Mrs Markus will instead contest the neighbouring seat of Macquarie.

Created when the size of the parliament was increased in 1984, Greenway is named after the colonial architect Francis Greenway.

The re-drawn district of Greenway covers 84square kilometres in the north-west of Sydney, which is only 3per cent of the area covered by the old Greenway.

North of the M7 Greenway includes newer housing estates around Quakers Hill, Parklea, Stanhope Gardens, Glenwood and Kellyville Ridge. The boundary changes radically altered Greenway’s political complexion which has seen the 4.5per cent Liberal margin from the 2007 election replaced by an estimated 5.7per cent Labor margin.

The 2006 census showed that Greenway had the second highest proportion of children under the age of five (8.2per cent).

Candidates

Michelle Rowland,

Australian Labor Party.

Born and raised locally, Ms Rowland is a senior lawyer with law firm Gilbert and Tobin in Sydney.

She lives in the electorate at Glenwood.

She was a director of the Western Sydney Area Health Service from 2000 to 2004 and is a former local councillor and deputy mayor of Blacktown.

Paul Taylor, Greens

The 24-year-old has lived in the Blacktown area most of his life and is now full-time carer for his disabled father.

Mr Taylor said his experiences with the public health system had driven his involvement in Greens campaigns for improvements to local public health facilities in Greenway.

Jayme Diaz, Liberal Party

Mr Diaz is a legal practitioner who is also involved in helping the community’s young people, particularly those from a Filipino background.

(By The Rouse Hill-Stanhope Gardens News)

The Greens’ Paul Taylor will stand in Greenway, Debbie Robertson in Chifley and Suzie Wright in Lindsay.

Mr Taylor is a full-time carer for his disabled father and said his experiences had driven his campaign for public health improvements.

He is also passionate about climate change.

“Make polluters pay, not households,” he said.

“The Greens have proposed an interim carbon tax as a solution to the deadlock on emissions trading.”

Mrs Robertson wants more funding for mental health and dental services, public transport, education, housing and the disabled, protection of workers’ rights and action on climate change.

Ms Wright, a former psychiatric nurse, is a social campaigner and environmental activist with an interest in climate change.

“Voters need to keep the pressure on governments to act honestly, with principle and to ensure that they act on their election promises,” she said.

The former Howard government introduced the NT National Emergency Response Act in remote Aboriginal communities in 2007, which includes the quarantine of welfare benefits where recipients receive vouchers instead of cash.

Federal MPs will vote in the next two weeks whether to amend the laws to affect all of NT and other selected locations across Australia.

Local indigenous leaders and the Greens Party have grave concerns Mount Druitt could be targeted if the bill is passed to include selected areas nationwide. “It would not only affect the large indigenous population in Mount Druitt but also anyone who receives welfare support,’’said the Greens candidate for Chifley, Debbie Robertson.

“It doesn’t address the causes of disadvantage or independence or social inclusion in the community.”

More community forums will be held in Mount Druitt to spread the word. “Not many people understand the full implications where welfare recipients will be told where to shop and what to buy,” Mrs Robertson said.

“They won’t have full access to their benefits and it will be harder to get off income management.”

She urged Mr Price, who is Mount Druitt and District Reconciliation group patron, to oppose the bill or at least speak on the matter in parliament.

“Will he support the constituents who voted for him or put the Labor Party first?” she asked.

The Star contacted Mr Price for a comment but didn’t get a response before deadline.

(By Kylie Stevens – St Marys Star)

NSW Greens MLC and lead NSW Senate candidate for the upcoming Federal Election spoke at a recent protest against the plan.

“The internet is an exciting vehicle which enables children to explore the world and accrue knowledge. The best seatbelt a parent can provide for their children’s internet journey is to closely supervise and educate their kids about its risks,”

Ms Rhiannon said.

“The government’s proposal to filter the internet will provide parents with a false sense of security and erode free speech.

“A filter is not the answer for concerned families. It’s been shown to be ineffective and fraught with technical difficulties. And it will do little to prevent the dissemination of child pornography, which is mostly done via file sharing not on websites.

“The best gift we can hand children is the knowledge and power to help manage the way they negotiate the net, now and into the future.

“Australian children don’t want to grow up in a world where their government controls an internet ‘blacklist.’ Handing Big Brother the power to determine what sites we can access is the thin edge of the wedge.

“My federal Greens colleagues will oppose the filter legislation when it comes before Senate,”

Ms Rhiannon said.

Greens Senator and spokesperson for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Scott Ludlam has also spoken out against the filter and supported the “Great Australian Internet Blackout Against Censorship”

I am proud to be part of this week-long national action – The Great Australian Internet Blackout. The government’s plan will not protect children, will do nothing to crack down on criminal activity online, and sets a dangerous precedent of centralised net censorship. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy should start paying attention to the almost universal condemnation of this scheme and pursue alternatives rather than pushing ahead with the mandatory filter

In the current Tasmanian state election, the ALP has taken a leaf out of the Liberal’s book. Crikey reports

Tasmanian Labor is on the ropes.

They’ve resorted to the politics of the lowest common denominator: fear. And it has backfired on them.

When Labor loses government on Saturday, which looks inevitable, it might look to a nine-year-old girl from the north-west coast to begin to understand why.

The Labor Party caused Alice Bellamy’s phone to ring at her home in Spreyton. When she answered, an ALP robocall, an automated message, told her that a vote for the Greens would be a vote to legalise heroin in Tasmania. Alice had to ask her mum what heroin was.

That single event, lasting less than a minute, reported on the front page of the Advocate newspaper on Wednesday, represents the nadir of Tasmanian Labor’s appalling campaign for Saturday’s poll.

Labor backed it up with its robocalls warning that the Greens would not only decriminalise heroin but what would give long-serving prisoners at Risdon Prison the vote. Think Port Arthur mass murderer Martin Bryant.

If a journalist had written such a libellous summary, they would have transgressed Tasmania’s electoral laws, yet those laws do nothing to stop this garbage being broadcast over the phone lines, with no identification, no authorisation. In the US, where robocalls are commonplace, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act requires all telephone calls using pre-recorded messages to identify who is initiating the calls and to include a telephone number or address where the initiator can be reached.

The Tasmanian party was besieged by complaints from members, candidates, present and past ministers, aghast that anybody could have regarded this as clever, let alone productive. Premier David Bartlett claimed he knew nothing about it in advance. If that is true, it is an indictment on the way he has allowed the campaign to be managed. He is the bunny who has to wear it.

Tasmanian was a Labor state. That status has been destroyed by the actions of recent governments, by their too cosy relationships with companies such as Gunns and Federal Hotels, their blindfolded attitude to due process, by their failure to adapt to a smarter constituency, and by their ineptitude in this campaign.

Read the full article at Crikey.

.

And, there could be more good news for isolated Gasmata Crescent residents at Whalan if safety concerns are resolved this week they will get access to a re-diverted 674 service.

The reversed decision comes three weeks after Mr Campbell met community campaigners.

The 755 will run along its old route but every second trip will be extended to Plumpton Marketplace between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Saturday.

The 755 service will run weekdays between 5am and 10pm, with a half-hourly service between 6am and 8am and hourly during other times.

It will run between 6am and 8pm on Saturdays with a half-hourly service between 9am and 5pm and hourly between 9am and 5pm on Sundays.

The Save Our Bus Service lobby group formed late last year to fight for the 755 service and improved services to Gasmata Crescent.

State MPs Allan Shearan and Richard Amery paid tribute to the residents’ persistence.

Group spokeswoman Debbie Robertson was over the moon about last week’s news.

The extended services to Plumpton were an unexpected surprise but she believed that next year’s state election may have something to do with it.

“It’s proof that people power prevails when the community sticks together,” she said.

“Just because there’s change doesn’t mean you have to accept it, especially when it impacts on so many people’s lives.”

Mrs Robertson also welcomed recommendations mentioned in last week’s Star from a recent independent inquiry into the public transport system.

“It’s about time this is what we’ve been saying all along.”

(By Kylie Stevens – St Marys-Mt Druitt Star)

However in December 2009 Wingen has hit the headlines because for the first time in years the bores have run dry and along with residents all over the Upper Hunter region, Wingenites are having to truck their water in.

The Newcastle Herald reports:

Herald weather expert Don White said there was little hope of relief, with the Hunter expecting a very dry, hot summer.

Mr White said rainfall was predicted to be less than average, temperatures above average and evaporation levels increasing.

The Upper Hunter Shire Council implemented level one water restrictions in Scone and Murrurundi on Thursday.

Read the report in the Newcastle Morning Herald

The residents of the small Riverina town of Booligal and farmers in surrounding areas rely on the Lachlan River for their water supply, but without significant rains especially hundreds of miles away in the Lachlan’s headwaters, the river will dry up in the next few weeks. The Wyangala Dam about 40 kms south-east of Cowra is now effectively dry.

Bores are being drilled at Booligal and surrounding towns including Forbes, Lake Cargelligo and Ivanhoe, but the bores may not be sunk before the water completely runs out. Farmers in the region however, are being literally being hung out to dry, facing huge bills just to purchase water for household use and drinking.

Can a water crisis in western Sydney be far away? Despite the Carr,, Iemma, Rees, Keneally government mantra of “Dams, Recycling, Desalination and Water Efficiency”, Sydney’s water reserves continue to fall by around 0.5% per week. Barring significant replenishment we are looking at severe restrictions and hugely increased costs for householders (desal water is very expensive) within a few years – perhaps only 18 months. Needless to say neither the ill-considered lifting of sensible water restrictions by Rees in early 2009 nor constant population growth encouraged by the federal government’s baby bonuses and unfocussed immigration polices is going to reduce the risk of a crisis.

Cattle farmers Matt and Sandra Ireson were interviewed on ABC Radio National Breakfast today.

They run a property at Booligal in the New South Wales Riverina. The Iresons are among the hundreds of farming families who rely on the lower Lachlan River for their water supply. But the river is running dry. Heartbreaking drought and a contentious decision by the New South Wales Government to stop the River at Condobolin has slowed the Lachlan to just a trickle.

You can listen to the interview at Booligal big dry

“Residents have told me that the 755 provided a vital link between local suburbs and that it was a was well patronised.

“I am particularly concerned that less mobile or older residents will have to walk long distances to the new bus route, especially in the heat of the day. The loss of this service may have the effect of isolating some people in their homes.

“It is distressing that Government can allow the removal of a local service despite Busways receiving a significant subsidy from the State Government to provide public transport to the area.

“If it is good enough for the Government to spend billions on its inner-city metro that is proposed to service an area already well if not over supplied with public transport,  it is reasonable for people in the Mt Druitt area to expect that local services will be maintained in this area.

“It is appalling that services will stop early on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Does the Government expect people of this area who can’t afford a car to stay home at night and not visit friends or socialise?

“Imagine the uproar if the Government stopped running buses and trains at 7pm on a Saturday night into and out of the city. It is only fair that people in this part of Sydney get a fair go when it comes to going to and from work or socialising.

”I will be asking questions of the Minister in Parliament” said Ms Hale.

Local Shalvey resident and Blacktown Greens Convenor, Debbie Robertson, said residents feel unhappy with the changes. Ms Robertson along with other local community representatives will approach the Minister for Transport, Mr David Campbell, for a meeting to discuss their concerns. “There are many local residents who want to meet with the Minister and we would like the Mayor of Blacktown, Charlie Lowles, to come with us too. We will be requesting that the Government restore the 755 service
to its previous route and that the frequency of the service be improved”, said Ms Robertson.

“While residents agree that the former bus route was a long ride, it did go past the shopping centres and the leisure centre at Emerton that Council spent millions on. Things are now less accessible now.”

“In the last years we have lost the bus service that connected us to Nirimba Campus of UWS and then to Parramatta.

“Route 674 is being held up as an alternative, but it only runs six times Mon-Fri, twice on Saturdays and once on Sunday. This affects everyone, from the school kids who have to wait around for nearly an hour when school finishes early, to the older, less mobile people who want to go to the doctors, to those who want to go for a swim at the Leisure Centre.

“We need the old services back, and we need the new express services so the buses cater for everyone” said Ms Robertson.

Many well known businesses are run by members of the Exclusive Brethren, a fundamentalist protestant Christian group or movement which some people would categorise as a “cult”.

There are number of groupings which are generally classified as being “Exclusive Brethren” but some adherents would dispute or deny such a label.

The history of the Exclusive Brethren is littered with schisms and splits some of which when you read the reports of the circumstances surrounding them would cause you to seriously question the morality if not the sanity of the main actors.

In Australia the majority of those regarded as Exclusive Brethren are members of a branch commonly known as Raven-Taylor-Hales Brethren. Wikipedia has a detailed article on the Brethren and their beliefs – click here

The group have an official website which is worth visiting if only because it includes a “sociological appraisal” by a leading academic which outlines their history and theology. Click here to link

You can also find out much more at Peebs.Net. This is “a website that endeavours to investigate and report the Truth behind the Exclusive Brethren, a group of so-called Christians, and by so doing, help break the chains and break down the barriers that prevent us from seeing our families, friends and loved ones, trapped in what many are calling a bona fide Cult.”

Knowledge is Power

Regardless of any other bees in their bonnets, they don’t like The Greens and although they don’t believe in voting themselves they have funded a number of advertising campaigns denigrating the party and its policies ahead of recent elections in Australia and New Zealand.

We believe that citizens should be able to make up their own minds about organisations like the Brethren. Here are a variety of links for those that are interested in their background and activities:

• The Exclusive Brethren – article at Source Watch
• Elusive Exclusive Brethren – transcript of Background Briefing radio program
• Brethren Online – site written from a sympathetic point of view
• “Behind The Exclusive Brethren” is a book by Michael Bachelard to be published in Australia in October 2008 which shows how a small, fringe group, whose values are completely detached from those of most Australians, managed to influence the outcome of elections and obtain favours from prominent politicians.

Brethren Businesses

The businesses associated with The Brethren include:

• Coolibah Cubbies, Unanderra, NSW – manufacturers and retailers of cubbies and children’s play equipment. This business also trades as “Moduplay Commercial Play Systems” or just “Moduplay“. Currently the business is conducted by “THE QUINSEY FAMILY TRUST” (ABN: 99 576 695 996). Formerly the business was conducted by QUINSITE NOMINEES PTY LTD (ACN 001 421 110) which in 1998 was found by the ACCC to have engaged in anti-competitive behaviour in regard to the supply of equipment to local government authorities – see ACCC Undertakings register (s. 87B)
• Crest Office Interiors, Penrith, NSW – manufacturers and distributors of office furniture
• Archway House Furniture and Furnishings (also known as Archway House Group) (ABN 36 399 318 906) Ryde and Ermington NSW – manufacturers of office furniture, partitions. general furniture, and office supplies run by Bruce Hales (the minister of the Lord in the Recovery ie. the head honcho) of the EB. The business is actually run by “BD & JJ HALES AND GJ & KJ HALES & THE HALES TRUST”. Officelink Project Management and Design Pty Ltd ( ABN 45 124 818 980) has been associated with Archway House and may still be.
• Supawood, Bathurst, NSW – manufacturers of decorative and acoustic panels
• Billi Systems, Thomastown, Vic – distributors of tapware, water filters and coolers (the family business of Victorian Brethren leader John Gadsden)
• Allpumps Sales & Services, Parramatta, NSW – importers and suppliers of pumps run by Stephen Hales brother of Bruce Hales,
• Jaybro Civil & Safety Products, St Marys, NSW – manufacturers and suppliers of environmental products
• Tyremax, Sprinter Tyres and STI Tyres Australia Pty Ltd – importers and distributors of tyres etc (Maxxis brand tyres from Asia)
• Aspen Commercial Interiors (ABN 65 752 033 790) Blacktown and Armidale, NSW – manufacturers and distributors of commercial and office furniture. They carry out “office fit-outs, workstations, joinery, and commercial joinery” according to their Whitepages entry. The business is a partnership comprising the following: “D.J HEANEY & K.A HEANEY & M.A HEANEY & M.E HEANEY & M.J HEANEY & P.T HEANEY & S.H HEANEY & S.R HEANEY & ROSEHAM PTY”. This last “partner”, Roseham Pty (ABN 59 114 858 089) is an unusual creature: an “unlimited” company. Roseham Pty also trades as “The Grove Gourmet”.
• Fortress Fencing & Safety Systems (The Trustee for THE JOYCE FAMILY TRUST trading as) ABN 42 714 139 511 – sell barrier fencing for construction sites etc.

How to tell if you are dealing with the Exclusive Brethren

The rules the EB operate their businesses under are many, varied, convoluted and subject to change. They are (or have been) not allowed to have faxes in their offices which means that they will often use a fax number in a neighbouring business. Until recently they have not been allowed to use the internet. However practicality reigns supreme for the EB and they are now allowed to use a computer which has been significantly hamstrung and can only access certain sites and email.

Here are a few pointers on how to tell if the EB are running a business:

1. the business will have email addresses but no website or at least no significant web presence. You can look up their domain name at the .com.au “whois”. If the domain is registered to “TELCO IN A BOX PTY. LTD.” you can be almost sure that it is a EB business. You should understand that there is no suggestion of any ulterior motive or deceptive conduct in this third party registration by “telcoinabox” as they call themselves or that that company is a run or owned by EB. Another clue is that when you go to the web address you will see the words “Dies ist eine mit SysCP angelegte Domain. Hier sind noch keine Inhalte hinterlegt worden.”
2. the only females you will ever talk to in their business are doing low status jobs such as reception or process work and will not engage you in any real conversation. They will be unmarried.
3. they may seem to only want to talk to the males in your business and sometimes will be abrupt (but polite) with females.
4. they will try to avoid having you send them a fax.
5. they will show no real interest in discussing any topic other than business with you – and they will not accept your invitation to go to lunch.

Televison and video on Brethren Activities

• Brethren Express – ABC Four Corners program broadcast October 2007

Press Articles on Brethren Activities

• Believers A World Apart – article on the cult’s political activities (The Age, Sep, 06)
• Brethren reap millions in tax-free donations – article in documents how the cult’s leadership enrich themselves to the tune of millions of dollars a year, tax free, by drawing systematic donations from their flock (The Age Sep, 06)
• Hidden Prophets – all about the Hales family (Sydney Morning Herald, Jul, 06)
• “Exclusive Brethren school kids ‘brainwashed’” – information of EB schooling

Jackson Wells Pty Ltd
The Exclusive Brethren have engaged this very well connected public relations outfit to represent them and conduct media campaigns on their behalf.