Local Land Services - elections require us to "register".

Such is the state of democracy in NSW that we are now required to register to vote for the people who will stand as Board Members of the newly created Local Land Services Board.

Elections

The inaugural Local Land Services Board Member elections will take place on 12 March 2014. Ratepayers will elect 34 board members across the 11 regions. There are three members to be elected to each region, except for the Western region where four members are to be elected. The elections will bring the LLS leadership team one critical step closer to full strength.

• Read the media release

Nominations open

Nominations for Board member positions are now open. Occupiers of rateable land are eligible to nominate a candidate. Anyone 18 years of age or older can be nominated for elections provided their normal place of residence is in the region.

Nominations close 5pm 31 January 2014.

• LLS election nomination form

Enrol to vote

Only persons on the Local Land Services electoral roll for the region will be eligible to vote. Ratepayers across the State are encouraged to enrol to vote by lodging an enrolment form to be eligible to vote in the 2014 LLS elections.

Persons who have been on the electoral rolls of Livestock Health and Pest Authorities will not have their names automatically transferred to the electoral roll of Local Land Services.

Only one occupier per land holding can enrol to vote. In the case of multiple occupiers per holding, only one occupier can be enrolled to vote.

Enrolments close 5pm 17 February 2014.

Please submit your form at a Local Land Services office. Application forms are also available at your Local Land Services office.

• Enrolment form for single occupier of holding
• Enrolment form for more than one occupier

Electoral roll

A copy of the electoral roll for each region is available for inspection at the regional Local Land Services offices.

How to vote

Once enrolled, all persons on the electoral roll will receive their ballot papers in the mail. All instructions and details will be provided on your ballot paper. Once the ballot papers are filled out, they can be mailed out or hand delivered to your local LLS office.

Voting closes 5pm 12 March 2014.

Election results

Election results will be announced on 14 March 2014.

*****

I went to that website, and immediately discovered the following unanswerable questions:

• Holding reference number .............
• Contact ID number ............

Source: http://www.lls.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/493855/LLS_enrolment_form_for_single_occupier.pdf

I would dearly love to enrol (my Democratic Urge is sadly unfulfilled these days), but WTF?

Without an explanation of where I can find that information, looks like I will be reduced to my position as a lonely by-stander in this exciting new democratic experience.

Meeting the Farmers

The Dairy Farmers and Potato Growers of Robertson and Kangaloon gathered at the Robertson Pub tonight, for a get-together with the Save Water Alliance.

This event was scheduled early last week, as a "thank you" event to the local farmers for their financial support, for funding us to commission Ray Evans, a consultant hydrologist, who prepared two reports for us, on the state of the Kangaloon Aquifer.
David, Trish and Greg

In fact, since Larry Whipper's statements to the Southern Highland News last Friday, it was obvious it was necessary for us to try and calm down a bunch of angry farmers, who obviously read the local paper. Even before the meeting, one of the farmers asked if Larry Whipper was going to be there? When told that he had been invited, but had another engagement - the farmer said: "Shame. I was hoping Larry would turn up and try and smile at us while he's screwing us up the a*rse" - And those are not my words, I swear. It is a direct quote, from one of the affected farmers. It has a certain rustic quality, don't you think?

Anyway, tonight's meeting was not used to score cheap points, we wished to thank the local farmers for their support. We provided them with factually correct information about the hydrology of the Kangaloon Aquifer (which their funding has allowed us to commission), and also to bring them up to date with the legal situation regarding the SCA's Upper Nepean Borefield proposal, which is to be considered under Part 3A of the NSW EPA Act, and the Federal EPBC Act, thanks to Mr Turnbull's intervention.

Thanks guys. Its good to work with you. Let's hope we have a result.

Not just a fly-speck on the map of NSW Politics

Clr. Larry Whipper has claimed that he is working "on many fronts (to) engage as many people and varying opinions to draw together positive outcomes" - (with regard to the Kangaloon Aquifer).

As the Upper Nepean Borefield proposal has been deemed by the NSW Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, to be a "Critical Infrastructure Project", i.e., a Project of State Significance, under Part 3A of the Environment Planning and Assessment Act (EPA Act) 1979 - the only person with whom it it is relevant for Larry to be "engaging" would be Frank Sartor; and beyond him, perhaps the Premier of NSW, Mr Morris Iemma.

I have consulted the NSW Premier and the Minister for Planning about how they have been "engaged" by Larry Whipper.

This is a cartoon version of Morris Iemma's response which he sent to me this evening.


Click on the image to see the detail.
The tiny image is not just a fly-speck on the map of NSW Politics - but it might as well be.

We are dealing with the "Real Politic" of NSW here, I am afraid, Larry.

Clr Larry Whipper surrenders credibility

It is with great sorrow that I note that Councillor Larry Whipper appears to have surrendered his credibility as a member of the Upper Nepean Community Reference Group (UNCRG). I refer to his statement in today's local Media, re the Kangaloon Aquifer.

Larry has issued a statement in the Southern Highland News, today which is headlined as: Pumping "Safe". I could scarcely believe my eyes when shown the paper, today.

The case for this "argument" has already been raised, discussed and discredited on this blog site - on 29 June 2007. In words of one syllable (for Larry's sake) the fact that the SCA claim the Kangaloon Aquifer is filled to overflowing simply confirms our belief that the Aquifer is very, very small. That should be ringing alarm bells in the SCA, and in particular amongst the members of the CRG, not the opposite, as appears to be the case with Larry's response. This is confirmed by Consultant Hydrologist W.R. (Ray) Evans's two reports on the Kangaloon Aquifer, and on the First Month Pumping Report, both of which have been made available to the SCA and to the CRG members.

Larry's statements reveal just how little he has understood, from being on the CRG.

For example, he says that the SCA is taking deep water, not the shallow water the farmers rely upon. That is wrong on three counts:

1. The farmers have deep bores - some are deeper than the SCA's bores. I suggest that you talk to some real farmers, Larry, as the Save Water Alliance committee members have done.
   
2. The SCA is not, and never was taking "only deep water", despite claims to the contrary. We demonstrated that fact, at a Public Meeting in Robertson on 1 February 2007 , with publication of drilling logs from bores at Butler's Swamp and Stockyard Swamp - in one case, the bore takes water from as shallow as 11 metres below the surface. Even Matt Brown, Member for Kiama has acknowledged that we are right on this point, despite having denied it at first.
   
3. The Kangaloon Aquifer is heavily fractured, with fault lines running in several different lines across the Aquifer. This means that the separation between old (deep) water and modern (shallow) water is almost meaningless. These deep cracked lines allow water to penetrate into the Aquifer quickly, instead of relying on slow penetration of water through consolidated sandstone rock.

These facts have all been widely known, and published. Where has Larry been all this time? In Aristophanes' Cloud-cuckoo-land?

If I have been able to piece all this together from documents, mostly published by the SCA themselves, it is a sad indictment of Larry Whipper, that, having been regularly briefed by the SCA, through the CRG, that he has such a poor understanding of the true facts of the situation.

He has lost credibility as a community representative on the CRG. He has become a publicist for the SCA, no longer acting as a Community Representative, which is his official function on the CRG. And I say that, not because he does not agree with me, but rather, because he has failed to understand the true nature of the geology of the Kangaloon Aquifer; and technical details of the SCA's proposed borefield. One can only speculate as to what his motives might be, in adopting the mantle of an apologist for the SCA.

*****

It is a shame. I quite like Larry, as a person.

I note, incidentally, that Larry's statement to the Press was made in his capacity as a CRG member, not as a Councillor of the Wingecarribee Shire.