According to the survey results, only 14 per cent supported the option for a 7.5 per cent increase.

Despite this, council has continued with their submission for the SRV to IPART.

The council has stated that the ‘community has consistently provided feedback it aspires for more major community projects to enhance the local area’.

Even if this was true, why have they decided to listen to this feedback from the community yet have ignored the results of their surveys which overwhelmingly rejected any rate rise?

The council has refused to acknowledge the impact SRV will have on many of their residents.

This is just unconscionable conduct on their behalf.

It will have a serious impact on the finances of most households in the Port Stephens area where the average income per family is $300 less per week than the average for NSW.

Additionally, out of the 70,000 people in Port Stephens, 23 per cent are over the age of 60 and thus less equipped to absorb such an impost on their often, limited pensions and savings.

I urge all of your readers to write to IPART before March 11, 2019 and lodge an objection to the SRV of 7.5 per cent submitted by Port Stephens Council.

The Liberal candidate for Port Stephens was quick to celebrate the news that the Liberal government has finally decided to return to public ownership, the Mambo wetlands site that it sold ‘by mistake’ in 2016.

But what will be the cost of correcting that ‘mistake’?

A negotiated buy back of the land should be made on the basis of the market value of the land.

The owner of the Mambo land has twice submitted development applications to build a dwelling on the site and twice Port Stephens Council has refused the application.

But the NSW Department of Planning and Environment has confirmed that any offer made by the government to buy back the land, will be made assuming that the owner HAS approval for the construction of a dwelling. 

That assumption will significantly increase the market value of the land and completely disregards the past decisions of Port Stephens Council.

If it is assumed that a dwelling can be built on the 6 hectare Mambo site, the buyback price could be at least $1,000,000, which is $750,000 more than the amount the Liberal government received for the land following its sale by ‘mistake’. 

That $750,000 could have bought fifteen dialysis machines for local hospitals.

Will the Liberal candidate for Port Stephens be just as quick to celebrate this seemingly outrageous squandering of public money?

NSW seems to be about to block motorists from registering thousands of cars equipped with deadly Takata airbags.

 What is the NSW government going to do about the dealerships who disregard doing anything about the replacement Takata airbags?

 As soon as we found out our card needed a replacement, I telephoned the dealership three times and asked for a replacement. 

The vehicle has gone to them three times for servicing, and I have had various answers and a few excuses. 

What else can a vehicle owner do to get the replacement?