Wrong, rushed, and transactional. That’s how councillors Abigail Goodman and Damien Ross of the Naracoorte-Lucindale Council described the council’s recent decision to drop the prayer and replace the Acknowledgement of Country with a shorter and more “inclusive” two-line statement. During the council’s March meeting, a motion for a revised code of practice for council and committee meeting procedures, which includes the new welcome statement, was put up for endorsement.

As The [Naracoorte Community] News deadline loomed last week, the Limestone Coast Local Health Network (LCLHN) was still working on reconnecting telephone services to the Lucindale Health Centre. And Health Minister Chris Picton expects to hear from a working group regarding nursing services at Lucindale “by the end of this month”.

A trip to the doctor is expected to soar by an extra $12 per visit under a State Government bid to claw payroll tax out of independent GP clinics. Following a brief amnesty, the extra $12 charges for GP visits will go straight into State Government coffers.

Three debt-ridden properties in the district were auctioned by the Naracoorte-Lucindale Council last week to recoup unpaid rates and legal costs of up to $100,000. The council says it had to put the properties under the hammer as it had exhausted all other options to recover the debts, which date back to 15 years in some cases. The properties, two in Kybybolite and one in Naracoorte, were auctioned by a local real estate company.