On another subject, Fleet Street in Salamander Bay is very busy now with cars, cement, removal and garbage trucks due to the construction site, which means it can be unsafe when there's anything parked on the side of the road.

Residents of Shoal Bay please lock up your cats at night. I had the displeasure of seeing a cat with a baby possum in its mouth recently. By the way the cat had a reflective collar. Please do the right thing.

Now that the upheaval in Canberra has been finalised for the time being we are reminded that politics are really local so we should get back to the issue of the big tax grab by the council.

As much as my hand shakes as I put this into print, having served on the PS Council for four years with him and never agreed with him once, I must say that I find myself in agreement with ex-mayor McKenzie in opposing this outrageous imposition on our residents.

This is virtually the same council that rejected an offer by the developer on the notorious Lagoons Estate to fix the drainage problem then went on to spend millions fighting the developer. We now await to hear the court's decision.

The council wants us to agree to give some $400 million to do as they will and I am afraid the council will have to demonstrate much more clearly its intentions before anyone would vote for such a rate hike.

If councillors have a plan then they should prepare it and submit it to the electors at the next election. As for me, I am sticking with Macka and Cr Arnott.

I assume the residents of the forgotten suburb of Fern Bay will become exempt from the proposed rate rise given we were not afforded a meeting as were other areas. I don't know why we are charged rates because we get nothing done.

Purely by chance I must have been one of the very first patients attending the new Salamander Medical Centre (with a 9.15am appointment with Dr James Lannigan and the team).

Wow! What an impressive new medical centre this is,very neatly appointed, plenty of room, lots of comfortable seating, pleasant surroundings and modern medical facilities combined with very professional and caring staff. You can even have a nice cup of coffee from the shop directly opposite while you wait to be seen! 

Our “new generation” federal government, half full of old adversaries and I don't mean their age, promises to be on our side and give all of us a fair go when we have a go.

The hidden message there is that the politicians in power want us to give them another go that they don't really deserve.

With an unstable government, the banks have already started to raise interest rates for borrowers, home rentals will surely go up, businesses will  follow with price increases, electricity prices will stay high and some local councils will have another excuse for special rates variation (SRV) above CPI. 

So most of us will have a go to survive in a not-so “great lifestyle”! Unfortunately this is the current state of affairs, and not a fair go for all. But I am always hopeful.

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