

We will publish a draft report in October 2021 and final report by December 2021. More details are available on our website here and here.

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