Thanks to the efforts of an Engadine high school teacher, the needy will now be dining on dishes straight from the best restaurants in the Sutherland Shire. Stewart Chappelow established the Cronulla Food Network to provide more nutritious meals and divert the Church’s funding to other charity endeavours. Various restaurants around the Cronulla area are now providing trays of food every week to the Uniting Church. Church volunteers now simply heat up the pre-prepared meals instead of toiling away in the kitchen.

The first to sign up to the Network was Carl Jenson, owner and head chef of Summer Salt Restaurant. Since then many more restaurants have joined in including Sea Level, Surfeit, El Sol, Hog’s Breath Café, the Nun’s Pool and JD’s Bar and Grill. Together these establishments have generously donated over 800 meals.

Beach and Bay applaud the efforts of Mr Chappelow, as well as the regular volunteers and of course the restaurants. It is great to see that community spirit is alive and well.

Source: St George/Sutherland Shire Leader

This competition is run by the Foundation for Young Australians, which is part of a wider international group called the International Youth Foundation, who recognise and reward youth-based leadership initiatives. This is a very impressive accolade to obtain on an international scale, and recognises Chris’s efforts over the past few months.

Chris will be flown to Melbourne next week where he will have the opportunity to present his charity (AYAC) to a panel of judges, who will determine the overall winner. He will discuss upcoming fundraising events as well as the infrastructure he has already set up.

Chris is still organising an AYAC group to run together in the upcoming Sutherland to Surf as a way to raise money for the charity. To join this running group, donate to AYAC or to find out more about their upcoming endeavours, including the Murray River paddle, check out their website.

We wish Chris the best of luck in Melbourne.

www.ayac.com.au

This contrasts with a deficit expected for 2009-2010 of $1bn as recently as December, 2009. Settlements for real estate sales in the booming March quarter should increase the surplus further. Not content, the government has decided to milk the property cash cow further by slapping the new land transfer tax on settlements after June 30, 2010.

The government will no doubt splash the cash during next year’s state election campaign. In the meantime proceeds of the $850mil lottery sale have been used to shore up the superannuation shortfall for NSW public servants (to the extent of $510mil).

Some of these super commitments won’t accrue for a decade. Why can’t the government share some of the proceeds now with ordinary taxpayers that are sick of being sucked dry with tax increases.

Yesterday Premier Keneally quietly introduced a new property tax, being referred to as a land transfer charge. The front page Sydney Morning Herald article today estimates it will “boost the state government coffers by an estimated $90mil annually.”

The new land transfer charge is a buyer’s tax and will be charged on the sale of residential and commercial property worth more than $500,000. Charged at a rate of 0.2% of a sale between $500,000 and $1mil, over $1mil the charge rises to 0.25% for the portion over $1mil. Therefore on $600,000 which is currently the Sydney median house price, the charge is $200, on $1mil, the charge is $1000.

Back in September 2008 I wrote a blog about the NSW state government and how their stamp duty real estate cash cow was drying up due to the Global Financial Crisis and lack of property sales. At that time the state government reliance on stamp duty revenue  as a percentage of total tax revenue was a whopping 20%. The government was crying poor in September 2008 because due to poor economic conditions, less people were buying and selling, the state government was behind in stamp duty revenue by $180mil for the months of July, 2008 and August 2008 alone!

As the housing market starts to recover Premier Kenneally has decided to milk the cow again with another slug at the property market. As if we aren’t contributing enough as it is.

Premier Keneally apparently defended the tax by saying 70% of property transactions would not be affected, hello???! The median house price in Sydney is $600,000. In an article on www.smh.com.autoday, the Real Estate Institute of NSW provided these statistics – “Of the 50 local government areas in Sydney, 34 have average house prices in excess of 500,000”.

Even more ridiculous is the Minister for Lands, Tony Kelly, explaining the new tax as part of a strategy to prevent property fraud? Do they think we are that stupid? Like that is a good enough excuse to waste another $90mil of our money?

Let’s just say what this is really about, the NSW state government is bankrupt, desperate and we may as well compare ourselves to the Greek economy because if they are desperate enough to “quietly” under the cover of the federal budget announcements introduce a new property tax things must be really, really, Greek economy style bad!

Apparently there are 35 fraudulent property transactions currently being investigated and what $90mil is needed for that?

Kenneally, I thought you were doing ok till now, I mean the state was a mess when you took over but you have lost me completely with this one.

The Federal Government spends or allocates to the States for spending, 1 in every 3 dollars spent in Australia, (almost equal to the entire GDP of Greece, which admittedly only has half our population). Almost half the expenditure and all the increase in total expenditure goes to health, social security and welfare. The main areas of reduced expenditure, education, housing and energy efficiency are areas that needed boosting rather than cuts.

Labor’s heartland will welcome the reduced income tax, the superannuation guarantee increase from 9% to 12% and easier tax returns (plus higher deductions) so much so that if the Liberals refuse to pass elements of the Budget because , for example, they don’t like the super profits tax on miners then Labor will easily win the election to be called shortly.

I believe Mr Abbott has made a serious mistake aligning himself with the miners. That’s a no win situation. Voters will want the handouts and won’t care about big mining companies paying for them. Politics at its cynical best.

Hidden in the Budget are some interesting nasties for small businesses. The government is going to spend a quite massive extra $420m targeting GST avoidance and the cash economy. If the FBI can catch a terrorist because he paid for his car with cash, the sky is the limit as to what can be achieved if serious resources are directed at the black economy.

Most individuals and most industry sectors gain a little from the budget. The government has cautiously increased spending as much as it dared without raising the ire of the RBA. They are pinning their hopes for revenue raising on miners and smokers. Once the election is announced we will see the hollow logs raided for more election promises.

Lucky we can still afford a glass of wine or 2 for another year.

I took some photos for Northies – so here is a taste of some of the best looking mo’s and characters from the night.

There seems to be no time to even organise a pest and building inspection, properties are selling for over the asking price!

Who can believe that a few months ago words such as Global Financial Crisis and recession were bandied around like daily greetings.

Q: How are you going? A: The GFC was the answer to everything.

I’ve been asking around Cronulla and retailers are getting mixed signals, trading up one day and down the next.

Clearly there is a drastic shortage of property on the market in Sydney and this is fuelling the real estate market. How long will this continue?

Soon it will be Christmas, normally when the real estate selling market slows down. Will this make the shortage worse and make buyers desperate to secure something prior to Christmas? I can see more rate rises as long as this continues.

This is my initial assessment of the current Cronulla market. I’ll keep you updated when I know more…and when my jetlag has worn off!

Her achievement also reflects changing social values and anti-discrimination laws that came into effect in Australia. The Sex Discrimination Act (1984) allowed girls up to the age of 12 to participate in boys sports and it is this legislation that opened up the way for Rebecca, the first girl, to be registered by the Como-West Jannali Soccer Club in an under 7 side in 1985.

Well done Rebecca!

These awards recognise the unsung heroes and organisations in our community who give generously of their time and expertise to help others.

According the Sutherland Shire Council your nominee should be an individual or organisation that you believe is worthy of recognition for their commitment to making the Shire a great place to live and work.

There are many of these people in our community. They are:

• the people who consistently volunteer for charity work
• those who never hesitate to join an important community initiative
• those who strive to improve the community services and facilities of the Shire
• and of course tomorrow’s leaders full of youthful exuberance.

For a nomination form CLICK HERE

The Sutherland to Surf brings more than 7,000 competitors to race, wheel or walk 11kms from Sutherland Entertainment Centre to Wanda Beach, Cronulla. Walkers start from 8:30am and runners take off at 9am. This race supports the Wanda Surf Lifesaving Club and funds raised support surf lifesaving.

The 2008 Sutherland to Surf winner, Gemechu Woyecha from Canberra will be returning this year. $1000.00 prize money up for grabs for the first female and male to cross the line.  After the race, stay and enjoy some family entertainment, BBQ and refreshments. The day  is always full of lots of fun and wonderful personalities competing in the great community event. It’s never too late the enter…