“The Israeli government blockade of Gaza is devastating for the more than 1.5 million people living in Gaza,” said Ms Hale. “Now is an important time to be visiting the Occupied Territories and refugee camps in Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus to see how people are responding.
“I’m keen to see the impact on the nearly 50 per cent of the West Bank population who are being separated from their land or villages or isolated in ghettos as a result of the 650 km long, 8 metre high ‘apartheid wall’ Israel is constructing,” added Ms Hale.
Ms Voltz said the El Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital is the only facility in the Gaza Strip that provides medical support and services for severely disabled Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
"At the moment 34,500 Palestinians out of a population of 1.5million people in the Gaza strip suffer from some form of physical disability, " Ms Voltz said.
"The El Wafa Hospital is the only place where patients can access not only the technical aids needed to live with their disability, but also the social support and community reintegration programs required to help them to live independently back in their communities.”
APHEDA has provided over $8.1 million to Middle East programs between 1984-2009. These projects have focused on health, with training of Palestinian and Lebanese nurses in Australia. They have since broadened to include many small and large-scale projects for Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and Lebanon.
Media Contact: For Sylvia Hale call Colin Hesse on 9230 3030 or 0401 719 124; Lynda Voltz 0413 382 474 or Peter Jennings APHEDA 9264 9343
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"It is simply unacceptable for Hurstville Council to demolish a building that has been assessed and listed by the Council itself as worthy of heritage protection,” said Ms Hale.
"Most people would be shocked that a building on the Council’s heritage register can be demolished, especially in the face of strong community opposition expressed via petitions, submissions and a packed Council meeting.
"The people of Hurstville municipality must be appalled when, by nine votes to one, Councillors agreed to demolish one of only two heritage-listed buildings in Mortdale in order to build a car park in an area where the existing car park is mostly underutilised.
"I have written to the Minister for Planning asking him to use his powers under Section 32 of the Heritage Act to step in and save the Masonic Temple from demolition. Surely it is the role of the Minister responsible for protecting heritage in NSW to do just that.
"The Government’s repeal of Concurrence and Referral Provisions 2008, which required Councils to seek approval before delisting heritage items, was opposed by both the Greens and the Opposition. The Minister is now relying on that repeal to avoid his responsibilities.
“If the Minister has 'no obligation' to protect this and other buildings on local government heritage lists, as he claims, then heritage protection is meaningless. All the Government is doing is perpetrating a fraud on the people of NSW.
"I believe the community of Mortdale, Hurstville and indeed more broadly expects every level of government to protect our built and natural heritage. By simply washing its hands of the matter the State Government sends out a message that it is indifferent to that heritage.
"The community are very lucky indeed to have Councillor Anne Wagstaff who has spoken up strongly for residents on this and many other issues. It will be a good day indeed when other councillors represent the community as well as Councillor Wagstaff.
"Residents are concerned that the demolition of the former Lodge may simply be a paving of the way for high density housing on the site. Hurstville Council must state emphatically that this is not its intention and back this up by rezoning the land to prevent its use for residential development,” said Ms Hale.
Contact: Colin Hesse on 02 9230 3030 or 0401 719 124
Or Councillor Anne Wagstaff on 9580 7919 or 0434 327 850
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The forum will also feature Brami Jegan of the aid organisation APHEDA and Antony Loewenstein, journalist and author of many articles and essays on the Middle East.
"The status quo in the Middle East is unsustainable," Ms Hale said. "The global community has a role to play in helping to seek a solution to a tragedy that has now seen decades of conflict.
"The citizens of Gaza deserve more than an endless cycle of violence and oppression.
"We hope that this forum can provide some insight into the situation and look at potential solutions that provide humane and equitable solutions for the region," Ms Hale said.
The Greens Middle east forum will be held at the AMWU Building, 136 Chalmers St, Surry Hills from 6 pm to 8pm on Tuesday 13 July 2010
The forum is a public event.
Contact: Colin Hesse on 02 9230 3030 or 0401 719 124
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"There are instances where it is essential that accurate information about emergency situations is available to the public at the earliest time, and not fed back through a government media advisor seeking to put the best spin on a situation.
"In emergencies such as the terrible bushfires in Victoria last year there were serious problems with both the lack of effective radio communication between and within the various branches of emergency services, and the late notice of emergency situations passed on via official sources to broadcast radio and television networks.
"There is anecdotal information that indicates that twitter and texting were very useful in identifying areas people needed to avoid. Presumably this information came from people scanning emergency services radio. Currently emergency services radio in Victoria is not encrypted.
"The Greens certainly err on the side of making more information available to the public than less, and it is a concern that large amounts of money are being spent to eliminate public monitoring of emergency services radio.
"While there is valid criticism that at times the media focus on minor accidents and events that have nothing to commend them other than a few good pictures, in cases of serious emergencies the role of the media in informing the public can save lives.
"Media organisations scanning emergency services radio could play an important role in helping avert loss of life and serious injury. Attempts by government to stop monitoring would seem to be more about media management than addressing any particular short-comings of the current open radio system. The Government should leave the emergency system the way it is,” said Ms Hale.
Contact: Colin Hesse on 02 9230 3030 or 0401 719 124
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‘The Commissioner has advised that after a successful trial period Tasers should be deployed to front line officers’
“This was reiterated on 16 June when the then Minister for Police Tony Kelly said
‘Tasers have been trialled by senior frontline police since October last year …I am satisfied with Commissioner Andrew Scipione’s advice that after a successful trial period, Tasers should be deployed by frontline police’.
“There can only be two possible interpretations of these statements – either Commissioner Scipione misled his Minister and the then Premier about the success of the trial and covered up the ‘litany or abuses and misuses’ that have now been revealed, or the Minister and the Premier were negligently indifferent to the results of the trial because they had already determined that the roll-out should proceed.
“Either way, the public of New South Wales has been misled. It’s time for someone to be accountable.
“It is not as though the parliament has been indifferent to the problems presented by Tasers.
“At Budget Estimates in 2008 and 2009, the Commissioner and the Minister were questioned intensively about Tasers. They wholeheartedly endorsed the proposal to supply the police with Tasers and were at pains to stress the safeguards that would ensure they could never be misused.
“On 14 October 2008, I asked Commissioner Scipione whether ‘In every instance in which they [Tasers] have been used you believe their use has been justified’.
“The Commissioner, who was under oath, answered, ‘Where a Taser has been used, and a person has been tasered, every use to date has been a justified use of the device’.
“In light of what has now been revealed, either the Commissioner or the former Minister for Police should resign or provide very detailed explanations as to how they concluded that it was appropriate to roll-out Tasers.
“We are not talking about toys, but about potentially lethal weapons. A pre-determined decision to introduce Tasers across the board in the face of significant misuse by the NSW police force suggests a not only a failure of process but a manifest indifference to the safety of the public,” said Ms Hale.
*Taser abuse covered up by police, SMH, 6 July 2010.
Contact: Colin Hesse on 02 9230 3030 or 0401 719 124
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"The Minister for Local Government has admitted that the Division of Local Government (DLG) has written to the Council about tendering processes but has provided no details.
“I understand that the DLG is concerned at the inappropriate behaviour of a number of Councillors, but has simply referred Council to investigate itself.
"It seems the State Government wants to know nothing and see nothing. It seems to be business as usual so far as the Government is concerned
"The community is entitled to know what complaints have been lodged about the actions of Council or Councillors, particularly in relation to the expenditure of ratepayers’ money. To say that ‘it is not appropriate to comment’ fails to address the community’s serious concerns.
"The State Government is having a bet each way. The Minister’s answer to a question about the Council's purchase of land owned in Mudgee by Stockland is evasive, merely declaring that ‘councils are autonomous bodies ... with the power to purchase land and buildings’.
“But at the same time the Minister has no problem with emphatically declaring in relation to the double purchase of an easement from the Mudgee Sports Ground Trust that this has not happened.
"How is it that the Government can be so emphatic about one matter and yet be so keen to avoid answering a question about another?
"Residents have the right to know what is going on in their council and equally the right to expect that government departments will investigate genuine complaints.
"It is simply not acceptable, for example, to tell a council to conduct its own investigation into a matter involving potentially serious conflicts of interest. In Mid-Western’s case, the concern is that a councillor who holds a senior office in an organisation that has had financial dealings with the Council has failed to declare a conflict of interest.
"The answers given by the Ministers insult the residents of Mid-Western local government because they refuse to engage with the genuine concerns of locals,” said Ms Hale.
Contact: Colin Hesse on 02 9230 3030 or 0401 719 124
I provide the following details in response to your questions:
Question asked on 18 May 2010 (session 54-1) and printed in Questions & Answers Paper No. 149.
Answer received on 22 June 2010 and printed in Questions & Answers Paper No. 158.
"I'm glad that Mr O'Farrell has at last added his weight to Greens calls for the restoration of the community's voice in Wollongong and Shellharbour Councils,” said Ms Hale.
"It's about time. The Liberals have many times failed to join earlier calls by community members and The Greens for these local councils to be elected by residents rather than run by government appointees.
"The community may well smell a whiff of opportunism in Mr O'Farrell's statements, but The Greens will certainly hold him to his pledge if he is elected to Government, and demand that the Illawarra’s overdue elections are held promptly.
"Both Wollongong and Shellharbour Councils deserved to be sacked, but it is unfair to postpone elections for years on end.
"Both the disgraced Wollongong and Shellharbour Councils were Labor dominated and the administrators of those councils were appointed by a Labor Party Minister. This may have been a necessary evil at the time, but there is no justification for administrators staying in office any longer than is absolutely necessary, and certainly not for a period of time in excess of a full term of council as has been the case with Wollongong.
"In his report on Shellharbour Council in 2008 Mr Richard Colley noted evidence from the Department of Local Government that, 'the current ward system no longer accurately represents the communities that make up the area', and suggested a move away from the current six wards of two councillors.
"The peculiarities of the voting system for two-councillor wards produce a winner-takes-all outcome. The two-councillors-per-ward system in Wollongong and in Shellharbour was a significant contributor to the corruption and dysfunction of both councils.
“The next local government elections must be held with either no wards or with wards of no less than three councillors.
"This will allow a broader range of community opinion to be represented and will move councils to a more open and transparent decision-making culture.
"There should be a referendum of residents of Wollongong and of Shellharbour as soon as possible to decide whether there should be no wards or several wards of more than two councillors.
“I call on the Liberal and Labor parties to support the Greens’ proposals, which would allow for genuinely representative councils to move beyond the grubby past,” said Ms Hale .
Contact: Colin Hesse on 02 9230 3030 or 0401 719 124
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“Since the Land and Environment Court invalidated the Catherine Hill Bay development at the end of August 2009 on the grounds of perceived bias, the State Government has been scrambling to resurrect the development plans of its major donor Hardie Holdings.
“In July 2009, the Planning Minister issued a s.117 order that instructed the Council, when preparing its Draft Local Environment Plan, to accommodate a 2006 Agreement between the Government and Hardie Holdings, an agreement that the Court held amounted to a ‘land bribe’.
“That order is still in place. But, as a letter from Director-General Sam Haddad to the Council dated 8 April 2010 states, if Council abides by the order, any rezonings are almost certainly to be declared invalid.
“So the Council is between a rock and a hard place. If it follows the Minister’s order, then it will be behaving in an illegal manner but the nature of the order is such that it has no alternative but to do so. It is outrageous that the Minister is threatening to remove Council’s planning powers because of the Council’s alleged failure to advance the Draft LEP.
“The Minister and his Department know this full well. What they proposed in May was to cut the Council out of the picture entirely. It could no longer be relied on to deliver an outcome the Government wanted, because the Council had lost its Labor majority in 2008.
“The Government would then be free to establish a planning panel composed of Ministerial appointees, quietly revoke the s.117 order, and produce a result that would save Hardie Holding’s and the Government’s bacon.
“To do this, the Minister relied on two pretexts on 7 May when he wrote to the Council requiring it to show cause why its planning powers should not be removed. One was the supposed delay surrounding the Draft LEP and the other was the number of complaints the Minister asserted he had received about the Council.
“The documents released to the Parliament, as well as the Minister’s answers to questions about the complaints, clearly show that there was no evidence to substantiate either pretext. Almost none of the ten letters supposedly of complaint given to the Council related to Council’s processing of planning applications. One was merely inquiring about how money spent on Development Application lodgement fees is spent.
“Moreover, the detailed advice the Minister received from his department on the Council’s performance shows that on almost every score there were no grounds to support the removal of the Council’s powers.
“I believe the Minister’s actions are deplorable and clearly indicate his contempt for due process, procedural fairness, and objectivity. As such, he warrants the Parliament’s censure,” said Ms Hale.
Contact: Colin Hesse on 02 9230 3030 or 0401 719 124
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“It’s a classic tactic of developers to put forward an over-the-top development, reduce it a little, and then say how much they’ve given up by listening to the community.
“The stark facts of the matter are that this development is still 15% above that allowable under the current concept plan and we still have a massive intrusion into Harbour.
“Rather than Paul Keating’s exclamation mark, the hotel has morphed into an unnecessary semi-colon that still juts 90 metres into the Harbour and is 159 metres high.
“To add insult to injury, we have Barangaroo Development Authority Chief Executive John Tabart asserting ‘Lend Lease has listened to the public’.
“Mr Tabart’s role should be to protect the public interest, not to act as leader of the Lend Lease cheer squad.
“Rather than being a showpiece of good design with a focus on public access and interaction with the Harbour, Lend Lease proposes to cram more and more buildings into this space.
“Paul Keating’s claims on behalf of the State Government that this new development will allow access to a part of Sydney Harbour denied to Sydneysiders for generations is simply spin. It’s clear that the only people who will enjoy access will be the very well healed who can afford to live there.
“As with so much development in NSW, Barangaroo would appear to be nothing more than a place where the close relationship between developers and Government will deliver not the best outcome for Sydney, but the best outcome for developers
“There is no community interest in continuing with this massive and self-interested development,” said Ms Hale.
Contact: Colin Hesse on 02 9230 3030 or 0401 719 124
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“Simply keeping people at home does not address the factors that caused them to commit crimes in the first place.
“Many prisoners, of course, end up in gaol as a result of homelessness, unemployment and mental health issues. Of what use will this policy be to them?
“Home-based detention may not be appropriate for all those now eligible to be considered for this form of punishment. If not well supported, it may further entrench disadvantage in our society.
“For it to work, home-detainees must be guaranteed access to literacy, numeracy and skills courses and appropriate support from parole officers or social workers.
“Home-based detention, as with weekend detention, is only ever an option for those whom a judge assesses to be at a very low risk of re-offending. It is often suitable for first offenders who would be best kept out of prison and removed from contact with more hardened and experienced inmates.
“Answers I received to questions asked in parliament on 11 March indicate that one of the key reasons for moving away from weekend detention has been the reduction in available beds. It’s equally clear that there has been a long-term winding back of weekend detention.
“The current Government strategy of being seen to be ‘tough on crime’ is costing NSW dearly. This week’s budget papers allocate $966.3 million to custodial services for 2010-2011, an increase of 3.1% on last year’s budget. This includes 250 new beds at Cessnock Gaol and a new 600-bed gaol at Nowra.
“While the budget papers refer to programs to deter criminal behaviour and reduce recidivism, very little money is allocated to these programs, with almost nothing directed towards deterring young people at risk from becoming involved in crime.
Contact: Colin Hesse on 02 9230 3030 or 0401 719 124
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