Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Penni is missing something and so am I
Dear Editor,
It is not surprising that well respected and successful businesswoman Penni Tastula is wondering whether she is “missing something” about the proposal by the Henderson Labor Government to introduce a Container-Deposit-Scheme here in the NT.
Well I am also confused and like Penni, also “missing something” when it comes to the need for such a scheme.
Recycling, if that is what the aim of the legislation is; is already happening in most NT towns. Two bins are provided – one for rubbish, the other for recyclables. The bins are picked up at set intervals by efficient contractors, and the cost is included in everyone’s rates. What is better than that?
Why then the need to introduce a Container-Deposit-Scheme? A scheme that will impose an additional cost burden on Territorians and force them to drive across town (surely increasing those emissions we hear so much about) with bags full of cans and bottles. Of course, that is assuming they choose to recover their deposit.
Why? What additional benefits will this proposed scheme provide? I suggest none. Actually, it is extremely likely this scheme will be a retrograde move.
But let’s look at the main “litterers”…..:
Will the people who litter most in the NT; those who can be found at various places in most Territory towns lying around with bottles, cans, wine casks, soiled clothing, used nappies and a whole lot more, suddenly make their way to the local recycling depot to return their packaging and receive their deposit back? We all know the answer to that.
Forget this latest crazy scheme Paul Henderson. It is unwarranted and total madness! And you probably know it!
Yours truly,
Dave Wane
9th February, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
More Federal Funds??
Dear Editor,
So the writer of the NT News Editorial of 31st January, 2011 seriously believes that more “Federal Funds” is the answer …….. In the writer’s own words: to “solve the Territory’s terrible social problems”.
Is the person who wrote this Editorial for real?
The Northern Territory now has more expenditure on bureaucracy (17,000+ on the taxpayer-funded payroll and growing) than probably any similar size jurisdiction in the Western World!
And to make matters worse, Clare Martin and Paul Henderson have added at least 5,000 extra taxpayer-funded employees since Labor was elected in 2001 – at an ANNUAL cost to the NT budget of around HALF A BILLION DOLLARS!
Even if extra Federal Funds could somehow “solve” the problems that are described in the Editorial (which of course I very much doubt), could it be that the lions share of the NT Government’s funds are gobbled up by their massively overstaffed, poorly managed, wasteful and scandalously inefficient bureaucracy – leaving only a pittance for expenditure at the “coal-face” where it is claimed to be needed?
In Health, Education, Police, in fact everywhere within the NT Government, it seems that the first priority of available funds is to hire more and more unnecessary staff, accommodate them in bigger and more salubrious surroundings, and pay them salaries way over what they would ever hope to receive in the REAL world - in the market-place!
And finally: the suggestion that this incompetent debt-ridden Martin-Henderson Labor government should ask the also incompetent “Drunken-Sailors” from the now deeply (and unnecessarily) in debt, Rudd-Gillard Federal Labor government for more funds has to be the biggest joke of all!
Yours truly,
Dave Wane
Friday, February 4, 2011
Unnecessary Container Deposit Scheme.
Dear Editor,
Independent Member for Nelson, Gerry Wood claims that Kate Carnell and the Australian Food and Grocery Council, are orchestrating some kind of con to mislead Territorians about the Government’s Cash for Containers scheme.
However, as an independent observer, I believe it is Gerry Wood and the NT Government that are either willingly, or through total head-in-the-sand ignorance doing the “conning”, and therefore misleading Territorians on this totally unnecessary scheme.
Firstly, all NT local governments (councils) already have an effective rubbish collection and recycling regime in place. All NT councils have two wheelie bins – one for waste, and the other for recyclables. I understand this works very well here in the NT – apparently about the best in Australia. So why the need to put deposits on every container sold in the NT?
Secondly, can Wood or Henderson actually dispute the figures provided by the Australian Food and Grocery Council? The examples of additional costs provided by the Australian Food and Grocery Council seem to me, in view of the massive additional expenditure required to collect, store and transport all these containers, to be, if anything, on the conservative side. Currently the majority of all recyclables are efficiently and cost-effectively, collected by the various council waste contractors from households, and similarly by waste contractors from commercial premises.
Again, I ask: why are Henderson and Wood advocating such unnecessary nonsense when it will achieve nothing other than push up prices? I know it was originally Wood’s idea as part of his backing of Henderson’s minority government. But Henderson has now (at least publicly) embraced it with gusto.
Does Henderson’s serial interventionism in so many aspects of our lives (and Martin’s before him) ever achieve anything of value for normal everyday Territorians? Certainly Not, in my view! These leaders (Henderson and Martin) seem to be under the complete influence of their army of advisors, most of whom would be unlikely to make it in the real world. Are these faceless, highly paid and unelected men and women (mostly from failed southern states) the kind of people we want running our once fiercely independent and free-thinking Territory?
Yours truly,
Dave Wane
Independent Member for Nelson, Gerry Wood claims that Kate Carnell and the Australian Food and Grocery Council, are orchestrating some kind of con to mislead Territorians about the Government’s Cash for Containers scheme.
However, as an independent observer, I believe it is Gerry Wood and the NT Government that are either willingly, or through total head-in-the-sand ignorance doing the “conning”, and therefore misleading Territorians on this totally unnecessary scheme.
Firstly, all NT local governments (councils) already have an effective rubbish collection and recycling regime in place. All NT councils have two wheelie bins – one for waste, and the other for recyclables. I understand this works very well here in the NT – apparently about the best in Australia. So why the need to put deposits on every container sold in the NT?
Secondly, can Wood or Henderson actually dispute the figures provided by the Australian Food and Grocery Council? The examples of additional costs provided by the Australian Food and Grocery Council seem to me, in view of the massive additional expenditure required to collect, store and transport all these containers, to be, if anything, on the conservative side. Currently the majority of all recyclables are efficiently and cost-effectively, collected by the various council waste contractors from households, and similarly by waste contractors from commercial premises.
Again, I ask: why are Henderson and Wood advocating such unnecessary nonsense when it will achieve nothing other than push up prices? I know it was originally Wood’s idea as part of his backing of Henderson’s minority government. But Henderson has now (at least publicly) embraced it with gusto.
Does Henderson’s serial interventionism in so many aspects of our lives (and Martin’s before him) ever achieve anything of value for normal everyday Territorians? Certainly Not, in my view! These leaders (Henderson and Martin) seem to be under the complete influence of their army of advisors, most of whom would be unlikely to make it in the real world. Are these faceless, highly paid and unelected men and women (mostly from failed southern states) the kind of people we want running our once fiercely independent and free-thinking Territory?
Yours truly,
Dave Wane
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