Dawn service perfect
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I have just returned home from the Dawn Service at Club Narooma, and would like to sincerely congratulate all those responsible for this morning’s ceremony. The Choir was superb, the Service perfect, and the attendance beyond belief. I think everyone made Australia proud.
Bev Bensley
Narooma
Give us visionary ideas
While the process of determining the future model of the shire's Visitors' centres is ongoing, there is a small but vocal number of people arguing for the maintenance of the status quo, and I'm compelled to write to let the community know that this is simply not an option.
We've received positive responses from many people who see this as an opportunity to direct our attention to the vast majority of tourists who come here, but don't visit our centres, to unlock the spending power they possess. Critics - those for no change - say that the information we have at hand is inaccurate (untrue), that we've already made our decision on a future model (untrue) and that we don't value the efforts of our centre staff (untrue).
Laurelle Pacey, in correspondence with council and in this paper, focusses on disputing the percentages of people walking through the doors and data provided by Tourism Research Australia.
I'll aim to refocus the discussion on the big picture instead. There is a steady decline in the trend of centre users against the rapidly increasing practice of looking for information online or by phone.
Laurelle and I appear to agree that over 90 per cent of visitors never darken the doorway of our centres yet the council spends well over half the $1.2M tourism budget on the (less than) 10 per cent who do - after they arrive here.
Laurelle uses Aurora research to claim visitors spend more on holiday after visiting centres but this company is paid by the state to accredit Visitor Centres nationally and has a vested interest in the status quo. She appears not to appreciate the increasingly tech savvy, computer literate smart phone/iPad users - the cashed up, aware and enquiring demographic, happy to spend big on their holiday.
Her inference that the 'savvys' sit, lonely, in their motel room, cabin or tent with nothing to do in Narooma because they didn't avail themselves of the centre's services is patently ridiculous.
They've already demonstrated their ingenuity by negotiating a myriad of sites to gather information on their own.
We need to find a more economic way of delivering face to face services and there are numerous examples everywhere of how this can be done.
How many visitors ask if the service is provided by council staff or someone else? Would their length of stay or their 'spend' differ depending on this? Of course not.
We need savings so we can concentrate on competing in the very competitive Digital tourism space and we can't do it with the current method of running the centres.
No decision has been made on the future model of the centres, but they will not close.
We have already seen several proposals which could work. The option of doing nothing would be irresponsible and untenable.
No-one has ever questioned the professionalism of our existing staff but the expense of it denies us the ability to be involved in the revolution in communication occurring not just here, but world-wide.
There are numerous examples of non-Council labour providing visitor services. My own (random) visits to centres around Australia didn't find any model as expensive as ours but did discover a variety of enthusiastic professional people only too willing to promote their district to anyone who'd listen.
We propose that this type of service continue but that we be freed to address the 'elephant in the room'; the 90 per cent plus who will continue to use new methods to plan and book their holidays.
Narooma is much, much more than this vocal minority would have us believe. Give us your visionary ideas!
Clr Neil Burnside
Narooma
To be at peace
I had not long been born and it was the last stop for Jack, my 20-year-old uncle who went off to fight in World War II.
He never came back. I grieve for my uncle whom I never knew. He felt closer than ever this Anzac Day. I felt distressed on waking…
What if we’re getting it wrong? What if he and the millions of other fine young men and women are screaming out to us now from their graves.
“War is not the way. It’s despicable. Don’t use us to condone war. Surely by now you would’ve found a more enlightened way to solve your differences.”
P. Delaney
Narooma
Heartening to know more tourism options
It is heartening to know that discussion regarding the tourism visitor services proposal is still very much alive and building momentum amongst the Narooma community.
As we are all very much aware, tourism is everybody’s business and the life blood of our town and currently worth $388 million to the shire.
I urge everyone to take the time to read the proposal, available at Narooma Library and Council’s website, and send a submission to all Councillors before May 20.
If you are unable to forward a submission please sign the petitions circulating around town as well as in many business places.
We encourage everyone to support our stance of totally opposing the proposal to implement a new model for delivery of visitor services in the Eurobodalla shire without having the long overdue face to face and open discussion with industry and the community before any decision by council is made regarding tourism services in our town.
Lesley Heffernan
Narooma
Thoughts on what we remember
On Anzac Day we properly recall the heroism and mateship of Australia and New Zealand troops not only at Anzac Cove but also on the Western Front in France.
What we do not recall is the appalling mismanagement by politicians and the appalling tactics of senior military leaders.
Gallipoli: We know that the troops were not landed at the correct beach but some distance away with steep terrain where the defenders were able to pour concentrated fire down onto the troops killing some in the boats and more on the beach.
The field commanders had no choice but to make the best of the situation.
What is disturbing is that the senior military leaders did not authorise the removal of the troops to the intended site and allowed them to be slaughtered while fighting against overwhelming odds.
Western Front: The war there appears to have disintegrated into a war of attrition with both sides endeavouring to wear the other out.
The senior military leaders persisted in sending troops to attack the enemy across no man’s land in the face of machine guns time after time. The costs of that in injury, suffering and loss of life and war materiel was enormous.
That cost would have funded a second front further to the north a thought which appears not to have occurred to the politicians and senior military leaders, thinking along outdated tactical lines and not seeking a better way. Instead of being lauded they should have been shamed.
Robert King
Narooma
Mayor's say… Stepping up to a fitter future
Fit for the Future is the clever and catchy name that the NSW Government have given to their long waited recommendations for the reform of local government.
While it’s currently topical on the blogs and in media, there is nothing new about the need for councils and their communities to look at how to improve their financial position.
In Eurobodalla we started our community conversation about how to meet the needs and expectations of our residents some years ago through the development of our first Community Strategic Plan, and through the many times since then that we have asked for your feedback on our budgets, plans, strategies, proposals and policies.
Through this time we have also worked closely with our neighbouring shires to share some costs and identify where we can collaborate across the boundaries to improve efficiencies.
Eurobodalla, Bega and Shoalhaven are amongst the group of 38 councils across NSW (there are 152 councils in NSW) that the independent review of local government has recommended continue as standalone councils, citing that this group has the scale and capacity needed to progress towards being financially sustainable in the future.
As the NSW Government’s Fit for the Future package is based on the findings of this review, our three councils are not considering amalgamations or boundary adjustments.
We will however actively be part of one of the new joint organisations of councils (JOCs) that will be working together to develop opportunities for shared services.
In Eurobodalla our proposal to develop a five to 10-year plan to meet the NSW Government’s Fit for the Future program is a long-term project and I welcome the opportunity to build on the work we have already done to improve our financial situation to meet the new criteria.
Your feedback, along with legal, financial, social, economic and environmental considerations, will help this term of council and future terms work towards sound outcomes for the community.
While you may not always agree with the decisions made in council, the process is democratic and there is no lack of opportunity for members in the community to get involved.
Criticising what council does and the decisions made on anonymous blogs or by circulating offensive emails is not being involved, and it is certainly not helping build a sustainable future for Eurobodalla.
By all means have your say, but please make it well informed, based on facts and with an understanding of the whole story and the impact on future generations, as we have to.
This week our annual budget and plans will go on public exhibition and once again I urge you to read them and let us know your views, and come along to one of the three information sessions if you can.
As we won’t hear if our application for a special rate variation is successful till mid May – this year’s budgets and plans are delivered with two scenarios – one with a rate variation and one without.
The Narooma session is at the Narooma Library, Monday, May 18 at 6pm.
Please let me know if there are any issues that council can assist with. You can contact me at mayor@eurocoast.nsw.gov.au or phone 0418 279 215.
Clr Lindsay Brown, Mayor of Eurobodalla Shire
Doctors concerned at column's claims
Doctors have contacted AMA (NSW) concerned that a regular advertorial for Grandpa’s Garden run in your newspaper is advising people not to get vaccinations by providing them with untrue and shocking claims.
Particularly alarming is the advertorial entitled We Create Drug Addicts that directly linked a vaccination to the development of a mental illness that ended in suicide.
This is not only irresponsible in sending the untrue message that immunisation is harmful but is also a terrible example of writing that is both insensitive and potentially alarming to people with mental health conditions, people who self-harm, and anyone connected to someone who has taken their own life.
All of this is ignoring the fact that it is an added layer of offensiveness to be linking a medical procedure like vaccination with drug addiction.
The advertorial Medicine Gone Mad does not have the same capacity to be as offensive to as diverse a group of people but it is still extremely irresponsible writing.
The truth of the matter is that all reliable evidence points to vaccines being both safe and effective.
They are called the most successful public health measure with good reason – they are responsible for saving millions of lives every year and preventing millions more from having lifelong disability.
Whooping cough, measles, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, and a host of other vaccine preventable illnesses are all potentially deadly.
Just to use the example of measles, for people who have been infected, some go on to develop swelling of the brain that can cause death or permanent brain damage.
Even unluckier people can develop a horrifying and always deadly condition called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis that strikes years after they recover from measles.
These people take up to two years to die as they gradually lose control of their bodies.
Measles is an extraordinarily infectious virus and this is the very good reason why as many people as possible need to be immunised against it.
The World Health Organisation says that 95% of a population need to be immunised to ensure measles won’t gain a foothold.
A diverse range of people, including children too young to be vaccinated, are why doctors encourage so many people to keep their immunisations up to date.
People who are undergoing treatment for cancer, people with HIV, and people who medically cannot be vaccinated are also the ones we are trying to protect with high vaccination rates.
It’s not just about keeping an individual safe but, rather, the entire community.
Despite all the available evidence that vaccines are safe and effective and save millions of lives every year, there is still confusion among the public about their safety.
One of the major reasons is articles like the advertorials in your newspaper that recklessly and incorrectly describe vaccines as unsafe.
If Grandpa’s Garden wants to advertise its products and services in advertorials, that is fine.
However, it crosses many lines when retailers pretend to offer health advice and spend entire articles maligning another profession.
I strongly encourage you to persuade the people at Grandpa’s Garden to either stay on point when advertising their own products and services or to stop writing harmful advertorials altogether.
Dr Saxon D. Smith
President, AMA (NSW)
Vaccinate now
Thank you John Cowan!
Your letter regarding Grandpa's Garden's many advertorial comments was spot on!
So many times I have been angered, aghast and amazed at why stuff like like that is published in our local newspaper.
I have also been worried that someone may start taking advice about not having chemotherapy (try carrot juice instead!), not vaccinating our babies and children, ignoring a lump in your breast or anywhere else,
not taking medicines prescribed by a doctor and lots more "advice" dished up weekly.
A close friend underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment last year for a very aggressive cancer and she is now well.
Her year was very hard to endure but she chose to do it all with the goal at the end; survival to live and see her grandchildren grow.
People having cancer treatment are brave but their alternative is to die much earlier. This friend's doctor has said many times that she would have died within the year without treatment.
Why haven't the medical professionals in our area not commented on this irresponsible medical advice being printed weekly?
Anyone can go online and find adverse comments about medical procedures themselves but most of us weigh up the risks and go with the medical advice given.
Unless you have a medical degree or in-depth medical knowledge, you do not have the right to alarm people about sensitive, emotional medical issues they may already be facing!
Judy Gordon
Dalmeny
Vanuatu relief appeal update
From the very first day the people of Narooma got right behind our appeal as they have in the past.
Over a couple of weeks we made friends with so many wonderful and generous folk.
A special “thank you” must go to Madeleine who had migrated from Port Vila several years ago and now works in Dalmeny, who came in to offer her support as she has several close family contacts in Vanuatu. One morning she said, “Wouldn’t it be good if all these things could be sent to the people out on the smaller islands where absolutely everything has been destroyed as they were not receiving much help at the time.” We asked her to arrange through her family contacts for someone to accept the delivery and distribute the goods to the most needy.
This she was very happy and able to do.
The help and co-operation of so many businesses and offices in setting up for the collection, and the offer to transport the goods free of charge began to materialise, then the help just flowed in from Port Vila thanks to Madeleine’s family contacts, some in high places just when we needed them.
The generosity of the people of Narooma from every walk of life was overwhelming.
From small children who parted with favourite toys, pensioners and others on low incomes, to Easts Caravan Park and the Eco Motel who between them brought in loads of sheets and blankets, pillows and towels, also sets of crockery simply because they had changed their colour scheme, to local businesses who kept us supplied with empty cartons for packing.
The Plaza shoe store even gave us excess summer stock in boxes packed to the brim. It was such a rewarding time to see that here in Narooma the people cared about others.
After those two weeks we managed to pack 10 pallets of goods which have been transported to a Sydney warehouse by Tattam Express Freight from Batemans Bay.
A huge thanks to Paul and his staff for their help and support. With the goods arriving in Sydney, arrangements had to be made to ship the pallets to Vanuatu.
Following a few hiccups, we were offered the facilities of the Rotary RAWCS programme who will now include our shipment with one of theirs leaving Sydney on 6th May, to arrive in Port Vila on 11th.
A team from the Refugee Centre set up by the local Assemblies of God and Presbyterian churches will take delivery of our container and distribute the goods.
Our very grateful thanks to all who have helped and contributed to the appeal.
Special thanks must go to the team of very willing volunteers who gave of their time to sort and pack boxes and pallets ready for transport. To those who turned up with welcome cups of coffee and snacks!
Without all your personal help this programme would not have been achievable.
Both of us are so grateful for the immense support and the response we have received. We pray that God will bless the residents of Vanuatu as they take delivery of these gifts from Narooma.
Bev and Jim Wilkinson
Narooma