My deserving Power 30

'When Editor Bill North requested suggestions of people who deserve to be amongst our 30 most influential people, he didn't approve of my ideas'

Sally Rogers is No:29 on the Clarence Valley Power 30

WHEN Editor Bill North requested suggestions of people who deserve to be amongst our 30 most influential people, he didn't approve of my ideas. Nothing unusual about that! He did reply that "It is food for thought though and could make for an interesting side read in the lead up to unveiling the list."

Firstly "people" can apply to groups as well as individuals. Secondly "influential" covers "now" as in implementing or stopping projects, or it can relate to "vision", which is laying the foundations for the future. The latter is the more important.

Influence has many nuances, but in the CV there are two main differing viewpoints.

There are those who want to see the valley grow "today", so there are more facilities, better education, health and aged care, new businesses providing rewarding jobs; a first class infrastructure, and all this while maintaining low rates and the valley's current charm...

The other viewpoint is one of people who like the valley as it was when they arrived, and they want it to stay that way.

So who did I have on my list that Bill didn't approve of?

The most influential people here are a large group, made up of Naysayers including:

NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard): People who don't want a phone tower within their sight, or a marine company because trucks would go past their properties. The "I moved to Iluka and it's great but don't let anyone else move here"; those against any dams on our rivers even if they were for flood mitigation, and floods are a major deterrent to our current and future prosperity.

NOOMBYs (Not Out Of My Back Yard): Such as the Shut the Gaters and Knitting Nanas who don't want any drilling or mining, even though it is safely done elsewhere and could be beneficial to the valley; and the "Not One Drop" folk who object to the use of our abundant water supplies, whether it be to over the mountain, or even being used by our blueberry farmers, in spite of 98% of it going out to sea.

OFAMBYs (Ok From Another Mugs Back Yard): These are the people who demand cheap gas, power, timber and other stuff as long as it comes from somewhere else.

The National Parks, and forests cover 50% of the valley. The NPs are large scale NIMBYs. The loggers are hounded by the tree huggers who want all logging stopped, even though the logged/replanted areas actually provide better wildlife habitat. Improving our prosperity is difficult when half of the valley is "locked-up".

These people believe that what they are peddling is beneficial for the valley. They may be right. Time will tell.

But to me they have a no-change, me-me attitude, which in the long term will be detrimental to the valley's future. But they are very successful in what they do. So they should be on the list.

John Ibbotson,

Gulmarrad

Originally published as My deserving Power 30