Opposing the iniquitous LHPA rates

Some LHPA ratepayers have already received their rates notices for 2010. If you are on the LHPA ratepayer list and have not yet received your notice, you will during the next week or two, so it is timely to consider what to do with your rates notice. The one thing you absolutely should not do is just pay the rates like a sheep, not bothering to take some time to recognise that you are being arbitrarily discriminated against by a NSW Government that expects a small minority of NSW landholders to provide private funding for the delivery of public services via the LHPA to the whole of the NSW community. The NSW Government needs to be reminded that you are not a sheep to be fleeced for political expediency, simply because you hold 10 hectares or more of land. There are ways in which you can provide the NSW Government with such a reminder.

1. You could forward your LHPA rates notice for payment by Minister Steve Whan who, having approved the amounts, should surely be prepared to provide the proper public funding for delivery of his public services through the LHPA instead of ripping off a minority group of NSW landholders whose only sin is the possession of 10 hectares or more of land.
   
2. You could forward your LHPA rates notice for payment by the Premier, Kristina Keneally. She is reportedly keen to reduce the stench hanging over the NSW Government and you would be providing her with a great opportunity to prove that she does not want to be the leader of a government that victimises a minority group of NSW landholders to provide private funding for delivery of LHPA public services for the whole of NSW.  Her government has inherited from its unprincipled predecessors an attitude of “the end justifies the means” and there is a lot of stench attached to that attitude.
   
3. You could withhold part payment and pay whatever sum you regard as a “reasonable” amount, perhaps the same as you paid in 2008 before the LHPA introduced their completely unjustified “base charges” that caused many small landholders to suffer huge rates increases of over 100% and some as much as 200%.
   
4. You could simply succumb to the LHPA's coercion; pay their extortionate rates and perhaps derive some perverse satisfaction from the knowledge that you are a hero, one of the small minority of NSW landholders who provide private funding for delivery of public services by the LHPA to the entire NSW community.
   

Regardless of the choice you make; if you are unhappy with the LHPA rates, you should send a formal complaint to your local Member of Parliament and/or LHPA Board and then make sure that they properly acknowledge and respond to your individual complaint. For your information, addresses are provided below for Premier Keneally and Minister Whan.

Ms Kristina Keneally, MP Level 40 Governor Macquarie Tower 1 Farrer Place SYDNEY NSW 2000

Mr Steve Whan, MP Level 33 Governor Macquarie Tower 1 Farrer Place SYDNEY NSW 2000

If you think any of your friends, neighbours and associates might be interested, please send them a link to this location or print it out and give copies to them.

If you care, you CAN make a difference!

Lloyd Seaton
Publicity Officer, Central Mid Coast Rural Rates Action Committee
94 Youngs Road, Wingham NSW 2429

Tony Fitzgerald's Swan Song - On Parliamentary Integrity

Tony Fitzgerald QC needs no introduction as a strenuous opponent of corrupt and unprincipled government.  Accordingly, it was heartening to hear him interviewed on the ABC's PM program on 11th March. You can view the transcript of his interview here or play the sound track here.
I also took considerable heart from the circumstances of Tony's speech.  He was launching Parliamentary Integrity Awards for a body known as the Accountability Round Table, a body of which I was previously unaware and whose motives I heartily applaud.  The full text of Tony's Swan Song Speech can be accessed on the Accountability Round Table web site here.
Tony's damning criticism of kangaroo democracy was not directed at any particular individual or state but I could find scarcely a word that didn't ring painfully true for the NSW context in general and NSW's contemptible government in particular.

Formal Complaint - Breach of Pecuniary Interest Provisions

I lodged a formal complaint yesterday against the self-serving director(s) of the Interim Mid-Coast LHPA Board who participated in the decision to maximise the "base charges" components of the 2009 rates, inflicting huge percentage increases on small landholders, so that the larger landholders, including and especially themselves, could avoid paying significant increases. Full and literal wording of the complaint follows.

Breach Of Pecuniary Interest Provisions - Formal Complaint

That one or more Directors of the Mid Coast LHPA Board, while serving on the Interim Mid Coast LHPA Board during 2009, did use his or her office or position for personal advantage, in contravention of the Rural Lands Protection Act 1998 - section 57B (1) (c) by taking part in a decision to set the LHPA rates base charges at the maximum allowable amounts.

Setting of the base charges at the maximum allowable levels made it possible to avoid increases of the incremental rates attached to notional carrying capacity. Accordingly, this decision caused a substantial shifting of the burden of costs to the small landholders for the commensurate advantage of the large landholders.

Any substantial landholder on the Interim Mid Coast LHPA board would have derived a personal advantage arising from his or her participation in this decision.

Charter of Service - too secret for public disclosure?

The LHPA used to have a Charter of Service available for perusal on their website here.  No more.  If you use the link it takes you to a login/password challenge.  Is it because they were embarrassed by the poor quality of their published Charter of Service or that they are just too secretive to display their Charter of Service.  Either way, it seems rather pathetic that the LHPA has no published Charter of Service and no Statement of Mission, Vision and Values.  How can they pretend they have a future?

LHPA Identity Crisis Continues

The LHPA have published a Director's Code Of Conduct that you can access via a link on this page.  Interestingly it includes the following sentence, "Together with the statement of mission, vision and values, this Code is a key part of the culture of the organisation."
I have been unable to find such a "statement of mission, vision and values"  but, evidently they still intend to produce one.  You could be excused for thinking that it shouldn't be so hard, especially when the IMC report (available here) included draft Mission and Vision Statements way back in June 2008.  The drafts from the IMC report could never be used because the underlying presumption of the IMC Report was that the NSW Government should and would pay for delivery of the public-good components of LHPA service.  They certainly did not foresee that the Government would renege and expect the LHPA to operate as a privately funded public service body.  Of course, the LHPA doesn't want to be perceived as a privately funded public service body but that is exactly what it is and this dichotomy is at the root of the LHPA's identity crisis.

Writing to your local MP

One of the best ways to express your dissatisfaction with the NSW Government's abuse of LHPA ratepayers is to write to your local MP, asking that he/she take actions on your behalf to put right the wrongdoing.  It is, after all, their job to represent you.

Postal addresses and other contact details of all NSW Government members can be found via the following web address:

www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/PARLMENT/Members.nsf/V3ListCurrentMembers

 If you care, you CAN make a difference!

Call For Payment Of Outstanding Amount

When I received my LHPA bill last April, I had never heard of the Bull Report or the IMC Report but I certainly could recognise an unacceptable increase in my rates; from $69.65 last year to $120.15 this year.  Not knowing what I now know, I decided to make a payment equal to last year's billed amount and leave an amount of $50.50 outstanding.

I finally received the following letter from the Mid Coast LHPA General Manager a couple of days ago concerning this outstanding amount.

My reply to this letter was as follows:

94 Youngs Road

Wingham NSW 2429

24 September 2009

General Manager

Mid Coast LHPA

15 Isabella Street

Wingham NSW 2429

Dear Mr Matts

In response to your letter of 22 September 2009, I can provide some clarification as follows.

The "umbrella of a legislative framework" to which you refer is, in my opinion, a gross miscarriage of government that has imposed a grave injustice on the small landholders of NSW. In conscience, I cannot and will not bow to the will of an unprincipled NSW Government that has, during this term of government, earned the contempt of the vast majority of people in NSW. The fact that the interim Mid Coast LHPA Board acted within the law in imposing their excessive rates increases does not mean that they acted justly or fairly. Even the Honourable (sic) Ian Macdonald reportedly admitted that excessive increases were due to the "poor judgement" of some boards.

My part payment ($69.65) of LHPA rates was intended to provide an amount that might possibly be justifiable. Even that amount represents a 15.8% compound annual increase over the seven years that I have been paying such rates ($24.85 in 2002), an increase that cannot be explained by any perceptible increase in delivered services nor by inflation as the CPI has been less than 3% compound over the period.

As for the outstanding amount ($50.50), I will pay this amount when I receive a satisfactory explanation of:

1. Why the interim Mid Coast LHPA Board set the base rate charge at $60, instead of $40 or $50, as allowed by the Bull Report, 
2. Why my rates, even excluding the $17.80 pest insect special rate, have increased at a 22.4% annual compound rate over the last seven years, and 
3. What actions are proposed by the new Mid Coast LHPA Board to compensate for the "poor judgement" of the interim Mid Coast LHPA Board in setting the excessive rates during 2009.
   

Your letter cautioned that my outstanding amount is liable for interest payments but failed to indicate the interest rate applicable. It would provide a greater impression of candour and transparency to me and other recipients of your letter if the applicable interest rate were to be clearly indicated. The lack of this information prevents the possibility of properly taking this factor into account and leaves the impression of a secretive and furtive bureaucracy.

Yours faithfully,

D. Lloyd Seaton