The Weekly Times - TWT - 5th June 2019

6 THE WEEKLY TIMES Wednesday 6 June, 2019
Walking together
with courage
Dear Sir,
Every year National Reconciliation
Week gives the
Australian community a
chance to raise awareness
and have an open discussion
of issues facing Aboriginal
and Torres Strait
This year the theme of the
2019 Reconciliation Week is
Grounded in Truth: Walk Together
with Courage.
Reconciliation is ultimately
about building effective relationships
between Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people
and other Australians. In
order to do this we must have
an open conversation about
our history that is grounded
in truth.
It is important to engage
with Aboriginal history and
culture and the only way we
heal is to acknowledge the
truth of our past.
Teaching our Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander young
people about their culture
and history is so important for
building connections to their
HUNTER’S HILL COUNCIL
HUNTER’S HILL COUNCIL
NOTIFICATION OF DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION
In accordance with the provisions of Part 6.1
Notification Policy of Hunters Hill Consolidated
Development Control Plan 2013, notice is hereby
given that Council is in receipt of the following
Development Application:
DA No. Site Proposal
2019-1043 7-9 Ryde Road,
Hunters Hill
Demolish existing
dwellings and
construction of
a residential flat
building of two
and three level
over basement
carparking
The plans and supporting documentation may be
inspected at the Customer Service between 8.30 am
and 4.30 pm, Monday to Friday. Written submissions
will be received up until 4.00pm 5 July 2019 and all
enquiries may be directed to Senior Development
Officer, Mr Kerry Smith on 9879 9412.
Letters to the Editor
communities and families.
We don’t shy away from
our history; rather we believe
that there is courage in truth
and that we’re all walking this
journey together.
I encourage all Australians
to continuously learn about
our country’s cultural history
and to be culturally aware.
Through all of our services
at Youth Off The Streets we
encourage our young people
to attend cultural events, participate
in programs and learn
about the world’s oldest culture
and they take immense
value from this.
As part of our dedication to
reconciliation, we have created
a Reconciliation Action
Plan to ensure all our staff are
culturally aware and formally
trained in cultural competencies
and will actively embrace
the principals and practices of
reconciliation.
This Reconciliation Week
we must be grounded in truth
and walk together with courage.
Father CHRIS RILEY
CEO and Founder at
Youth Off The Streets
How Good is TWT!
Dear Sir,
How good is TWT!
How good is John Booth!
Every edition of TWT features
articles, photos, editorial
coverage and reporting
on community events.
Charities, Community organisations
- Rotary, Lions,
Probus, Scouts and local
Churches are all supported
equally by promotion of upcoming
events or by reports
on community functions.
Driving this community
engagement through TWT
is John Booth and his staff.
The EVERYbody Dance
Now Disco is just one of the
many community events suupported
by TWT.
On behalf of those that attend
the Disco and the volunteers
who organise it we
want to acknowledge the
media coverage provided
by TWT, and express how
grateful we are for the encouragement
it gives us to
continue this valuable community
activity.
The concept of an All-
Abilities Disco was launched
over three years ago to provide
a social activity for people
of all abilities.
Four Discos are held
each year, many featuring
themes: Hawaiian, Christmas
in July and a spectacular
Disco on Ice at Macquarie
Ice Rink.
The Disco attracts 80
- 100 dancers from community
homes, supported
accommodation and local
residents.
Many of the guests are accompanied
by Care Workers
and volunteers from Summer
Foundation, Achieve,
Northcott, Royal Rehab,
Seton Villa and Cerebral
Palsy Alliance who join with
other local residents to enjoy
the Disco experience.
The EVERYbody Dance
Now Disco is hosted at
North Ryde Golf Club on selected
Saturday dates from
4.00pm - 6.00pm.
The Disco features DJ Joe
and also offers a hair, makeup
and fingernail makeover
for guests who arrive prior to
the start of the Disco.
The next Disco is on Saturday
August 3.
John Booth and TWT
have provided promotion
and support for the Disco
for the benefit of the Ryde
community from day one.
How Good is TWT and
John Booth!
Thank you on behalf of the
volunteer committee and all
who attend the Disco.
JULIE HILL and
JIM TOWERS
Ryde & Hunters Hill
Lisa Miscamble
GENERAL MANAGER
LETTERS
Welcome
TWT welcomes letters
from our readers. Full
name, address and
telephone number
MUST be supplied, even
if not for publication.
Send to: TWT PO Box
123, Ryde 1680 or email:
contactus@weekly
times.com.au
Ryde Council
extra special
rates hike
Dear Sir,
Ryde City Council is
planning to rake in an
extra $12.55 million from
all rateable properties in
Ryde via a Special Rate
Variance for the 2019/20
financial year (and ongoing).
Ratepayers will have
missed it, not just because
of the federal election but
because Council failed to
mention it in their advertising
which concentrated on
small projects about the
place.
You have to look hard to
find the Draft Delivery Plan
2019-2023.
I don’t believe it is a pox
on Ryde residents by a Labor
controlled council for
not voting ALP in the state
election but instead a way
of paying for some truly
extravagant and wasteful
spending by council.
In shades of Stuart Ayres
and the football stadium
Mayor Laxale wants to
spend seven or eight million
dollars to tear down a two
story building at Christie
Park and put up a new first
class building for soccer
administrators (plus some
open futsal courts)…and
Cr Laxale wants you to pay
for it!
The thing about Special
Rate Variances is that there
is no drop back the next
year, they continue indefinitely.
Unfortunately your time for
making submissions about
the proposed rate increase
has past (May 31 closure) so
get out your cheque books.
FRANK RAYNER
Boronia Park
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Frank
Rayner is a former Ryde
Alderman and Accountant)
Questioning climate
‘scientific facts’
Dear Sir,
Climate science violates
the basic precepts of science.
There are two key pillars of
science.
First, it doesn’t matter how
many “scientists” believe
something.
All of them could be proven
wrong by a single new
scientific theory or experiment.
Science is always tentatively
proven, and it is incumbent
on everyone who
calls himself a scientist to
ask questions even about
things that are “settled”.
The great physicist Richard
Feynman rightly said,
“Science is the belief in the
ignorance of experts”.
Scientists must continually
question everything and
everybody.
FRANK BRUS
Five Dock
Mayhem outside
community centre
Dear Sir,
As a resident of the
West Ryde Central Square
apartment building on
Anthony Road, situated
directly opposite the
Community Centre, life is
normally relatively quiet
and peaceful, but on Saturday
evening May 25, the
opposite was the case.
A social event had taken
place in the Community
Centre on that evening involving
a very large number
of guests.
It ended approx 11.15 pm
when the guests started to
spill out onto the street to
make their way home.
Unfortunately, the crowd
lingered en masse, creating
a lot of noise with high
pitched shouting, many
people chatting simultaneously,
etc, that the deafening
din easily penetrated the
double glazed windows and
balcony doors fitted to our
building
I speak on my behalf,
along with that of the many
residents with young families
living within the building,
whom I suspect, were
also badly affected by the
disruption, so very late in
the evening.
While it is recognised that
such events are essential
for creating and engendering
goodwill and respect
within the community, I ask
all those concerned, to pass
on a little of your good will
and respect at such future
events to all Anthony road
residents.
WALT BISHOP
West Ryde
Apology for Myall
Creek massacre
Dear Sir,
It almost went unnoticed,
NSW Labor’s policy
pre-election announcement
that there would be
an apology for the Statesponsored
massacres of
Indigenous people.
This is historic. If only we
could all see what enormous
good could flow.
At Myall Creek, truly a
massacre of the innocents
in 1838, I have witnessed
astonishing reconciliation
based on a simple, if difficult,
apology of the heart.
That is why from Sydney
I keep returning every June
long weekend for the commemoration.
It is now twenty
years. It is like entering
another place, a far bigger
space, a far better country.
The NSW Liberal party
grant process also saw Myall
Creek receive $1m towards
an iconic cultural and
educational centre at the
site. Labor Party policy is to
commit $3m.
The Myall Creek story did
not finish in 1838. It is ongoing,
and we are all writing
the next chapters.
GRAEME CORDINER
Gladesville
Amazing
experience
at MCC AGM
Hunters Hill Guest Column
My first encounter with
Paris included Notre Dame
MY FIRST visit to Paris
was exactly 50 years
ago.
I was a 20 years-old
student visiting and
staying with my second
cousin married to a
French lady.
Everything that
has previously been
dreamed of was now
becoming part of my
experience, as per my
reveries about seeing
the whole world.
I knew the paradise
is out somewhere
there, and I didn’t know
exactly where.
So, my plan was to
simply cover the whole
globe.
Needless to say, my
first encounter with
Paris had to include
Notre Dame.
* * *
THE CATHEDRAL left
an indelible impression
and during my
forthcoming numerous
visits to the city of light
I never failed to go visit
Our Lady, elegant, tacit
and slightly aloof.
In 2011 I had an
exhibition of my icons
near Lyon.
A friend referred me
to Bishop Jean-Yves
Riocreux who was
the Bishop and Dean
of Notre Dame for
12 years, well known
and beloved by his
parishioners.
He is now Monsignor
and is based in the
Caribbean.
Dear Sir,
Those who attended the
Macquarie Community
College Annual General
Meeting Thursday May 23
were treated to an “Out of
this world experience”.
CEO Theresa Collignon
was thrilled to tell the meeting
that the College had
posted its second profit
in two years and the College
had increased its government
RTO funding as
claimed in the Director’s
Report, by a million dollars
to the highest in MCC’s history.
What the succession of
presenters failed to say was
that with all the wonderful
news, the gross revenue of
the college decreased from
$6.75m to $4.12m and profit
for the year had fallen by 80
percent!
More to the point, the
$38,521 “profit” included
$81,617 in bank interest
from college reserves and
$240,717 in “other income”
derived almost entirely from
renting college property.
With that taken into account,
the “trading profit” of
the college in real terms was
not a profit but a loss of over
$280,000.
Naturally, these comments
were not well received, nor
was the reminder that with
$10m of college assets the
$38,000 is a paltry return in
anyone’s language.
It goes without saying
that the prime purpose of
the community college is
to provide education but
what is beyond belief that
this organisation which was
an outstanding provider of
education for fifteen years,
making handsome profits
which it returned to the
community, is incapable of
managing its affairs to call
itself a “ghost” of a business.
Later in the meeting when
chairman Dr Jennifer Green
was reminded that the
College had four failed attempts
to change the outdated
2003 Constitution,
she extended an invitation
for assistance to resolve the
impasse.
My offer to help was rejected
because “some
members would probably
disagree with my recommendations”.
It is quite obvious that
the Board and executive of
To The POINT
with MICHAEL GALOVIC
The good bishop
wanted to see my icons
and potentially acquire
something for his new
parish outside Paris.
We met just outside
Notre Dame: the
Bishop, a dear friend
Harry Bauer who was
with me at the time,
and I.
The vivacious and
locacious bishop took
us inside, bypassing
many tourists and
led us into parts
and chambers only
the priests and their
helpers are allowed to
be in.
He saw the icons, we
chatted briefly and then
abruptly he said he had
to leave for another
engagement but we
should not worry, just
find our way out on our
own.
Harry and I looked at
each other, surrounded
by the most beautiful
mediaval treasuries,
entirely unguarded.
We were gobsmacked
by the trust Bishop
Riocreux had bestowed
upon us but gradually
made our way out which
was far more difficult
than we imagined due
to the cathedral’s inner
sanctum maze.
* * *
Macquarie Community College
is incapable of managing
its affairs.
Its only solution is to keep
members in the dark and
when they have no other
option, to feed them on
false and misleading information.
GEORGE PAPALLO
OAM JP FAITD
CEO of Macquarie Community
College 1994-2009
Buck passing on
NDIS funding
Dear Sir,
I sincerely empathise
with Judy Nicholas (Letters
May 29 2019).
So, when the symbol
of all medieval beauty
her, not only the French
people, went into flames
and remained forever
scarred, I gasped for
relief, shook my head
and became one of the
many who went into
of two French fermale
saints: Saint Joan of Arc
This seems to have
been my way to pay
tribute to the everlasting
THIS
was in
LAST
Paris was
time
one
I
of those memorable
events for life.
of Europe,
structure
belongs to
the
which
all who
noble
now
love
deep lament.
Somehow,
of working
instead
several
previous
I embarked
on
commissions
on painting
and
the
Saint
patron
Genevieve,
of Paris
herself.
beauty
which
of
had
a country
our lives
enriched with so
many exquisite and
extraordinary pieces
of art, architecture and
music.
My homage to France
through hommmage a
Notre Dame.
MICHAEL GALOVIC
is a prominent Hunters
Hill icon artist
In March the NDIS also
cut out, without any warning
or reason, funding for a
life saving product that they
had funded for the previous
two years.
Without this product my
son cannot even have a
drink of water without choking.
He has multiple physical
and intellectual disabilities
and cannot afford the
monthly cost of this product
on a pension.
I have since learned, from
other sources, that the NDIS
have tried to palm off this
funding to the State Health.
State Health state they
cannot provide the funding
for this product because it
is definitely a disability issue
and therefore an NDIS funding
responsibility.
The victims of the “cheap
shot” are the vulnerable
people with severe disabilities
who cannot speak for
themselves and whose lives
are at risk.
Someone in the Morrison
Government thought
they could justify changing
the NDIS policy of “no one
would be worse off under
the NDIS” just so they
could boast a surplus in the
budget.
Where does this leave
my son and many others
like him? This causes
stress not only on them
but families and carers
MARILYN JONES
Ryde
Testing for excess
iron overloads
Dear Sir,
Is the world pumping too
much iron? June 3 marks
the start of World Haemochromatosis
Week.
Haemochromatosis is the
most common genetic disorder
in Australia and causes
your body to absorb too
much iron from food.
It is easy to test, simple to
treat but tragic to ignore because
the excess iron overloads
body tissues, damages
organs and can cause premature
death.
Many people suffer the effects
of haemochromatosis
without being diagnosed
because early symptoms are
common with other conditions
and include tiredness
and aching joints.
When detected early
haemochromatosis can be
managed easily through
blood donations and is no
barrier to a normal life or life
expectancy.
Find out if this is you
at www.ha.org.au
DR DIANNE PRINCE
President,
Haemochromatosis
Australia