The Tussock Times

is an A4 Newsletter circulating in the

Anembo-Jerangle-Peak View area in

New South Wales, Australia.

Our bias is unashamedly pro-rural and pro-Australian.

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Cooma-Monaro Shire Council Meeting

Monday 13 July 2015

There was a time when local Council meetings would often run until midnight and later but that is no longer the case. Certainly the idea of Councilors making decisions on the management of millions of dollars of our money that late at night was cause for grave concern. But now the pendulum seems to have swung too far the other way. Of course it might have just been that there was little activity to consider that night.

There were a couple of speakers in Open Forum; the old cocky was there complaining about his slow internet connection and a young chap from Peak View was asking about progress on the task of filling in a pot hole on the Peak View Road. It seems that Council had placed barriers and Witches Hats (plastic cones) around the hole but locals were concerned that it might have fallen off the list of “jobs to do”.

Other than that, the meeting received and considered reports from all the various committees that run the affairs of Council around town, these Committees are the unseen work load on Councilors and often come as a surprise to persons who nominate for and then get elected as Councilors.

For the many years that we have been following Council affairs, the monthly meetings involved a list of “Items for Decision” on which the Councilors had to make a collective decision which would then be applied by the staff to the matter discussed. Often these item were the more contentious issues for which the State Government did not wish to bear responsibility.

It seems that this month there were no such matters to be discussed and maybe that was a coincidence but maybe it is part of a new way of running the Council without public involvement. On the Friday preceding this meeting, Council had released a “Notices and updates” circular which included a list of Development Determinations for May. In the past there have always been some of these determinations that needed a bit more than rubber stamping and it was the discussion of such applications in a Public Meeting that allowed the ratepayers to see what Council was up to.

The meeting finished early, about 8.15 p.m.

Do you know the story behind this photo?

Driving on the Jerangle Road recently I saw this wreck on the verge. Persons I have asked do not know how it came to be there but they tell me that there were originally two vehicles there.

The police have taken an interest as indicated by the police tape threaded through the cab.

Maybe somebody had stripped the vehicles at another place and dumped the shells here or possible the vehicles had rolled and been rendered unfit to drive.

Hardly likely with both of them but why did the other get removed?

Rolling vehicles on the Jerangle Road is nothing unusual, the road is treacherous at best.

Many who do roll their vehicles get them removed as quickly as possible and keep quiet about the incident as the police have been known to charge drivers with “driving without due care”.

Many years ago when heading towards Captains Flat early on a Saturday morning, I passed a police patrol car, resting on its roof. I wonder did the policeman charge himself with “driving without due care”?

Justice Mortimer Hands Down Her Decision In The Peter Spencer Case.

On Friday 24^th of July 2015, Justice Mortimer in the Federal Court, handed down her ruling and the reason for that ruling.

This case, although it was launched by one man, mostly unrepresented, has been described as “bigger than Mabo” yet it has been almost impossible to find reporting of it on the internet. I have been unable to find any reference at all on the ABC website.

On The Land website it is filed under “Rural Lifestyle” when it most certainly should be filed as Farming Business or Land Rights.

Peter Spencer was a man who wanted to go farming. In the late 1970's he bought some 5,000 acres of a “neglected farm” in the southern highlands of NSW.

As an aside. I was still working at a daily newspaper in Canberra in those days. The property was advertised in that paper at a price per acre which was not a lot of money. At least two of the compositors there, failing to understand how rural land was sold, announced that they were going to write to the vendor and offer to each buy one hundred acres at the advertised price. Peter Spencer bought the entire 5,000 acres.

In order to pay for it, among other moves, he went to PNG to work for some years and he borrowed money from members of his family.

On his return, the property was in an even more neglected condition but he went ahead and had a house built there and named the property “Saarahnlee” after his two daughters.

Before he could do any improvement to the neglected state of the farm, the NSW Carr Government introduced SEPP 46. That is State Environment Planning Policy 46 and that policy placed a ban on Mr Spencer doing the work needed to bring “Saarahnlee” back into production.

Peter Spencer was not the only heavily mortgaged farmer who lost his former legal right to farm his property. Most of the others quietly went down into the back paddock and blew their brains out.

Peter Spencer went on a hunger strike, camped on a platform high up on a tower being used to test the feasibility of building a Wind Farm on the property.

Eventually he came down and entered into a long and protracted legal battle, naming not just the NSW Government as the defendant but also the Commonwealth Government as there was plenty of evidence of collusion at both levels of government.

He passed through the various levels of Courts, sometimes being thrown out but then getting to a higher Court on Appeal. Initially his legal team was financed by the “Farmers Fighting Fund'.This fund was established after a Farmers Rally in front of the Australian Parliament House in Canberra about the year 1983 or 84. Later, management of the fund was handed to the National Farmers Federation for some unknown reason. It was mostly family farmers who contributed to the fund, with the assistance of some large companies who make their profits from farmers. The National Farmers Federation (NFF) represents major companies who either hold extensive properties or who own some property as part of a policy of “investment exposure to Agriculture”.

Some of us thought that the hearing in the Federal Court was the last roll of the dice but now there is talk of an appeal against the ruling by Justice Mortimer.

In a long winded statement, Mortimer has rejected Peter's appeal for compensation for the loss of his property rights, he was sold off the property by the mortgage holders, but had he still held title he would have been legally prevented from farming there.

Mortimer gave reasons for her decision. Among her stated reasons was an explanation that what most of the farming community saw as a conspiracy between then Prime Minister John Howard and State Premier Bob Carr to introduce a ban on farming without paying compensation, was in fact, part of the normal arrangements involved in maintaining a political Federation such as is Australia.

She has not yet made a ruling on costs.

If you would like to read her decision, follow this link.

http://www.judgements.fedcourt.gov.au/judgements/Judgements/fca/single/2015/2015ca0754

We are often told that we are extremely fortunate in that we live in a country that has Rule of Law and this sounds like something very good but when the very laws are rotten, maybe it is not such a blessing.