THE TWEED
STATE ELECTION CANDIDATE PROFILES
www.tweedecho.com.au Volume 3 #28 Thursday, March 24, 2011
PAGE 8
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LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
Bishops’ broadside ‘misleads voters’ Luis Feliu
Farmers’ market opens in Mur’bah Kate McIntosh
Murwillumbah residents will have the opportunity to buy and eat local produce when a new weekly farmers’ market starts next month. The Caldera Farmers’ Market was given the green light by Tweed Shire Council and will focus on fresh local produce grown and sourced within a 50-kilometre radius of the Murwillumbah area. It is hoped the market, which kicks off on Wednesday, April 6 at the town’s showground, will help boost sales for local producers and create business opportunities, as well as provide a drawcard to the area. Mooball cheesemakers Debra Allard and Sue Harnett will be among the locals showcasing their wares at the market.
Caldera Farmers Market committee members Debbie Allard, Carol Harper and Steve Cridland. Photo Jeff ‘Luverly Bunch’ Dawson
They established their farmhouse cheesemaking business three years ago and regularly sell their products at farmers’ markets in the region. Debra said farmers’ markets helped promote sustainable food production and were a great way for producers to sell directly to the public without the expense of a middleman. ‘There are huge benefits for farmers in terms of providing fresh, local and low-miles food,’ she said. The initiative has been backed by both the Murwillumbah and District Chamber of Commerce and local tourism representatives. Up to 15 stalls will feature initially, with the view to expanding the market to other areas in the Tweed. Debra says the markets aim to encourage people to shop locally, as well as make them more aware about where food comes from before it makes the plate. ‘The farmers’ market will give the shopper a chance to meet the producer. You could be walking around
the market putting fresh produce in your basket on the Wednesday, that was picked the day before,’ she said. The farmers’ market is among a range of initiatives to be rolled out by the Caldera Institute in conjunction with Industry and Investment NSW, Tweed Shire Council and Tweed Tourism. The Caldera Institute’s Anne Duke said the markets would make locally produced food and produce more accessible. ‘But if we want to promote and encourage people to use them, we need to give consumers a central place where they can buy them,’ she said. The farms will be inspected by the committee members to ensure they are growing all the produce they sell from their stall. The Caldera Farmers’ Market will kick off on April 6 and will be held weekly every Wednesday from 7am to 11am (DST) in the Dairy Pavilion at the Murwillumbah Showground. The market will be plastic-bag free.
Tweed and Lismore Greens candidates have accused senior Catholic clergy, including the local bishop, of misleading voters in a letter sent to local parishioners last week attacking Greens policies. Nine NSW Catholic bishops including Lismore Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett and Sydney Cardinal George Pell signed the letter entitled ‘The Green Agenda’, which they claim would impact on religious freedom, school funding, drug use, abortion, marriage and euthanasia. In what appeared to be an orchestrated attack on the Greens just days out of the state election, the sitting National Party’s Tweed MP Geoff Provest also joined in the Green-bashing, saying local schools were ‘in trouble’ if the Greens shared power after Saturday and that the shire’s independent and Catholic schools would be forced to shut their doors if Greens policies ‘were ever implemented’. The campaign has been labelled as misleading and fearmongering, with the Tweed’s Greens candidate Andrea Vickers saying she ‘expected better from our local member’ Mr Provest in a press release this week also criticised Greens policies on carbon tax saying they would ‘hurt’ Tweed pensioners and on transport, claiming it would ‘mean more highway fatalities’. The MP also used the open letter from the Catholic bishops, which claimed the Greens policy would see schools fees rise by up to $1,550 per year, to attack the Greens, who he claimed were ‘hot favourites to win a swathe of NSW seats’. Ms Vickers said she found Mr Provest’s attempt to create fear and
doubt over Greens policy ‘deeply regrettable.’ ‘Each of Mr Provest’s statements is inaccurate and misleading. No Tweed school, or indeed any school, would be forced to close under Greens education policy. ‘The federal carbon tax will compensate low income earners, and Greens transport policy aims to make roads safer, reduce construction costs, and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. ‘The Greens would not “strip” support from Catholic and independent schools, but would return their funding to 2003 levels with adjustments for inflation. That would be only a 24 per cent reduction on today’s historically high level of government funding.
Funding to disadvantaged ‘That funding would go to disadvantaged public schools whose students come from families that can’t afford a private education.’ ‘A good education gives everyone a chance to make the best of their lives, and creates more skilled workers in the long run, which is what our economy needs in the 21st century. I would hope that is something people who can afford to send their children to a private school would be happy to support.’ The church leaders said in their letter that ‘the Greens’ position on a number of fundamental points of human and social policy areas conflicts directly with the beliefs and values of virtually all religious people, and the beliefs of many other people as well’. Susan Stock, Greens candidate for the seat of Lismore, which takes in Murwillumbah and surrounding villages, said the letter aimed to mislead voters by claiming Greens policies were incompatible with religious beliefs. continued on page 2
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