So many people disappeared from Narooma on the long weekend to enjoy the lively Jazz festival at Merimbula, the music, sunshine and vitality with school bands playing outside the cafes on the water, lovely walks (with as yet no shooting in the National Parks) shopping and delicious eating.

Others flocked to Bodalla to the school fair and other activities - lots of fun things to do at Tilba, the bicycling and our beautiful beaches and fishing.

Why would anyone bother protesting outside li'l old Pretendfest, a grey affair symbolically surrounded by a decimated townscape?

HuntFest is about turning our society into a gun culture.

The all-powerful National Rifle Association of America ensures that legislators will not tighten gun laws and they have been putting their substantial resources into this country.

The tightening of gun laws by John Howard after the massacre at Pt. Arthur to make it difficult for some people to get a licence and to prevent the sale of pump action and semi-automatics, is all about to change.

The Four Corners program (Hunting in Nat. Parks June 10) showed how unsafe farming families on the edge of National Parks were, as rifles with a range of 5km bounce all around them and happy hunters with no maps, no skill and no care shoot at native wildlife - protesting they didn't know they were on a Reserve.

Experienced hunters who were interviewed talked about how easy it was to shoot someone accidentally and how a bloke shot his hunting mate as he was resting in his Dri as a Bone under a tree.

They were worried - as all of us who want to enjoy our parks safely should be - that hordes of eager hunters not tested for gun proficiency, with no ethics about guns, animals or the environment are let loose to shoot at will.

We have learned that not too many people benefit from wars- it's mainly the manufacturers of guns who do.

Tourism doesn't. It's understandable that people running businesses don't want to be political in case they alienate potential customers.

People who stick their head up to protest get misrepresented and personally attacked.

This issue is political and can only be resolved by sensible legislators.  In a world that is becoming increasingly marked by extremism it seems this is unlikely to happen. When good people fail to speak out…then there is even less hope.

Gina Armstrong

Narooma

Please explain

HuntFest 2014 has reported that $900,000 was earned by local businesses during three days of the long weekend in June.

Will they please reveal via local media, how this figure was arrived at? Was a survey of commercial outlets carried out, and if so, by whom?

Was this amount plucked out of the air to divert attention from the fact that HuntFest is lobbying ESC for permission to sell guns, ammunition, bows and arrows at 2015 HuntFest?

If this request is granted, then our local Sports and Leisure Centre facility will be turned into a retail outlet for deadly weapons – and who is to predict what will happen in the future.

Is the making of money more important than the protection of children from this culture of killing and violence?

Hazel Constable

Dalmeny

Party philosophy only

To repeal the mining tax and delay in contribution increases to compulsory superannuation is a short term view taken by our Federal Government, the decision is based on party philosophy rather than what is good for the nation as a whole.

It has been reported by financial experts that by delaying the 0.5 per cent incremental annual increase in super contribution for seven years will cost workers, some $128 billion in total as a lost payout at the end of their working life, at the same token there is a constant barrage "Fix the budget".

What the government has done in its ill-founded decision, it has increased the future dependence of workers towards old age pension from Centrelink rather than reliance on their Superannuation payout at the end of their working life.

This in turn will increase the budgetary pressures on future governments to fund old age pensions that could have been avoided with a sensible approach to superannuation in a timely manner, rather than approach with an ideology that is belonging in the Stone Age.

Similarly, if the mining tax in its current form did not bring the benefits to the nation, why not then redesign the tax formation to ensure that the benefits are there for the common good rather than scrapping it entirely to please the mining companies and the mega rich.

The current Federal Government cannot accept the fact that the tax burden must be shared equally and not only by workers who have their income tax deducted from each pay packet, why is it that the large multinationals are protected species as far as tax is concerned.

Profit shifting is the main game at the big end of the town and it appears that the game is sanctioned by the Federal Government.

Mark Ikonen

Dalmeny  

A different meeting

Response to Peter Comicks Letter -Narooma News I write to respond to Peter Cormicks Letter (Narooma News 3/9)in which he berated Clr Neil Burnside over amendments he made to a motion on Huntfest by Clr Gabi Harding.

I was was at this meeting when Clr Burnside made his address and I have a completely different interpretation of his presentation.

In fact, I think Mr Cormick must have been at a different meeting.

Apart from his rather strange take on the economics of injecting $900,000 into the town of Narooma from the attendees at the event, he has totally misrepresented what Clr Burnside said.

In an objective, rational manner Clr Burnside argued that it would be discriminatory to have one rule for HuntFest and another for everyone else, a point accepted by the majority of councillors who voted for the amendment which became the motion.

Mr Cormick has once again demonstrated that he, and his ilk, will stop at nothing, including personal abuse, in acheving their aims.

Roy Jenkins

Malua Bay

An August march seeks change

What a joy it was to join the good spirit of the Bega Valley March for better government on Saturday, August 30!

A multicolour, multicultural, multi-political crowd clamouring for change.

Faced with the threat of an obscene budget punishing the most vulnerable in our society: the poor, sick, disabled, unemployed, school children, tertiary students, refugees etc. and with only some flimsy buffer provided by Clive Palmer and his stooges, no wonder a great majority of Australians feel nervous about the future.

Speaker after speaker outlined a bleak future from cuts to TAFE, Health and Education services (with the notable exception of the last one who chose to blow his own religious trumpet).

A standout was Dave, a young Djiringanj man who, while refusing to give up the struggle for full respect of the rights of the Original Owners, asked the assembly to “think” about the victimisation, slaughter and dispossession of the First inhabitants of this land, instead of echoing the politicians' mantra of “moving on”. Pity Abbott and Morrison weren’t there in 1788 to stop the boats!

Well done Bega Valley! I look forward to the next protest action.

In the meantime: SPOT the Boats and GUIDE the Asylum Seekers Ashore.

Bernard Lagarenne

Merimbula  

Mayor’s say… Good access means good business

Last year at around this time I wrote about Council’s Disability Advisory Committee’s second Good Access means Good Business Award that aims to raise awareness in the business and wider community about the difficulties that people living with disability face when trying to access local businesses and spend their money locally.

Throughout the year the committee and Council staff has been promoting the economic and social benefits of making your business accessible.

Around 19 per cent of Eurobodalla residents live with disability and when they are out and about shopping and doing their day to day business they are likely to have with them their carers, families and friends.

As well as locals, there are probably a similar percentage of visitors with disability who come here for a holiday or to spend time with their friends and families, who also have a significant spending power.

Is your business providing services to this important and valuable market sector?

If you are, and you’re doing it well then I encourage you to nominate for the 2014 Good Access means Good Business Award that will be given to a local business that is making a genuine effort to offer their goods or services to everyone in our community, including those living with disability.

Or maybe you shop or do business with a business that has impressed you with their commitment to providing exceptional customer service to being accessible? If you have, please nominate them for this award.

Nominating only takes a few minutes and you can do this by filling out a postcard that you can pick up at our three libraries and customer service centre in Moruya, by sending an email to contactcentre@eurocoast.nsw.gov.au or by phoning 4474 1300.

More details on Council’s website.

I know that many business I talk to have given some thought to becoming more accessible, and I understand the costs involved.

It’s not always easy and I know that it is usually not from a lack of interest or desire to be able to service this sector.

It is however always timely to ask yourself how much business are you loosing and how can you make your business more accessible to people with disability and to mum and dads with prams, frail older people the people who support and care for them.

If you would like to know more about how to do this, please visit the disability page on council’s website where you will find some useful resources about to how to make your business more accessible.

Please let me know if there is any issue you feel Eurobodalla Shire Council may be able to help you with.

You can email me at mayor@eurocoast.nsw.gov.au or phone me on 0418 279 215.

Clr Lindsay Brown

Mayor of Eurobodalla Shire  

Witnessing the conservation revolution

Dear Mr Leslight, There was a time when farmers were penalised with higher council rates for leaving land uncleared.

Thank goodness that mindset is passing, but its legacy is with us in eroded gullies, collapsed soil structure and remnant tree die-back over much of rural Australia.

Now, and not before time, we are witnessing the Conservation Revolution. Farmers now respect their ecosystems, including soil flora and fauna, using them to conserve moisture, fertilize naturally and let worms do much of the tilling for them. This is not just altruism.

It saves fuel, time and cost. And let's not get started on a conversation regarding the health of pollinators like bees, or we will be here all day. By their actions, farmers are spreading the word that natural systems are our friend and ally, not an enemy to be subdued and forced to be what it is not.

But, there are some who still create permanent damage, with inappropriate 'development' of land, be it farming, grazing or conservation.

And there are still some who regard land, even first class farming land, as 'Urban land awaiting development' and cannot wait to pave it over. We were all ignorant then, and some are ignorant now.

The question for us is, do we allow the ignorant to continue to wreak havoc in the name of freedom, or do we set boundaries.

It is our choice, as ratepayers and custodians of this country, where those boundaries are drawn. Who do you speak for, and where are your boundaries, Mr Leslight?

Stafford Ray

Denhams Beach

A poem for Barry Lake

Condolenses to Barry Lake’s family from all the members of Narooma Sport and Gamefishing Club after he passed on earlier this month.

As a tribute, the members penned the following poem.

Barry was a Poet

He was good, we all know it

He'd burst into rhyme

At any given time

He'd verse and curse

Tell stories then diverse

He'd be off on a tangent

Another story to be told

Have everyone in awe

Then put us on hold

Back to which story, we didn't care

We all sat    glued  with a stare

No end to his knowledge, his wit and his smile

They'd come to listen to him from many a mile

He filled his life from the day he was born

From early childhood to his eventual dawn

Always one to talk and discuss

He went about everything with little fuss

He loved to eat, especially if it was free!

But tell stories and poems was his gift......and for no fee!

Narooma will miss him, there's no doubt

Those stories of the Outback the Sea and the Trout

Now he's in Heaven

narrating as he loves

Surrounded by the stars and the magnificent White Doves

Barry Lake  you were a true Gentleman and Scholar

we'll hear those poems again

when we all follow.