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