Edgar Adams' Editorial

Starting with this issue you will see that we have made a few changes.
We have changed the publication format from a newsletter to a magazine with a front cover highlighting the main story for the month.
Also we will be featuring each month a leading businesswoman.  There are many very successful women in business on the Central Coast but we don’t hear about them as much as we should.
This month’s business woman is Maxeine McKeon who owns the Harvey World Travel agencies at Erina.  She is a self made businesswoman and a leader in Australia’s travel industry.  The highlight of her career was her appointment late last year as one of only seven agents in Australia to represent Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism venture, Virgin Galactica which was launched in Australia right here on the Central Coast (see page 14) which is a coup for the Coast and a big coup for Maxeine.

Our article on Terrigal highlights the ineptitude of Gosford Council and, until recently, a total lack of leadership on the part of business people in the town.
Terrigal now has a new Chamber of Commerce Executive and it is to be hoped that it will show some leadership in making things happen.
A good start will be to push Gosford Council to erect some high profile signage and advertising free car parking in a multi-storey car park.  And then get the traffic flow changed.
Taking the velvet glove approach to Council has never worked at Terrigal.

In just two months we will be voting for a new State Government.  Whether the union controlled Iemma Government is returned or if the electorate is sufficiently fed up remains to be seen.
As for business, everyone we talk to is desperate for a change. 
The latest move is for union officials to have ‘right of entry’ onto business premises and demand to see your records and inspect the workplace. 
The Carr/Iemma Government has turned out to be the most anti-business government NSW has ever seen.
OHS regulations are destroying businesses.  Every business owner and manager is now guilty of every accident in the workplace regardless of whose fault it is. 
Workers compensation premiums may have fallen but not before they were substantially increased to get rid of a deficit left behind by the previous Liberal Government.
And in a move to eliminate all forms of contracting and sub contracting, WorkCover has set up its own ‘rules’ to decide who is and who isn’t a contractor.  These ‘rules’ change like the wind and have been used to send thousands of little businesses broke or into bankruptcy.
A move by the Minister, John Della Bosca, to change this last year didn’t suit the unions so he sent the proposal off to a committee that will report back immediately after the State Election. 
Little wonder NSW is in recession.

As we go to press former Gosford Councillor, Debra Wales, has announced that she will contest the State Election in March for the new seat of Gosford as an independent.
To run as an independent after putting so much of her life into the Liberal Party and contesting two state elections against Labor says everything about what is wrong with the Liberals.
Debra Wales is a very committed Central Coast citizen and will make a fantastic representative for Gosford.  She will certainly do a better job than Marie Andrews who has held the former seat of Peats for ten very long years and achieved zero. 
For the Liberals to have dumped Mrs Wales in favour of Gosford Councillor Chris Holstein, who ran against her, as a Liberal, at the last election, is an indication that the Liberal Party has no idea what it is doing or for that matter what day of the week it is.
Holstein will help keep the Libs out of office and maybe that is what they want.
Only those who blindly vote Liberal will vote for him.
Debra Wales is well known, is progressive, is intelligent, articulate and enthusiastic.
She will make a great local Member, particularly as she will be an independent and not beholden to a Party that has lost its way.
CCBR wishes her every success and we encourage our readers to support her.

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