Morning y'all and welcome to the blog...and it seems almost trite to bang on yet again about the endemic and epidemic corruption within South Australia and the Mt Gambier City Council, etc, compared to what's happening around the globe...eg, a 'terrorist' attack in the Kenyan capital Nairobi...(is it the Kenyan Deputy President on trial in the International Criminal Court for instigating post election violence...and the Police Chief who recently received a human head and a pair of hands in the mail, apparently in response to his efforts to pursue issues of corruption?-Ed)...yes, I think so...
And another massive bombing at a church in Pakistan, and yet another car-bombing in Iraq where these attacks on civilians, markets, etc, are an almost daily event killing thousands already this year...
I'm not being at all facetious to suggest how trivial this renders the insider-trading, nepotism, corruption of appropriate process, etc, committed by the constituent members of Mt Gambier City Council in collusion with a handful of their mates, that has had/is having/will continue to have a devastating effect on the financial viability of the City...
Time Lurch: it's now evening a week into the future since I started this draft and it was overtaken by 6 or 7 other posts, and there have been two more 'terrorist bombings' in Pakistan (and I use ' ' to denote a common description, but I consider that they are mass murders committed not by soldiers but by murderers)...147 people killed and hundreds injured with more likely to die...and several more bombings across Iraq...and 'Muslim Extremists' have attacked a Nigerian college/education facility killing 41 people...unarmed people...some in their sleep...
It is just crass to mark this obscenity, any of these obscenities with a few passing lines but I don't know what else to do...I can't ignore these things but I find myself lost and drifting, completely unable to rationalise these acts...other than to see them as mostly political murders...and I can imagine myself well capable of anything in self-defense against an aggressor, but to blow up a market place or a church?...
Lord knows that I pretty much loath organised Religion as being a structure of matriarchal dominance and institutionalised hypocrisy largely controlled by paedophiles...(wow, way to make friends across the globe-Ed)...but there's just no way I'd blow up a church full of people...
But clearly there are those whom through whatever process, have convinced themselves and/or others that this is ok...and it's not unfair to point the finger squarely at people doing these things in the name of Islam...as much as the 'Western Invasions' of Iraq and Afghanistan...(and influence in other conflicts across North Africa-Ed)...are said by some to be part of a modern revival of the Christian Crusades...as fast as we move forward, we appear to be going backward...swimming in quicksand...
There is no appropriate way to jokingly segue from these deaths and this conflict, but it genuinely does make me happy to bring the post back to my relatively peaceful existence in my little town in my little state in my little country...back to the Mt Gambier City Council and to the McMahons Demolition Contract; back to Rann/Weatherill Labor state government and the DeBelle Inquiry; back to the Reserve Bank of Australia and it's subsidiary's dodgy bank note dealings with Saddam Hussein...following on from the Australian Wheat Board corruption...ah yay...
(So you're making a connection between all these things, and thus identifying a pattern of behaviour where the most senior, those most responsible, remain virtually un-investigated and unsanctioned, and a few "low hanging fruit" get the chop-Ed)...well put Ed, that is exactly what I'm saying, and it's a mark of how undemocratic our social structure really is...
And the same people telling everyone else how to behave, eg, what the heck is the Australian Securities and Investment Commission doing...apart from having high tea with their mates instead of prosecuting them...and Labor politicians pontificating about Child Abuse issues...for shrek sake...
Last Friday 27th September 2013, only minutes before it was due to open for it's first hearing, Labor's Attorney General John Rau delivered a letter to the Upper House Select Committee 'reviewing' aspects of the DeBelle Inquiry...(take a breath big fella-Ed)...a letter threatening the Committee's members and anybody who is involved, including witnesses, with a law from 1917 making it unlawful/illegal (?) to question the veracity and/or decisions of, and/or otherwise criticise and/or contradict a Royal Commission...
Which reminds me that I must submit my submission and request to appear before the Committee re the many Inquiries that I have been involved with (previous posts).
I'll see your threats from 1917, sir, and raise you a St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up you f...(whoa...and you'd been doing so well too-Ed)...and that f...(whoa, slow down, take a breath-Ed)...Micheal Atkinson, former AG now Speaker (Lower House), running off at the mouth about a 'Constitutional Crisis' relative to the Select Committee requesting that Jay Weatherill, Jennifer Rankine, and former Education Minister Grace Portolesi appear to give evidence...
Just for the record, Micheal Atkinson as Attorney General was (still is) at the heart of the St Martins Cover-up, and his sanctimonious soliloquies of hollow hypocrisy and insatiably self-satisfied insanity know no bounds...(bit like this blog-Ed)...fair enough...but I'm just a mad, bad, dad, not the Attorney General or the Speaker...(fair enough-Ed)...
And Premier Weatherill is apparently appalled about the case just surfacing of the 2010 abuse of a 13 year old girl by an 18 year old at her school, which the girl reported to school authorities at the time but the school chose to do nothing about...and the parents didn't find out until told by their daughter in March 2013...
Naturally the parents were furious, and have then repeatedly emailed Education Minister Jennifer Rankine 2013, but have apparently been ignored...and Jennifer's on holidays and Jay Weatherill's excuse is that 'the attachment in the mother's email wasn't opened so nobody knew'...so that's just fine then...and the Liberal's are stamping their little feet and going harumpff...shrek me...
And a finding followed by some 'political accusationing' that a litany of failures by SAPol, and the failures of Labor to introduce a Domestic Violence Register, contributed to the murder of a woman by her husband at a public function in Adelaide several years ago...I chose to not include names because this lady deserves more than a brief reference in my blog...particularly in making a political statement...
(Still glad you bought the blog closer to home?-Ed)...I just don't know anymore...but I think so...perhaps a consideration for the morrow...
Tomorrow: No Idea Really
Probably more stuff about Turbines, Council and McMahons, the ICAC, and what the heck and why the shrek and everything else in between...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters...
Monday, September 30, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Sorting the Rort Report - Sort Of
Hello world and a quick apology for yesterday's distracted post, because that's what I was...completely distracted by today's post...but bear with me and I think you'll see what I mean...also, there are many examples of how human interference alters the environment and I only offered one, deforestation...
Just watching a show on Channel 10 called 'Human Sprawl' about how we manipulate and destroy entire environments with human habitation, and the colossal toll this takes on wild areas through fragmentation, clearing, and complete removal of plants, therefore habitats...and the quote "Cities affect climate" because they are hotter than the natural environment, etc...this is one point of many that I didn't cover yesterday...but I digress...
And I apologise for a second time this post for pulling the plug so early on the chance of any big announcement as advertised...'it'll be worth it'..and I can only ask that you bear with me, again...I'm not trying to be Secret Squirrel or Machiavelli or anything stupid like that, but I am acutely aware that I need to act to keep other people at arms length for fear that Council will attack them the way it has others, myself included...fears that have also been expressed to me by others.
So, again, I apologise that I can only shuffle the voluminous deck of allegations, accusations, information and angry declarations that I have received from a range of people, particularly in the last week, particularly on the McMahons Demolition Contract and the involvement of Mayor Steve Perryman...and shuffle quietly off stage left...
I can only ask...(and he can't believe he's saying this-Ed)...that you trust me that I am trying to get this critical issue right...but at this point I stand by every allegation, statement, claim, whatevs, that I have made re the conduct of the Council meeting 17/09/2013 and the Demolition Contract.
I re-iterate: in several recent posts I have outlined what I believe to be gross misconduct by Mayor Steve Perryman, the Mt Gambier City Council and Adelaide based McMahon Services re the awarding of the Old Hospital Demolition Contract to McMahons.
At Council's full meeting on Tuesday 17th September 2013, the last two items (but not appearing on my copy of the agenda) were the saving/demolition of the Laundry, and the Demolition Contract...I've covered this extensively in previous posts.
When it came to the Demolition Contract, Mayor Perryman declared a 'Conflict of Interest' due to an 'accommodation agreement' with 'the Tenderer', and left the Chamber...as stated previously, I could not hear exactly what he mumbled, but I did ask the other two people present, and there was no doubt about the nature of what Mayor Perryman said...
And obviously Council knows who those other two people are, and so just for the record, I approached them and put to them my summation of Council proceedings re the Laundry and Demolition Contract, particularly Mayor Steve Perryman's 'Conflict of Interest' withdrawal...with some minor variations, they seemed to think that my account and observations were reasonable and accurate (paraphrasing).
And I have no problem identifying state Liberal candidate Troy Bell as one of those people, because he was there with his own concerns about what might happen with the Demolition Contract...and the other person is a private citizen who might have been there for the Residents and Ratepayers Association, but I'm not sure...
I don't know, maybe they're both angry shareholders in a company that tried to Tender but failed, whatevs, I approached them and I can only state what we discussed...and if either one cares to disagree, that's up to them...this is my blog, my opinion, my responsibility...they just happened to be the two people who I had to go to for a balanced, informed opinion...(geez, talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time-Ed)...quite...(and if they're silly enough to be seen talking to you in public-Ed)...yes, alright, thank you...
Early on Thursday 19th September 2013, the ABC Local Radio's Stuart Stansfield ran a long interview with Councillor Des Mutton about the Demolition/laundry issues, and I rang to raise the issue of Mayor Perryman's COI, Stuart answered...(and wasn't he thrilled-Ed)...indeed...and when I described the proceedings of Tuesday 17th, Stuart said that he was already aware of it, and after a brief, stunted discussion, he remained fairly dismissive, but stated that he would look into it (paraphrase).
I don't know how Stuart Stansfield knew about the COI business only 36 hours after it had happened, he wasn't there on the Tuesday evening, but he didn't question what I was claiming...unless I missed it, there has been no mention in the local media of any of the three COI issues that saw Mayor Perryman leave the Chamber...(I think I know-Ed)...know what?...(how Stuart knew-Ed)...oh yes, do go on...
(Well, didn't you post the first The Rort Report on the Wednesday 18th?-Ed)...indeed...(well?-Ed)...oh, you think he read it on the blog...(yeah that, or he already knew before the vote, heard it from Sandra Morello who was at the Council meeting, or a Councillor, or someone read the post and told him...there's any number of ways really-Ed)...quite...
I rang the ABC again on Tuesday 24th September following a story about McMahon's massive 'Demolition Bulldozer' arriving on site (noon on Sunday 22nd Sept), spoke to someone (?sorry) who put me on hold, and then returned to very tersely state that Stuart was looking at it and that 'we'll just leave it at that, for him to look at' (paraphrase)...
At this stage all I can say is that I believe that there were only two final Tenders, and that a third potential Tender, as identified in The Border Watch newspaper, actually withdrew well before the vote was held in the Council meeting 17/09/2013.
Also, as late as Thursday last week (26th September 2013), there was no public Tender offered for this highly lucrative Accommodation contract, and that demolition work is due to start this week or very soon after...but I have heard conflicting accounts about the possibility of McMahons recently starting a tender...I'm sorry that I cannot be more specific, but, whatever, it changes nothing about what has transpired thus far nor the timeline of those events...
I completely reject the assertions made in The Border Watch 25th September 2013 by Council's Operational Services Director Daryl Sexton that this demolition will be completed by Christmas...(or when he says "on the ground" does he mean a massive pile of rubble still to be processed?-Ed)...good point...and he also is quoted as saying that 'works could start within weeks' and that 'crews would begin the project by removing asbestos and junk on the site'.
He is then quoted as saying 'the company would then move into full swing in the demolition phase, which was expected to take around 12 weeks' but that "...it won't be going 24/7..."...I just don't know how this is all possible...
As I understand it, Council's Asbestos Register indicates that there is asbestos throughout the building, and as per a recent ABC Radio interview, it is in things like window putty, and therefore the frames and surrounds, and that there are some 'known unknowns', eg, asbestos piping in the walls, underground, etc, but how much exactly?...this will take even a large, experienced crew months to remove responsibly and legally...surely Daryl Sexton is aware of this...
Also, there's no way that McMahons is going to pay a large crew of people to just hang about in Mt Gambier, so because Council has chosen an Adelaide based contractor, the site will be operating as many hours as they think they can get away with...it's not going to be 9 to 5...and every day added because people complain about the noise, dust, etc, is another day's cost added to the open-ended 'Contract' that Council has signed...(gee, it just gets better and better-Ed)...
I'll pull stumps here, but there is much more to come on this issue, and I maintain that Council awarding the Demolition Contract to McMahons is both inappropriate and grossly irresponsible...this is financially disastrous for the ratepayers of Mt Gambier...but who will stop them?...
Tomorrow: More Dobelle, PATS, and Turbines Bullshit
And probably another gouge at this 'Bio-Energy' bullshit, and anything else that gets in my way between now and then...grrrrr...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...toodle pip...
Just watching a show on Channel 10 called 'Human Sprawl' about how we manipulate and destroy entire environments with human habitation, and the colossal toll this takes on wild areas through fragmentation, clearing, and complete removal of plants, therefore habitats...and the quote "Cities affect climate" because they are hotter than the natural environment, etc...this is one point of many that I didn't cover yesterday...but I digress...
And I apologise for a second time this post for pulling the plug so early on the chance of any big announcement as advertised...'it'll be worth it'..and I can only ask that you bear with me, again...I'm not trying to be Secret Squirrel or Machiavelli or anything stupid like that, but I am acutely aware that I need to act to keep other people at arms length for fear that Council will attack them the way it has others, myself included...fears that have also been expressed to me by others.
So, again, I apologise that I can only shuffle the voluminous deck of allegations, accusations, information and angry declarations that I have received from a range of people, particularly in the last week, particularly on the McMahons Demolition Contract and the involvement of Mayor Steve Perryman...and shuffle quietly off stage left...
I can only ask...(and he can't believe he's saying this-Ed)...that you trust me that I am trying to get this critical issue right...but at this point I stand by every allegation, statement, claim, whatevs, that I have made re the conduct of the Council meeting 17/09/2013 and the Demolition Contract.
I re-iterate: in several recent posts I have outlined what I believe to be gross misconduct by Mayor Steve Perryman, the Mt Gambier City Council and Adelaide based McMahon Services re the awarding of the Old Hospital Demolition Contract to McMahons.
At Council's full meeting on Tuesday 17th September 2013, the last two items (but not appearing on my copy of the agenda) were the saving/demolition of the Laundry, and the Demolition Contract...I've covered this extensively in previous posts.
When it came to the Demolition Contract, Mayor Perryman declared a 'Conflict of Interest' due to an 'accommodation agreement' with 'the Tenderer', and left the Chamber...as stated previously, I could not hear exactly what he mumbled, but I did ask the other two people present, and there was no doubt about the nature of what Mayor Perryman said...
And obviously Council knows who those other two people are, and so just for the record, I approached them and put to them my summation of Council proceedings re the Laundry and Demolition Contract, particularly Mayor Steve Perryman's 'Conflict of Interest' withdrawal...with some minor variations, they seemed to think that my account and observations were reasonable and accurate (paraphrasing).
And I have no problem identifying state Liberal candidate Troy Bell as one of those people, because he was there with his own concerns about what might happen with the Demolition Contract...and the other person is a private citizen who might have been there for the Residents and Ratepayers Association, but I'm not sure...
I don't know, maybe they're both angry shareholders in a company that tried to Tender but failed, whatevs, I approached them and I can only state what we discussed...and if either one cares to disagree, that's up to them...this is my blog, my opinion, my responsibility...they just happened to be the two people who I had to go to for a balanced, informed opinion...(geez, talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time-Ed)...quite...(and if they're silly enough to be seen talking to you in public-Ed)...yes, alright, thank you...
Early on Thursday 19th September 2013, the ABC Local Radio's Stuart Stansfield ran a long interview with Councillor Des Mutton about the Demolition/laundry issues, and I rang to raise the issue of Mayor Perryman's COI, Stuart answered...(and wasn't he thrilled-Ed)...indeed...and when I described the proceedings of Tuesday 17th, Stuart said that he was already aware of it, and after a brief, stunted discussion, he remained fairly dismissive, but stated that he would look into it (paraphrase).
I don't know how Stuart Stansfield knew about the COI business only 36 hours after it had happened, he wasn't there on the Tuesday evening, but he didn't question what I was claiming...unless I missed it, there has been no mention in the local media of any of the three COI issues that saw Mayor Perryman leave the Chamber...(I think I know-Ed)...know what?...(how Stuart knew-Ed)...oh yes, do go on...
(Well, didn't you post the first The Rort Report on the Wednesday 18th?-Ed)...indeed...(well?-Ed)...oh, you think he read it on the blog...(yeah that, or he already knew before the vote, heard it from Sandra Morello who was at the Council meeting, or a Councillor, or someone read the post and told him...there's any number of ways really-Ed)...quite...
I rang the ABC again on Tuesday 24th September following a story about McMahon's massive 'Demolition Bulldozer' arriving on site (noon on Sunday 22nd Sept), spoke to someone (?sorry) who put me on hold, and then returned to very tersely state that Stuart was looking at it and that 'we'll just leave it at that, for him to look at' (paraphrase)...
At this stage all I can say is that I believe that there were only two final Tenders, and that a third potential Tender, as identified in The Border Watch newspaper, actually withdrew well before the vote was held in the Council meeting 17/09/2013.
Also, as late as Thursday last week (26th September 2013), there was no public Tender offered for this highly lucrative Accommodation contract, and that demolition work is due to start this week or very soon after...but I have heard conflicting accounts about the possibility of McMahons recently starting a tender...I'm sorry that I cannot be more specific, but, whatever, it changes nothing about what has transpired thus far nor the timeline of those events...
I completely reject the assertions made in The Border Watch 25th September 2013 by Council's Operational Services Director Daryl Sexton that this demolition will be completed by Christmas...(or when he says "on the ground" does he mean a massive pile of rubble still to be processed?-Ed)...good point...and he also is quoted as saying that 'works could start within weeks' and that 'crews would begin the project by removing asbestos and junk on the site'.
He is then quoted as saying 'the company would then move into full swing in the demolition phase, which was expected to take around 12 weeks' but that "...it won't be going 24/7..."...I just don't know how this is all possible...
As I understand it, Council's Asbestos Register indicates that there is asbestos throughout the building, and as per a recent ABC Radio interview, it is in things like window putty, and therefore the frames and surrounds, and that there are some 'known unknowns', eg, asbestos piping in the walls, underground, etc, but how much exactly?...this will take even a large, experienced crew months to remove responsibly and legally...surely Daryl Sexton is aware of this...
Also, there's no way that McMahons is going to pay a large crew of people to just hang about in Mt Gambier, so because Council has chosen an Adelaide based contractor, the site will be operating as many hours as they think they can get away with...it's not going to be 9 to 5...and every day added because people complain about the noise, dust, etc, is another day's cost added to the open-ended 'Contract' that Council has signed...(gee, it just gets better and better-Ed)...
I'll pull stumps here, but there is much more to come on this issue, and I maintain that Council awarding the Demolition Contract to McMahons is both inappropriate and grossly irresponsible...this is financially disastrous for the ratepayers of Mt Gambier...but who will stop them?...
Tomorrow: More Dobelle, PATS, and Turbines Bullshit
And probably another gouge at this 'Bio-Energy' bullshit, and anything else that gets in my way between now and then...grrrrr...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...toodle pip...
Saturday, September 28, 2013
The Climate Primate
Hello Poland, Russia, the USofA, and the Phillipines and welcome to the blog...how's the weather where you are?...we here in Mt Gambier had a brief but punchy cold front come though about 0130 hours (ACST) and it was pretty full on...I'd reckon 10-15mm of rain in a few minutes and a bit of hail preceded by very high winds and some thunder, but still nothing compared to some of the storm events currently happening across the globe ...(and I'm going to use 24hr time from now on...it's so groovy-Ed)...thank you Ed...
And apologies for a slapped together post reminiscent of some previous posts, but this 'Climate Change Sceptics' thing is really annoying me.
And today is the Australian Rules Football Grand Final between Fremantle from Western Australia, and the Melbourne based Hawthorn club...so plenty of opportunities for inappropriate cussing at my empty lounge room...(the dog's gone to the kitchen...even he doesn't want to hear it-Ed)...'cos I just don't follow what's happening anymore...
I may have said before...(dunno-Ed)...but best I can tell, one team throws it to each other, while the other team hits them in the head...and Collingwood gets the free kick...and my cynicism's fervour fanned by the relentless corruption in all sport that I keep being told about by the main stream media...
(Good opportunity to do some housework-Ed)...indeed...(and when did you buy carpet?-Ed)...I've always had carpet, I just tidied up my paperwork and newspapers and stuff...a bit...(and piled it up in the roll-top desk and shut it?-Ed)...and piled it up in the roll-top desk and shut it...but I digress..
I haven't heard any reports of drastic damage or injury, etc, so all in all our little storm was a blip on the radar of global machinations...(bit like the human race really-Ed)...indeed, and how ironic that we as a species should have such an effect on the planet, yet still be so vulnerable to it's various moods and mannerisms...
It is impossible for me to state a scientific reality because I am not a scientist, and the torrent of claims and counter claims streaming across the debate where both sides claim the 'scientific high ground'...so mine is a layperson's opinion, and that's all, based on a general impression of the over-all argument.
Climate Change is like excrement...it happens...and it's going to happen regardless of human interference...but I cannot subscribe to this idea that we can do the things we do to the environment and not effect the climate as well...I believe that we do influence that change...(and it appears that Hawthorn have just won...yay for them...)
We are the first species to be an 'Extinction Event', and already the fifth (sixth?) largest event in what we understand to be the history of the planet...and much of that is due to Deforestation and subsequent habitat loss...it is currently estimated that 100 rainforest species are made extinct every day, and often before they have even been 'discovered'...(yes, well that's all well and groovy, but extinction isn't Climate Change-Ed)...
Fair enough...but deforestation also changes the weather patterns in that area, and over a large enough area does become climate change...and always with devastating effects 'downstream', both figuratively and literally...clearing forests means that rainfall doesn't get held in the area where it falls, with several effects.
Firstly, when it rains there is greatly increased runoff and therefore flooding, and this has it's own consequences, including far more erosion which leads to dam sedimentation and choking, and also polluting/choking of rivers, loss of arable lands, etc...
This also then means that there is very little moisture held in the ground to slowly seep out and keep those creeks and rivers supplied, so they dry up very quickly, and in the wet season flood badly again...this ultimately and often very quickly leads to desertification...and all of this does effect the climate.
If there are no trees and no moisture held in the ground, then there is no evaporation to create the weather systems that rainforests are a critical part of...so the impact spreads well beyond the immediate area of the clearing...and that impact can be said to affect climate...and these are all natural cycles influenced by human involvement.
And despite our proximity (in Mt Gambier) to the mighty Southern Ocean and the influences of the massive, relatively dry and hot continent on which we are precariously perched, our climate and weather is all fairly, relatively stable...weather being the daily expression of the longer term cycles that are an area's climate...
Mount Gambier is located (according to my Macquarie Atlas) at about Latitude 37:49, Longitude 140:48...we manage around 0 degree Celsius on the coldest nights, and up to 45C in the shade when the hot Northerlies blast in off the desert...and last summer was virtually dry (15-20mm rain in 2-3 months) but the one before that extremely wet, and this winter has been fairly wet, but still nothing on what was happening 30-40 years ago...so who knows...
The latest United Nations official statement is that the reality of human impact on Climate Change and/or Warming is irrefutable...but I have no idea what that actually means...and is it driven by vested interests with shares in Wind Turbine production or some other 'Renewable' nonsense?...I've heard some sceptic stating that 'it's better to have warming rather than cooling, because it's better for the crops'...
Climate Change 'sceptics' often identify the natural progressions of climate change, and quote statistics that apparently show that the planet isn't warming as badly as those on 'the other side' would have us believe...whom does one believe?...(one really doesn't know-Ed)...and here's a thought...
If Climate changes naturally...(yeah-Ed)...and the warming is happening but isn't as bad as we think...(uhhuh-Ed)...and that means we haven't affected it...(yes-Ed)...well, what if the natural cycle is trying to cool, but what we are doing is keeping it from doing so?...(I don't know-Ed)...indeed...what if we are in a brief period of denial before the planet flips into an extreme change to restore the balance, and so into the next ice age...it wouldn't be the first time in the planet's history that warming has led to an ice age...
Anyway, enough of this...I believe that we as a species do effect the climate in any number of ways and should take steps to minimise those effects...but Carbon and the Carbon Tax is a whole separate issue for a whole separate post...
Tomorrow: My Mistake or The Power Of The Blog
Can't say anything specific just yet, but the clue is in the implied sarcasm of 'My Mistake'...perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't think I have been...perhaps this blog has driven change...
Sorry to be so 'secretive' about it...(I'd have said 'such a tool about it'-Ed)...but I want to get all my facts straight as best I can...so tomorrow...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters...
And apologies for a slapped together post reminiscent of some previous posts, but this 'Climate Change Sceptics' thing is really annoying me.
And today is the Australian Rules Football Grand Final between Fremantle from Western Australia, and the Melbourne based Hawthorn club...so plenty of opportunities for inappropriate cussing at my empty lounge room...(the dog's gone to the kitchen...even he doesn't want to hear it-Ed)...'cos I just don't follow what's happening anymore...
I may have said before...(dunno-Ed)...but best I can tell, one team throws it to each other, while the other team hits them in the head...and Collingwood gets the free kick...and my cynicism's fervour fanned by the relentless corruption in all sport that I keep being told about by the main stream media...
(Good opportunity to do some housework-Ed)...indeed...(and when did you buy carpet?-Ed)...I've always had carpet, I just tidied up my paperwork and newspapers and stuff...a bit...(and piled it up in the roll-top desk and shut it?-Ed)...and piled it up in the roll-top desk and shut it...but I digress..
I haven't heard any reports of drastic damage or injury, etc, so all in all our little storm was a blip on the radar of global machinations...(bit like the human race really-Ed)...indeed, and how ironic that we as a species should have such an effect on the planet, yet still be so vulnerable to it's various moods and mannerisms...
It is impossible for me to state a scientific reality because I am not a scientist, and the torrent of claims and counter claims streaming across the debate where both sides claim the 'scientific high ground'...so mine is a layperson's opinion, and that's all, based on a general impression of the over-all argument.
Climate Change is like excrement...it happens...and it's going to happen regardless of human interference...but I cannot subscribe to this idea that we can do the things we do to the environment and not effect the climate as well...I believe that we do influence that change...(and it appears that Hawthorn have just won...yay for them...)
We are the first species to be an 'Extinction Event', and already the fifth (sixth?) largest event in what we understand to be the history of the planet...and much of that is due to Deforestation and subsequent habitat loss...it is currently estimated that 100 rainforest species are made extinct every day, and often before they have even been 'discovered'...(yes, well that's all well and groovy, but extinction isn't Climate Change-Ed)...
Fair enough...but deforestation also changes the weather patterns in that area, and over a large enough area does become climate change...and always with devastating effects 'downstream', both figuratively and literally...clearing forests means that rainfall doesn't get held in the area where it falls, with several effects.
Firstly, when it rains there is greatly increased runoff and therefore flooding, and this has it's own consequences, including far more erosion which leads to dam sedimentation and choking, and also polluting/choking of rivers, loss of arable lands, etc...
This also then means that there is very little moisture held in the ground to slowly seep out and keep those creeks and rivers supplied, so they dry up very quickly, and in the wet season flood badly again...this ultimately and often very quickly leads to desertification...and all of this does effect the climate.
If there are no trees and no moisture held in the ground, then there is no evaporation to create the weather systems that rainforests are a critical part of...so the impact spreads well beyond the immediate area of the clearing...and that impact can be said to affect climate...and these are all natural cycles influenced by human involvement.
And despite our proximity (in Mt Gambier) to the mighty Southern Ocean and the influences of the massive, relatively dry and hot continent on which we are precariously perched, our climate and weather is all fairly, relatively stable...weather being the daily expression of the longer term cycles that are an area's climate...
Mount Gambier is located (according to my Macquarie Atlas) at about Latitude 37:49, Longitude 140:48...we manage around 0 degree Celsius on the coldest nights, and up to 45C in the shade when the hot Northerlies blast in off the desert...and last summer was virtually dry (15-20mm rain in 2-3 months) but the one before that extremely wet, and this winter has been fairly wet, but still nothing on what was happening 30-40 years ago...so who knows...
The latest United Nations official statement is that the reality of human impact on Climate Change and/or Warming is irrefutable...but I have no idea what that actually means...and is it driven by vested interests with shares in Wind Turbine production or some other 'Renewable' nonsense?...I've heard some sceptic stating that 'it's better to have warming rather than cooling, because it's better for the crops'...
Climate Change 'sceptics' often identify the natural progressions of climate change, and quote statistics that apparently show that the planet isn't warming as badly as those on 'the other side' would have us believe...whom does one believe?...(one really doesn't know-Ed)...and here's a thought...
If Climate changes naturally...(yeah-Ed)...and the warming is happening but isn't as bad as we think...(uhhuh-Ed)...and that means we haven't affected it...(yes-Ed)...well, what if the natural cycle is trying to cool, but what we are doing is keeping it from doing so?...(I don't know-Ed)...indeed...what if we are in a brief period of denial before the planet flips into an extreme change to restore the balance, and so into the next ice age...it wouldn't be the first time in the planet's history that warming has led to an ice age...
Anyway, enough of this...I believe that we as a species do effect the climate in any number of ways and should take steps to minimise those effects...but Carbon and the Carbon Tax is a whole separate issue for a whole separate post...
Tomorrow: My Mistake or The Power Of The Blog
Can't say anything specific just yet, but the clue is in the implied sarcasm of 'My Mistake'...perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't think I have been...perhaps this blog has driven change...
Sorry to be so 'secretive' about it...(I'd have said 'such a tool about it'-Ed)...but I want to get all my facts straight as best I can...so tomorrow...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters...
Friday, September 27, 2013
DeBelle Goes Ballistic...Almost
Hello and welcome to a slightly re-formatted blog and hence no apology for what is by re-definition no longer a late post...(wahhh?-Ed)...to address the problems I was having with losing whole days to some posts, and getting anxious and distracted if I hadn't posted by mid-afternoon...(with you thus far-Ed)...t'riffic...I've allowed myself to post everyday still, but when I've done other stuff and shizzle...
(No, don't get it-Ed)...well, instead of reacting to the stress and anger and frustration, etc, generated when doing some of these posts and being literally driven away...(yeah, that bit I get-Ed)...well instead I allow myself to do the post when I decide to...it's no longer walking away in self-preservation but more 'I've got better things to do than this post, and quite frankly it can wait'...
So, I will continue to treat this blog as seriously and as responsibly as I already try to do...and at least I'm trying, on both counts...but it may get posted at 11am, it may be at 8pm...it may be somewhere in between...(or not even-Ed)...indeed...I think...and I'm also working on being a little less consumed by the need to monitor the media...but we'll see how that goes...
And part of trying to be responsible is to try to be accurate not just angry, and then if you still cock it up...(and you will-Ed)...thank you...and well yes I will...(probably already have-Ed)...ah, look, thank you...and I probably have already...well then admit when you're wrong, rectify, and get on with it...
I have a delicious feeling that I may soon be offered many opportunities to embrace how wrong I am about a certain very recent series of posts...(nahah, spoilers...and what do you mean when you say delicious?-Ed)...well because as always the facts are the facts and I really can't wait to sink my teeth into this particular issue...but as you say Ed, spoilers...
And I digress...it would appear that I am also wrong about the Debelle Inquiry in wittily describing it as an 'Inquiry Without Consequence', 'DeBelle Toll Nil'...and so forth...but I was wrong, wrong, wrong (Joe Bjelke Pietersen)...and it's absolute carnage (Tony Greig)...
(And just listening to something on ABC about the Parliamentary Select Committee and the Chief Information Officer of the Office of Premier and Cabinet, Mr A Mills, saying that they could actually retrieve the infamous 'erased email' that the sender, Mr Weatherill's Chief Advisor Mr Blewett, allegedly cannot remember who he sent it to...(but he remembers that it definitely wasn't Mr Weatherill-Ed)...indeed...but that the 'retrieval' would cost a lot of money...)
The media is full of reports about tough new legislation for paroling and monitoring released paedophile offenders, and reporting criteria, etc, but the underlying fact of all of these articles/legislative measures is that they are to address issues with people being released who are still a danger to children...all these measures/rules are being instigated in the hope that they might stop problematic sexual offenders, and that means recidivists (repeat offenders) and that means children are at risk the moment the offender is released...
And I don't believe a word of this nonsense about "Harsh lessons as school abuse scandal toll grows" in today's The Advertiser...I'm looking at a couple of upper/mid level executives where one resigned, Deputy CEO Gino DeGennaro, and the other didn't have their contract renewed, Non-Governmental Schools Office CEO Jan Andrews...(what does the NGSC have to do with it?...it was a government school I thought-Ed)...no idea, sorry...
And the former Education Dept CEO Keith Bartley was going to fight it all the way and then quit and bolted out of the country...(I hear former Premier Mike Rann met him at the airport in London-Ed)...really...(no, that was actually just a joke-Ed)...hilarious...bolted with all of his entitlements...and I'm not seeing anyone charged with Covering-up Child Abuse...and where's Chief Education Officer Gary Costello who was a key player in the 'Western Suburbs School Cover-up'...(previous posts)
I completely reject the description being used that;
"Employment of two high-level education bureaucrats has been terminated..." The Advertiser
...these people were not 'terminated', they either quit or weren't re-employed...(pedantic much?-Ed)...not really...there can be a huge difference in remuneration, future 'employability', etc...(fair enough-Ed)...
And currently on Today Tonight (27/09/2013), an interview with Danyse Soester (of the Western Suburbs School Council re DeBelle Inquiry) about the role that she has played...and her saying that not one senior person has lost their job and one has actually been promoted...and the issue of Premier Weatherill and Ministers Rankine and Portolesi stating that they won't appear before the Select Committee to give evidence...Ms Soester stated that anybody who doesn't show has something to hide...well said...
Ms Soester also makes the excellent point that DeBelle only started looking at one Abuse incident and found 75, and that we need to address this all correctly now so as to not be doing it again in 10-15 years, and renewing her calls for an Education Ombudsman...(wasn't that the no.1 Recommendation from the voluminous Layton report in 2003?-Ed)...exactly...and recently promised by the Weatherill Labor government...still waiting...
Ms Soester said that Justice DeBelle left many openings but no plan and it all needs to be addressed and worked through, but "not my answers", it needs to be done by professionals with the truth in mind and concentrating on children not politics, and resolving not blaming (paraphrase)...I am very impressed with how well Ms Soester explains herself and with what she has achieved thus far...hoorah...
The allegedly Independent review by 'Education Expert' Peter Allen from Victoria, unveiled a litany of failures about a lack of accountability and culture of denial and blame-shifting, etc, (paraphrase)...and there's the new Education CEO...(Tony-TH)...Tony...(nnnHarrison-TH)...Tony Harrison banging on about tough new measures and 'I'm not happy', or something...blah,blah,blah (paraphrase)...
Current Education Minister Jennifer Rankine reckons that Labour will move, with great haste, to adopt and implement the 14 Recommendations from Mr Allens Inquiry...(how long to implement Layton Rec No.1?-Ed)...10 years...(yes, well...one doesn't want to rush into these things-Ed)...quite...
And the Ombudsman Report, based on a complaint from Ms Soester, is equally damning, but still there won't be any actual sackings, no charges, not nuffin'...and even with all of this happening, yet another Abuse Cover-up is unraveling through the media...shrek me...
So I'll leave it to you to decide whether I'm an errant, angry old cynic...or just angry, old, and incredibly cynical...and always remember...a cynic is what an optimist calls a realist...
I'll cover this again in another post soon, so to close I'll quote Ms Soester re the Education Department;
"I can't believe the degree to which you have to fail in your job to be fired."
...well said that woman.
Tomorrow: Climate Change
Climate Change...is that what you get left over from the 'Bang For Your Buck' that Wind Turbines supposedly offer...(nice-Ed)...but seriously...who are these people who say, indeed believe, that there is no human impact on climactic conditions, weather patterns, etc...
I can't see how we cannot be affecting the natural progression of climactic change...and here's why...tomorrow...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
(No, don't get it-Ed)...well, instead of reacting to the stress and anger and frustration, etc, generated when doing some of these posts and being literally driven away...(yeah, that bit I get-Ed)...well instead I allow myself to do the post when I decide to...it's no longer walking away in self-preservation but more 'I've got better things to do than this post, and quite frankly it can wait'...
So, I will continue to treat this blog as seriously and as responsibly as I already try to do...and at least I'm trying, on both counts...but it may get posted at 11am, it may be at 8pm...it may be somewhere in between...(or not even-Ed)...indeed...I think...and I'm also working on being a little less consumed by the need to monitor the media...but we'll see how that goes...
And part of trying to be responsible is to try to be accurate not just angry, and then if you still cock it up...(and you will-Ed)...thank you...and well yes I will...(probably already have-Ed)...ah, look, thank you...and I probably have already...well then admit when you're wrong, rectify, and get on with it...
I have a delicious feeling that I may soon be offered many opportunities to embrace how wrong I am about a certain very recent series of posts...(nahah, spoilers...and what do you mean when you say delicious?-Ed)...well because as always the facts are the facts and I really can't wait to sink my teeth into this particular issue...but as you say Ed, spoilers...
And I digress...it would appear that I am also wrong about the Debelle Inquiry in wittily describing it as an 'Inquiry Without Consequence', 'DeBelle Toll Nil'...and so forth...but I was wrong, wrong, wrong (Joe Bjelke Pietersen)...and it's absolute carnage (Tony Greig)...
(And just listening to something on ABC about the Parliamentary Select Committee and the Chief Information Officer of the Office of Premier and Cabinet, Mr A Mills, saying that they could actually retrieve the infamous 'erased email' that the sender, Mr Weatherill's Chief Advisor Mr Blewett, allegedly cannot remember who he sent it to...(but he remembers that it definitely wasn't Mr Weatherill-Ed)...indeed...but that the 'retrieval' would cost a lot of money...)
The media is full of reports about tough new legislation for paroling and monitoring released paedophile offenders, and reporting criteria, etc, but the underlying fact of all of these articles/legislative measures is that they are to address issues with people being released who are still a danger to children...all these measures/rules are being instigated in the hope that they might stop problematic sexual offenders, and that means recidivists (repeat offenders) and that means children are at risk the moment the offender is released...
And I don't believe a word of this nonsense about "Harsh lessons as school abuse scandal toll grows" in today's The Advertiser...I'm looking at a couple of upper/mid level executives where one resigned, Deputy CEO Gino DeGennaro, and the other didn't have their contract renewed, Non-Governmental Schools Office CEO Jan Andrews...(what does the NGSC have to do with it?...it was a government school I thought-Ed)...no idea, sorry...
And the former Education Dept CEO Keith Bartley was going to fight it all the way and then quit and bolted out of the country...(I hear former Premier Mike Rann met him at the airport in London-Ed)...really...(no, that was actually just a joke-Ed)...hilarious...bolted with all of his entitlements...and I'm not seeing anyone charged with Covering-up Child Abuse...and where's Chief Education Officer Gary Costello who was a key player in the 'Western Suburbs School Cover-up'...(previous posts)
I completely reject the description being used that;
"Employment of two high-level education bureaucrats has been terminated..." The Advertiser
...these people were not 'terminated', they either quit or weren't re-employed...(pedantic much?-Ed)...not really...there can be a huge difference in remuneration, future 'employability', etc...(fair enough-Ed)...
And currently on Today Tonight (27/09/2013), an interview with Danyse Soester (of the Western Suburbs School Council re DeBelle Inquiry) about the role that she has played...and her saying that not one senior person has lost their job and one has actually been promoted...and the issue of Premier Weatherill and Ministers Rankine and Portolesi stating that they won't appear before the Select Committee to give evidence...Ms Soester stated that anybody who doesn't show has something to hide...well said...
Ms Soester also makes the excellent point that DeBelle only started looking at one Abuse incident and found 75, and that we need to address this all correctly now so as to not be doing it again in 10-15 years, and renewing her calls for an Education Ombudsman...(wasn't that the no.1 Recommendation from the voluminous Layton report in 2003?-Ed)...exactly...and recently promised by the Weatherill Labor government...still waiting...
Ms Soester said that Justice DeBelle left many openings but no plan and it all needs to be addressed and worked through, but "not my answers", it needs to be done by professionals with the truth in mind and concentrating on children not politics, and resolving not blaming (paraphrase)...I am very impressed with how well Ms Soester explains herself and with what she has achieved thus far...hoorah...
The allegedly Independent review by 'Education Expert' Peter Allen from Victoria, unveiled a litany of failures about a lack of accountability and culture of denial and blame-shifting, etc, (paraphrase)...and there's the new Education CEO...(Tony-TH)...Tony...(nnnHarrison-TH)...Tony Harrison banging on about tough new measures and 'I'm not happy', or something...blah,blah,blah (paraphrase)...
Current Education Minister Jennifer Rankine reckons that Labour will move, with great haste, to adopt and implement the 14 Recommendations from Mr Allens Inquiry...(how long to implement Layton Rec No.1?-Ed)...10 years...(yes, well...one doesn't want to rush into these things-Ed)...quite...
And the Ombudsman Report, based on a complaint from Ms Soester, is equally damning, but still there won't be any actual sackings, no charges, not nuffin'...and even with all of this happening, yet another Abuse Cover-up is unraveling through the media...shrek me...
So I'll leave it to you to decide whether I'm an errant, angry old cynic...or just angry, old, and incredibly cynical...and always remember...a cynic is what an optimist calls a realist...
I'll cover this again in another post soon, so to close I'll quote Ms Soester re the Education Department;
"I can't believe the degree to which you have to fail in your job to be fired."
...well said that woman.
Tomorrow: Climate Change
Climate Change...is that what you get left over from the 'Bang For Your Buck' that Wind Turbines supposedly offer...(nice-Ed)...but seriously...who are these people who say, indeed believe, that there is no human impact on climactic conditions, weather patterns, etc...
I can't see how we cannot be affecting the natural progression of climactic change...and here's why...tomorrow...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Thursday, September 26, 2013
The Rort Report Part IV
Howdy y'all and welcome Indonesia, the USofA, and Malaysia...and hopefully a conclusion of the Rort Report...but I'm quietly confident that there's heaps to come from Mt Gambier City Council...
A Brief Outline of Council Meeting Tuesday 17th September:
1) There was voluminous rhetoric about the 2 day 'Education Forum' held at the Main Corner Complex, and other 'Child Focused Issues', eg, playgrounds, including my favourite line "It takes a village to raise a child" (Cr Jim Maher)...and as promised, the next person who says that in front of me gets a polite but very thorough serve about the Child Abuse Cover-up at St Martins Lutheran School, and how "It takes a village (Council included) to Cover-up the abuse of a class of 7 year old children"...shrek me...
2) 'Supply of Refuse Truck and Compactor' saw Mayor Steve Perryman leave the Chamber with a 'Conflict of Interests'...first of his three 'COI' for the meeting...
3) Cr Merv White presented a long report on traffic flow at Commercial St West/Victoria St and delays and people having to go around others, etc...'Swervin' Merv White...yeeha...
4) Mayor Perryman's second Conflict of Interest was with the Rail Lands 'Reclamation' contract, which was awarded to Gambier Earth Movers and a bit to Heenans...but that's removing rails, etc, that the Council and therefore ratepayers are liable for if it must be replaced...my letter was not mentioned...
Cr Merv White waited until after the vote and then half-declared a 'Conflict of Interest' because GEM were/are a family relative...or something...he was half-mumbling to himself...they do a fair bit of both, ie, mumbling their way through declaring COIs...
5) Council removed itself from state obligations to set aside a small percentage of new developments for 'Affordable Housing', with Daryl Sexton explaining that Mt Gambier house prices are already so low that this self-exclusion won't affect availability...prices are already so low...super...
6) Cr Andrew Lee continued his progressive apology for comments made in The Border Watch re selling land to overseas concerns, (an apology that began, to try to minimise the damage, carefully placed in TBW on the same day as multiple critical 'letters'), and then also continued the 'Sister City' recommendation...again, super...
7) appointed current 'Dual CEO'/former CEO Greg Muller to the Junior Sports Assistance Fund Committee; "(noting Greg Muller as honorary/volunteer Secretary (non-voting) as from 29th November, 2013)."...and then the very next point under the same item; "(d) Council not require non-Elected Members of the Fund/Committee to complete Register of Interest Declarations (as per section 72 of the Local Government Act)."
That is, Mr Muller is appointed to the Committee by Council and immediately, officially excused from declaring any assets, business associations, etc...in the one item/vote...super dooper...
8) voted to distribute $50,000 between West Gambier Football Club, MG Greyhound & Coursing Club, MG Softball League, and MG Tennis Club...and then after the vote Cr White again indicated that he had a Conflict, being a Life Member of (I think he said) West Gambier FC...great work Swervin' Merv...
9) Cr Biddie Shearing (nee Tietz) declared a Conflict of Interest re two South East Local Government Association/Regional Development Australia items, and left the Chamber...by the time this was dealt with Cr Shearing had left and didn't return...down to 7 Councillors and Mayor...Cr Allen Smith and Penny Richardson were already absent...
They then went through a series of Internal Revue items, the Strategic Plan, etc, and I was already standing in the foyer (because of a sore knee/hip) and was packing up to leave when the debate started re the Laundry at the Old Hospital, which was then followed by the Hospital Demolition Tender debate/vote...
I cannot find any mention of these Items on my copy of the Agenda.
Cr Maher tabled a motion to remove the Laundry and Cr Mutton gave a long, impassioned speech in opposition, and the vote was lost...Cr Mutton immediately introduced his own motion to renovate the Laundry, to which Swervin' Merve White theatrically declared that he would "bow to the will of Council" and the motion passed with a $200,000 (allegedly) price tag...
It was all very thoroughly rehearsed and all the players remembered their lines really well...and 'Swervin' Merv's declaration that he would "bow" was fine theatre indeed...albeit purely fiction...
I note that the absent Crs Smith and Richardson (according to my notes) both voted against saving the Laundry at Council's August meeting, and therefore their absence had a critical effect in the vote passing last Tuesday 17/09/13...but that's just fine...
Next was the Demolition Tender, and Mayor Steve Perryman declared his third 'Conflict of Interests' for the evening re some sort of 'accommodation agreement' with the Tenderer...again, unfortunately, I was still standing in the foyer listening and didn't catch everything he mumbled, and as he left I rushed back in before the doors were shut...
I have covered all of this extensively in previous posts, and the multiple implications of this 'Conflict' and subsequent awarding of the Contract to McMahons Services from Adelaide, eg;
1) there are clearly questions to be answered as to how Mr Perryman, proprietor of the Presidential Motel, came to have this 'agreement' in place prior to the 'Contract' being awarded;
2) Council borrowed money for this Demolition, and ratepayers will have to re-pay it plus interest, and;
3) this borrowed money is now mostly leaving Mt Gambier except for the money for 'accommodation' at the Presidential.
Call me a cynic, but I can see the open-ended Demolition Contract blowing out by at least the cost of the accommodation...this whole Laundry/Demolition pantomime was clearly already decided outside of Chambers and Council were simply going through the motions, as it were...
For example, in saving and renovating the Laundry only minutes before 'deciding' the Demolition Contract, Council have varied the original Tender by at least $200,000 without McMahons allegedly knowing...unless of course it was all organised prior to the appropriate process...
Regardless, there are issues that must be investigated and resolved re the 'Accommodation Agreement' and how that influenced the decision to choose McMahons, and the demolition immediately halted pending that appropriate investigation.
And thank you to Mr Pegler for calling me that afternoon (twice) to acknowledge my letter Tuesday 23rd September 2013... I was already aware, and he confirmed, that others had already been to see him about the Perryman/McMahons issue...and on that point, I have heard nothing from the Ombudsman re my letter to MP Don Pegler or my previous letter re these issues...shrek knows...
Tomorrow: DeBelle Toll: Two
Could it be true?...the Inquiry Without Consequence has apparently accounted for a couple of expendable bureaucrats...but what about the Ministers and their Advisors?...
And I cannot believe that we do the things we do to the planet, and not affect the climate...in fact, I know we do...to say otherwise is just plain wrong...everyone's entitled to an opinion, of course, but I feel this 'Change' is irrefutable...the Day After Tomorrow...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters...oh, and I can already feel a Rort Report Part V festering away in the background so look out...
A Brief Outline of Council Meeting Tuesday 17th September:
1) There was voluminous rhetoric about the 2 day 'Education Forum' held at the Main Corner Complex, and other 'Child Focused Issues', eg, playgrounds, including my favourite line "It takes a village to raise a child" (Cr Jim Maher)...and as promised, the next person who says that in front of me gets a polite but very thorough serve about the Child Abuse Cover-up at St Martins Lutheran School, and how "It takes a village (Council included) to Cover-up the abuse of a class of 7 year old children"...shrek me...
2) 'Supply of Refuse Truck and Compactor' saw Mayor Steve Perryman leave the Chamber with a 'Conflict of Interests'...first of his three 'COI' for the meeting...
3) Cr Merv White presented a long report on traffic flow at Commercial St West/Victoria St and delays and people having to go around others, etc...'Swervin' Merv White...yeeha...
4) Mayor Perryman's second Conflict of Interest was with the Rail Lands 'Reclamation' contract, which was awarded to Gambier Earth Movers and a bit to Heenans...but that's removing rails, etc, that the Council and therefore ratepayers are liable for if it must be replaced...my letter was not mentioned...
Cr Merv White waited until after the vote and then half-declared a 'Conflict of Interest' because GEM were/are a family relative...or something...he was half-mumbling to himself...they do a fair bit of both, ie, mumbling their way through declaring COIs...
5) Council removed itself from state obligations to set aside a small percentage of new developments for 'Affordable Housing', with Daryl Sexton explaining that Mt Gambier house prices are already so low that this self-exclusion won't affect availability...prices are already so low...super...
6) Cr Andrew Lee continued his progressive apology for comments made in The Border Watch re selling land to overseas concerns, (an apology that began, to try to minimise the damage, carefully placed in TBW on the same day as multiple critical 'letters'), and then also continued the 'Sister City' recommendation...again, super...
7) appointed current 'Dual CEO'/former CEO Greg Muller to the Junior Sports Assistance Fund Committee; "(noting Greg Muller as honorary/volunteer Secretary (non-voting) as from 29th November, 2013)."...and then the very next point under the same item; "(d) Council not require non-Elected Members of the Fund/Committee to complete Register of Interest Declarations (as per section 72 of the Local Government Act)."
That is, Mr Muller is appointed to the Committee by Council and immediately, officially excused from declaring any assets, business associations, etc...in the one item/vote...super dooper...
8) voted to distribute $50,000 between West Gambier Football Club, MG Greyhound & Coursing Club, MG Softball League, and MG Tennis Club...and then after the vote Cr White again indicated that he had a Conflict, being a Life Member of (I think he said) West Gambier FC...great work Swervin' Merv...
9) Cr Biddie Shearing (nee Tietz) declared a Conflict of Interest re two South East Local Government Association/Regional Development Australia items, and left the Chamber...by the time this was dealt with Cr Shearing had left and didn't return...down to 7 Councillors and Mayor...Cr Allen Smith and Penny Richardson were already absent...
They then went through a series of Internal Revue items, the Strategic Plan, etc, and I was already standing in the foyer (because of a sore knee/hip) and was packing up to leave when the debate started re the Laundry at the Old Hospital, which was then followed by the Hospital Demolition Tender debate/vote...
I cannot find any mention of these Items on my copy of the Agenda.
Cr Maher tabled a motion to remove the Laundry and Cr Mutton gave a long, impassioned speech in opposition, and the vote was lost...Cr Mutton immediately introduced his own motion to renovate the Laundry, to which Swervin' Merve White theatrically declared that he would "bow to the will of Council" and the motion passed with a $200,000 (allegedly) price tag...
It was all very thoroughly rehearsed and all the players remembered their lines really well...and 'Swervin' Merv's declaration that he would "bow" was fine theatre indeed...albeit purely fiction...
I note that the absent Crs Smith and Richardson (according to my notes) both voted against saving the Laundry at Council's August meeting, and therefore their absence had a critical effect in the vote passing last Tuesday 17/09/13...but that's just fine...
Next was the Demolition Tender, and Mayor Steve Perryman declared his third 'Conflict of Interests' for the evening re some sort of 'accommodation agreement' with the Tenderer...again, unfortunately, I was still standing in the foyer listening and didn't catch everything he mumbled, and as he left I rushed back in before the doors were shut...
I have covered all of this extensively in previous posts, and the multiple implications of this 'Conflict' and subsequent awarding of the Contract to McMahons Services from Adelaide, eg;
1) there are clearly questions to be answered as to how Mr Perryman, proprietor of the Presidential Motel, came to have this 'agreement' in place prior to the 'Contract' being awarded;
2) Council borrowed money for this Demolition, and ratepayers will have to re-pay it plus interest, and;
3) this borrowed money is now mostly leaving Mt Gambier except for the money for 'accommodation' at the Presidential.
Call me a cynic, but I can see the open-ended Demolition Contract blowing out by at least the cost of the accommodation...this whole Laundry/Demolition pantomime was clearly already decided outside of Chambers and Council were simply going through the motions, as it were...
For example, in saving and renovating the Laundry only minutes before 'deciding' the Demolition Contract, Council have varied the original Tender by at least $200,000 without McMahons allegedly knowing...unless of course it was all organised prior to the appropriate process...
Regardless, there are issues that must be investigated and resolved re the 'Accommodation Agreement' and how that influenced the decision to choose McMahons, and the demolition immediately halted pending that appropriate investigation.
And thank you to Mr Pegler for calling me that afternoon (twice) to acknowledge my letter Tuesday 23rd September 2013... I was already aware, and he confirmed, that others had already been to see him about the Perryman/McMahons issue...and on that point, I have heard nothing from the Ombudsman re my letter to MP Don Pegler or my previous letter re these issues...shrek knows...
Tomorrow: DeBelle Toll: Two
Could it be true?...the Inquiry Without Consequence has apparently accounted for a couple of expendable bureaucrats...but what about the Ministers and their Advisors?...
And I cannot believe that we do the things we do to the planet, and not affect the climate...in fact, I know we do...to say otherwise is just plain wrong...everyone's entitled to an opinion, of course, but I feel this 'Change' is irrefutable...the Day After Tomorrow...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters...oh, and I can already feel a Rort Report Part V festering away in the background so look out...
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Future Fund and PATS
Hello Brazil, France, Malaysia, and Germany and welcome to the blog...and we're having a sale...it's all got to go...sell, sell, sell...(um, it's already all gone...there is nothing left to sell-Ed)...what about our utilities?...you know, electricity and gas and water and that...(gone, all gone-Ed)...what about Lotteries or the TAB and stuff...(yep, gone-Ed)...
It must be the Free Market mechanisms that ultimately reduce prices for consumers whilst improving service delivery, all due to competition, and...no, sorry, I can't say that without laughing...but the selling of Sow Straya (South Australia in Australese) is nothing to laugh about...it is nothing but corrupt accumulation and/or aquisition of public assets for the benefit of a few...
Thank goodness we still have the highly profitable Forestry Estate asset here in the South East, bringing into the state coffers over $40million a year clear profit, even after paying wages, forest maintenance, fire protection, etc, and it's...(pssst-Ed)...generation of local employment...(pssst-Ed)...as a cornerstone of the SE economy...(pssssst-Ed)...what?...(um, look, I've been waiting for the right time to tell you, but, um...-Ed)...come on...(well, we might have...sort of...you know...sold it, sort of-Ed)...
What! What the hell do you mean 'sold it sort of'?...(well, we've sold it to an essentially overseas consortium of shadowy 'shelf ' companies being run from Melbourne (Victorian state capital), and to avoid any scrutiny by the Foreign Investment Board we called that sale 'The Lease of Three Rotations'-Ed)...what the shrek?...three rotations is 100+ years...that's not a lease, that's a sale...(indeed-Ed)...
(But 141 Plantations is helping reduce that time frame by already removing trees that are only 23-25 years old instead of the standard 32-35 years per rotation-Ed)...yes, thank you, I'll do the 'seething fury barely hidden behind sarcasm' shtick if you don't mind...
And damn it all to heck...I was doing a lovely little segue thing, sliding from a frantically facetious piece about the Forestry Sale into a thorough shellacking of the Future Fund proposal and cleverly linking the two, and then I paused to purchase and peruse today's The Border Watch Wednesday 25th September 2013, and there's local member MP Don Pegler, talking about the Future Fund, and stating...
"We had a future fund in the forestry industry and they went and sold that." (D Pegler)
"Quite frankly this announcement is laughable. This is the Premier who has just handed
down the largest deficit in the state's history talking about accumulating profit into a
future fund." (state Liberal leader Steven Marshall)
"Regional SA deserves $1b in spending now, not smoke and mirrors."
(Family First's Rob Brokenshire)
Oh no, I'm agreeing with three politicians...quick, get me out of this...Damn it...quick, fill, fill...(with what?-Ed)...I don't know, um, just cut to the Future Fund bit...three, two, one, and...
Future Fund: What an arrogant, offensive joke spewing from a Labor Party that has absolutely no credibility when it comes to economy, finance, or honesty...this is a sad joke of an announcement...(um, you'd better explain the announcement-Ed)...oh, yeah, ta...Premier Weatherill has announced that Labor is introducing/establishing a 'Future Fund' once the state Budget reaches surplus, and it will then have to have $500million in it before it starts spending...
(So hang on...recover a $1.2billion deficit last year and a current state debt of $14billion and turn it into a surplus, and then the fund starts 'saving', and then has to get to $500m before it starts spending-Ed)...exactly...(oh well everything's fine then...and to think you were worried-Ed)...look, I've warned you about doing my sarcasm shtick...(yeah, sorry-Ed)...
And no doubt the Weatherill Labor government will use a goodly part of that Future Fund to increase funding for the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme that...(pssst-Ed)...reimburses Regional patients who must travel...(pssst-Ed)...for equitable access to Health services...(psssst-Ed)...not provided in Regional areas due to the Adelaide-centric nature of politics in...(psssssst-Ed)...what?...
(Um, sorry, but...Health Minister Jack Snelling has already ruled out any increase to the PATS funding of $7million a year, and the current PATS Review states that the changes they are looking at focus on ways to deny more people access and therefore have 'more to spend on less people' -Ed)...
Please review previous posts re PATS because right about...now, I lose all humour re PATS after attending yet another forum/meeting last evening where a crowd of approx 50 people shared their tales of woe about accessing services, the failures of PATS allowances (the things it doesn't cover, eg, taxi fares), denied claims, missed appointments, compromised treatments and/or health outcomes, etc...and all of that's just the getting to the treatment...
I missed MP Don Pegler's PATS meeting with Review head Dr David Filby on Monday 23rd September but read about it in yesterday's TBW...I had thought that Dr Filby was going to attend the forum organised by endorsed state Liberal candidate Troy Bell held yesterday, and very much looked forward to asking him a few pointed questions...but not to be...
Nor do I have the humour to make some witty quip about the 'Troy Bell - Liberal' sandwich boards outside the forum that had me silently predicting a Liberal party cluster-cuddle rather than a thorough, objective debate...and anyway, I was proven wrong...Federal Liberal Tony Pasin was present but only spoke briefly from the floor re 'Peter's Project' and services at Warnambool, etc...(previous post).
Mr Bell provided copies of the Review Consultation Paper, did a comprehensive Power Point presentation that included comparisons of the rates for different states (that showed SA at the bottom already), and the real costs of travel as opposed to what PATS repays, etc...all in all, very annoying...(annoying?-Ed)...yeah, well people don't tune in to hear me be politely positive about even a prospective politician...and it just doesn't feel right...he's givin' me nuthin'...and it doesn't sit well...
I don't recall seeing any other politicians, Councillors, etc, at the forum...but I may be wrong because I didn't specifically look...and I note with grave concern that one of the Review Advisory Committee members is the notorious Mr Grant King...
I'll close with quotes provided by Mr Bell, that show the immediate inadequacies and inappropriate nature of the current PATS Review.
The Australian Medical Association states;
"The Australian health care system is based on the principle that all Australians are able to
have the same equity of access to the same level of healthcare regardless of where they live."
The PATS Review Consultation Paper says;
"PATS does not seek to create parity between metropolitan and rural residents in access to
medical services."
I'll do another PATS post before the Review submissions are due on Friday 11th October 2013, and I urge everyone to do a submission...ta'...
Tomorrrow: The Rort Report Part IV
An attempt to conclude my hysterical dissertation on the farcical machinations of a Council hell bent and taking everyone else with them...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters...
It must be the Free Market mechanisms that ultimately reduce prices for consumers whilst improving service delivery, all due to competition, and...no, sorry, I can't say that without laughing...but the selling of Sow Straya (South Australia in Australese) is nothing to laugh about...it is nothing but corrupt accumulation and/or aquisition of public assets for the benefit of a few...
Thank goodness we still have the highly profitable Forestry Estate asset here in the South East, bringing into the state coffers over $40million a year clear profit, even after paying wages, forest maintenance, fire protection, etc, and it's...(pssst-Ed)...generation of local employment...(pssst-Ed)...as a cornerstone of the SE economy...(pssssst-Ed)...what?...(um, look, I've been waiting for the right time to tell you, but, um...-Ed)...come on...(well, we might have...sort of...you know...sold it, sort of-Ed)...
What! What the hell do you mean 'sold it sort of'?...(well, we've sold it to an essentially overseas consortium of shadowy 'shelf ' companies being run from Melbourne (Victorian state capital), and to avoid any scrutiny by the Foreign Investment Board we called that sale 'The Lease of Three Rotations'-Ed)...what the shrek?...three rotations is 100+ years...that's not a lease, that's a sale...(indeed-Ed)...
(But 141 Plantations is helping reduce that time frame by already removing trees that are only 23-25 years old instead of the standard 32-35 years per rotation-Ed)...yes, thank you, I'll do the 'seething fury barely hidden behind sarcasm' shtick if you don't mind...
And damn it all to heck...I was doing a lovely little segue thing, sliding from a frantically facetious piece about the Forestry Sale into a thorough shellacking of the Future Fund proposal and cleverly linking the two, and then I paused to purchase and peruse today's The Border Watch Wednesday 25th September 2013, and there's local member MP Don Pegler, talking about the Future Fund, and stating...
"We had a future fund in the forestry industry and they went and sold that." (D Pegler)
"Quite frankly this announcement is laughable. This is the Premier who has just handed
down the largest deficit in the state's history talking about accumulating profit into a
future fund." (state Liberal leader Steven Marshall)
"Regional SA deserves $1b in spending now, not smoke and mirrors."
(Family First's Rob Brokenshire)
Oh no, I'm agreeing with three politicians...quick, get me out of this...Damn it...quick, fill, fill...(with what?-Ed)...I don't know, um, just cut to the Future Fund bit...three, two, one, and...
Future Fund: What an arrogant, offensive joke spewing from a Labor Party that has absolutely no credibility when it comes to economy, finance, or honesty...this is a sad joke of an announcement...(um, you'd better explain the announcement-Ed)...oh, yeah, ta...Premier Weatherill has announced that Labor is introducing/establishing a 'Future Fund' once the state Budget reaches surplus, and it will then have to have $500million in it before it starts spending...
(So hang on...recover a $1.2billion deficit last year and a current state debt of $14billion and turn it into a surplus, and then the fund starts 'saving', and then has to get to $500m before it starts spending-Ed)...exactly...(oh well everything's fine then...and to think you were worried-Ed)...look, I've warned you about doing my sarcasm shtick...(yeah, sorry-Ed)...
And no doubt the Weatherill Labor government will use a goodly part of that Future Fund to increase funding for the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme that...(pssst-Ed)...reimburses Regional patients who must travel...(pssst-Ed)...for equitable access to Health services...(psssst-Ed)...not provided in Regional areas due to the Adelaide-centric nature of politics in...(psssssst-Ed)...what?...
(Um, sorry, but...Health Minister Jack Snelling has already ruled out any increase to the PATS funding of $7million a year, and the current PATS Review states that the changes they are looking at focus on ways to deny more people access and therefore have 'more to spend on less people' -Ed)...
Please review previous posts re PATS because right about...now, I lose all humour re PATS after attending yet another forum/meeting last evening where a crowd of approx 50 people shared their tales of woe about accessing services, the failures of PATS allowances (the things it doesn't cover, eg, taxi fares), denied claims, missed appointments, compromised treatments and/or health outcomes, etc...and all of that's just the getting to the treatment...
I missed MP Don Pegler's PATS meeting with Review head Dr David Filby on Monday 23rd September but read about it in yesterday's TBW...I had thought that Dr Filby was going to attend the forum organised by endorsed state Liberal candidate Troy Bell held yesterday, and very much looked forward to asking him a few pointed questions...but not to be...
Nor do I have the humour to make some witty quip about the 'Troy Bell - Liberal' sandwich boards outside the forum that had me silently predicting a Liberal party cluster-cuddle rather than a thorough, objective debate...and anyway, I was proven wrong...Federal Liberal Tony Pasin was present but only spoke briefly from the floor re 'Peter's Project' and services at Warnambool, etc...(previous post).
Mr Bell provided copies of the Review Consultation Paper, did a comprehensive Power Point presentation that included comparisons of the rates for different states (that showed SA at the bottom already), and the real costs of travel as opposed to what PATS repays, etc...all in all, very annoying...(annoying?-Ed)...yeah, well people don't tune in to hear me be politely positive about even a prospective politician...and it just doesn't feel right...he's givin' me nuthin'...and it doesn't sit well...
I don't recall seeing any other politicians, Councillors, etc, at the forum...but I may be wrong because I didn't specifically look...and I note with grave concern that one of the Review Advisory Committee members is the notorious Mr Grant King...
I'll close with quotes provided by Mr Bell, that show the immediate inadequacies and inappropriate nature of the current PATS Review.
The Australian Medical Association states;
"The Australian health care system is based on the principle that all Australians are able to
have the same equity of access to the same level of healthcare regardless of where they live."
The PATS Review Consultation Paper says;
"PATS does not seek to create parity between metropolitan and rural residents in access to
medical services."
I'll do another PATS post before the Review submissions are due on Friday 11th October 2013, and I urge everyone to do a submission...ta'...
Tomorrrow: The Rort Report Part IV
An attempt to conclude my hysterical dissertation on the farcical machinations of a Council hell bent and taking everyone else with them...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters...
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
The Rort Report Part III - Sort Of
Hello and welcome world...this a 'sort of' because I want to do another post that is a thorough dissection of Councillors and their behaviours at the meeting Tuesday 17th September 2013, but first this attached letter to MP Don Pegler that has priority and it all wouldn't fit in one post...so...
Tomorrow: The Rort Report Part IV
I can see it becoming a regular if not weekly 'column'...like the 'The First Time I Met' posts...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers...
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Tomorrow: The Rort Report Part IV
I can see it becoming a regular if not weekly 'column'...like the 'The First Time I Met' posts...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers...
Monday, September 23, 2013
Important Wind Turbine Letters from The Border Watch
Hello and welcome to a short, late, filler post, but still important stuff re the whole Turbine issue...it looks like things are starting to unravel for the Wind Turbine Industry...I urge readers to access the 'Stop These Things' and 'Wind Watch' websites...they offer excellent resource material, albeit from a position of 'Turbine opposing'...a lot of their stuff comes from mainstream media and is usually referenced...
I actually got halfway through The Rort Report Part III this morning and foolishly stopped to listen to some Child Abuse Royal Commission stuff, and then a long interview with journalist and ABC TV regular David Maher re his latest essay about Catholic Archbishop George Pell, that seemed to me very much in the vein of the Jay Weatherill and Simon Royal interview I recently canned...
Mr Maher happily exonerated George Pell of all manner of accusations/actions, whilst simultaneously criticising the Catholic Church for the alleged $100million they have paid out on Abuse compensation with almost none of those cases going through the Courts, etc,...I remain unconvinced as to what exactly it was that Mr Maher was saying overall...
It very quickly became another 'walk away and come back later' day...yay...again I can only apologise that I just didn't have it in me by the time I got home again, to sit down and trawl through a pile of Council's bullshit...
But also I read through again this attached letter from Turbine host Mr David Mortimer of Millicent from The Border Watch Friday 20th September, and it reminded me that I had failed to mention an article from TBW Wednesday 28th August (also attached) in my recent post Breaking Wind News...
I apologise for this critical omission because I believe the letter 28/08/13 relates specifically to the upcoming meetings to be held on October 11th at 6pm and the 12th at 10am-3pm, venue to be announced, and identifies some of the 'market force' issues that I believe are one of the fundamental failings of turbines...without subsidies they are simply uneconomical...
And because it's mentioned, I am not "vested interests in the fossil fuel generation sector", nor do I "lobby" for them or anyone else...my opinion is my opinion and hopefully I have explained myself sufficiently and accurately in the blog...
Mr Mortimer's letter is extremely powerful coming as it does from a host...and I can't add to it other than to offer my previous posts as having the answers to many of Mr Mortimer's questions and some more specific details, eg, the "trough" he refers to is the whole subsidies thing with Renewable Targets and Certificates, etc...
Tomorrow: The Rort Report Part III
Honest...and 'spoilers' alert...what the heck is going on with South East Councils and legal actions costing ratepayers $10,000s...and it's not just Mt Gambier City Council...they're all at it...a soon to be post...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters...
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I actually got halfway through The Rort Report Part III this morning and foolishly stopped to listen to some Child Abuse Royal Commission stuff, and then a long interview with journalist and ABC TV regular David Maher re his latest essay about Catholic Archbishop George Pell, that seemed to me very much in the vein of the Jay Weatherill and Simon Royal interview I recently canned...
Mr Maher happily exonerated George Pell of all manner of accusations/actions, whilst simultaneously criticising the Catholic Church for the alleged $100million they have paid out on Abuse compensation with almost none of those cases going through the Courts, etc,...I remain unconvinced as to what exactly it was that Mr Maher was saying overall...
It very quickly became another 'walk away and come back later' day...yay...again I can only apologise that I just didn't have it in me by the time I got home again, to sit down and trawl through a pile of Council's bullshit...
But also I read through again this attached letter from Turbine host Mr David Mortimer of Millicent from The Border Watch Friday 20th September, and it reminded me that I had failed to mention an article from TBW Wednesday 28th August (also attached) in my recent post Breaking Wind News...
I apologise for this critical omission because I believe the letter 28/08/13 relates specifically to the upcoming meetings to be held on October 11th at 6pm and the 12th at 10am-3pm, venue to be announced, and identifies some of the 'market force' issues that I believe are one of the fundamental failings of turbines...without subsidies they are simply uneconomical...
And because it's mentioned, I am not "vested interests in the fossil fuel generation sector", nor do I "lobby" for them or anyone else...my opinion is my opinion and hopefully I have explained myself sufficiently and accurately in the blog...
Mr Mortimer's letter is extremely powerful coming as it does from a host...and I can't add to it other than to offer my previous posts as having the answers to many of Mr Mortimer's questions and some more specific details, eg, the "trough" he refers to is the whole subsidies thing with Renewable Targets and Certificates, etc...
Tomorrow: The Rort Report Part III
Honest...and 'spoilers' alert...what the heck is going on with South East Councils and legal actions costing ratepayers $10,000s...and it's not just Mt Gambier City Council...they're all at it...a soon to be post...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters...
Sunday, September 22, 2013
A Brief Revision: Waiting For Gord Knows
Hello and welcome to the blog...and just another day of waiting for a response from, well, from anyone really...(does being officially, systematically ignored make you special?...or just ignored?-Ed)...I really don't know...(and just another day of not doing the advertised post re The Rort Report-Ed)...yeah, sorry about that, but I wanted to do a 'lighter' post that was still vaguely relevant...Tomorrow...I promise...sort of...
Thank you for feedback as always and hence a shorter, lighter post if not actually day off for both writer and reader.
And further to yesterday's rabid rant re the "pathetic" Jay Weatherill/Simon Royal interview about the DeBelle Inquiry, etc, I offer as further proof of just how weak that interview was, the statements by Premier Weatherill that Labor had come into government in 2002 inheriting a 'dysfunctional Child Protection system' and had 'immediately instituted the Layton Report, tripled expenditure on Child Protection, held the Mullighan Inquiry that "shone a light" on abuse', etc...
Unless it's in the extended on-line version On the ABC's website, Simon Royal is completely silent on the fact that Labor took over 10 years to act on Recommendation no.1 of the Layton Report, being the creation of a Children's Commissioner...has cut funding to Child Protection and associated services...and the Mullighan Inquiry covered-up more than it exposed, eg, the institutionalised problems defined by the St Martins Cover-up Issue...
And following the Christmas 2011 dropping of child abuse charges against a bus driver because the Courts in our enlightened state simply don't cater to/support the disabled children he abused...not because the crime wasn't committed but because the Courts are fundamentally biased against disabled people...Labor's response is a half-arsed Public Consultation about Disability Court Access and massive cuts to funding for Court services, completely axing some regional Court circuits and/or other services...
And not one mention of the 3 year long Statutory Authorities Review Committee Inquiry into the Teachers Registration Board and their SARC Report no.54 that supposedly dealt with all of the issues/problems re departmental notification procedures and information sharing, etc...problems that formed the basis for the DeBelle Inquiry...
The most obvious point of all: the whole reason they are sitting there is to discuss the latest Inquiry into the latest Inquiry...(whaaa?-Ed)...the Upper House Select Committee Inquiry (that Premier Weatherill refuses to appear before) is in effect looking into as much as extending the preceding DeBelle Inquiry...(oh right, yes, that was looking into the gross failures of the Education/Child Protection System re abuse-Ed)...indeed...but I digress...
I am currently awaiting a response from Premier Jay Weatherill or his office re the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Issue, as promised 2 months ago...not quite sure what it is that Mr Weatherill can say re the critical and repeated role that he has played in helping the Lutheran Church cover-up the abuses committed by teacher Glyn Dorling at St Martins...(can't wait-Ed)...well apparently you're going to have to...
Also awaiting any response from the Electoral Commission re my complaint about the bias and discrimination of Nomination Criteria for the September 2013 Federal Election...(don't hold your breath-Ed)...indeed...
Nor am I expecting a response from SAPol (police) or the Electoral Commission re my complaints about the clearly defamatory and cowardly anonymous 'Comments' deliberately placed on this blog to impugn not just myself, but all of the families involved in trying to get something done about the teacher who abused our children...
Nor have I received a response from the Ombudsman as promised 'within 14 days' of my original complaint on September 2nd 2013 re the gross corruption of appropriate process that is everyday business with the Mt Gambier City Council...
However, this could well be due to the bizarre Independent Commission Against Corruption legislation that makes anything the ICAC is considering subject to 'secrecy rules' that, if I'm reading it correctly, say that if the Ombudsman refers my complaint re Council to the ICAC, then, if the ICAC decrees it, the Ombudsman cannot tell me (the complainant) that this transfer has happened...
(There's only one rule of ICAC, and that's that you can't talk about ICAC-Ed)...and you just broke that rule by mentioning ICAC...(and so did you just then-Ed)...damn...
Also awaiting responses from the Federal Election candidates re my letter about their position re Child Protection and particularly how that relates to the St Martins issue...Greens candidate Mr Mark Keough is the only respondent thus far...again thank you Mr Keough...(wasn't the election a fortnight ago?...I wouldn't be holding my breath on that one either-Ed)...indeed...
And I still don't know why the 'Removed Posts' were pulled down because there is no information on the referred sight, nor have I received any response/explanation from Google as to what it is that I've been doing wrong...
I offer this litany of ignoring as proof positive that I at least try to engage appropriately with these issues and those involved by writing to them...and often the response I get is none...(well that's if you don't count the denigration and abuse, defamation threats, secret Council reports about you, etc-Ed)...well yes, besides that...
(Which reminds me, what happened to the repeated 'Defamation Threats' from lawyer Bill DeGaris re the very dodgy sale to him of the SERDE Penola Rd building?...was it 11 defamatory points or something?-Ed)...don't know, don't care...just more empty threats from someone who really doesn't want that issue going anywhere near a Court...even in South Australia...as with his extraordinary conduct whilst allegedly representing me and others re St Martins and the Lutherans.
So how's that for a 'lighter post' then?
Tomorrow: That Rort Report Thing
I note that 'Spell Check' keeps telling me to correct 'Rort' to 'Rory'...deadset...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Thank you for feedback as always and hence a shorter, lighter post if not actually day off for both writer and reader.
And further to yesterday's rabid rant re the "pathetic" Jay Weatherill/Simon Royal interview about the DeBelle Inquiry, etc, I offer as further proof of just how weak that interview was, the statements by Premier Weatherill that Labor had come into government in 2002 inheriting a 'dysfunctional Child Protection system' and had 'immediately instituted the Layton Report, tripled expenditure on Child Protection, held the Mullighan Inquiry that "shone a light" on abuse', etc...
Unless it's in the extended on-line version On the ABC's website, Simon Royal is completely silent on the fact that Labor took over 10 years to act on Recommendation no.1 of the Layton Report, being the creation of a Children's Commissioner...has cut funding to Child Protection and associated services...and the Mullighan Inquiry covered-up more than it exposed, eg, the institutionalised problems defined by the St Martins Cover-up Issue...
And following the Christmas 2011 dropping of child abuse charges against a bus driver because the Courts in our enlightened state simply don't cater to/support the disabled children he abused...not because the crime wasn't committed but because the Courts are fundamentally biased against disabled people...Labor's response is a half-arsed Public Consultation about Disability Court Access and massive cuts to funding for Court services, completely axing some regional Court circuits and/or other services...
And not one mention of the 3 year long Statutory Authorities Review Committee Inquiry into the Teachers Registration Board and their SARC Report no.54 that supposedly dealt with all of the issues/problems re departmental notification procedures and information sharing, etc...problems that formed the basis for the DeBelle Inquiry...
The most obvious point of all: the whole reason they are sitting there is to discuss the latest Inquiry into the latest Inquiry...(whaaa?-Ed)...the Upper House Select Committee Inquiry (that Premier Weatherill refuses to appear before) is in effect looking into as much as extending the preceding DeBelle Inquiry...(oh right, yes, that was looking into the gross failures of the Education/Child Protection System re abuse-Ed)...indeed...but I digress...
I am currently awaiting a response from Premier Jay Weatherill or his office re the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Issue, as promised 2 months ago...not quite sure what it is that Mr Weatherill can say re the critical and repeated role that he has played in helping the Lutheran Church cover-up the abuses committed by teacher Glyn Dorling at St Martins...(can't wait-Ed)...well apparently you're going to have to...
Also awaiting any response from the Electoral Commission re my complaint about the bias and discrimination of Nomination Criteria for the September 2013 Federal Election...(don't hold your breath-Ed)...indeed...
Nor am I expecting a response from SAPol (police) or the Electoral Commission re my complaints about the clearly defamatory and cowardly anonymous 'Comments' deliberately placed on this blog to impugn not just myself, but all of the families involved in trying to get something done about the teacher who abused our children...
Nor have I received a response from the Ombudsman as promised 'within 14 days' of my original complaint on September 2nd 2013 re the gross corruption of appropriate process that is everyday business with the Mt Gambier City Council...
However, this could well be due to the bizarre Independent Commission Against Corruption legislation that makes anything the ICAC is considering subject to 'secrecy rules' that, if I'm reading it correctly, say that if the Ombudsman refers my complaint re Council to the ICAC, then, if the ICAC decrees it, the Ombudsman cannot tell me (the complainant) that this transfer has happened...
(There's only one rule of ICAC, and that's that you can't talk about ICAC-Ed)...and you just broke that rule by mentioning ICAC...(and so did you just then-Ed)...damn...
Also awaiting responses from the Federal Election candidates re my letter about their position re Child Protection and particularly how that relates to the St Martins issue...Greens candidate Mr Mark Keough is the only respondent thus far...again thank you Mr Keough...(wasn't the election a fortnight ago?...I wouldn't be holding my breath on that one either-Ed)...indeed...
And I still don't know why the 'Removed Posts' were pulled down because there is no information on the referred sight, nor have I received any response/explanation from Google as to what it is that I've been doing wrong...
I offer this litany of ignoring as proof positive that I at least try to engage appropriately with these issues and those involved by writing to them...and often the response I get is none...(well that's if you don't count the denigration and abuse, defamation threats, secret Council reports about you, etc-Ed)...well yes, besides that...
(Which reminds me, what happened to the repeated 'Defamation Threats' from lawyer Bill DeGaris re the very dodgy sale to him of the SERDE Penola Rd building?...was it 11 defamatory points or something?-Ed)...don't know, don't care...just more empty threats from someone who really doesn't want that issue going anywhere near a Court...even in South Australia...as with his extraordinary conduct whilst allegedly representing me and others re St Martins and the Lutherans.
So how's that for a 'lighter post' then?
Tomorrow: That Rort Report Thing
I note that 'Spell Check' keeps telling me to correct 'Rort' to 'Rory'...deadset...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Saturday, September 21, 2013
DeBelle Ends: Jay Weatherill and Simon Royal
Hello Belgium, Romania, Poland, and the UK...welcome Europeans to this here blog what is being written by me Nick Fletcher, self-declared, and I can't believe I'm saying it...(neither can I quite frankly-Ed)...politician...and very large, very angry, very hippy...and regular readers, you'll be surprised to learn that today we're going for an angry stroll down a crooked road into the realms of institutionalised pro-paedophile corruption that defines South Australian politics...
And when it comes to the institutionalised pro-paedophile corruption that defines South Australian politics, I don't need to maintain the rage, because it gets hammered into me everyday I tune in to the world...and so another post that is more venting than reporting, but I stand absolutely by my repeated claims of "corrupt" behaviour because there is no other way to describe what is happening...(and here's me thinking it was all one big, unfortunate accident, not a decade long Child Abuse Cover-up...silly me-Ed)...
Last evening the ABC TV 7.30 State Edition (South Australia) hit the nail on the head and drove it clean through the plank, with a Simon Royal interview with Premier Jay Weatherill about the DeBelle Inquiry and associated issues...(I've got three words to describe that interview-Ed)...please...(pathetic, pathetic, pathetic-Ed)...couldn't have said it better myself...
And I make no apology for changing topic again or for the rancid anger surging furiously through this post...nor do I apologise for trawling over the same old ground about the complicit Australian Broadcasting Corporation and pro-paedophile Rann/Weatherill Labor state government, etc, because here is where the battle is being fought and against whom...against a corrupt Labor government and via a corrupted, complicit ABC...amongst others...
I ask readers to review any of the many posts re the ABC and St Martins and how my relationship with the ABC has played out accordingly...and what I have been subjected to, what I have endured, and what I have gone past again and again and again to try and maintain a 'working relationship'...only to ultimately fail...and not because of me but because of the unpleasant, undeniable, unwanted truth in what I say...
And I've said it before, I'm sick of being the convenient whipping boy for these people's collective guilt, and duly abused and taunted and denigrated and discriminated against as they see fit...I have problems, many problems, but I am not The Problem...
I do not exaggerate in calling it a battle because that is exactly what it is...a relentless war of attrition waged by the Lutheran Church and the Rann/Weatherill Labor government against a handful of parents...a war of abuse and lies and bullying and harassment and Pariahtisation (previous post) and legal betrayal and official denial and official cover-up...a war to protect a "textbook grooming paedophile" who abused a class of 7 year old children...
What does it say of South Australia that when this abuse occurs it is parents who are left to organise any investigation and pursuit of action against teacher Glyn Dorling...and as a result end up in direct and ugly conflict with the Lutherans and the Labor government and SAPol (police) and the Teachers Registration Board and the ABC and literally everyone else in the state...what the shrek is that?
I watched this interview, but unfortunately had the sound turned down when I taped it, so I don't have a specific quote...(but it should be available on the ABC's website, and the program is repeated today at 11.30am-Ed)...ok, so I'll watch that again and try to grab some of the golden words of wisdom from our illustrious leader as they dribble from his putrid maw into the vacuous gaps left by a pathetically complicit interviewer in this grossly orchestrated pantomime that was all vehicle for slavering self-excusing and entirely without accountability...(my, what an abusive but coherent rant-Ed)...ta...
You, Premier Jay Weatherill, and you, Simon Royal are the Bell Ends...no witty word play or amusing euphemisms today I'm afraid...I may well be a prize tool, but you two are a right pair of Dicks...you Premier are a paedophile protecting liar...and you Simon Royal are an abjectly incompetent and compliant joke...
Think I'm Being Harsh: I remind readers that I have repeatedly spoken to and provided documents to Simon Royal (and multiple other ABC staff in both Mt Gambier and Adelaide, and even in Sydney) re the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up, and that he has repeatedly failed to respond as promised, and then when 'pursued' by me, has flatly refused to address it...and instead we get this pathetic piece of dross about DeBelle...(How dare you speak to me of DeBelle?...what do you know of DeBelle?...you've never even been to DeBelle-Ed)...
I also remind readers that Stan Thompson, Stuart Stansfield, Alan Richardson, et al, at the Mt Gambier ABC know exactly what has happened re St Martins...and yet I'm the problem...
I also remind readers that The Border Watch, it's Editor Jason Wallace, previous Editor Frank "The Ghost" Morello, et al, know exactly what has happened re St Martins...and yet I'm the problem...
I also remind readers that Mayor Steve Perryman, dual CEO Greg Muller, et al on Mt Gambier City Council, the Wattle Range Mayor Peter Gandolfi, Grant District Council Mayor Richard Sage, etc, know exactly what has happened re St Martins...
And of course there's local MP Don Pegler, former local member and Rann government Minister Rory McEwen, former Premier Mike Rann, current Premier Jay Weatherill, head of Schools Gary Costello, etc, etc, etc...and yet I'm the problem...
Simon Royal is a joke amongst jokes...the entire ABC hierarchy in South Australia are a pathetic, self-serving pack of self-congratulating sycophants whom relentlessly big-note themselves about how insightful and critical they are of government, but when it really comes down to the hard yards...(dare I say it, down to The Crunch-Ed)...they flee in the opposite direction, clearly far more interested in their own precious positions on the well payed moral high ground that they so relentlessly claim...pathetic, complicit, compliant, corrupt...
And please review my multiple posts re Premier Jay Weatherill...about his great work in officially blocking
Commissioner Ted Mullighan (deceased) from officially investigating St Martins as part of the Children in State Care Inquiry...his top effort of ignoring repeated written requests for an explanation and/or meeting...his fervent commitment to accountability demonstrated by handing my letters written to him, about his actions, to MP Grace Portolesi to answer...pathetic, complicit, corrupt...
I've just sat through that interview again, and it is available apparently in full on their website, but I'm not going through it again today...pathetic...but don't take my word for it, watch for yourself...and I ask that you do so keeping in mind what it is that is going on behind the scenes, eg, St Martins.
When Mr Weatherill states..."I'm interested in Child Protection, not the politics of Child Protection."...that it is a screaming hypocrisy and they both know it...
Tomorrow: The Rort Report Part III
And yes I promise...again...(and you promised not to do that-Ed)...what?...(promise again-Ed)...fine, I assure you that tomorrow will be TRR III...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog and I need a Bex and a good lie down...laters...
And when it comes to the institutionalised pro-paedophile corruption that defines South Australian politics, I don't need to maintain the rage, because it gets hammered into me everyday I tune in to the world...and so another post that is more venting than reporting, but I stand absolutely by my repeated claims of "corrupt" behaviour because there is no other way to describe what is happening...(and here's me thinking it was all one big, unfortunate accident, not a decade long Child Abuse Cover-up...silly me-Ed)...
Last evening the ABC TV 7.30 State Edition (South Australia) hit the nail on the head and drove it clean through the plank, with a Simon Royal interview with Premier Jay Weatherill about the DeBelle Inquiry and associated issues...(I've got three words to describe that interview-Ed)...please...(pathetic, pathetic, pathetic-Ed)...couldn't have said it better myself...
And I make no apology for changing topic again or for the rancid anger surging furiously through this post...nor do I apologise for trawling over the same old ground about the complicit Australian Broadcasting Corporation and pro-paedophile Rann/Weatherill Labor state government, etc, because here is where the battle is being fought and against whom...against a corrupt Labor government and via a corrupted, complicit ABC...amongst others...
I ask readers to review any of the many posts re the ABC and St Martins and how my relationship with the ABC has played out accordingly...and what I have been subjected to, what I have endured, and what I have gone past again and again and again to try and maintain a 'working relationship'...only to ultimately fail...and not because of me but because of the unpleasant, undeniable, unwanted truth in what I say...
And I've said it before, I'm sick of being the convenient whipping boy for these people's collective guilt, and duly abused and taunted and denigrated and discriminated against as they see fit...I have problems, many problems, but I am not The Problem...
I do not exaggerate in calling it a battle because that is exactly what it is...a relentless war of attrition waged by the Lutheran Church and the Rann/Weatherill Labor government against a handful of parents...a war of abuse and lies and bullying and harassment and Pariahtisation (previous post) and legal betrayal and official denial and official cover-up...a war to protect a "textbook grooming paedophile" who abused a class of 7 year old children...
What does it say of South Australia that when this abuse occurs it is parents who are left to organise any investigation and pursuit of action against teacher Glyn Dorling...and as a result end up in direct and ugly conflict with the Lutherans and the Labor government and SAPol (police) and the Teachers Registration Board and the ABC and literally everyone else in the state...what the shrek is that?
I watched this interview, but unfortunately had the sound turned down when I taped it, so I don't have a specific quote...(but it should be available on the ABC's website, and the program is repeated today at 11.30am-Ed)...ok, so I'll watch that again and try to grab some of the golden words of wisdom from our illustrious leader as they dribble from his putrid maw into the vacuous gaps left by a pathetically complicit interviewer in this grossly orchestrated pantomime that was all vehicle for slavering self-excusing and entirely without accountability...(my, what an abusive but coherent rant-Ed)...ta...
You, Premier Jay Weatherill, and you, Simon Royal are the Bell Ends...no witty word play or amusing euphemisms today I'm afraid...I may well be a prize tool, but you two are a right pair of Dicks...you Premier are a paedophile protecting liar...and you Simon Royal are an abjectly incompetent and compliant joke...
Think I'm Being Harsh: I remind readers that I have repeatedly spoken to and provided documents to Simon Royal (and multiple other ABC staff in both Mt Gambier and Adelaide, and even in Sydney) re the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up, and that he has repeatedly failed to respond as promised, and then when 'pursued' by me, has flatly refused to address it...and instead we get this pathetic piece of dross about DeBelle...(How dare you speak to me of DeBelle?...what do you know of DeBelle?...you've never even been to DeBelle-Ed)...
I also remind readers that Stan Thompson, Stuart Stansfield, Alan Richardson, et al, at the Mt Gambier ABC know exactly what has happened re St Martins...and yet I'm the problem...
I also remind readers that The Border Watch, it's Editor Jason Wallace, previous Editor Frank "The Ghost" Morello, et al, know exactly what has happened re St Martins...and yet I'm the problem...
I also remind readers that Mayor Steve Perryman, dual CEO Greg Muller, et al on Mt Gambier City Council, the Wattle Range Mayor Peter Gandolfi, Grant District Council Mayor Richard Sage, etc, know exactly what has happened re St Martins...
And of course there's local MP Don Pegler, former local member and Rann government Minister Rory McEwen, former Premier Mike Rann, current Premier Jay Weatherill, head of Schools Gary Costello, etc, etc, etc...and yet I'm the problem...
Simon Royal is a joke amongst jokes...the entire ABC hierarchy in South Australia are a pathetic, self-serving pack of self-congratulating sycophants whom relentlessly big-note themselves about how insightful and critical they are of government, but when it really comes down to the hard yards...(dare I say it, down to The Crunch-Ed)...they flee in the opposite direction, clearly far more interested in their own precious positions on the well payed moral high ground that they so relentlessly claim...pathetic, complicit, compliant, corrupt...
And please review my multiple posts re Premier Jay Weatherill...about his great work in officially blocking
Commissioner Ted Mullighan (deceased) from officially investigating St Martins as part of the Children in State Care Inquiry...his top effort of ignoring repeated written requests for an explanation and/or meeting...his fervent commitment to accountability demonstrated by handing my letters written to him, about his actions, to MP Grace Portolesi to answer...pathetic, complicit, corrupt...
I've just sat through that interview again, and it is available apparently in full on their website, but I'm not going through it again today...pathetic...but don't take my word for it, watch for yourself...and I ask that you do so keeping in mind what it is that is going on behind the scenes, eg, St Martins.
When Mr Weatherill states..."I'm interested in Child Protection, not the politics of Child Protection."...that it is a screaming hypocrisy and they both know it...
Tomorrow: The Rort Report Part III
And yes I promise...again...(and you promised not to do that-Ed)...what?...(promise again-Ed)...fine, I assure you that tomorrow will be TRR III...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog and I need a Bex and a good lie down...laters...
Friday, September 20, 2013
Breaking Wind News and Other Stuff
Good evening China, Germany, Malaysia, and Aotearoa (humble apologies for spelling that incorrectly the other day)...and a special hello to the USofA who, according to my 'stats meter' yesterday outnumbered Australian availees of this here blog...bizarre...and it's a sickness, it is, doing this blog...(yeah, we were going to have a day off today, but he got all toey about it and so here we go again-Ed)...
Yeah he's right...come 3pm and I just felt anxious and even guilty about not doing a post...(a post that has already turned into discussing this post, a post which we weren't going to do in the first place-Ed)...like I said, it's a sickness...but I just couldn't deprive my public...(sorry, did you say deprave your pubic-Ed)...thank you, no I did not...and you had a day off yesterday anyway, sort of...(only 'cause you left me out-Ed)...alright, thank you, enough bickering amongst myself, I'd thank me to just get on with it...
Just to break it up a bit I'll do the Rort Report Part III tomorrow...besides, there's a world outside Mt Gambier where stuff is happening, eg, at Penola where Beach (Petroleum?, Exploration?, whatevs) have been given license by the Weatherill Labor state government to drill a 4km deep 'Gas Exploration test well' right in the middle of one of the world's premium wine districts...(is this Coal Seam Fracking or more direct gas production?-Ed)...good question...
In the bit of interview I heard on the ABC Radio, the Beach (whatevs?) rep (sorry, didn't catch their name) wasn't talking about 'Fracking' and went to great length to explain that the well was completely sleeved and therefore thoroughly sealed and so therefore the aquifers, etc, are completely safe...but who the heck knows...even if it's true, accidents happen...
And another exploration license has also been granted for oil and gas exploration and I'll chase up those details and post tomorrow.
What I don't understand is, why, if the Wind Turbines are so fantastic and are moving us away from Fossil fuels to reduce emissions and thus reduce global warming, etc, why are we exploring for further fossil fuel resources to exploit?...and as always, what is the wisdom of any form of 'mining' in such a fragile environment, particularly with valuable and already vulnerable aquifers that are so important to agriculture, forestry, etc, right in the firing line...literally...is this yet more of our natural resources headed straight off-shore?...
Things aren't quite so rosy in the Wind Turbine Industry right now, either, as concerns about the recent Federal election outcome and Liberal's statements about axing the Carbon Tax, Climate Commission, and more importantly the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, cement market worries about the then predicted looming changes to legislation, and there are resultant repercussions in the Turbine Financing Sector.
Union Fenosa is set to shelve (and may already have) the 98 Turbine project planned for near Pt Fairy in Victoria (67 Turbines at Ryans Corner and 31 at Hawkesdale) due to these 'market pressures'...(they can't get anyone to invest whilst there is so much doubt about the future of funding, etc, and this proves the point that Turbines are wholly economically nonviable-Ed)...
Excellent point Ed...without those massive taxpayer funded 'Renewable Certificates', the Turbines do not create enough electricity to be self-funding...and never, ever will...and how does this stack up and/or get argued out as part of a Free Market economy?...(let the market decide, and Turbines are gone-Ed)...they have to be 'propped up' with funding...
And Pacific Hydro look to be in a spot of bother as well, seeking $71million of government funding for the fourth stage of their project near Portland, Victoria...that's $71m to go with the reported $158m they have borrowed (are trying to borrow?) from the banks...and it appears that it is the market jitters around future funding, etc, have taken their toll and possibly stalled or even stopped this completion of Stage 4 of the project...apparently they are also on the scrounge for $56m for a Solar Thermal Plant near Moree...
Infigen are having two Information Days re the Woakwine Turbine Project on October 11th and 12th 2013, but have not announced the location...I'll post a soon as I know...
Peter Doolan (CEO I think) of the SA Environmental Protection Authority was also recently on the ABC Radio spruiking the wonders of Wind Turbines and stating that South Australia's Carbon Emissions are down due to Wind Turbines...what he failed to mention was that SA now creates a goodly amount of our Carbon Emissions in Victoria due to the Export/Import regime forced on us (SA) by the gross unreliability of Wind generation that demands immediate 100% back-up generation, which we don't have...I've covered this extensively in previous posts...
I don't know whether Mr Doolan was being deliberately disingenuous, which would be concerning, or doesn't understand the structure and functioning of electricity production and/or supply in SA, that he is referring to...(and that would be even more concerning-Ed)...quite...and which would you rather?...that the EPA were lying, or that they were operating in ignorance?...
(And what happened to Labor hack Mia Handshin who Premier Weatherill unilaterally appointed by royal decree to be the head of the EPA?...haven't heard not one squeak from her since her royal appointment...where has she gone, I do wonder?-Ed)...you and me both Ed, you and me both...
Meanwhile, the New South Wales government have decided to address the contentious issue of Wind Turbine Infrasound and related Health Issues, by ignoring it...(deadset-Ed)...deadset...they have officially stated that 'in the absence of evidence stating there is a problem, we are going to approve Turbines anyway'...I'll cover this in detail in a separate post...and speaking of Health...
An announcement from Health Minister Jack Snelling that he has granted the Keith Hospital $1million funding per year for 3 years...but then what?...I have trouble keeping up with what is and/or isn't happening at Keith Hospital...first they had they're funding axed allegedly because they are a private and/or community owned hospital...(then there was some posturing/bullying to try and get the hospital to sign on to SA Health as a public hospital accompanied by threats of closure-Ed)...indeed, and then the offer of some funding for a brief period...and now this...
Pardon my cynicism, but I have grave concerns about the entire issue, namely 1) the Bordertown Hospital is never mentioned in these 'discussions', and it was/is my concern that it will be closed if the focus remains solely on Keith, and particularly if Keith becomes a public hospital...there's just no way this Labor state government will operate 2 hospitals 'only' 30kms apart...and 2) what happens in 3 years?...just more uncertainty?...
And the Mt Gambier Hospital Expansion project has finally received approval from the hospital's owner
(which is not the State government) and will be completed some time eventually next year...but the new Ambulance Station is still a muddy hole in the ground that will also be completed some time next year...and why would you have your Fire Station and new Ambos station actually touching the Rail Easement?...it just seems a very silly place to have your emergency services located...
Tomorrow: The Rort Report Part III
Round and round and round and round...(stop it, I'm getting dissy-Ed)...and round we go and so too the coin that has two sides...and the coin is the very lucrative accommodation 'agreement' that Mayor Steve Perryman has with Old Hospital Demolition contractor McMahon's...
And on one side that coin says Mayor Perryman used his inside knowledge of McMahon's tender to approach them and organise that 'agreement'...and on the other side, McMahons have contacted Mayor Perryman to organise the 'agreement' whilst applying for that Council contract...and when it lands, the face showing will be shown to have grossly corrupted appropriate process...
But will the coin ever land?...I doubt it...this is after all South Australia...I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Yeah he's right...come 3pm and I just felt anxious and even guilty about not doing a post...(a post that has already turned into discussing this post, a post which we weren't going to do in the first place-Ed)...like I said, it's a sickness...but I just couldn't deprive my public...(sorry, did you say deprave your pubic-Ed)...thank you, no I did not...and you had a day off yesterday anyway, sort of...(only 'cause you left me out-Ed)...alright, thank you, enough bickering amongst myself, I'd thank me to just get on with it...
Just to break it up a bit I'll do the Rort Report Part III tomorrow...besides, there's a world outside Mt Gambier where stuff is happening, eg, at Penola where Beach (Petroleum?, Exploration?, whatevs) have been given license by the Weatherill Labor state government to drill a 4km deep 'Gas Exploration test well' right in the middle of one of the world's premium wine districts...(is this Coal Seam Fracking or more direct gas production?-Ed)...good question...
In the bit of interview I heard on the ABC Radio, the Beach (whatevs?) rep (sorry, didn't catch their name) wasn't talking about 'Fracking' and went to great length to explain that the well was completely sleeved and therefore thoroughly sealed and so therefore the aquifers, etc, are completely safe...but who the heck knows...even if it's true, accidents happen...
And another exploration license has also been granted for oil and gas exploration and I'll chase up those details and post tomorrow.
What I don't understand is, why, if the Wind Turbines are so fantastic and are moving us away from Fossil fuels to reduce emissions and thus reduce global warming, etc, why are we exploring for further fossil fuel resources to exploit?...and as always, what is the wisdom of any form of 'mining' in such a fragile environment, particularly with valuable and already vulnerable aquifers that are so important to agriculture, forestry, etc, right in the firing line...literally...is this yet more of our natural resources headed straight off-shore?...
Things aren't quite so rosy in the Wind Turbine Industry right now, either, as concerns about the recent Federal election outcome and Liberal's statements about axing the Carbon Tax, Climate Commission, and more importantly the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, cement market worries about the then predicted looming changes to legislation, and there are resultant repercussions in the Turbine Financing Sector.
Union Fenosa is set to shelve (and may already have) the 98 Turbine project planned for near Pt Fairy in Victoria (67 Turbines at Ryans Corner and 31 at Hawkesdale) due to these 'market pressures'...(they can't get anyone to invest whilst there is so much doubt about the future of funding, etc, and this proves the point that Turbines are wholly economically nonviable-Ed)...
Excellent point Ed...without those massive taxpayer funded 'Renewable Certificates', the Turbines do not create enough electricity to be self-funding...and never, ever will...and how does this stack up and/or get argued out as part of a Free Market economy?...(let the market decide, and Turbines are gone-Ed)...they have to be 'propped up' with funding...
And Pacific Hydro look to be in a spot of bother as well, seeking $71million of government funding for the fourth stage of their project near Portland, Victoria...that's $71m to go with the reported $158m they have borrowed (are trying to borrow?) from the banks...and it appears that it is the market jitters around future funding, etc, have taken their toll and possibly stalled or even stopped this completion of Stage 4 of the project...apparently they are also on the scrounge for $56m for a Solar Thermal Plant near Moree...
Infigen are having two Information Days re the Woakwine Turbine Project on October 11th and 12th 2013, but have not announced the location...I'll post a soon as I know...
Peter Doolan (CEO I think) of the SA Environmental Protection Authority was also recently on the ABC Radio spruiking the wonders of Wind Turbines and stating that South Australia's Carbon Emissions are down due to Wind Turbines...what he failed to mention was that SA now creates a goodly amount of our Carbon Emissions in Victoria due to the Export/Import regime forced on us (SA) by the gross unreliability of Wind generation that demands immediate 100% back-up generation, which we don't have...I've covered this extensively in previous posts...
I don't know whether Mr Doolan was being deliberately disingenuous, which would be concerning, or doesn't understand the structure and functioning of electricity production and/or supply in SA, that he is referring to...(and that would be even more concerning-Ed)...quite...and which would you rather?...that the EPA were lying, or that they were operating in ignorance?...
(And what happened to Labor hack Mia Handshin who Premier Weatherill unilaterally appointed by royal decree to be the head of the EPA?...haven't heard not one squeak from her since her royal appointment...where has she gone, I do wonder?-Ed)...you and me both Ed, you and me both...
Meanwhile, the New South Wales government have decided to address the contentious issue of Wind Turbine Infrasound and related Health Issues, by ignoring it...(deadset-Ed)...deadset...they have officially stated that 'in the absence of evidence stating there is a problem, we are going to approve Turbines anyway'...I'll cover this in detail in a separate post...and speaking of Health...
An announcement from Health Minister Jack Snelling that he has granted the Keith Hospital $1million funding per year for 3 years...but then what?...I have trouble keeping up with what is and/or isn't happening at Keith Hospital...first they had they're funding axed allegedly because they are a private and/or community owned hospital...(then there was some posturing/bullying to try and get the hospital to sign on to SA Health as a public hospital accompanied by threats of closure-Ed)...indeed, and then the offer of some funding for a brief period...and now this...
Pardon my cynicism, but I have grave concerns about the entire issue, namely 1) the Bordertown Hospital is never mentioned in these 'discussions', and it was/is my concern that it will be closed if the focus remains solely on Keith, and particularly if Keith becomes a public hospital...there's just no way this Labor state government will operate 2 hospitals 'only' 30kms apart...and 2) what happens in 3 years?...just more uncertainty?...
And the Mt Gambier Hospital Expansion project has finally received approval from the hospital's owner
(which is not the State government) and will be completed some time eventually next year...but the new Ambulance Station is still a muddy hole in the ground that will also be completed some time next year...and why would you have your Fire Station and new Ambos station actually touching the Rail Easement?...it just seems a very silly place to have your emergency services located...
Tomorrow: The Rort Report Part III
Round and round and round and round...(stop it, I'm getting dissy-Ed)...and round we go and so too the coin that has two sides...and the coin is the very lucrative accommodation 'agreement' that Mayor Steve Perryman has with Old Hospital Demolition contractor McMahon's...
And on one side that coin says Mayor Perryman used his inside knowledge of McMahon's tender to approach them and organise that 'agreement'...and on the other side, McMahons have contacted Mayor Perryman to organise the 'agreement' whilst applying for that Council contract...and when it lands, the face showing will be shown to have grossly corrupted appropriate process...
But will the coin ever land?...I doubt it...this is after all South Australia...I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Thursday, September 19, 2013
The Rort Report Part II - Council Meeting 17/09/13
Hello and welcome to the blog...and a continuation of the rabidly scathing appraising of the crassly corrupted manipulation of proper process that is Mt Gambier City Council...and I make no apology for the festering fury rupturing through yesterday's reviewing and duly present as follows...
I note that Wangaratta Council has been disbanded (by November 2013) for 'wasting $1.5million in one year'...(amateurs...Mt Gambier Council can waste that much before it gets out of bed each morning-Ed)...and issues of bullying and harassment that see the CEO (and other senior officials?) off on 'stress leave'...and a panel of administrators will run Council until the next elections in October 2016...this is clearly what needs to happen to the Mt Gambier City Council...
I spent 2 1/2 hours on Tuesday night watching these people carefully organise what appear to be mutually beneficial projects that will be paid for with public funds...Mayor Steve Perryman repeatedly leave the Chamber with a conflict of interest...Councillors constantly praising and thanking each other for doing the work they get paid to do...and all whilst unable to make my opinion known because if you say anything from the gallery you can be expelled, and I ain't givin' the bastards the satisfaction...
And if I hear one more person say "It takes a village to raise a child" I'm going to 'Christian Cuddle'* them 'til they can't stand up (*previous posts...and yes it is a poor attempt at humour, not a threat)...
But when it's said by Cr Jim Maher, yet again, in a Council meeting whilst self-congratulating Council about yet another pointless, indulgent 'Education Forum', held at (and probably catered for by?) the Main Corner Complex, then I can only assume that Cr Maher just doesn't understand how hurtful it is, the distress it causes, when he says it in front me, someone he knows is a parent who has been fighting for over a decade to get appropriate action about the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...
I genuinely don't think that Cr Maher is using this phrase specifically to try to upset and distress me, but he knows as well as anyone what has happened at St Martins and that my personal experience is that "It takes a village to cover-up the abuse of a class of seven year olds"...but what sort of village?...and Council are our 'village leaders'...
Upsetness Warning: What a screaming hypocrisy for Council to engage at all with Education and Social Inclusion, and the well-being of children, etc, and these vacuous 'getting the opinions of the children' forums, etc, and yet be completely, complicitly silent on the St Martins Issue...if one is Council's business then so must be the other...and which is more important?
I know I bang on about it in almost every post, but Mayor Perryman is absolutely, knowingly complicit in helping the Lutherans cover-up that abuse...and all of Council knows about St Martins...Cynicism Warning: so when I see/hear these people holding forth about the importance of nurturing children and listening to them and developing airy-fairy shrekin' programs for inclusion, etc, I just want to scream...so instead I do this...but I digress...
On Tuesday night I believe that Mayor Steve Perryman left the Chamber 3 times due to 'Conflict of Interest'...firstly due to the Tender for a new refuse truck; secondly re the Rail lands Clearance Tender; but it was the last one of the evening that is most concerning...when the debate turned to the Old Hospital Demolition Tender and the Laundry issue at that site...(with Cr Richardson and Smith absent, and Cr Biddie Shearing having left earlier)...
Mr Perryman remained in the Chamber whilst the laundry issue was debated and voted on...Cr Maher moved that the laundry area be demolished and that was defeated after Cr Mutton spent 5 minutes vehemently opposing it...then Cr Mutton immediately introduced his own motion to save and renovate the Laundry...Cr White made a grand little speech about how 'he was initially opposed but he would bow to the will of Council and now vote to save it' (paraphrase)...bollocks...and the motion was passed with an alleged costing of only $200,000...more bollocks...
Then the debate turned to the actual Demolition Tender, and Mayor Perryman cited a 'Conflict of Interest' due to some sort of "contract" and/or "accommodation" issues with "the Tenderer"...I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but he was muttering so I could not hear him clearly...regardless, he left the Chamber and the Tender was awarded to Adelaide based company McMahons.
I understand that Mr Perryman, as proprietor of the Presidential Motel, has some sort of 'agreement' with McMahons to provide accommodation services re the Demolition, and that this is the 'Conflict of Interest' that Mayor Perryman was referring to when he absented himself...
I am unaware of any tender process for this highly lucrative accommodation 'agreement', it has somehow just ended up with the Mayor's motel...and there is great conjecture as to how Mr Perryman came to be in an 'agreement' with the Tenderer before the Contract was voted on in Council...
Either Mr Perryman approached McMahons about that 'agreement' using his inside knowledge that they were Tendering, or they have, given the absence of an Accommodation Tender, gone directly to Mayor Perryman and offered and/or negotiated this 'agreement' whilst the Tender process was still under way...
It is not being slanderous or inappropriate or anything other than fact to say that this clearly inappropriate 'agreement' is either potentially Insider Trading (Mr Perryman approaches McMahons) or potentially Bribery (McMahons approaches Mayor Perryman).
I call on Mayor Perryman to explain how this extraordinary 'agreement' came into being and immediately renounce that Accommodation 'Agreement'...I'm sure that other providers would be more than happy to help Mr Perryman fulfil that lucrative 'agreement' by offering accommodation to the McMahons workers.
Furthermore, by awarding the Demolition Contract outside of Mt Gambier, Council has ensured that the $2million+ they borrowed in their last Budget, via doubling their own borrowing limit, will almost all leave Mt Gambier...bar the money McMahons spend at the Presidential...so that's most of the $2m+ cost (plus interest, it's borrowed) of ratepayers money leaving Mt Gambier, except for that which winds up in the Mayor's pocket...
Again I call on Mayor Perryman to explain publicly exactly how this 'agreement' came about.
Regardless, this situation with Mayor Perryman up and down like a jack in the box with his multiple Conflict issues is absolutely untenable, and so is his Mayorship...Council is wholly dysfunctional and it starts at the head...and heads must roll...
Tomorrow: Rort Report Part III
I should have known that, after 2 1/2 hours of flowery speeches, rolling 'Conflicts', and highly questionable Tenders, two posts were never going to be enough...and of course there's the 'coverage' in The Border Watch newspaper to be considered.
And within moments in one interview with Stuart Stansfield on the ABC Local Radio this morning, Cr Mutton said the tender was open ended because 'they (McMahons) may find extra costs like, eg, Asbestos contamination', but then said 'we've already spent a lot of money, eg, on an Asbestos register'...which is it?...is there a Register or not?...because if there is a Register there should be no surprises...
Cr Mutton is also on the front cover of TBW today doing his best Miley Cyrus impersonation...or Peter Gabriel...it's a Sledgehammer thing...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
I note that Wangaratta Council has been disbanded (by November 2013) for 'wasting $1.5million in one year'...(amateurs...Mt Gambier Council can waste that much before it gets out of bed each morning-Ed)...and issues of bullying and harassment that see the CEO (and other senior officials?) off on 'stress leave'...and a panel of administrators will run Council until the next elections in October 2016...this is clearly what needs to happen to the Mt Gambier City Council...
I spent 2 1/2 hours on Tuesday night watching these people carefully organise what appear to be mutually beneficial projects that will be paid for with public funds...Mayor Steve Perryman repeatedly leave the Chamber with a conflict of interest...Councillors constantly praising and thanking each other for doing the work they get paid to do...and all whilst unable to make my opinion known because if you say anything from the gallery you can be expelled, and I ain't givin' the bastards the satisfaction...
And if I hear one more person say "It takes a village to raise a child" I'm going to 'Christian Cuddle'* them 'til they can't stand up (*previous posts...and yes it is a poor attempt at humour, not a threat)...
But when it's said by Cr Jim Maher, yet again, in a Council meeting whilst self-congratulating Council about yet another pointless, indulgent 'Education Forum', held at (and probably catered for by?) the Main Corner Complex, then I can only assume that Cr Maher just doesn't understand how hurtful it is, the distress it causes, when he says it in front me, someone he knows is a parent who has been fighting for over a decade to get appropriate action about the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...
I genuinely don't think that Cr Maher is using this phrase specifically to try to upset and distress me, but he knows as well as anyone what has happened at St Martins and that my personal experience is that "It takes a village to cover-up the abuse of a class of seven year olds"...but what sort of village?...and Council are our 'village leaders'...
Upsetness Warning: What a screaming hypocrisy for Council to engage at all with Education and Social Inclusion, and the well-being of children, etc, and these vacuous 'getting the opinions of the children' forums, etc, and yet be completely, complicitly silent on the St Martins Issue...if one is Council's business then so must be the other...and which is more important?
I know I bang on about it in almost every post, but Mayor Perryman is absolutely, knowingly complicit in helping the Lutherans cover-up that abuse...and all of Council knows about St Martins...Cynicism Warning: so when I see/hear these people holding forth about the importance of nurturing children and listening to them and developing airy-fairy shrekin' programs for inclusion, etc, I just want to scream...so instead I do this...but I digress...
On Tuesday night I believe that Mayor Steve Perryman left the Chamber 3 times due to 'Conflict of Interest'...firstly due to the Tender for a new refuse truck; secondly re the Rail lands Clearance Tender; but it was the last one of the evening that is most concerning...when the debate turned to the Old Hospital Demolition Tender and the Laundry issue at that site...(with Cr Richardson and Smith absent, and Cr Biddie Shearing having left earlier)...
Mr Perryman remained in the Chamber whilst the laundry issue was debated and voted on...Cr Maher moved that the laundry area be demolished and that was defeated after Cr Mutton spent 5 minutes vehemently opposing it...then Cr Mutton immediately introduced his own motion to save and renovate the Laundry...Cr White made a grand little speech about how 'he was initially opposed but he would bow to the will of Council and now vote to save it' (paraphrase)...bollocks...and the motion was passed with an alleged costing of only $200,000...more bollocks...
Then the debate turned to the actual Demolition Tender, and Mayor Perryman cited a 'Conflict of Interest' due to some sort of "contract" and/or "accommodation" issues with "the Tenderer"...I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but he was muttering so I could not hear him clearly...regardless, he left the Chamber and the Tender was awarded to Adelaide based company McMahons.
I understand that Mr Perryman, as proprietor of the Presidential Motel, has some sort of 'agreement' with McMahons to provide accommodation services re the Demolition, and that this is the 'Conflict of Interest' that Mayor Perryman was referring to when he absented himself...
I am unaware of any tender process for this highly lucrative accommodation 'agreement', it has somehow just ended up with the Mayor's motel...and there is great conjecture as to how Mr Perryman came to be in an 'agreement' with the Tenderer before the Contract was voted on in Council...
Either Mr Perryman approached McMahons about that 'agreement' using his inside knowledge that they were Tendering, or they have, given the absence of an Accommodation Tender, gone directly to Mayor Perryman and offered and/or negotiated this 'agreement' whilst the Tender process was still under way...
It is not being slanderous or inappropriate or anything other than fact to say that this clearly inappropriate 'agreement' is either potentially Insider Trading (Mr Perryman approaches McMahons) or potentially Bribery (McMahons approaches Mayor Perryman).
I call on Mayor Perryman to explain how this extraordinary 'agreement' came into being and immediately renounce that Accommodation 'Agreement'...I'm sure that other providers would be more than happy to help Mr Perryman fulfil that lucrative 'agreement' by offering accommodation to the McMahons workers.
Furthermore, by awarding the Demolition Contract outside of Mt Gambier, Council has ensured that the $2million+ they borrowed in their last Budget, via doubling their own borrowing limit, will almost all leave Mt Gambier...bar the money McMahons spend at the Presidential...so that's most of the $2m+ cost (plus interest, it's borrowed) of ratepayers money leaving Mt Gambier, except for that which winds up in the Mayor's pocket...
Again I call on Mayor Perryman to explain publicly exactly how this 'agreement' came about.
Regardless, this situation with Mayor Perryman up and down like a jack in the box with his multiple Conflict issues is absolutely untenable, and so is his Mayorship...Council is wholly dysfunctional and it starts at the head...and heads must roll...
Tomorrow: Rort Report Part III
I should have known that, after 2 1/2 hours of flowery speeches, rolling 'Conflicts', and highly questionable Tenders, two posts were never going to be enough...and of course there's the 'coverage' in The Border Watch newspaper to be considered.
And within moments in one interview with Stuart Stansfield on the ABC Local Radio this morning, Cr Mutton said the tender was open ended because 'they (McMahons) may find extra costs like, eg, Asbestos contamination', but then said 'we've already spent a lot of money, eg, on an Asbestos register'...which is it?...is there a Register or not?...because if there is a Register there should be no surprises...
Cr Mutton is also on the front cover of TBW today doing his best Miley Cyrus impersonation...or Peter Gabriel...it's a Sledgehammer thing...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
City Council Meeting 17/09/13 - The Rort Report
Hello Sri Lanka, Sweden, Finland, and Aeotorea (New Zealand)...welcome to the blog...said it before, but it's fascinating to check out the 'Stats' (statistics) section of the blog that tells me where the blog is being viewed, how often, via which provider, etc...
For example, 'Stats' tells me that when the cowardly, anonymous 'Dick Stretcher' left 'Comments' on this blog (please read them if you haven't yet), on each day there was a small but noticeable spike in 'View' numbers...(that stopped the several days of no 'Comments'-Ed)...indeed...and then happened again on the day of the last 'DS Comment', and then stopped again when the 'Comments' did...think about it...(I am.........I got nothing-Ed)...
Those 'view spikes', occurring as they are only on the days that 'Dick Stretcher' left their 'Comments', and not on the days before, in between, or after, shows that there were a group of people who knew about the 'Comments' and exactly when they were or weren't going to be posted...(yeah, yeah, I get it, because if they logged on even just to see if there was a new 'Comment' that would register, but they knew exactly what days to look-Ed)...correct, and these daily 'spikes' are very different to the gradual increase in 'view' numbers as a result of me referring readers to access those particular posts...anyway...
Yesterday I read a quote from the Child Abuse Royal Commissioner McClellan stating that 'child abuse has devastating life-long effects for the victims' and that he had 'heard many stories of people thinking about and even trying to suicide'...he is describing the direct causal link between child abuse and suicide that I was discussing (albeit clumsily) in the last two posts...and an ugly, direct segue into...
Arrived at Council last night to hear Councillors White and Mutton laughing about the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) with Cr White stating..."if you didn't go then you can't do anything corrupt"...referring to the 'visit' to Mt Gambier by the ICAC last Friday 13th September 2013...a visit that was mentioned several times through that sickening, smug sneer and deriding, dismissive, scoffing laughter of Mayor Steve Perryman (and also by others)...they were openly laughing at the ICAC...
I don't know exactly what the ICAC visit was about, nor have I heard anything from the Ombudsman re my complaint about Council, a complaint that potentially ends up in the ICAC...and I am aware that there may have been other official complaints about Council's behaviour...so gord knows...
I also don't know who actually attended that ICAC meeting, which was apparently/possibly about 'procedural matters', but it wasn't Cr Harfield, either Cr Mutton and/or Cr White, or Mayor Perryman...and didn't Steve just think it was hilarious...laugh it up Stevie boy...you are personally, intimately complicit in helping the Lutherans cover-up the abuse of a class full of 7 year old children at St Martins, and I will never forget it...may your god forgive you, because mine will see you rot in hell...
And as I've said before, all on Council are absolutely complicit in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up, seemingly more than happy to ignore it so that they can commit their various dodgy land re-zonings and nepotistic building projects, etc...
Last night at Council was one long, rolling parade of self-congratulation, self-interest, nepotism, insider trading, and institutionalised corruption...(so business as usual then-Ed)...quite...business is clearly done outside of the chamber and then Councillors do their little 'Dance of Appropriate Procedure' in the Chamber to ratify and justify their grubby little dealings.
My letter re the Rail Lands (attached) was not even mentioned last night and Council voted for works to begin, including removing the rail...and absolutely no discussion of the deed...and plenty of bluster from Cr Von Stanke about pulling everything out; fences, poles, etc...(didn't he recently appear on the front page of The Border Watch newspaper blithering about how the Deed was holding up progress on that site?-Ed)...indeed he was...
(But last night when he was banging on about what to remove, etc, he didn't mention the Deed at all?-Ed)...no, no-one did...(well that's a bit odd-Ed)...no, not really, Council has moved the Rail Lands Retail Agenda on to the next stage so the Deed is no longer a convenient excuse to stall actually doing anything, it is now something that needs to be ignored...until needed again...
Because of this letter, and that I want to cover the actual proceedings at length, I'll pull up here with the brief spoiler that last night when Council voted on whom to award the Old Hospital demolition contract to, our charming, leering, Mayor Mr Perryman excused himself, before the Tenders were mentioned by name, because he had a 'Conflict of Interest'...something about a "contract' and "accommodation" with the soon to be winning tender...so many questions...
Bottomline, it appeared from what was said and done last night, that Mayor Perryman has already organised an 'accommodation contract' with McMahons, the Adelaide based winner of the Demolition tender...surely this cannot be the case...surely that would be, at the very least, Insider Trading...surely I've got this confused somehow...but the others present last night agreed that this did appear to be what was said...
Tomorrow: Part II
And just more of the same extraordinary conduct across a range of issues, including a new 'Main Corner' to be built at the Old Hospital site...yes, I don't believe it either, but there you go...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog and I am Steeler's Wheel...clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you...cheers...
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For example, 'Stats' tells me that when the cowardly, anonymous 'Dick Stretcher' left 'Comments' on this blog (please read them if you haven't yet), on each day there was a small but noticeable spike in 'View' numbers...(that stopped the several days of no 'Comments'-Ed)...indeed...and then happened again on the day of the last 'DS Comment', and then stopped again when the 'Comments' did...think about it...(I am.........I got nothing-Ed)...
Those 'view spikes', occurring as they are only on the days that 'Dick Stretcher' left their 'Comments', and not on the days before, in between, or after, shows that there were a group of people who knew about the 'Comments' and exactly when they were or weren't going to be posted...(yeah, yeah, I get it, because if they logged on even just to see if there was a new 'Comment' that would register, but they knew exactly what days to look-Ed)...correct, and these daily 'spikes' are very different to the gradual increase in 'view' numbers as a result of me referring readers to access those particular posts...anyway...
Yesterday I read a quote from the Child Abuse Royal Commissioner McClellan stating that 'child abuse has devastating life-long effects for the victims' and that he had 'heard many stories of people thinking about and even trying to suicide'...he is describing the direct causal link between child abuse and suicide that I was discussing (albeit clumsily) in the last two posts...and an ugly, direct segue into...
Arrived at Council last night to hear Councillors White and Mutton laughing about the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) with Cr White stating..."if you didn't go then you can't do anything corrupt"...referring to the 'visit' to Mt Gambier by the ICAC last Friday 13th September 2013...a visit that was mentioned several times through that sickening, smug sneer and deriding, dismissive, scoffing laughter of Mayor Steve Perryman (and also by others)...they were openly laughing at the ICAC...
I don't know exactly what the ICAC visit was about, nor have I heard anything from the Ombudsman re my complaint about Council, a complaint that potentially ends up in the ICAC...and I am aware that there may have been other official complaints about Council's behaviour...so gord knows...
I also don't know who actually attended that ICAC meeting, which was apparently/possibly about 'procedural matters', but it wasn't Cr Harfield, either Cr Mutton and/or Cr White, or Mayor Perryman...and didn't Steve just think it was hilarious...laugh it up Stevie boy...you are personally, intimately complicit in helping the Lutherans cover-up the abuse of a class full of 7 year old children at St Martins, and I will never forget it...may your god forgive you, because mine will see you rot in hell...
And as I've said before, all on Council are absolutely complicit in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up, seemingly more than happy to ignore it so that they can commit their various dodgy land re-zonings and nepotistic building projects, etc...
Last night at Council was one long, rolling parade of self-congratulation, self-interest, nepotism, insider trading, and institutionalised corruption...(so business as usual then-Ed)...quite...business is clearly done outside of the chamber and then Councillors do their little 'Dance of Appropriate Procedure' in the Chamber to ratify and justify their grubby little dealings.
My letter re the Rail Lands (attached) was not even mentioned last night and Council voted for works to begin, including removing the rail...and absolutely no discussion of the deed...and plenty of bluster from Cr Von Stanke about pulling everything out; fences, poles, etc...(didn't he recently appear on the front page of The Border Watch newspaper blithering about how the Deed was holding up progress on that site?-Ed)...indeed he was...
(But last night when he was banging on about what to remove, etc, he didn't mention the Deed at all?-Ed)...no, no-one did...(well that's a bit odd-Ed)...no, not really, Council has moved the Rail Lands Retail Agenda on to the next stage so the Deed is no longer a convenient excuse to stall actually doing anything, it is now something that needs to be ignored...until needed again...
Because of this letter, and that I want to cover the actual proceedings at length, I'll pull up here with the brief spoiler that last night when Council voted on whom to award the Old Hospital demolition contract to, our charming, leering, Mayor Mr Perryman excused himself, before the Tenders were mentioned by name, because he had a 'Conflict of Interest'...something about a "contract' and "accommodation" with the soon to be winning tender...so many questions...
Bottomline, it appeared from what was said and done last night, that Mayor Perryman has already organised an 'accommodation contract' with McMahons, the Adelaide based winner of the Demolition tender...surely this cannot be the case...surely that would be, at the very least, Insider Trading...surely I've got this confused somehow...but the others present last night agreed that this did appear to be what was said...
Tomorrow: Part II
And just more of the same extraordinary conduct across a range of issues, including a new 'Main Corner' to be built at the Old Hospital site...yes, I don't believe it either, but there you go...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog and I am Steeler's Wheel...clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you...cheers...
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
SPD, SH, and CAI Part II
Hello Cyprus, Malaysia, India, and Ukraine...welcome to the blog...if you haven't read the Part I already please do so...now, cutting to the chase...after this disclaimer...
This post is only personal opinion and experience and is not professional medical advice...if you feel you want or need to, please access appropriate help, eg, via the Lifeline phone service 131 114.
Again I am essentially only re-iterating many other people's work and opinions and the general public discourse around these issues, in that I agree with the idea that respectful and frank discussion of these issues, of any issue, is a positive to be encouraged, if still to be carefully managed.
I briefly re-iterate the points in the previous post, and refer readers to the program on ABC TV last week re Self Harm, and particularly the issues of 'underground' social media websites dedicated to displaying self harm 'selfies', offering advice on hiding self harm injuries, even advice on different ways to self harm, etc, and to varying degrees are either deliberately or effectively encouraging self harm.
This 'social media' influence is another whole level of complication of the modern era, and I believe another reason to bring these issues into the mainstream Health discussion...without being flippant, the more you popularise something, the less attraction it has as a 'taboo' that potentially attracts as a display of rebellion against the status quo...and I believe this could be part of a good strategy for addressing the social media sub-cultures that develop around these issues...
For example, it is a joke mired in reality that 'to make your kids hate something, make it cool with the parents'...slightly tangential but a genuine example is the case of the Billabong Surf Company who have recently suffered massive losses, and part of the explanation has specifically been that they have lost market focus and therefore share, because kids don't associate well with what they see their parents now wearing...even if those parents have been wearing it since 'back in the day'...
I don't think discussion alone is the answer, or that we will ever be entirely successful in stopping self harm or suicide, (or child abuse for that matter), but if simply speaking openly and respectfully about these issues has a positive effect, and it does, then that is what we should do.
And further, I believe/agree it is correct to say that the stigma often attached to these issues is reduced by acknowledgement and discussion, and that when the 'stigma' and 'taboo' is reduced then people are more likely to discuss, and that reduces the likeliness to act, so the incidents are ultimately reduced...and it becomes an upward cycle...
I hope I've made the point that there are many individual experiences that can affect someones behaviours and/or mental health, etc, and that whilst issues of Child Abuse or Drug Use or Self Harm or Suicide are often interlinked, they often also exist in isolation...and whatever the links, there is no conclusive template that can be applied to collectively address and resolve any of these issues.
For example, there are widely expressed concerns around Australia about multiple external pressures on the Primary Producers Sector, eg, high Australian dollar and/or government policy, that combined with the usual stressors, eg, climate and weather, local demand, personal health, etc, are pushing farmers to suicide at 'record levels'.
And I believe/agree that there is one way to really address the issues whatever they are, for whoever is suffering, and that is to acknowledge and discuss these struggles and stressors and how they are affecting us, and we do see this increasingly as communities move to help themselves with local support groups and other initiatives.
I agree with the broader and increasing concensus that having a World Suicide Prevention Day and associated events like the 'Out Of The Shadows, Into The Light' breakfast held last weekend in Mt Gambier, and speaking openly and respectfully, are the best strategies for combating the increased incidents of suicide across our society...and that the same strategy can work with other issues like Self Harm.
These connections and cross-influence are generally well acknowledged, researched, and documented, and yet somehow we still manage to make the same mistakes and therefore continue to create the same problems...and sometimes talking about stuff simply isn't enough...for example the Child Abuse Royal Commission.
The case currently receiving full attention, that of paedophile Scout leader Steven Larkins, is an exact illustration of what the Scouts and other groups/organisations/Chuches have done for decades and continue to do despite claims of cultural change...the sort of systemic failures that saw him appointed CEO of an Aboriginal Child Care (Foster Care) service even after he was repeatedly identified as 'a problem'...
And when whistleblower Scout Leader Armand Hoitink publicly aired his concerns (with authorities, etc) he was censured by the Scouts for going to police...and Mr Hoitinks and many others opinion is that the Scouts were far more concerned with the welfare of the organisation, more concerned with reputation, than they were about the safety and welfare of the children...(and some victims so traumatised that they can't even attend the Commission personally...)
This is exactly what has happened with the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up following the removal of paedophile teacher Glyn Dorling, who the Lutherans were already moving around their system and protecting when they knowingly put our 7 year old children in his classroom.
The Lutherans either wanted our children to be abused, or didn't care...and when forced to act, did so in denial and self preservation, attacking parents, and locking it all down internally with definitively illegal 'Confidentiality Clauses' amongst staff, etc, with an abject disregard for the welfare of the children and families involved.
For what it's worth, I genuinely hope to be wrong about the Royal Commission, and that it does achieve 'great things'...but I have no genuine faith that we as society are headed for or even capable of this change...what I see unfolding is more of the same...more chest beating and hair pulling and wailing about the injustice and the suffering, etc, but how many Catholic bishops or Lutheran hierarchy, etc, are going to end up in jail where they belong.
I sincerely hope that the Commission achieves massive and positive change, but my cynicism, borne of a decade of personal experience, deny me any real belief...let's hope they do far more than 'talk'...
Again, I believe that we need to develop a culture of discussion, and one of 'strength not stigma' in making personal acceptance of one's problems and acknowledgement of the need for assistance, support, etc, to be what it genuinely already is, a show of strength to be embraced, not a weakness to be hidden.
And again I can only apologise for the somewhat disjointed nature of these two posts, they have been very heavy going...but hopefully in combination, they make some sense to you the reader.
Tomorrow: Rail Lands Letter and Other Stuff
Tonight Council votes on the plan to rip up the rails, etc, that they have already acknowledged they will likely be liable to replace should rail transport return to that corridor...and this is my letter, delivered this arvo requesting they don't.
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
This post is only personal opinion and experience and is not professional medical advice...if you feel you want or need to, please access appropriate help, eg, via the Lifeline phone service 131 114.
Again I am essentially only re-iterating many other people's work and opinions and the general public discourse around these issues, in that I agree with the idea that respectful and frank discussion of these issues, of any issue, is a positive to be encouraged, if still to be carefully managed.
I briefly re-iterate the points in the previous post, and refer readers to the program on ABC TV last week re Self Harm, and particularly the issues of 'underground' social media websites dedicated to displaying self harm 'selfies', offering advice on hiding self harm injuries, even advice on different ways to self harm, etc, and to varying degrees are either deliberately or effectively encouraging self harm.
This 'social media' influence is another whole level of complication of the modern era, and I believe another reason to bring these issues into the mainstream Health discussion...without being flippant, the more you popularise something, the less attraction it has as a 'taboo' that potentially attracts as a display of rebellion against the status quo...and I believe this could be part of a good strategy for addressing the social media sub-cultures that develop around these issues...
For example, it is a joke mired in reality that 'to make your kids hate something, make it cool with the parents'...slightly tangential but a genuine example is the case of the Billabong Surf Company who have recently suffered massive losses, and part of the explanation has specifically been that they have lost market focus and therefore share, because kids don't associate well with what they see their parents now wearing...even if those parents have been wearing it since 'back in the day'...
I don't think discussion alone is the answer, or that we will ever be entirely successful in stopping self harm or suicide, (or child abuse for that matter), but if simply speaking openly and respectfully about these issues has a positive effect, and it does, then that is what we should do.
And further, I believe/agree it is correct to say that the stigma often attached to these issues is reduced by acknowledgement and discussion, and that when the 'stigma' and 'taboo' is reduced then people are more likely to discuss, and that reduces the likeliness to act, so the incidents are ultimately reduced...and it becomes an upward cycle...
I hope I've made the point that there are many individual experiences that can affect someones behaviours and/or mental health, etc, and that whilst issues of Child Abuse or Drug Use or Self Harm or Suicide are often interlinked, they often also exist in isolation...and whatever the links, there is no conclusive template that can be applied to collectively address and resolve any of these issues.
For example, there are widely expressed concerns around Australia about multiple external pressures on the Primary Producers Sector, eg, high Australian dollar and/or government policy, that combined with the usual stressors, eg, climate and weather, local demand, personal health, etc, are pushing farmers to suicide at 'record levels'.
And I believe/agree that there is one way to really address the issues whatever they are, for whoever is suffering, and that is to acknowledge and discuss these struggles and stressors and how they are affecting us, and we do see this increasingly as communities move to help themselves with local support groups and other initiatives.
I agree with the broader and increasing concensus that having a World Suicide Prevention Day and associated events like the 'Out Of The Shadows, Into The Light' breakfast held last weekend in Mt Gambier, and speaking openly and respectfully, are the best strategies for combating the increased incidents of suicide across our society...and that the same strategy can work with other issues like Self Harm.
These connections and cross-influence are generally well acknowledged, researched, and documented, and yet somehow we still manage to make the same mistakes and therefore continue to create the same problems...and sometimes talking about stuff simply isn't enough...for example the Child Abuse Royal Commission.
The case currently receiving full attention, that of paedophile Scout leader Steven Larkins, is an exact illustration of what the Scouts and other groups/organisations/Chuches have done for decades and continue to do despite claims of cultural change...the sort of systemic failures that saw him appointed CEO of an Aboriginal Child Care (Foster Care) service even after he was repeatedly identified as 'a problem'...
And when whistleblower Scout Leader Armand Hoitink publicly aired his concerns (with authorities, etc) he was censured by the Scouts for going to police...and Mr Hoitinks and many others opinion is that the Scouts were far more concerned with the welfare of the organisation, more concerned with reputation, than they were about the safety and welfare of the children...(and some victims so traumatised that they can't even attend the Commission personally...)
This is exactly what has happened with the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up following the removal of paedophile teacher Glyn Dorling, who the Lutherans were already moving around their system and protecting when they knowingly put our 7 year old children in his classroom.
The Lutherans either wanted our children to be abused, or didn't care...and when forced to act, did so in denial and self preservation, attacking parents, and locking it all down internally with definitively illegal 'Confidentiality Clauses' amongst staff, etc, with an abject disregard for the welfare of the children and families involved.
For what it's worth, I genuinely hope to be wrong about the Royal Commission, and that it does achieve 'great things'...but I have no genuine faith that we as society are headed for or even capable of this change...what I see unfolding is more of the same...more chest beating and hair pulling and wailing about the injustice and the suffering, etc, but how many Catholic bishops or Lutheran hierarchy, etc, are going to end up in jail where they belong.
I sincerely hope that the Commission achieves massive and positive change, but my cynicism, borne of a decade of personal experience, deny me any real belief...let's hope they do far more than 'talk'...
Again, I believe that we need to develop a culture of discussion, and one of 'strength not stigma' in making personal acceptance of one's problems and acknowledgement of the need for assistance, support, etc, to be what it genuinely already is, a show of strength to be embraced, not a weakness to be hidden.
And again I can only apologise for the somewhat disjointed nature of these two posts, they have been very heavy going...but hopefully in combination, they make some sense to you the reader.
Tomorrow: Rail Lands Letter and Other Stuff
Tonight Council votes on the plan to rip up the rails, etc, that they have already acknowledged they will likely be liable to replace should rail transport return to that corridor...and this is my letter, delivered this arvo requesting they don't.
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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