By the time I realised I should pull over and stop, the lady was turning off towards the Jervis Bay area, so I was unaware what the problem was.

I was travelling with friends in another car and when we stopped at Kiama for a break, I mentioned the light flashing incident. They said they had noticed that my tyre looked damaged during the journey.

I was able to check the tyre - which was indeed damaged - call the NRMA while in Kiama and have it safely changed.

Had this lady not warned me by flashing her lights, I would not have known there was a problem and may have run into trouble out on the open highway.

So to the lady in the white SUV, thank you for caring.

I really appreciated your efforts to help.

Shoalhaven City Ccuncillors will soon be asked to adopt new tree clearing provisions to protect homeowners from bushfire threat as a result of a Notice of Motion prepared by Councillor and former Mayor Greg Watson.

In my opinion, any Shoalhaven councillor who stands in the way of this motion does so at their peril.

So, what can homeowners do now to protect their homes and life without first seeking permission from a council or government agency? Not much, especially if the 45-degree rule gets tossed out.

If you can believe it, here in the Shoalhaven, we have the same rule that applies to homeowners in Mosman. This is the one-size-fits-all 10/50 rule.

The 10/50 rule just doesn't cut it in our severely affected bushfire areas within the Shoalhaven. It only allows for trees within 10m of dwellings to be removed and understory vegetation within 50m to be cleared. Anyone who suffered a loss in the devastating 2019/20 bushfires would likely tell you this level of clearing isn't anywhere near enough.

The 10/50 provisions don't allow for the clearing of access roads to ensure a safe passage of exit from a property in the event of a fire. Furthermore, they don't allow for the creation of a suitable Asset Protection Zone (APZ) tailored for specific bushfire environments around family homes.

If the policy position is adopted, it would likely be a state first. It would allow the clearing of vegetation - without any prior approval - in and around bushfire affected houses, outbuildings, and property access roads in accordance with a site-specific expert report prepared by a bushfire consultant.

Homeowners could hire a qualified bushfire consultant who would:

1. conduct a site visit

2. calculate the slope of the land from the hazard toward the building to be protected

3. determine the vegetation type

4. calculate an appropriate Asset protection zone in accordance with the NSW RFS document, Planning for Bushfire Protection

5. provide a recommended clearing plan to protect the home and those that live within it.

This is a far more sophisticated and appropriate approach to ensuring life and assets are protected in the Shoalhaven compared to the 10/50 rule. It is the same process that any person needs to go through when they propose building a brand-new dwelling. Why? Because it is best practice.

It is likely that any home constructed prior to around the late 1990s wouldn't have had bushfire threat considered in any meaningful way when it was approved by the council. It just wasn't a major consideration back then. In my opinion, these homes, and their occupants should be given the same protections as newly constructed homes. The protections need to be afforded without red tape bureaucracy. It should be a basic human right to protect your home without first seeking someone else's permission.

Sadly, in Local Government circles, the default behaviour when it comes to adopting new policy involves looking around at similar councils to see what they are doing. Then we copy it.

Let the City of Shoalhaven - one of the most bushfire affected LGAs in the country - lead the way when it comes to building bushfire resilience and giving homeowners the right to protect their own life and assets.

This is not to say that widespread and broadscale vegetation clearing will take place everywhere. As mentioned, most new homes and land subdivisions approved in the last 20 years would already be sufficiently protected. Homes constructed lawfully on bushfire prone land before this need to be afforded the same additional protections and rights.

People need to understand that an Asset Protection Zone around a home isn't necessarily land devoid of vegetation. Many individual trees can remain. The main task here is to ensure that a continuous tree canopy does not exist between the home to be protected and the source of the bushfire threat; managed parkland is probably the best way to describe it.

Most people who live in rural areas love their trees. They love the bushland they find themselves living in, so I don't believe there should be any cause for concern for devastating land clearing. I should also add that it isn't just a question of what's more important - homes for possums or protecting human life and assets? I believe with the common-sense and sophisticated approach put forward by Councillor Watson that both ideologies can be realised.

Re Gareth Ward Kiama MP

Accusation isn't guilt. The law says, presumption of innocence. The prosecution has the burden of proving the charge, beyond reasonable doubt.

And what of the former Councillor of LGA Shoalhaven City, who incidentally denies these current charges.

Look to millions of State dollars for the Princes Hwy, and the new Shoalhaven River bridge, and for the re-development of the Shoalhaven (Nowra) Hospital.

And before that, years of faithful service to the people of northern Ward 1 of the Shoalhaven Council.

The people of Kiama shouldn't be denied State representation through accusations that the Member vehemently denies!

It's welcomed news concerning the upgrading of Shoalhaven Hospital, without a doubt.

However I would like to think that these new and expanded physical facilities will be accompanied by an increase in specialist medical and nursing resources who are resident in the area and support the new hospital as their major source of employment.

Otherwise, for all the new "bells and whistles", Shoalhaven residents will still be required to travel to Sydney or Wollongong to access specialist medical and nursing care.

The Prime Minister has scoffed at the Labor Party plan to address the myriad of issues in the aged care sector.

These issues were all recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aged Care, which the government seemed concerned about at the time but now dismisses the Labor plan to do something to address the issues by actually spending money.

The whole community was outraged when longstanding problems came to the fore during COVID: poor nutrition, underpaid staff, not enough staff, minimal training for staff and no regulations to have registered nurses on duty at all facilities 24 hours a day.

Many of our elderly were locked in their rooms for weeks at a time during the pandemic and sadly many died.

The Government's first priority it seems was to spend several million dollars on consultants to develop frameworks/guidelines for the sector. Whilst standards are important money needs to be spent on frontline delivery to residents!

The current Liberal-National Federal Government needs to step up and actually commit funds to fix these issues - our elderly deserve it!

So the PM comes to Nowra and announces $40m funding for local roads. This is infrastructure that current MP, Fiona Phillips, has been fighting for since she obtained office some three years ago.

My question is, why does this money all of a sudden become available?

Is it because the PM's pick from down the coast is running for the seat of Gilmore or is it that he is a male?

Speaking of roads, wondering how Gareth Ward feels about the person from down south taking credit for all the road infrastructure in local area.

Many times I heard Ward on the radio or some other medium boasting of his success in this area.