A lesson from Tathra
As sad and heart breaking a tragedy as it has been for the residents of Tathra, the recent bushfire was a disaster waiting to happen. Uncontrollable bushfires of this type are regular occurrences in Australia. Tathra, like so many other villages on the far south coast, is surrounded by highly flammable and protected native bush, and it was inevitable that when certain conditions came together - heat, wind, low humidity, and fire, that something like this would happen.
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We must learn from this disaster before it is too late and accept that urban areas are just that – people areas, and as nice as being close to nature can be, our furry friends and their habitat belong in the tens of thousands of hectares of largely untouched bush on the south coast, not under protection, in its villages and towns.
As reported in last week’s paper, Tura Beach is another example of a disaster waiting to happen. Not only does it have a highly combustible heavy fuel load on its doorstep, it also has heavily timbered nature reserves that run in among homes. Highly combustible vegetation has also been encouraged to grow (in fact protected) along the beachfront, again close to homes. The best way to understand the level of risk is to look at Tura Beach on Google Earth. A Tathra-type fire in Tura would leave little standing.
Surely it is time for a proper Fire Risk Assessment be to carried out in coastal villages and for local councils to review their often-high-risk tree preservation policies. It is most definitely time to take long overdue steps to make people and property in the urban environment the first priority.
Greg Hunting, Tura Beach
Scare campaign
It is a bit rich for senior Liberal Party member, Jon Gaul, to be joining the scare campaign of Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull over the proposals of a future Labor government’s dividend imputation reforms.
We have had several days of predictions of doom and gloom from these conservative spokespersons and MPs, “taking money off poor pensioners”, and Jon Gaul’s own, “it betrays the battlers in Labor’s own heartland.”
However, given the little time needed to digest these exaggerated claims, there has now been more balanced commentary from respected sources.
The Grattan Institute makes the difference between “income” and “taxable income”.
They also say that whoever they are, Scott Morrison's 610,000 “low income earners” are clearly not the poorest retirees. Few, if any, are maximum-rate pensioners.
“Most of those effected by Labor’s policy who declare taxable incomes of less than $18,200 a year are far from being low-income earners. They are either part-pensioners, or not receiving any pension at all. And they are drawing much of their income from tax-free superannuation.”
They go on to say: “Half of all pensions payments go to those with assets of more than $500,000. Almost 20 per cent of payments go to those with assets of more than $1 million.”
Peter Martin, economics editor, The Age, states these people are receiving “tax refunds after paying no tax”.
While Jon Gaul advocates these great lurks for maintaining the wealthy to a level they have grown accustomed to under the likes of John Howard, Tony Abbott and now Malcolm Turnbull, it may be better if he had a good look around at others in his community.
Whilst there are many living here in this wonderful south coast playground, with reasonable assets and investments, there are also many who are doing tough.
Limited affordable housing, lack of public housing, unemployment, under-employment and access to education - TAFE.
These changes planned by Labor are designed to address some of these issues.
Colin McPherson, Sapphire Coast Branch NSW Country Labor
