Completely flooded
On the night of Sunday, June 5, The Quarterdeck was completely flooded.
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For Robyn and myself and our family of staff, it was gut wrenching wading through the cold water at 11pm.
Debris was everywhere. We lost fridges, freezers and, of course, a lot of food. There was electrical damage, and damage to the jetty and pontoon.
The next two days we spent cleaning up the mess.
Rob and I cannot thank enough our staff: chef Alicia, “little one” Rebecca, and Carly for working in cold, wet conditions all day on Monday and Tuesday, without complaining once.
Though we had a huge flood of water on Sunday night and Monday morning, it was not as great as the flood of people, customers and friends flooding in with offers of help and support.
It has been truly overwhelming: face-to-face support, phone calls of moral support from country people and social media support from people praying for us from as far away as Texas.
Robyn and I publicly thank everyone for everything you have done for us.
I was told when we moved here 15 years ago that you would never make a million living on this part of the South Coast – and they were right.
But how can you put a value on this community that Robyn and I are blessed to call home?
Big love.
Quarterdeck Chris and Robyn Scroggy
Narooma
Plea for public health
We allowed Tralee’s diagnosis and treatment for the cancer lymphoma to be very public to warn others of the dangers of agricultural chemicals.
The two years of diagnosis and subsequent chemotherapy was made some what easier by being part of a loving and caring community and the knowledge we were covered by what proved to be a fantastic public health system.
We went to the only fully bulk-billing medical practice in Narooma. Here we were diagnosed at the first appointment.
We went to a surgeon who bulk billed through about eight different diagnostic procedures to pin-point the particular type of lymphoma Tralee had. One scan , a PET scan, would have cost $1760.00 without a public health system
Every visit to our specialist and chemo round had a pathology test attached. There were at least 28 such tests. Now every six-monthly trip to our specialist has a blood test attached to it.
The public health system is our medical safety net. The community has paid for it over the decades and we all have a right and expectation it will remain. It works and it is first class.
How any government can now start to destroy it is beyond me. We could not afford to pay for the treatment Tralee had.
And for the thought that women will have to pay for PAP tests and mammograms and men for prostate blood tests show a detachment form the community by some politicians. And what about our bulk billing doctors being undermined.
Even the USA is copying our public system.
Ron and Tralee Snape
Tilba
Stamp duty
Recently, I transferred ownership of a car I purchased.
To my astonishment I found the stamp duty was assessed on the total price paid, inclusive of GST. That is a state tax imposed upon a Commonwealth tax. To my mind, this amounts to outright extortion.
I and no doubt many other car purchasers would be most interested to hear a justification of this extraordinary practice from Bega MP Andrew Constance. Perhaps his government is considering levying stamp duty on top of our rates too?
Stuart B Cameron
Bermagui
Is this democracy?
As a political orphan and a swinging voter, with a substantial contribution to Australia’s civil society over a lengthy lifetime, I believe conscience votes are almost as rare as a sighting of that famous bird, the dodo.
Our parliamentary representatives are selected by their parties to be elected by us, on condition that they vote as dictated by party chiefs. Or else!
Who are the controllers of our political parties? How did they achieve their control? I doubt if either academe or the media could enlighten us. All that we know is that the first priority of our political parties is to be re-elected; but not at the price of giving up any theology-related policy. Theology in politics reached new heights in 2013 in New South Wales. According to Anne Summers, “The vote for Zoe’s Law ... involved a 63-26 majority of Lower House members ... in favour of granting personhood to the foetus.” Ye Gods! In this so-called democracy, Vaticanites seem to have achieved control over both sides of politics
Raja Ratnam
Narooma
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