No need for transport. What a coup to obtain this perfect position. Sloping land so all tenants can see over the neighbour to a water view.

No building would obstruct the view of existing locals. No need (like other ventures) to declare anything that spoils the view as diseased or dangerous, and ugly overhead lines, historical trees, jetties, etc, must be immediately removed for safety reasons.

The small greedy self interested ‘mob’ that is indignantly voicing disapproval (of course only with the best interest of the future tenants in mind - ha, ha, ha, ha) all live around this paddock.

They think it is their private park and have knocked down their fences or haven’t built any.

But I’ve never seen anyone ever clean up or even walk in that paddock. All their houses on the Princes Highway are ground level at the front and up to four stories high at the back deck.

If the existing residents say their blocks are too steep and should not be built on, then demolish their own homes!

Of course the new development will not be steep after earthworks, and has a level access through Davidson Street.

This is the best block you could imagine for public housing, I applaud the foresight.

There is not a flat block of land in Narooma and there are homes built everywhere hanging on cliffs, or hanging on their neighbour’s roof, with no access at all to the actual block under the house.

I’d rather live in the desert with a little separation, unable to hear the neighbour snoring or others bumps in the night.

Anytime soon a developer would have snatched that paddock and built high-rise million dollar ‘apartments’ that would remain empty all year, owned by city people, like the majority of units in town now.

What a boost for the economy, rates only, nothing for local business…

Thank God for the Government finally doing something right. Bring in the bulldozers before the ‘do-gooders’ gain support for their self interest and continue to drag Narooma down with their greed, yelling “There goes the neighbourhood”.

W. Gade

Narooma

Suspend Housing NSW project immediately

WHAT further evidence is required of the madness of the proposed low rental housing at 192 Princes Highway, Narooma when the only one holding out is the NSW Minister of Housing - a modern day King Canute it seems?

Eurobodalla Council, politicians from both persuasions, people from all walks of life and professions have expressed serious reservations about this project and the long-term welfare of the proposed tenants in terms of isolation, access, services etc – and suggested other more appropriate sites

Narooma has a history of the gradual withdrawal of essential services – at the same time being subject to a determined attempt to reduce sub-dividable land to halt population increase.

Obviously therefore this proposal flies in the face of Narooma’s long-term planning policy.

Teachers and nursing staff and other essential service providers, reluctant to speak, believe that the government is trading on their goodwill and professional integrity “to keep things going”.

If the Government is so keen to spend short-term why not invest wisely – classrooms (the Primary School has had demountables for 30 years), roads, a gazetted psychiatric ward in Moruya, northern approach to the bridge, Centenary Drive intersection, Macmillan Road/ Bluewater Drive realignment and roundabout, safe access to the Bowling Club, indoor sports stadium/ swimming pool complex, another boardwalk, landscaping, streetscaping, footpaths etc. – the list is endless and all instant expenditure.

Then there are the longer-term projects needing attention…

We again call on the Minister to suspend this project pending a full review by the State and Local authorities in conjunction with the residents in accordance with his own website.

John Wallens

Narooma

If not 192 Princes Highway, where?

I AM loath to get into the "tit-for-tat" thing, but I note, with absolutely no surprise whatsoever, that when it comes to defending the indefensible, one can still count on people to resort to lies and misleading innuendo when persuasive argument eludes them.

I refer to the Letters section of the March 10 edition of the Narooma News and Mr Brian Cassidy's response to my opinion piece of some weeks back, in which he states:

"But then again it’s his [presumably my] job to follow party lines isn’t it."

For the record, I am not now, nor have I ever been associated with any political party or faction. In fact, that my lobbying and advocacy for affordable housing over the years has been a consummate thorn in the side of government is perhaps the one topic on which all parties, state and federal, would agree.

I am not now, nor have I ever been employed by any govt department, housing organisation or welfare group with an interest in public/social housing.

I do not receive any funding, from any source, whatsoever, for anything. I do what I do because I have something the likes of Mr Cassidy lack -- an unbiased social conscience and the capacity to see beyond my own comfort zone.

To attempt to make irrelevant socially responsible statements and policy positions by claiming they are politically motivated is the oldest, most unprincipled and scurrilous trick in the book.

It is also the most common.

My challenge to the likes of Mr Cassidy is simple.

If you are in fact concerned about appropriate location of public/social housing, and you are not against having social housing in the community per se, pray, tell us where in Narooma it would be better located?

Garry Mallard

National Tenant Support Network coordinator

Where are all the soldier crabs?

AFTER holidaying in Narooma for the past 12 years, this is the first time we haven't seen any soldier crabs at the inlet end of the boardwalk.

Two locals I spoke with also said the same thing.

What will this do to the Narooma inlet ecosystem, and why and where are they?

Helena Sowden

Narellan

Missing out the real “important issues”

“WHAT issues are most important to you” asks our Federal Member of the Rudd Government, Hon Dr Mike Kelly AM MP in his glossy survey and then goes on to list 12 items that he would like us to prioritise.

Surprisingly, the only environmental issue listed is “Investing in solar and wind power”.

Investing in solar and wind power offers a very small step towards reducing our carbon footprint but it will not arrest global warming, it will not help our threatened and endangered species nor protect our bio-diversity, it will not reduce the risk of catastrophic fires in our forests and it will do nothing to protect the integrity of our water catchments and precious waterways.

Deforestation and forest degradation through logging creates between 20 per cent and 25 per cent of this country’s greenhouse gasses and we have recently learned that logging of native eucalypt forests dries out the forest floor and increases the risk of wildfire.

With the recent deluges of rain in the area, we’ve seen the ongoing impact of sand in our waterways, most of it generated by the removal of trees, and we now learn that one of the last surviving colonies of koala in south-east NSW is to be put under further stress by imminent logging of their habitat from Tathra to Gulaga.

I urge your readers to get a copy of the Interim Report on Koala Surveys in the Coastal Forests of the Bermagui-Mumbulla Area released by NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water three weeks ago and available on their website.

There’s more than enough plantation timber ready for harvest right now than this country’s total needs including exporting of woodchips for paper production in Japan.

With royalties of $7.60 per ton for logs out of Eurobodalla going to the Eden chipmill, it’s no wonder that the NSW government posted a loss of $14,500,000 last financial year from its forest operations.

The Rudd Government has the power to put an end to the senseless logging of our natural native forests and I urge your readers to get the message back to Dr Kelly that pouring millions of dollars into Indonesia to save their forests while sacrificing the habitat of our few remaining koalas in this area is just not on.

Seán Burke

Akolele

Response to Mr. John Perkins

MR. Perkins accuses Dave Clark and myself of being “deliberately malicious” concerning the Batemans Marine Park (Narooma News, March 3).

A serious accusation, but in the next four paragraphs of his letter he fails to give any example to back up his accusation.

I will repeat for the benefit of Mr. Perkins. The issue the vast majority of anglers have with the Batemans Marine Park, indeed all NSW Marine Parks, is that none of the real threats to marine biodiversity and sustainable ecosystems are considered.

Absolutely no effort has been, or will be, put into the serious issues of fish kills in Northern NSW nor investigating the effects of agricultural run-off and urban pollution on the marine or estuary ecosystems that kill tens of millions of fish and juveniles per year. The Marine Parks Authority even admits it cannot address these issues.

If Kosciuszko National Park was managed in a similar way then no effort would be made to remove weeds, feral animals or control bushfires.

The Marine Parks Authority claims that NSW Marine Parks protect “coastal biodiversity and ecological processes” are gross distortions of reality. They are no more than a cover-up of the failure of the NSW Government to address the real threats to our coastal ecosystems over the past 14 years.

MPA scientists are desperately trying to prove that there are more fish in Sanctuary zones than in other parts of the Marine Park, and are using selective areas to “prove” it.

If they can’t prove this then the Government may not be so keen on squandering millions of dollars per year.

Therefore they will prove it, by whatever means it takes.

These same scientists believe that the sanctuary zones within the Solitary Islands and Jervis Bay marine parks should be substantially increased, guess what they will say when the Batemans MP comes up for review?.

True marine conservationists should realize these deficiencies and lobby the government to redirect taxpayer funds to worthwhile areas, not the window dressing of ‘Marine Parks”.

True marine conservationists are the fishermen, both commercial and recreational, who rely on the sea and estuaries for a living or recreation.

Mr. Perkins is not a scientist, nor a marine conservationist, nor a fisherman.

He copied the exact same letter to the Bay Post, merely changing the name of the people he has accused of being “deliberately malicious”, what a crock.

Philip Creagh

Narooma Port Committee

More on climate science

AS Climate Science has been much discussed, some additional comments…

Why carbon dioxide is labeled as a pollutant is most strange. It is essential for life. Its rising concentration in the atmosphere has aided the ‘green revolution’ for higher crop yields.

The theoretical temperature rise due to carbon dioxide in the last 50 years is about 0.20C. Solar changes are estimated to be about the same, and ignored by the CRU, GISS & NOAA groups and the IPCC.

The Urban Heat Island effect averaged over the planet may be about the same, but attempts compensate for this have appeared to have had the opposite effect, increasing the apparent temperature rise. Some researchers have compared raw temperature data to that produced by the above groups and found strange anomalies.

Over the last 10-12 years the global temperatures have appeared to pause, while carbon dioxide levels have continued to rise.

During this time the sun has been less “active” than over the previous 25-30 years. No way like IPCC projections but we may now see global cooling in the next few decades!

Similar discrepancies are found in sea level data from tide gauges. Using NOAA's data, an independent researcher calculated that the global average mean sea levels have been creeping up at a rate of only about 0.5-1.1 mm/year.

Even the high end of the range of gauges is less then two-thirds of the 1.8 mm/year rate which the IPCC claims.

Sea levels were over 100m lower 15,000 yrs ago, as the last ice age ended. They were higher about 7,000 years ago in the Holocene Climate Optimum – these huge changes take place independent of humans.

Do not dismiss the so-called Climategate files as unimportant. They revealed how these groups controlled this area of science and how those with other interpretations became victims.

While Dr Nott may have sat reading Tim Flannery’s book in a heat wave on January 1, 2006, I remember sitting on Collaroy Beach in January 1939 in the oft-referred to heat-wave of that year, and also experiencing five days in a row in Sydney in January 1970 with the temperatures 38 to 42oC (100-1080F), with no air-conditioning at work or at home with a six-week old infant.

The weather and climate continually change in cyclical patterns, mostly governed by the sun and the large planets.

Paul Goard, B.Sc.

North Narooma

The planet gets hotter

IF you look at the blogsphere you can support any position on climate change you wish to take. If you look at peer reviewed science then human induced climate change and its effects are strongly supported.

One of the most frequently used arguments by climate sceptics is to say that the planet has stopped warming, or is in fact cooling.

This statement is made by looking at a short-term fluctuation, and calling it a trend. Support for the global cooling argument is based on a solitary year, 1998, which was abnormally hot and outside of the trend line because of an intense El Nino event that year.

If you look at a decadal temperature trend, you eliminate short term influences like the El Nino Southern Oscillation, and other variables like sun spot cycles. If you look at the graph from the National Atmospheric and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of North America there is a clear warming trend of 0.2 degrees per decade since the 1970s.

This warming trend is supported by all the scientific organisations measuring global temperature. There is no evidence to suggest that this trend is slowing or reversing, and all the evidence in the peer reviewed literature suggests this warming is due to rising levels of atmospheric CO2 from human emissions.

There is no genuine scientific evidence that casts doubt on that statement, although you can find as much contrary information you like in the blogsphere.

This is not just a global phenomenon. The CSIRO state very clearly that all Australian states are warming, in all seasons, and the warming trend will continue as human emissions continue to rise.

To say that human induced climate change is a hoax is to say that climate change is a conspiracy of unprecedented proportions.

Matthew Nott

Clean Energy for Eternity

Does Kevin Rudd care?

KEVIN Rudd made two gigantic mistakes to date, and that is not caring for the Australian people one bit, and the other was to keep on losing the peoples trust and not remedying it.

He never thought of the people; the people's future, not thinking or caring on how the people are going to pay for every single mistake or bungle he has made since becoming Prime Minister.

He failed to get his policies like fuel watch and grocery watch through. His climate change was a fiasco, his insulation project was a tragedy, and now he wants to take all the Australian hospitals, and he doesn't care two hoots what disastrous effect it will have on the hospitals, or the sick.

Four people died because he let the insulation program go ahead, so is he going to let any disastrous mistake happen to hospitals or the sick, I think so!

Also, we have to start thinking of how we will pay off his 'borrowed money' debt and his 'Santa Claus' money.

Holding off the recession was one thing, but paying off the huge sum to keep it off, is quite another.

Kevin Rudd is the Prime Minister who doesn't care about any mishap, he incurs.

Shirley Goodin

Narooma

The highs and lows of Vancouver

MY Winter Olympics athleticism consists of watching events in front of the television in a very comfortable reclining chair!

I am a confirmed couch potato when it comes to any sport but I just adore watching the ice dancing and figure skating events more than any other winter sports.

However, what I really hate about watching them on television is the inane commentaries.

I can see what is happening, so why do the commentators have to spoil the performance with their stupid remarks?

For example, being told for the umpteenth time that the skater is performing “twirls” or the “skates are on the outside edge” is not appropriate and it just ruins the enjoyment of the spectacle for the viewer.

All I’m interest in is the brilliance of the skater doing something incredibly fantastic - something I cannot do!

And another thing.

I appreciate that ice rinks are huge and that musical amplification is a problem, but why, oh why do skaters choose the most ghastly or, more often, the most inappropriate music.

For example, one skater chose Mozart’s “Requiem”, which I love, but is it really appropriate? It is after all, a mass for the dead.

Surely this is supposed to be a happy occasion for the living, even though it is tense and nerve- wracking.

Others have chosen fast, loud and tuneless modern music which is equally wrong.

Fast yes, because the skaters are pretty speedy, but tuneless? Never.

I suppose the fact that a commercial television channel has sole coverage of these Winter Olympics also bugs me as everything is doled out in careful parcels between the ad breaks.

As it has all been pre-recorded, it makes it doubly galling. Why too, do commercial stations retain their ugly old male presenters, when they pension off their gorgeous young women at 30?

The women do a much better job of holding our attention with their lively delivery, especially if you are male – but even we females prefer them to the ugly old dinosaurs!

If only the ABC or SBS had won the contract, how different it would be. Or would it? Now we have the Paralympics, I note that the ABC will be broadcasting the events for half an hour each night but at the bewitching hour of midnight. I just cannot win!

Chris Mason

Narooma