Morning and hello...this revision is very timely given that Council is currently doing a Public Consultation about their Public Consultation Process...(how very PC of them-Ed)...Politically Correct Public Consultation...just perfect...
Given the escalating violence in Lebanon, reportedly as a result of various groups involvement in the Syrian 'Civil War'...(where 'Civil' has nothing to do with politeness-Ed)...and the sectarian violence threatening to tear Egypt apart and potentially take most of North Africa with it, yet another post about the insular, corrupted actions of Mt Gambier City Council seems a frivolous self-indulgence...
And I am still yet to receive any response re my letters/complaints/whatevs to the Electoral Commission and SAPol re the Nomination process and/or the gutless, anonymous slandering of 'Comments' left on my blog...and only the one response from Mark Keough (Greens) to my letter to candidates.
For some reason the Friday 6th July 2013 post 'Mt Gambier Council Passes Budget ...Surprise...' was 'pulled down' by NF McDonnell and Sons (Timber mill), but again I have received no notification so I don't know why, but I'll cover that small part first...
I referred to: an ABC Radio interview with Ian McDonnell on that Friday July 5th about the $4.3million Labor state government grant they had just received, and their plans to do an $11million expansion using that taxpayers money, and how good that is for them and their employees.
I also referenced the 'special extended log contracts' that far exceed others, receiving $4.3m from a grants round totalling $8.6m, Ian McDonnell's role on the Forestry Roundtable...(and it's successor the Forestry Consultation Board or whatever it's called-Ed)...and how that FR was used to stifle and undermine genuine opposition to the Forestry Sale (also in previous posts).
There is no question that NF McDonnell and Sons are receiving preferential treatment from the Weatherill government, and it is my opinion that this is being done to make other businesses look bad as they suffer due to the Forestry Sale, as per my post The Judas Goat of South East Forestry.
This is a slightly 'politer' version of the removed post, but it is still the same issues about the closeness of the relationship between Labor and NF McDonnell...and the rest was just a re-hashing of the Council Budget process...
Starting with a scathing observation about the cold, wet, windy weather that morning (July 5th 2013) and how it rendered useless the $250,000 Bus Shelter at the Lady Nelson, which when combined with the $90,000 Council spent on an 'open' toilet block, on the opposite side of the carpark to the shelter, means that Council have wasted $350,000 on a pointless shelter and toilets in the wrong place.
And the construction of the 'Shelter' has the pillars right next to the road so that buses have to park in specific positions to be able to get their passenger and luggage doors open, and this means that only 2 buses can fit under the 'Shelter'...and the other side of the bus is still completely open to the weather...and the glass panelling is almost useless and serves only to completely clutter the loading/unloading area, etc.
It looks like the most fundamental issues of design and functionality have been ignored or never even considered in Council's obsessive rush to just bang up something, anything, regardless, to ensure that the 'Shelter' issue is crushed and there is no more unpleasant talk of a centrally located Terminus on or at the Old Rail Lands...and this is of course to allow for the Rail Lands Retail Agenda as discussed in previous posts.
In the removed post this was followed by another serve at current Dual CEO Greg Muller and the damage he has done with his RLRA obsession let alone his ratepayer funded 'working holiday' as an entirely unnecessary burden on their rates, etc, in a position created solely for him so that he can just sit there and keep the whole sorry mess under his specific control...
Which naturally led to another bout of 'Where's the missing $350,000?' that Greg Muller took without authorisation re the Main Corner project, and that remains unaccounted for...it is perfectly legitimate to ask just how many decimal points are added to the latest rate-rise to finance Greg Muller's position.
To self-quote;
"I haven't imagined the reality of what has happened with Ian McDonnell and Greg Muller, nor have I sort in anyway to misrepresent the facts as I understand them...These are realities. I am not just trying to be sensationalist or controversial...if I could find a politer word than corrupt I would...I may well be venting, but I'm certainly not inventing...(nice-Ed)...
And now City Council has made all the noises, done all the dances, tooted all the horns, rung all the bells, and payed relentless, vacuous lip-service to 'Public Consultation' re the 2013/14 Budget.
They have gone through all the motions with absolutely no intention of doing anything other than what they wanted in the first instance."
The rest just runs over the same ground re how Council drew out the 'Consultation Process' to exhaust the Budget opposition and then loaded up the last meetings with mates and former Councillors, and how complicit The Border Watch was in playing down this opposition with stories about 'how much Council is listening', etc...
Please review previous posts on the 'Consultation' and 'Budget' issues for a more thorough coverage.
In news closer to home it appears that I was prematurely celebrating getting some proper sleep, because the last few nights I've gone to bed early-ish but woken at around 4am...bright as a very tired, pissed-off button...very, very annoying...
And I've got that lovely post dentist head-throb...(lovely?-Ed)...yes, because I'd rather have that than the pre-dentist head-throbs I've experienced a couple of times in recent years...(fair enough-Ed)...and I was dead set lucky to get an appointment at all...which I'll cover in a future post along with other Dental issues.
And apologies for what I consider some fairly average posts over recent weeks as I attempt to find the middle ground between metaphoric furious flailing and punchy professionalism, between bearing witness and bare-faced witlessness...somewhere between running flat out on empty and running out of empathy...somewhere between what this blog does for me, and what it does to me...
As per previous posts, the June long weekend anniversary of the 'removal' of teacher Glyn Dorling from St Martins Lutheran School in June 2002, always has a drastic effect on me...the difference this year is that it has not relented...and the most obvious thing I can think of is that doing this blog does not allow me the luxury of time and distance to 'recover', and so it continues...c'est la vie...it is so and so be it...
Tomorrow: Federal Election Issues
Just listening to an 'experienced commentator' call this 'the most boring Federal Election campaign ever.'
And random numbers are being furiously flung hither, dither, and yon...accompanied by accusations and denials, promises and smiles...and both of those last two empty...(nice-Ed)...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers...
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