Calling out the council
The Hilltops Council continues with its inefficiency and poor management.
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I am reliably informed a “panel tender” was released recently for contractors to push up gravel at council pits. Supposedly ads were placed in local newspapers (which in all likelihood means only the Hilltops Phoenix). Previous contractors were not advised by email correspondence of the tender process and some have now been excluded despite having credentials that would provide the optimum outcome for ratepayers. All decisions are being controlled from the Young office of council who want to take a gravel crusher to the pits to waste more ratepayer money. The use of contractors with powerful dozers will “win” gravel that can be used without the need for crushing. A pad-foot roller will suffice to crush the gravel as it is spread.
Pity help anyone with common sense, the desire to save money and achieve the best outcome for ratepayers. Administrator Tuckerman was correct in not appointing me to the $11,000 head nodding committee. I would not have been willing to sit there and shut up after having been made sign a confidentiality agreement.
It is very clear Chris Manchester isn’t concerned by any of these issues. His comments in the paper said it all. The cost of unwinding the merger should be the last of Chris Manchester’s concerns.
The NSW Government has wontly wasted money, told lies and done everything possible to ignore ratepayers on a doomed merger that will do nothing for Harden or Boorowa. Indeed, they are already losing their autonomy and decision making ability.
Tony Flanery
Galong
Animals deserve better
The recent ground-breaking conviction of a Sydney Fish Market trader for cruelty is being celebrated by compassionate people around the world. All animals deserve protection from cruel treatment and painful death.
Crustaceans were added to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act in 1997 after it was medically proven that they feel pain. The incident recorded on film last week showed the trader holding a struggling lobster down on a chopping board before chopping off his tail with a butcher's knife, which doesn't kill the animal but causes agonising pain, according to the RSPCA. The remainder of the animal was then fed into a band saw.
A fine was imposed on the spot, but the company chose to take the matter to court. The company was then convicted of an act of animal cruelty and handed a $1500 fine at the Downing Centre Court.
While this case may cause the industry to think twice before abusing crustaceans, other sea creatures are still routinely subject to appalling suffering and agonising deaths. No Australian laws regulate the treatment of fish caught or raised for their flesh, and both commercial fishers and fish factory farms treat these animals in ways that would warrant cruelty-to-animals charges if the victims were dogs or cats. Fish who are ripped from the ocean suffer from rapid decompression, which can cause their swim bladders to rupture, their eyes to pop out of their heads, or their stomachs to be forced through their mouths. Then they're tossed onto a ship, where many are crushed to death or slowly suffocate. Others are still alive when they are cut open. On fish factory farms, tens or even hundreds of thousands of fish are confined to cramped, filthy enclosures, and parasitic infections, diseases and debilitating injuries are rampant. Many farmed fish suffer from chronic sea lice, and some have their faces eaten down to the bone by these parasites. Farmers use antibiotics and powerful chemicals to keep the fish alive in such horrendous conditions and to make them grow, but many farmed fish still die before slaughter. It is time that all animals were given the rights to live without humans adding pain for the sake of profit.