Perhaps her brush with political oblivion will cause Mrs Sudmalis to rethink the way she works. A good first step would to take a lead from US President Harry Truman and put a sign on her desk saying, “The Buck Stops Here.” Regularly reviewing that message should help her remember that the Gilmore electorate is not interested in her pointless spats with her state counterparts, her endless political stunts and her delight in mocking the weakest (as with her “penalty rate cuts are a gift” comment). It might also help her focus on becoming a positive politician focused on outcomes.  

If she can change the way she works then maybe the Princes Highway will be fixed; proper funding will be restored to TAFE, schools, hospitals and the ABC; and our youth will get a chance to work. Let’s see if a leopard can change its spots.

For the last 20-odd years we have had one Liberal horse with two jockeys – Joanna Gash and Ann Sudmalis – who have done very little in the way of infrastructure and decentralisation development. The lack of these things has left Gilmore with high unemployment, a hospital that cannot cope with the influx of patients, bad public transport and the demise of TAFE. So many things are lacking in Gilmore (Shoalhaven), which is no longer a safe seat, while the pork barrelling has started.

There is no word yet on fixing the Princes Highway south of Nowra, etc, but all this is too late as the jockey and the horse have been left at at the starting gate.

It will take a lot of money and years in Gilmore to try to catch up after such sad representation over the last 20 years. For the next Member for Gilmore, good luck. The voters will be watching. 

With Josh Frydenberg as the Master of Ceremonies, every cent rise in the cost of electricity over the past years has been influenced by the determinations of directors of federal government agencies.

These privately recruited directors (a protected species) have all privileges paid by taxpayers. The same goes for the CEOs and office staff.

The agency directors sit in their boardrooms in complete anonymity. The average Australian thinks the price we pay for electricity is the end product of head scratching public servants.

Nothing could be further from the truth the only public servant is the Member for Kooyong, Josh Frydenberg ($343,344 per annum). Behind a dollar lowered curtain sit the others, an introspective backslapping hegemony draining the public purse with immunity.

And what of the price we pay?

The price we pay for electricity is a private auction where power companies set megawatt hourly rates, every five minutes.

Keeping the above in mind, on February 10, 2017 at 4.22 pm the Tallawarra power station tripped and went offline. To make the situation worse, the four generator back-up from Colongra power station failed to start.

The end result, six dispatch prices between 4.30pm and 5pm totalled $12,915 or on average $2,153 every five minutes. The costs for the next half hour were even greater — $13,967 or $2,328 every five minutes.

This is a typical example of why prices surged to levels never seen before. The truth is power companies are setting the price we pay for electricity without government intervention or regulation.