Gladys Berejiklian Dear Reader. Thank you for the opportunity to make suggestions. The above survey asks me to approve Mike Bairds vision for Australia and NSW. Well I dont know what his vision is and any way it seems like a lot of Dorothy Dixers to me. I present to you a list that Im sure most plebs would like to see enacted. The main issue in NSW is the cost of POWER. I am a pensioner and just paid the gas and electricity. GAS = $603.89 for 3 months, ELECTRICITY = $527.38 for 3 months. This includes the discount for using a LIFE SUPPORT machine. This was for the winter and will be a bit less for the rest of the year. Each will be around $1500 pa. Then there is the RATES @ $1800.00 and water @ $700.00 . The simple thing to do would be to give Pensioners a 50% discount on the bill paid for by a raise in the cost of power and gas to all other users. this is not as bad as it sounds because the power utilities give substantial discounts to bulk users and this discount is paid for by all users. There is also an unfair discount given to the wealthy paid for by the lowest income earners. When SOLAR PANELS were introduced those that were able to jump in early (had the money) were given a highly paid feed in tariff paid for from general revenue (all other users). This means that those that did not have the money to buy solar panels are SUBSIDISING those that had the money. FAIR??? Let me know how you want me to vote. There are other points about the cost of power. The issue of POLES and WIRES. Do not sell or lease them. The control of the poles and wires is the most important part of selling power. If a foreign company had ownership of the wires it could stop opposition to the generation of new power. All it needs is for the owner to run the poles and wires at a profit the same as if they were sold. Find an executive to run the poles and wires at a profit and pay that person the same remuneration as if it was a private company, and do not allow the operation to have public servant conditions but similar to private workers. Sale of Snowy Hydro. forget it. The long term security of the State is in jeopardy if Snowy Hydro is sold. In a recent NEWS LETTER the CEO of Snowy Hydro Paul Broad said it was running as a private company with great success for 12 years. I have included an attachment that was sent to a newspaper but not published that gives a clear idea of my thoughts. Power consumption will never reduce, the only relief will be the increasing efficiency of appliances. Snowy Hydro is in a good position to buy/build a new generator to compliment the small hydro unit that it has now, and make serious profits for the state. Selling the poles and wires would make that impossible and selling Snowy Hydro would see the profits go overseas. Control of power generation is control of NSW Industry. Because NSW government is a pendulum between Liberal and Labor the unions has it easy for half the time and mildly hard the rest. Under a foreign owner NSW Industry will give the unions no slack and workers will suffer and the public will rely more and more on imports. NSW will become a defacto state of the USA. I was involved in transport for most of my working life and learned to WELD to save money. I am still a hobby welder but the cost of power is too high and I dont indulge in my hobby very much. There is a sensible way to resolve several issues with the cost of power. Build a NUCLEAR power station. NSW needs the extra generation capacity. Nuclear power is clean, green and safe. The only public objection to nuclear power is the storage and disposal of waste. Simple. oil drilling rigs can drill to 8km into the ground, drop the spent fuel, encased in steel and lead to the bottom of the hole and fill it with concrete. If recovery is needed, just drill a new hole beside the old one. PS The French are buying spent fuel and storing it for future use. France will one day (soon) supply electricity to Europe and to that end has enough fuel for 500 years at current usage. Usage will grow exponentially in the next 15 years. Sale of any power assets at this time is a serious mistake. ELECTRIC cars coming soon (?) Now even. China has more than 40 makes of electric car. China will one day be the worlds supplier of personal transport, and it will be battery cars. NSW should be making every effort to build electric cars to generate employment for the future. Electric cars have an electric motor (value $900) to replace the petrol motor and a simple 2 speed gear box ($800) the replace the multi speed auto gearbox in current use. This makes the electric car very affordable. The American motor manufacturing industry is trying to seel us electric cars at twice the price of what the Chinese car makers can. This is a blatant rip off and must be avoided for the future security of NSW. There is a lot the government can do to introduce the electric car to Sydney very quickly. Offer free registration to every electric car that is a second car and is used for commuting to work or school. Ban parking for all private petrol cars in the CBD. Allow only hybrid trucks to make deliveries in the CBD. All Taxis must be EV or PHEV (electric vehicle, or plugin hybrid electric vehicle). The benefits of electric cars in the city will be seen in the reduction of air pollution to all most non existent levels. The rise in use of electric power will see the need for more power generators. Snowy Hydro will become a MAJOR player in the electricity generation and sales and distribution. At this point I need to remind you that the full ownership of the poles and wires is essential. There is more but I will leave it for another time. Cars of the near future will have Cruise control and distance maintenance radar and lane centring steering assist. Some cars will even be robot driven. The laws need to be altered to accommodate these changes. First, driving should be taught in schools, starting with infants school teaching how to cross the road, primary school will teach how to use the roads as a cyclist and walking. High school will teach the basic road law and HOW it works for the benefit of all. In the last year of high school the student will learn to drive a car on the road and pass a licence test to be able to get red P licence at age 16 on application only. Anyone wanting a licence later in life or losing the licence for more than3 months for any reason must do a 3 months course at TAFE to get a licence. (PS unlicensed driving carries 1 month goal and the penalty doubles every subsequent offence.) A new approach to highway driving is needed. All drivers must have and use CRUISE control, set by the GPS speedo for greater accuracy. Cars on cruise control driving at the speed limit do not have to keep left and only move over as a courtesy to speeding drivers. Any car driving at or below 85% of the speed limit must STOP and let all other cars pass. All cars driving below the speed limit and have more than 4 cars caught up behind them must stop or move over to allow traffic to pass safely. Cars being overtaken must SLOW to allow traffic to pass even if it means stopping, Heavy vehicles excluded. Speed limits can be exceeded by 60% to complete an overtaking manoeuvrer to get cars back on the right side of the road sooner. The use of cruise control must become a part of licence testing. Be Fair concession to pensioners. The old and unemployed are in need of a free or very cheap internet service. The old so they can maintain contact with family and the unemployed so they can find work. This is simple and straight forward. The total use from private users is tiny compared to business and the cost can be borne by business users. There is a move to offer free internet in town centres and Canberra Hospital has free internet for patients and visitors, so it is not a major deal to provide this. The PRISON SYSTEM needs an overhaul. It looks like a resort home for the evil. Prisons must run at a profit and prisoners must earn their keep or live on bread and water and 1 blanket. All it needs is a bit of backbone from government and some work for them to do. Many prisons have workshops and that is good. There is a vast amount of recyclable waste at every council tip and prisoners could be employed to sort the rubbish out into saleable lots of useable material. There is a lot of work for long term unemployed cleaning graffiti and road sides that are done by council workers. (At great cost to rate payers). This letter could go on for ever but it has shown you that there is a lot more that you could be doing without asking Dorothy Dixers and treating the voters like a flock of sheep following the bell wether.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 11:10:22 +0000