Hello to Indonesia, France, Germany, and Brazil...won't you join us here in l'il ol' Mt Gambier as we celebrate the official opening of the massive expansion of the local gaol and the imminent arrival of a further 100+ of Adelaide's sex offenders, the majority of whom are paedophiles...yay...
But first, in Adelaide, the Weatherill Labor government is under fire for allowing budget airline AirAsia to advertise cheap flights on the back of public transport buses, using direct lines like ' why fly to KI (Kangaroo Island), when you could fly to KL (Kuala Lumpur) for less?' (paraphrase) to encourage people to holiday in Asia rather than locally.
It is clearly inappropriate to use a 'public service' to advertise against local providers, etc, but that's just the beginning...(or the end depending on where you begin-Ed)...well, a beginning is by definition an end unto itself...(heavy dude-Ed)...because only weeks ago Premier Jay Weatherill announced that South Australian taxpayers had provided AirAsia with 'funding' to help them establish in SA.
But Mr Weatherill flatly refused to disclose the amount, citing "commercial confidentiality"...(so?-Ed)...so it's SA taxpayer's money that he's given away and that money has directly funded AirAsia to advertise against our own local providers, and helped fund these 'budget flights', and according to Emperor Jay, us plebs need to just go away and accept it.
(So, SA taxpayers are funding an Asia based airline to fly to/from Adelaide, and we also pay for their advertising against our local tourism operators-Ed)...exactly...(and our illustrious leader reckons that it's none of our business how much of our money he's given them-Ed)...yep...(charming-Ed)...
And in the ABC Local Radio interview yesterday, a spokesperson for the gaol (or Corrections Dept, whatevs) stated that no prisoners were released directly into Mt Gambier, but were instead repatriated to Adelaide where they then 'lived with their families'...(so many issues in one sentence-Ed)...
When the Gaol Expansion was first muted, the two main justifications were that it would create employment, but ahead of that, that the families of prisoners would move to Mt Gambier to be near them, and that would be a boost for the local economy...and the concern was that there was no funding for increased services, eg, health, to cater for these families...(I believe that the Grant District Council did some investigation of this and may have applied for relative funding-Ed)...indeed...
It has been put to me directly that there are very few relocated families and visitors to the jail because of the nature of offending, ie, sex offenders, mostly paedophiles, who are largely shunned by their own families, and that this leads them to return to Mt Gambier even if 'released' in Adelaide.
Local MP Don Pegler is absolutely gushing about what a great thing the expansion is for Mt Gambier with jobs, services to be provided, etc, with a scant dismissal of the 'dumping in Mt Gambier' issue.
Again, I take 51% of the credit that the issue of 'types of offenders' is even being discussed because this has only happened after I addressed it on this blog...after several years of trying without success via the local media...
This Gaol Expansion and 'offender issue' is fairly typical of the sort of Council propaganda that appears with monotonous regularity in The Border Watch, eg, even today's front page is a glowing report about the absolutely ludicrous street re-paving currently underway in the Main (Commercial St)...a pointless, costly exercise, and literally everyone I talk to is asking 'which Councillor's relative did Council buy those ugly grey pavers off?'...this being the most logical explanation for the pointless 'project' and a conclusion based on Council's history of gross nepotism.
Last Friday 16th August it was Cr Des Mutton on the front page with the headline "Clash of the titans", and Cr Mutton pushing for another rate-payer funded cafe to be built at the Old Hospital site...(no doubt to be handed to his son gratis as was the Main Corner function centre-Ed)...careful what you wish for...and let's see if Council apply the 'must self-fund' template that they regularly use to oppose other projects they don't want to do, eg, fund public transport, refuse to do a covered pool, etc.
And another gem from Graham Greenwood on page 8, 'City signage dilemma puts council unfairly in hot seat' re the nonsense from Council about the Circus putting up inflated clowns to advertise their brief visit.
And a week of 'photo opportunities' for Mayor Steve Perryman at a 'Treadmill Fundraiser', with the 'RSL Roses', and the Homelessness Week function and previous morning tea...all worthy causes/events in and of themselves...and the 'Treadmill' photo explains why Mr Perryman showed up to the official Homelessness event in shorts and running shoes...he was just stopping through on his way to another photo op.
I consider it inappropriate for the Mayor to show this relative disrespect for the Homelessness issue and cannot imagine him attending other functions in his official capacity dressed in a similarly 'casual' way...(actually, he has been regularly criticised for his casual appearance, eg, unshaven, or non-attendance at public functions-Ed)...true...
And on Friday 9th August another piece from Mr Greenwood that is scathing of politicians for 'not living within their means' and being more responsible with their spending, but in a splendid piece of reverse propaganda, not one mention of the outrageous borrowing and expenditure of the Mt Gambier City Council who have recently doubled their borrowing capacity to allegedly spend on a series of 'projects', none of which will return one cent to help repay those borrowings.
But for me personally, the crowning glory was the page 3 article Wednesday 14th August re the Penola Rd/Wireless Rd intersection...(that follows the front page article/justification for the Council dumping even just talking about the Indoor/Covered Pool issue until 2017/18, and the inexplicable accompanying support from Pool Advocate Barney McCusker-Ed)...yes, I covered that in a previous post...
Page three, though, has a large photo of Councillors Merv White and Ian Von Stanke standing at the intersection...why?...there is no quote from them and no discernible reason as to why they are there at all...all it lacks is the traditional reference to "Council stalwarts" that is a favourite with The Border Watch when it comes to describing people who have clearly been on Council for far too long.
I know this all seems a little trite compared to other issues happening around the globe, but it just punches my buttons when I see this relentless manipulation of the debate by TBW, eg, pages of praise and no accountability.
Please refer to my previous posts re the Budget Consultation Process and the clear collusion between Council and TBW in presenting the predetermined outcome as a positive result in response to 'extensive consultation' and Council 'listening to the feedback'...
Only yesterday I had a long conversation with someone who stated to me, with liberal amounts of swearing, the many issues they had/have with TBW's publicly exposed pro Don Pegler bias prior to the 2010 state election.
I maintain that TBW and the local ABC are critical sources of information for the local community, and that is why I get so frustrated with these issues of subjectivity and bias.
Tomorrow: The Much Promised Revised Posts
Re Stuart Stansfield (removed by Stuart) and the conclusion of the Budget Process (that was for some reason removed by NF McDonnell Mill).
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...until tomorrow mes ami...
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