Posted in Editorial

With 2020 now behind us a quick look back would have to tell us that (a) Australia has handled the COVID-19 pandemic exceptionally well and (b) we are lucky to be living on the Central Coast. It was the same at the start of last year when this region dodged a bullet with the catastrophic bushfires.  We escaped what could have been our own catastrophe had they not been stopped at Mangrove Mountain.  With that in mind and trying to get a handle on what we might expect as we move...

It started with the most devastating bush fire season in history although for our region it could have been much worse. By February storms and floods in early February saw parts of Wamberal Beach and North Entrance beach washed away and all around the lakes extensive flooding causing the Government to declare a natural disaster. And came COVID-19 that saw the state locked down and borders, state and international, closed. That was March and it went on until June and beyond that too. ...

It has happened.  At 3.30pm on Friday, 30th October the Minister for Local Government suspended Central Coast Council and appointed an interim administrator. This Council could no longer pay the wages or pay its suppliers and had wracked up a deficit of $84 million (could be more, could be less who knows?) This is how it works with government. But if this Council was a company the Receivers would have been called in and the directors could all be looking at going to gaol for tr...

So, having been dragged into admitting that copper, as lauded by the wonderful former Minister for Communications and Broadband, Malcolm Turnbull, our Federal Government has finally conceded that fibre optic cable is actually faster.  The result being that the Government will now spend billions more completing a job that should have been done properly in the first place. One of the lasting legacies of the Abbott/Turnbull era will be how our country went from potentially being a world ...

2020 a difficult year but more to come We started 2020 with bushfires, although we dodged a bullet there it could have been catastrophic.  This was followed by storms in early February that caused a lot of damage and beach erosion and by the end of the month COVID19 had hit and we were all self isolating. Somehow we have dodged a bullet on COVID19 as well, and while retail and hospitality businesses are suffering most of the businesses that CCBR has spoken to are doing okay. The ...