The Mount Gambier Independent

Welcome to the inaugural edition of  The Mount Gambier Independent, a genuinely independent daily online news service created to address the imbalances, biases, and ommisions of a local media completely compromised by vested interests and personal allegiances.

For example; The Border Watch newspaper's biased pro-Don Pegler coverage of the 2010 state election, where Liberal candidate Steve Perryman was systematically demonised whilst Sandra Morello was printing  Mr Pegler's verbatim press releases (written by her husband former BW Editor Frank Morello) as genuine news items under her byline.

This was dismissd by the powerless, pointless Press Council as perfectly appropriate; 'it's their paper, they can print what they like', and Sandra Morello is still senior journalist at The Border Watch.

None of the local media hold former MP Rory McEwen to account for his involvement in major issues as a front bench minister (2002-10) in the Rann Labour state government, eg, the Forestry Sale, ongoing allegations of child abuse cover-up at a local school, etc.

Even ABC Radio is compromised; recent interviews have been vehicles for Rory's self-congratulation but not one word about the above issues.

There is barely any genuine journalism in Mt Gambier and no investigative journalism; there is only reporting and then only to a very specific agenda.

More concerning is the abject failure of our elected officials to act for the best interests of the community.

The Labour state government has lied through it's collective teeth at every stage of the Forestry Sale process and has effectively sold the South East; and their conduct on the Wind Turbine issue is definably anti-democratic, and openly biased against regional South Australia, particularly the South East.

The Liberal party seem to just sit there; they are a pointless failure.

Mount Gambier City Council and the District Council of Grant have not just failed, not just abandoned, but in many ways betrayed their ratepayers with Planning and Development decisions mired in self-interest, eg, the Penola Rd zoning debacle that pushed Bunnings to Millicent Rd (etc); the Wind Turbine issue; the Main Corner cost disaster; the Rail Land wasteland and/bus shelter fiasco; etc.

At what point does 'debacle, disaster and fiasco' stop being just appropriate processes corrupted by incompetence, and become outright corruption?

Time and again Mt Gambier City Council refuses to engage with essential and popular public projects like the covered swimming pool, tennis courts, Rail lands park and central bus terminus, funding public bus services, etc, with excuses about 'business models' and 'self-funding' and 'profitability', but completely ignores the same issues on projects that individual City Councillors themselves want, eg, the Main Corner.

These are some of the issues that will be appearing in The Mount Gambier Independent, and this is the manner in which they will be addressed; posted daily by noon Mt Gambier, South Australia time.

Each day will be devoted to a specific topic with other issues briefly covered, and critical issues will be re-visited as necessary, eg, the Wind Turbine issue is clearly not just one story, nor is the Royal Commission.

If you feel that you have factual input that would benefit everyone's understanding of an issue, please contribute.

Appropriate feedback and/or participation are most welcome, but anything deemed deliberately stupid or malicious or vindictive (etc) will be removed where possible.

I guarantee that this site is strictly my personal opinion gleaned from experience and investigation and that I am not sponsored by any political party, lobby group, etc.

In the words of the Great Green Sage (Shrek);
          "I'm nobody's messenger boy; I'm a delivery boy."

The site will be progressively expanded to provide as thorough and accurate reportage as possible, and I look forward to engaging professional opinions where possible to ensure this.

Some upcoming stories:  Flouridation; Rail Lands development; the reality of Regional Development Australia; the Child Abuse Royal Commission; public transport in regional SA (that will be a short one); and many others.

Tomorrow:
Wind Turbines - Responsible, Renewable Energy or a Rort Looking for Somewhere To Happen?