2The District Reporter Monday June 22, 2009
Letters to the editor
The 2009 State Budget
Eric Rosendaal is Australia's best and brightest State Treasurer at themoment and the state and national media gave the Tuesday StateBudget the thumbs up immediately it was released.Because of the economic downturn, economists were expectinga $2 billion dollar deficit and the Treasurer has halved that figurewhile at the same time slashing stamp duty for first home buyers inthe hope of kick starting the economy through the building industry.The Treasurer has also predicted the budget will be in surplus in justtwo years with an optimistic economic forecast for New SouthWales.The positive responses from both media and economists are instark contrast to the negative campaign that has been run against theNew South Wales Government from the Opposition. It also marksthe end of comments from state and federal oppositions which claimLabor are talking the economy down.Both governments are operating in sync in attacking the eco-nomic downturn and both have identified that the building industryis the best way to protect jobs in Australia. First home buyers cannow qualify to receive more than $40,000 of assistance when build-ing their new home.For the past two years the State Opposition has unfairly attackedthe Labor Government's economic credentials when there was littlethe Government could do to prevent the fall out from the world'sfinancial crisis. The NSWLabor Government has however main-tained its 'AAA' credit rating which means our State is still finan-cially secure, contrary to the misinformation spread in the media.New South Wales is the financial centre but not the resourcescentre of Australia. This means during the resources boom, NSWmissed out on the big money and when the world financial crisisstarted, we were the first state to lose jobs in the financial sector;however our future now appears more secure than other states. Thisis not an issue which can be blamed or credited to politicians of thecurrent era.Running a small state deficit in these tough times is necessary toassist the economy and jobs. It will not be sufficient to completelyshelter us from the international storm, we will get wet but it wouldbe far worse if both national and state governments were running sur-pluses. Economic stimulus early in a downturn will soften the falland will result in a quicker recovery and the quicker the recovery thequicker governments are able to again run surplus budgets.The only disappointment locally is that the proposed Leppingtonrail link has been deferred, but this rail network is designed to assistcommuters north of Narellan and does little for the majority. It nowappears that the new Oran Park development will not proceed ontime unless developers are prepared to drop prices and this means theState Government may be right to defer extending the rail line for afew years.
IF YOU REALLY WANTTO WIN, WHY DON'TYOU CHOOSE TO LOSE?
Camden is a big loser in the 2009 NSWState Budget. TreasurerRoozendall, who hails from the wealthy Eastern Suburbs, hasthrown a few pieces of silver our way, but that's all.When questioned about it in the Parliament he couldn't evenbring himself to mention the word 'C-a-m-d-e-n'. Such is his arro-gance. NSWhas been the major beneficiary of an era of unprece-dented prosperity under the Howard-Costello CoalitionGovernment. Their reforms to our taxation and industrial rela-tions system together with booming property and gambling taxesshould have established NSWas the premier state.But instead of investing in the necessary infrastructure to sup-port economic and social development they spent like drunkensailors on spin doctors, a bloated public service and an inefficienttrade union movement.Now they are blaming everything on the 'GFC' (GlobalFinancial Crisis). If the trains run late - it's 'the GFC'! If you'restuck in a traffic jam - it's 'the GFC'! If you can't get a hospitalbed - it's 'the GFC'! If there is a drive-by shooting in Lakemba -it's 'the GFC'! If your footy team gets beaten - it's the GFC'! Itused to be 'working families'. Now it's 'the GFC!The much touted 'South West Growth Centre' is set to becomea 'South West Ghetto' because there will not be the sufficientinfrastructure to support the new city area. They are going toplonk houses all over the hills without even a railway station toservice them. It is a travesty.There is nothing planned to ease congestion on the M5. TheM5 funnel will continue to choke the traffic flow and consignCamden motorists to a daily dawdle in and out of the city. Thereis absolutely no hope of relief for motorists on the M5 underLabor. Get used to it.There is nothing planned for Camden Valley Way andNarellan Road. The neglect of these two arteries into and out of Camden by this Labor government has been a disgrace.Remember the hoax about the Maternity Ward at CamdenHospital? Premier Bob Carr announced it just before an election.Then he closed it as soon as Labor was re-elected. It remainedclosed under the Iemma-Costa Labor Government and will stayclosed under the Rees-Roozendall black-comedy act.NSWwas once the Premier State with a booming surplus. Itis now an economic basket-case with the largest level of debt wehave ever had. Kicking our largest trading partner in the shins toplacate the unions will ensure it gets much worse before it evenlooks like getting better.Local member, Geoff Corrigan, is right. Labor is living in aparallel universe.
BrianStewart
Lee Abrahams, Editor
New houses need transport options
The Premier Nathan Rees had his job cut out for him last week - trying toselling the NSWBudget. While new home owners are certainly the big win-ners - let's face it - with the amount of grants, cuts to stamp duty and his-torically low interest rates - it has never been a good time to buy property -some would say.The former NSWPlanning Minister, Frank Sartor, when announcing theSouth West Sydney Growth Centre, he said that before any sod is turned inthe new residential area infrastructure will be in place. Unfortunately thathasn't happened yet.Mt Annan might not technically be in the new growth area, but the landthere is quickly being developed and new streets are popping up. When try-ing to locate the street the Premier was supposed to at last week - the 2008street directory didn't have it marked down. In these areas the houses arebeing earmarked and the streets developed and unfortunately the infrastruc-ture isn't.It certainly has a lot to do with the State Government's declining stampduty revenue and so on - money is undoubtedly tight and the south westonce again misses out on important infrastructure.There is no question that the creation of jobs is important, but so is qual-ity of life and if people have to spend hours travelling to and from work itimpacts on family and health.Creating local jobs and encouraging existing industries to grow is oneanswer, this allows people shorter travelling distances, but ultimately pro-viding a reliable transport system is another.The NSWOpposition has jumped on its soap box and it said it will buildthe South West Rail Link in response to Mr Rees apparent disregard forlocal communities if it's elected in 2011.The Leppington rail line is at this moment is not needed - the popula-tion does not warrant it.It's the people in Mt Annan and surrounds who are indesperate need of transport alternatives.Recently, whilst travelling on a bus, I sat behindtwo young women who animatedly comparedtheir respective partners.I know it was rude of me to eavesdrop, butthey spoke at such high volume! I'm sure I was-n't the only one in the bus listening in."My man never argues back," one of themproudly proclaimed, "because he knows he'llnever win!" They laughed together, and a few of us anonymous passengers smiled secretly ateach another.Looking out the window, however, I reflect-ed upon her claim. It was a very hollow boastwhich revealed a rather serious situation.You see, when it comes to marriage - in fact,when it comes to any personal relationship -every time one person wins, both people lose.Playing to win means being certain to lose.This woman was failing to provide a safeplace where her partner could voice an opinionor contribute something which might have beenconstructive to their mutual upbuilding. Byplaying to win, she was intimidating and humil-iating him and, therefore, driving him away.This isn't a gender issue: male or female, anyperson who can't find a safe place to talk willeventually start looking until they find some-where where they can!Furthermore, the young woman's determina-tion to win every argument strongly impliedthat, as far as she was concerned, she's neverwrong - she has nothing more to learn. I findthat hard to believe.Since none of us has it all together, vulnera-bility isn't something to be afraid of.Not playing to win, therefore, is a gift of grace we can give to another.And a gift which both can share.
bstewart@ispdr.net.au
Once again I feel the need, regretfully, to write andcorrect some assertions by Mr Greg Frawley inyour last edition ('Looking closely at spending',June 15, 2009).Once again, I would point out that I have noconcerns with Mr Frawley, or any other citizenexpressing their views publicly, indeed the councilhas consistently encouraged just that process.However, Mr Frawley has made two statementsthat are untrue and misleading and they need to becorrected.Firstly, Mr Frawley is correct in identifyingthat council recently purchased a property inTurner Road at Currans Hill. He is, however, com-pletely incorrect in suggesting that it is an "invest-ment property".The property was the subject of a public openspace zoning over 80 per cent of its area and theowners invoked a hardship clause in state legisla-tion that compelled the council to acquire the landquite well in advance of when it might otherwisehave done so. It has been purchased for futurerecreational purposes.Given the nature of the request for early acqui-sition it is not appropriate to publicly discuss thefiner details of the purchase, however, the resolu-tion to acquire the property is publicly recorded inthe minutes of the council meeting and council'sland register is a public document and is availablefor public scrutiny.In the matter of the P&N Softdrinks develop-ment, Mr Frawley is completely wrong and anyrudimentary investigation would have alerted himto that fact.As a designated development under the stateplanning legislation, the applicant had the choiceof having council assess the application or for it tobe decided by the Minister for Planning. Thedeveloper was well aware of this and actively pro-moted the application to the Department of Planning with council simply assisting with asmuch background material as possible. TheMinister for Planning refused to approve the appli-cation. Council staff subsequently worked withP&N to identify a suitable site that wouldn't sufferfrom the constraints that lead to the PlanningMinister's refusal of the first application. In broad-casting this erroneous story Mr Frawley does thecouncillors and council staff working with P&N agrave disservice, as well as calling into questionthe professionalism of the company itself.I regret the need for such a rebuttal of thesematters but feel the need to correct these mis-state-ments as they do not reflect the truth.
Greg WrightGeneral ManagerCamden Council
Dig a little deeper for right answers
If you would like to send a Letter to the Editor, please keep your letter to a reasonable length, 200 words is pre- ferred. Letters can be edited for space or legal reasons. Address all correspondence To the Editor, The District Reporter, PO Box 116, Camden 2570.
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