Rev Fred Nile on Wind Turbines

Hello and welcome Spain, Germany, the UK, and the USofA...and happy Halloween to those whom observe this particular 'festival'...(do you wish someone a 'happy Halloween'?-Ed)...I think so, it's the eve before All Saints Day and is in effect a celebration, so 'happy' seems appropriate...

A brief lead-in to a slightly cop-outish and yet longish post, but again it is fairly spread out so please persist...I was recently sent this...(thankyou that person-Ed)...indeed...and I can't believe that I'm agreeing with the Reverend Fred Nile, but by the time I'd read this I had to post it, and after trying to paraphrase it myself, it was just easier to post the whole thing...

Rev Nile's speech is apparently in response to attempts by the NSW Greens to remove legislation requiring environmental considerations for Wind Turbines and mining development...how bizarre that the Greens would be the ones pushing for removal of 'environmental' legislation...

I particularly like how he picks up on the manipulative language being used, eg, 'natural gas' not 'coal seam gas'...and I also note the heavily sarcastic tone of 'Dr John Kaye' in response...and Dr Kaye's comment that the National Health and Medical Research Council "say there isn't any" (Health Effects from Wind Turbines)...says a lot more about both Dr Kaye and the NHMRC then Rev Nile I think...

This is in effect a stand alone post so another post later, possibly 2 for...

Tomorrow: The Bread and Butter Post

And some local shenanigans again my friends...how Mt Gambier is moving ahead by ripping it down and/or ripping it up...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...toodle pip and tally-balley-ho...chocks away Ginger... 

Fracking in the South East

Hello and welcome to the blog...and I can only apologise for the flat-line, white noise predictability of my content, that has slowly become (to my mind) devoid of humour or inspiration...but I do not apologise for reaching a personal saturation point exacerbated by the undeniable reality that after 9 months of discussing the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up, still it goes on...

Still the Australian Broadcasting Corporation treat me like the problem, and Premier Jay Weatherill continues to lie and deny or at the very least try...and I'm still waiting for my recent letters to even be acknowledged, let alone the issues therein addressed and resolved...shrek me...

Quick Digression: I combined two of my great loves by 1) going on talkback radio (with the ABCs Peter Goers last evening) to discuss 2) my second fav movie, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, which has the 'bad guy aliens' escaping the Eighth Dimension during a 'dimensional accident' at Grovers Mill, New Jersey on October 30th 1938...which is of course when Orson Welles did his famous 'War of the Worlds' radio play broadcast...

In TABBAED, the aliens brainwashed Orson into saying the news reports were a play, and they had spent the subsequent 40+ years building a new escape ship at YoYoDine Propulsion Systems...and the 'good guy aliens' are Rastafarians...hilarious...PS, today is the 75th anniversary of that original WOTW broadcast and I just rang to mention Buckaroo 'off-air', but the producer politely insisted that I go on, even after I identified myself as 'Nick from Mt Gambier', and there was no politics involved, so I said sure...End Digression. 

And I know that the Education Department's reading the blog and they've got the time and motivation to have my initial post about Head of Schools Gary Costello...(now retiring Chief Education Officer-Ed)...pulled down, but can't touch the revised 're-post'...and every member of the highly corrupted Teachers Registration Board hearing (previous posts) that exonerated teacher Glyn Dorling were Education Dept employees and/or Teachers Union members...

I'll say it again...what is wrong with us as a society, as a shrekin' species, that the St Martins Abuses occurred at all, let alone that as a community we have allowed it to happen and go unpunished and unaddressed...what sort of community is Mt Gambier that our glorious Civic Leaders know about the abuse of a class of 7 year olds, but rather than hold the Lutherans to account for it, they either turn away or turn on me and the other parents.

What sort of human being is former MP Rory McEwen that he would betray us and our children with a view to profit from that betrayal?...and the Weatherill government's commitment to the St Martins Cover-up is absolute and undeniable...and I post and post and post and write polite letters and try and get on the radio, etc, etc, etc, and absolutely shrekin' nothing...and still I'm the problem...but I digress...

Confusing: that reports that the New Ambulance Station works had been stalled indefinitely, as I also commented on in a recent post, have been followed by a surge of activity on the site, that has now become a 5 foot deep hole and several large piles of earth...I take it all back, whatever it was I said, because I have no idea what's going on there...
  
Also, I recently questioned the lack of response to plans for 'Unconventional Gas Exploration' in the Penola area...(UGE being a polite, some might say devious, way of saying 'Coal Seam Gas Fracking'-Ed)...quite...and I note that there was a page of articles in The Border Watch Friday 25th October 2013 about the recent meeting at Penola and meetings scheduled tonight, and next month, here in Mt Gambier.

And I'm happily at least a bit wrong because it appears that at least some people, eg, Community Action for Sustainability, are concerned enough about this issue to convene these meetings...the Penola meeting was organised by CSA to address concerns stemming from Beach Energy's presentation earlier in the month...and I note that Beach Energy had a big write-up in The Advertiser newspaper today that mentioned 'Fracking'...but not one mention of Penola...

Cynicism Alert: this 'Penola' omission may well just be completely innocuous, but it doesn't sit well with me as possibly another example of the sort of 'Regional Deceits' that The Advertiser is notorious for, eg, their woeful coverage...(bordering on non-coverage-Ed)...indeed...of the Forestry Sale protests, processes, and economic fall-out for the South East and SA in general...

Ask yourself, how Adelaide readers, clearly being encouraged by this article to think that Beach Energy are great, might react if it were explained to them properly that this company was 'Fracking in the Coonawarra'...and all the potential problems associated with that...or would it still fall on deaf ears concerned only with their own immediate wants and needs?...(fair question that is itself a statement...it asks as well as tells...nice-Ed)...   

At the risk of sounding like a complete dick, I don't need to go to any meetings to make up my mind about and/or be informed as to the potential problems with 'Fracking'...for years this issue has been covered extensively across many forums, eg, ABC TV Landline program...and it's fairly straight forward...if you pump large quantities of mostly un-tested chemicals into the ground, there's going to be contamination and pollution...particularly of ground water...

Agriculture, Food and Fisheries and Regional Development Minister Gail Gago is quoted (TBW) as saying that everything is just super, and sure there's been some problems elsewhere but hopefully we can utilise that knowledge to avoid those issues...bollocks...the problems stem from pumping toxic chemicals into the ground in an 'open process', and that's what 'Fracking' is...you can't 'Frack' without causing contamination..

These meetings are great, but I'm still sceptical that this will change anything...Premier Jay Weatherill has stated that this 'gas resource' must be exploited to finance his ludicrous 'Future Fund', and Minister Tom Koutsontonis recently flagged the removal of "Green Tape" restrictions on development, and mining in particular.

As in previous post, "cutting Green Tape" means shelving, axing, withdrawing, marginalising, whatevs...the very limited environmental restrictions on developments that currently apply...'open slather' is not an alarmist summation of the exciting new age promised by Labor in South Australia...  

During recent testing in the South East there was a noticeable drop in the aquifer, but it can be argued that this could be a natural result of drought, or someone drawing more water than they're supposed to, etc, because there's no proper base line testing and a basic lack of knowledge/information about how this drop might relate to 'exploration testing'...but it doesn't look great...

Any appropriate pre-testing would take a long time, and there are no guarantees that even if testing is done, that these assessments would be adhered to by industry. 

Credit Where Credit's Due: the ABC interview this morning covered many issues re 'Fracking', and the guest (?sorry) was asked, 'have you been employed by mining companies'...no...'if you were, would they take heed or just proceed'...and the answer - the reality is that government supports industry to the detriment of the environment and almost always give approval...which is the current attitude even before "cutting Green Tape".

Ultimately the best advice...(and sage advice it is-Ed)...that the guest could offer, was to keep your own records about bore levels, water quality, etc, whatever you can reasonably test and record, and keep that information for your own use...and I'll say it, for potential compensation claims when your water is fouled and your air thick with Methane, etc...and in closing...

Romp Compo Stomped: I concur that it is a commonsense decision (High Court I think?) that a public servant will not get compensation for an injury sustained during sex on a 'work trip'...apparently she or her partner pulled the light fitting off the wall and it hit her in the head, causing minor injuries to her eye and nose...(has anyone done a 'blow on the face during sex' joke-Ed)...probably...I'd be surprised if they haven't...

Absolutely workers should receive adequate and appropriate cover whilst in the service of an employer, and fair enough if the fitting was faulty and just fell off and hit her...but that clearly shouldn't cover 'recreational activities', including rooting your hotel room into a pile of rubble...(how about...not paid to be 'on the job' whilst on the job?...no?-Ed)...

Tomorrow: Bread and Butter Issues

The Warnambool bunfight and bumper cereal crops...massive income potential but does that make it right?

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...thanking you for your patience and patronage...laters...

300th Post Reprise - Yet More Stuff and Nonsense

Hello Romania, Bulgaria, China, and France and welcome to the blog...and my sense of humour seems to have abandoned me for the moment...(yeah, I'm not feeling it either-Ed)...must be something to do with the extended interview that the ABC Local Radio ran this morning with 'John', the former student of a South East high school now at the centre of 2 separate Child Abuse cases...(nah, it was before that-Ed)...

Maybe it's just the whole 'everybody knows about St Martins Lutheran School and the Child Abuse and the ensuing Cover-up yet does nothing' thing...or maybe it's that and the other Thing...did I mention the Thing...(oh, gord, don't start that again-Ed)...just saying...and all the bullshit from Council just for trying to be involved in my community, Mt Gambier...and all the other unpleasantness I've encountered just trying to do what I still believe and maintain to be true... 

I may have any number of problems, but I am not the problem...

Perhaps it's just the stories of synchronised multiple car bombs yet again killing dozens of people in an Iraqi market place and a small village...and a 'roadside bomb' in Afghanistan randomly killing 12 women, a child, and 4 men on their way to a wedding...and the descent into lawlessness of the entire Sinai region of Egypt...and further attacks on unarmed villagers in Northern Nigeria...and on and on...

And the local news lurches from the institutionalised corruption of Eddie Obeid and 'he might face charges'...to the pitiful $50,000 fine for former Gunns Chairman John Gay, convicted of 'Insider Trading' to profit by $3million...I may well have missed it, but I didn't hear one word about 'repaying the $3mill'...and from there straight into the Child Abuse Royal Commission and the case of the YMCA worker Jonathon Lord, recently gaoled for 6years for abusing 12 boys...and a reduced sentence for pleading guilty...6 months for each abused child...

Here's a man who deliberately sought to place himself in a position to abuse children, gained their trust and friendship specifically with a view to betraying them for his own gratification...he is an exact replica for Glyn Dorling at St Martins in 2002 (and previous years)...and the bastard gets 6 years for a guilty plea...

As one mother put it, her child is devastated that his good friend has gone to gaol and he (the child) may well be partly responsible...and the bastard gets 6 years...and the YMCA is still defending itself even though they failed to do fundamental employment checks and let him work with children even before they did those deeply flawed partial checks...and the woman employed to directly address these issues after Lord was charged, was herself sacked after only 4 months for reporting her concerns about systemic problems...sacked for doing what she was employed to do...shrek me... 

My cynicism aside: I find it extraordinary that I'm banned off the ABC Local Radio and out of The Border Watch at a time when the issue of Child Abuse is at an almost daily crescendo through the media...(except in TBW...what's going on there?-Ed)...don't know...and this 'banning' from the local media is in a very large part due to my insistence on speaking/writing about St Martins...

I don't resent 'John' for the attention he is getting (and I certainly don't envy him his experience), rather those whom give it to him and yet behave in the manner they do re St Martins...but I digress...

I should explain the Wattle Range Council stuff a bit better...basically one staffer caught another staffer fraudulently filling out their time book, reported it, and was then subject to harassment, bullying, etc, which led to time off, a claim for compensation that was refused, subsequent appeal, some minor disciplinary action against other workers involved, etc...and then a finding against the Council resulting in the worker receiving compensation...(well done comrade-Ed)...

As reported on the InDaily website under A bad day at the office, "A local government employee has won her workers compensation appeal in an embarrassing decision for a local council."

And speaking of bullying and harassment, apparently I'm not the only one who cops it from the ABC...as I understand it, there are internal 'staffing management' issues that are causing all sorts of problems within the Mt Gambier office...I have no personal experience of this, obviously, but I've heard this sort of thing before, and just recently it was 'put to me' again...

Load-shedding: Last night on ABC TV Four Corners there was a story about power lines and their potential for causing bushfires, a potential realised in February 2009 in the Black Saturday fires in Victoria...and the debate is whether to 'turn off' power to certain areas because that will almost certainly cause some deaths...and the example of the Victor Harbour/Pt Elliot 'shut down' last year from the South Australian spokesperson (name?-sorry)... 

He made the observation that there were no deaths attributed to last years 'shut-down', but didn't mention the 'load-shedding' that occurred in Adelaide in January 2009 in the middle of a heatwave that overall was proven to be directly responsible for 400 deaths in SA and Victoria...load-shedding is actually a dodgy way of avoiding the truth by carefully re-labelling what is clearly 'Rationing', and done either to protect an inadequate system from overloading and crashing completely...or to distribute an inadequate supply...

The then Premier Mike Rann said there was going to be an Inquiry into the 3 dozen deaths that were directly attributed to the power cuts, eg, people dying of heat exhaustion in their homes when their power was cut off...there is an excellent story about this 'incident' on the Advertiser News website, article dated January 30th 2009...and there's Ministers John Hill and Paul Holloway refuting claims that the cuts and deaths are related...charming...

Check out 'The Fire In The Wire' at ABCiview or the replays on tonight at 23.30 or Sunday at 20:00.   

On Ya' Bike Lanes: because the plans presented by City Council for the Penola Rd bike lanes are highly problematic...least the plans I'm looking at are. According to the cross section plan published in The Border Watch newspaper and on display in the Council chambers, there is going to be a bike lane, a traffic lane, then a 2m painted 'island', traffic lane, bike lane...but there is a major problem with that...

Outside of the 4 hours a day that cars can't park there at all, any parked vehicles will be much wider than the bike lane, therefore forcing traffic partly out of the traffic lane, and driving halfway on the painted median 'island', which is not allowed under current Road Rules...this creates a 2m wide 'Zone of Confusion'...(say it with an echo-Ed)...where pedestrians will mill about thinking they're safe and cars will be forced to drive...even in the design stage it's a nasty accident waiting to happen...

Gobsmacked: that the Lonely Planet Travel Guide has rated Adelaide as no 9 in their 'top ten  destinations' list because it's "effortlessly chique" and 'doing something different' and 'there's     excitement'...and the spokesperson saying that the Adelaide Oval Development was the main decider, and that it changes the way people relate to the city and leads to the uplift of the city...and Adelaide does all these great things like sports and music events and art festivals...apparently it "has a vibe"...

And then he listed off all the development on North Tce and how fantastic it all is...(like he was reading from a Labor government pamphlet-Ed)...indeed...and mention a couple of great cafes...and bingo, Adelaide isn't a decaying backwater sucking the life out of the rest of the state, it's just fantastic...

Cynicism Warning II: how much did this glowing review actually cost?...(wow, that is cynical-Ed)...no, that's the world as I've experienced it...at best, this is the grossly optimistic opinion of someone who appears to have seen North Tce and not much else, and clearly has no idea what that ugly shrekin' monstrosity of an Oval has cost SA, and particularly the South East...who has no idea what it cost the Old Queen to paint herself her shiny new face...and the cracks beneath...

Good on you Lonely Planet for making Adelaide even more self-obsessed and vain than it already was...yay...(wow, bitter much?-Ed)...no...just don't live in Adelaide, and I'm sick of hearing how great it is...it's all just 'Bread and Circuses' and a grossly inflated opinion of itself...and in Mt Gambier we can't even get basic Mental Health services, any Child Protection facilities, vaguely appropriate PATS refunding, public service jobs, proper basic transport services, etc, etc, etc...but so long as Adelaide's right...that's the important thing...

Bitter much?...damn straight...
      
Tomorrow: Probably Another Diatribe

And some more scintillatingly cynical, short, sharp scrutiny of some seriously super stuff...yay...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...

Post 300: A Picture Paints A Thousand Words

Hello Malaysia, South Korea, France and the USofA...welcome to the blog, and, not counting a few 'no posts', etc, this here is the 300th post...cue heralding trumpets and start the parade...(yeahhh, about that...due to budgetary constraints there isn't going to be a parade-Ed)...oh, and trumpeters?...(sorry, no...would you believe one boy scout with a kazoo?-Ed)...that's just sad...(quite-Ed)...but do thank him for coming along anyway...(sure-Ed)...

Today's question, topic, subject, whatevs...If a picture paints a thousand words, then what picture does no words paint?...What story is being told when nothing is said?...and of course I'm talking about the apparent silence from The Border Watch newspaper on the topic of multiple abuse issues at a local high school, as exposed recently and covered throughout the media across Australia...but first some other stuff...

No I Don't Know: exactly what the heck is going on at Wattle Range Council, where teams of angry lawyers have been charging about whilly-nilly...but I'll have an educated guess...as best I can ascertain, there are at least two groups of lawyers involved, one representing the Wattle Range Council and the other from the Local Government Association...(possibly the South East LGA, or SELGA-Ed)...

I heard about this some time ago, and I don't think that these two crews are in conflict with each other, rather are in collaboration 'against' a third party...and the word 'compensation' is definitely in the mix...and I believe that SELGA provides 'insurance cover' for Councils so that might be the connection that has them involved...a 'compensation' claim would probably be an 'insurance issue'...

It appears that Wattle Range Council, with SELGA support, is defending a 'compensation' claim, and it may possibly be in Court so I can't go any further in divulging what I think I know...('think I know'?-Ed)...yeah, I 'know' stuff but I could be wrong, and it is possibly 'in Court', so best to stick to what I do know and that which can be discussed...(convoluted, but fair enough-Ed)... 

The fact remains that any and all legal action conducted by Councils, SELGA, LGA, etc, is payed for by ratepayers and/or taxpayers...so if there is s genuine case to answer here, and I believe that there is, then Council is using ratepayers money to defend their (Council's) actions...and if ordered to pay any 'compensation', they'll do that with ratepayers money...by any definition, the ratepayers of Wattle Range have every right to know exactly what their Council is wasting their money on...I'll go as far as to say that if half of what I've heard is true, then, in this particular case, Council deserves to pay...

And Damn: since starting this post earlier this morning I have become aware that the above case has been resolved and that it was covered by InDaily, the Adelaide Independent news...view the story under A bad day at the office at indaily.com.au/news for the 10th October 2013...damnity damn damn...what I can say is that Mayor Gandolfi's tepid statements drastically downplay the reality of the treatment of this worker as compared to my understanding that the worker was effectively 'under fire' from all involved, the Council and LGA included...

And yes, the 'Judge Lieschke' is the same Stephen Lieschke (that I was spelling with a 't' included, sorry) whom is Premier Jay Weatherill's business partner and Glyn Dorling's lawyer at the Teachers Registration Board hearing into Dorling's registration, etc...damn all round...

Why Play Chicken: when crossing the road?...because you have to...I have been asked to look at and address the lack of safe crossing points on both Jubileee Highway and Penola Rd...and fair enough...one takes ones life in ones own hands when attempting to traverse these often busy roadways, particularly due to the layout and/or geography...

There is only one set of lights at the far Eastern end of Jubilee Hwy, at the Pick Ave intersection, and no safe crossing anywhere else...including at the ludicrous Lady Nelson Bus 'Shelter' where passengers are required to get across the highway with their luggage, etc, just to get to Mt Gambier...and in many sections, visibility of traffic approaching at 60kph is greatly compromised by bends and/or rises/dips in the road...and the same issues on Penola Rd, with only one crossing at the Market Place Shopping Centre lights.

Only last year, a man in a motorised scooter was struck by a truck and killed whilst trying to cross at the Andami Shopping Centre on Jubilee Hwy, but nothing has been done to improve safety there...or anywhere else...the entire Penola Rd/Wireless Rd intersection is a desperately dangerous prospect for cars and pedestrians...and whilst I recognise that both these roads are a state government responsibility, what has Mt Gambier City Council done to address these safety issues?

This lack of safe crossing points is particularly critical for anyone with any sort of mobility issue...people are literally taking their lives in their hands, constantly playing chicken with oncoming traffic, in a perpetual turkey shoot...and I call on Council to immediately review and recommend suitable pedestrian crossings be installed...and thankyou to that person for raising this with me...but I digress...     

The Deafening Silence: of The Border Watch on two separate cases of Child Abuse at a South East high school...I don't understand...unless I've somehow completely missed it, TBW has not covered these two stories stemming from the one school...but why?

Is there something even more sinister happening behind the public exposures, disclosures, etc, that has contributed or directed to this 'non-coverage'?...or has TBW been working on some seethingly insightful 'magazine style' story to be run over several weeks, and they didn't want to 'go off half-cocked'...or do they, for some reason, simply not consider this nationally acknowledged story as being of any importance...I am at a complete loss to explain this.

I readily acknowledge that I'm predisposed to draw a direct line between this apparent failure (or refusal) to cover these stories and the local media's behaviour/attitude to the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...but if that were the case, it doesn't explain why the ABC gave these latest issues/cases extensive coverage but TBW haven't...

So all in all a rather inglorious 300th post...my one big bit of news was resolved weeks ago and already covered in other media, or at least one source...the pedestrian safety thing is more of a request than exposure and subject to the whim of a Labor state government who clearly don't give a damn about Mt Gambier or the South East in general...and the TBW failure to cover these abuse issues is just a mystery made noticeable by their absence...

What I have noticed is several things in TBW that I would like to cover, eg, the meeting about Gas Exploration at Penola; a letter from a certain Di McEwen about the Gaol Expansion opening...and I will cover these things...

Tomorrow: Stuff and Nonsense

Just as it describes...a bunch of stuff that is by and large nonsense...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters... 

Post 299: And In My Own Defence, Again

Hello and welcome to yet another bit piece post...it is a Sunday after all...and I've just got back from helping out down at the Show...and it's constantly running into reminders of this sort of bullshit (attached below) that makes me think sometimes that I've pretty much had a gutful of Mt Gambier and the insular bigotry and the corruption and the complacency/resignation/fear, whatever you want to call it...you know the story...

And then I spend a couple of days with people who are working tirelessly to run the Mt Gambier Show and people with their kids artwork or photos, and the prize winning Fruit Cake, and some beefy bovines and bootiful baalambs...(but no piggies-Ed)...and those clever dogs parading their humans, etc, etc, etc...and the repeated enquiries as to why people have not heard me on the ABC or seen my letters in The Border Watch...and I feel a little more positively disposed toward the human race...  

This 'press release' was prepared by someone concerned with IR Reforms at the time...it is about me but not 'by me'...and I don't actually recall how my Unfair Dismissal even ended up in WorkCover...I think I was initially directed there by the Industrial Relations Commission...

I post this in response to some things that have been said about me, never to my face though, and not least of all in the cowardly comments left anonymously on this blog...when I sought help at the time I was told "you're screwed, you'll never work again in Mt Gambier" quote, unquote...it had a profound and devastating effect on my life that I attempted to negate by working 'full-time volunteer' at Lifeline and St Martins Lutheran School...I was struggling but coping...and then the St Martins Child Abuse Cover-up kicked off in June 2002... 

This whole episode was my first real encounter with the corruption and dysfunction of official authorities in South Australia, eg, acknowledging that I was Unfairly Dismissed and told to get off the premises and not come back, then stating officially that re-employment was not an option, but then taking 70% of my compensation back off me because I didn't keep working there...

And please note that I sought to do the appropriate things, eg, get proper legal advice before even lodging a claim, etc...and that the various 'professionals' involved get to act corruptly with virtual impunity, particularly the lawyers...and that I self-represented against the Hotels Association and the Matthews Group in a 2 day Unfair Dismissal hearing and won...

Couldn't help but laugh when I recently saw the Matthews lauded in TBW...bollocks...they poached me from another job, dumped me into a position in the bottleshop where there was literally thousand's of dollars of stock and till floats missing, and then sacked me for reporting it...it was the most bizarre place I've ever worked...it's almost like it was set up to lose money or at least be unaccountable...  

I never did 'repay' any money and the whole thing just faded away...it was so devastating at the time but seems like a bad joke compared to what's happened since at St Martins...

Tomorrow: Post 300 and Stuff

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers...

Is There Anybody Out There?

Hello and welcome to the 298th post in this here blog...I know I said 299th yesterday, but I want to allow for several 'no posts', etc...and a rhetorical question to kick it off...I know they're out there, it's more a case of they don't want to talk to me...(but why?-Ed)...because it's me?...because of what I'm saying?...both?...

I am still yet to receive even an acknowledgement from the Australian Electoral Commission re my 2 letters from just prior to the September 2013 Federal election, or from Premier Jay Weatherill or the ABC re my most recent attempts to get them to take responsibility for their own actions...(you bastard, how dare you ask them to explain their own behaviours...who do you think you are?...a large, angry father whose 7 year old child was one in a whole class of 7 year olds abused by their class teacher Glyn Dorling in 2002?-Ed)...well actually yes...

(You carry on like the abuse has been covered-up by the Lutherans, SAPol, the Teachers Registration Board, the Crown Solicitors Office, the Rann/Weatherill Labor government with the fundamentally incompetent complicity of a pointless Liberal Party, the ABC, The Border Watch, The Advertiser, former MP Rory McEwen, current member Don Pegler, Mayors Gandolfi, Perryman, Sage, etc, etc, etc...you carry on like you're just about the only person, apart from a handful of other parents, who's actually doing anything other than cover-up the St Martins Child Abuse Issue-Ed)...is that a question or a statement or a criticism or a commendation?

What remains as the truth, what stands alone as an ugly and irrefutable reality, is that literally everyone in Mt Gambier...(in SA-Ed)...who is in a position to address and resolve the St Martins case, knows about it but fails and/or refuses to do so...and in any number of cases has seen fit to attack myself and other parents, eg, former local member Rory McEwen...which brings us to...
     
Gary Costello Reprise: to explain more concisely re yesterday's post about Gary Costello's impending retirement from his position as Chief Education Officer...I do not withdraw or resile from anything I've said about him...I have been specifically asked to consider that he worked hard to raise standards at Mt Gambier High School and at worst is a weak person but not a deliberately corrupt one...

It remains, however, my reality that the first and effectively last time I met him, it was to politely bully him into doing a Mandatory Notification re disclosures of abuse made by students in a class at his school (previous posts)...a Notification that the school was supposedly obliged to do...(yeah, I'm fairly sure that's what 'Mandatory' means-Ed)...quite...and that he clearly didn't want to do.

And when SAPol immediately dumped the case and I then had to chase him for days, and I finally caught up with him by phone, he said 'we've done what we were obliged to do and we'll do no more' (paraphrase)...it does not help my disposition toward him to know that he already knew exactly what had happened at St Martins because he had had it explained to him by a parent prior to that meeting in February 2008.

The person who defended Gary to me as 'weak not corrupt' (paraphrase) has known him for decades and has repeatedly tried to engage him about the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...to no avail...but for me this just makes it worse...when he was standing there glaring at me and trying to slide out from under doing a Notification, he already knew exactly what was happening...

Ultimately, I don't care whether Gary Costello is corrupt or just piss weak, because it has had exactly the same result...5 more years of St Martins cover-up...and counting...and Gary's career has blossomed...and my anger and cynicism have nothing to do with this reality...given what is so clearly so fundamentally wrong with the Education Department and the way it conducts itself and it's publicly defined culture of failure and cover-up...what does that say about someone who ascends in such a dysfunctional system?

And piss weak doesn't explain his involvement in the Western Suburbs School Abuse Cover-up...it has been specifically stated to me by a parent from that school that Gary has had a direct involvement...and when I see that he was "hand-picked" (The Advertiser) by disgraced...(disgraceful-Ed)...former Education CEO and career, recidivist, abuse cover-up participant, Keith Bartley, it does nothing to improve my opinion of Mr Costello...(check out Mr Bartley's history with the Oxford Council in the UK and the cover-up of child trafficking there, from whence he was hand-picked by Mike Rann's Labor government-Ed)...indeed.

I know I've covered all of this before, but it just beggars belief that Rann Labor, which to my mind and in my experience...(to your mind because of your experience-Ed)...is a highly corrupted and almost criminal administration that appears to be effectively paedophile-controlled...(quite-Ed)...has somehow gone halfway around the planet to accidentally handpick the man right at the heart of a horrendous Child Abuse cover-up...to bring him to South Australia to run the Education Department...only to be at the heart of the current disaster...coincidence be hanged...amongst others...

And having said that, I must acknowledge that I do not support Capital Punishment...when we stop gaoling innocent people, then it'll be ok to start killing them...but I digress...

I do not consider that I have changed my opinion about Gary Costello, and I cannot see that happening...however, this does not preclude me from acknowledging and even deferring to another persons opinion that is based on a much broader experience...indeed, even if I cannot and will not agree with them I feel that it is encumbent of me in adhering to my self proclaimed pursuit of accuracy to present what is a well argued counter-point to my own opinion...

I also remain extremely sceptical and cynical about how Gary Costello has managed to skate quietly through this whole 'DeBelle ' fiasco without barely a mention...his name has not been seen attached to any of these current issues that he has been a key player in...why isn't he, as then Head of Schools and currently Chief Education Officer, being dragged up before the current Select Committee that is supposedly going to sort all of this out?

I'll finish here because it's the weekend and I'm just starting to repeat myself ad infinitum over and over again once more...and I have several emails to get off to various peoples to ask why they haven't responded to the last ones, etc...

Tomorrow: What's Wrong With This Picture

And it's not actually about a picture so much as a story, and not so much what's wrong with it as where the hell is it? Yet another Child Abuse issue that The Border Watch apparently can't see, won't see, don't want to see...but why?

In the last fortnight, two cases of abuse stemming from the same South East high school that have generated national media attention, and not a word in TBW...what the heck is going on?

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...enjoy the weekend, and laters...

Walk A Mile In Their Shoes

Hello Netherlands, Italy, Russia, and Germany and welcome to the blog...and still a warm howdy to my somewhat fickle American friends who swamped the blog one day, but appear to be less interested since...and I agree with the 'off-blog' observation that those 'availees' have seen the blog, realised it's largely about some part of the world they've never heard of, and have gone back to dealing with their own local problems...

And I don't blame or criticise them because I myself get bogged down in personally subjective pursuit of relatively minor and globally trivial issues, eg, the cloud of dust blowing off the Hospital Demolition site...compare that pollution issue to what is happening at Fukishima Nuclear Plant and the hundreds of tonnes of contaminated groundwater leaching into the Pacific Ocean 2 1/2 years after the Tsunami that slammed the area...or the impending lunacy of deep sea oil exploration off the Great Australian Bight while the scale of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is still being realised...

Here's The Thing With The Thing: I have been asked to explain my vacuous waffle about The Thing but I'm not sure whether I'm allowed to explain it or not...(but you are discussing it, right now-Ed)...indeed, I'm discussing The Thing but I'm not actually explaining it...and even then by even discussing it, it could be that I am explaining more than I may and/or may not be allowed to do, I couldn't really say...(ahh, stop already-Ed)...but it could be that by not discussing it that would be an indicator that it does exist, therefore, discussing it is not inappropriate because that is only an indicator that either it doesn't exist or that I'm lying...

So, effectively, by discussing The Thing that I'm not explaining it indicates that there is no thing, but by explaining The Thing that I'm not discussing it indicates that there is a thing...(Oh dear god, stop...please, please stop...I can't even remember what 'It' is-Ed)...that's the spirit...Thing? What Thing? I didn't mention a Thing...well actually I did, but you'll have to go back a few posts, just follow the trail of waffle...(hang on...does that mean that it is or it isn't?-Ed)...exactly...(ahhhhhh-Ed)...     

1700 On a Long Day: that for me kicked off at 0600 with these 3 Child Protection/abuse cases that were literally the first things I saw on the ABC News 24 within minutes of getting up this morning...things that literally had me staring open-mouthed at the TV and angry and shiftless and more than vaguely vengeful...today is 'Walk for Daniel' Day as part of a national campaign to raise awareness of child safety, and named to honour and remember 11 year old Daniel Morcombe who was abducted and murdered 10 years ago.

Daniel's parents Bruce and Denise Morcombe have committed their lives to promoting Child Safety issues and their 'activism' is widely acknowledged as driving the police investigation that finally led to discovery of Daniel's remains and the arrest and charging of a man with their son's murder...and they continue to travel the country visiting schools, etc, promoting child safety issues.

I can only begin to imagination, try to empathise, and hope never to know...and even if it's just guilt and shame, I am stirred to new heights, am borne by a renewed vigour, to resolve the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up and all of the corruption and collusion and resultant abuse...I am avowed of reclaiming this state from the professional shrekin' paedophiles that have run it for decades...

I know that I can never hope to reverse or repair anything about the human species that will bring an end to paedophilia, but I'll be damned if I'll live in a state that I know is run by paedophiles...and I ain't movin'...      

In Melbourne, police have shifted their 'Missing Person' investigation into the disappearance 2 years ago of 13 year old schoolgirl Siriyakorn 'Bung' Siraboon back to the Homicide investigation, and Portuguese police are 're-opening' their investigation into the disappearance of British girl Maddie McCann...again, I cannot understand, I cannot begin to imagine the haunting uncertainty and suffering.

Finnigan Begins Again But Probably Never: top bloke, unelected Labor Member of the Legislative Council, and Acting Police Minister at the time of his arrest in April(?) 2011 on nearly 2 dozen Child Pornography charges, come on down the Right Honourable Bernard Finnigan for your 25th Court appearance in the 900+ days since SAPol officers came to your home seizing computers, etc, and taking you away in the back of the car...(you're making up those numbers...I saw only 2 charges-Ed)...

Precisely...from 20+ charges chopped back to 14, then to 6, to 2, then back up to 6, and down again to 2, and in and out of different Courts and/or jurisdictions for a total of 25 hearings over the 2 1/2 years...and every change offers the potential for a failure of procedure that undermines and even scuppers the case...and now he's gone for another complete 'stay' on the 2 remaining charges, with all the usual 'defense' about how you can't tell the children in the images are "under 14" and/or the "search terms don't indicate child pornography"...

Any hearing will now not happen until after the March 2014 state election, which is fantastically fortunate for the Labor Party who just don't need their Paedophile Police Minister on trial during an election campaign, and I'm sure a complete coincidence...incidentally, Bernard has earned just over $400,000 in wages in the time since his arrest...shrekin' unbelievable...

Gary Costello Retires: Yesterday I had a long and heated 'conversation' with someone who effectively defended the Education Departments Head of Schools Gary Costello, following the news that he is retiring for 'family reasons'...and I readily admit that this 'defense' butts up hard against my cynicism about and personal animosity toward Mr Costello, but I accept that this 'family' excuse is likely to be genuine...in that context it is a genuine reason not a convenient excuse...and there is a world of difference.

I will not say more about the specific reasons, but in my weaker moments...(you mean more balanced, compassionate, and objective moments-Ed)...whatevs...in those moments I have empathy even sympathy...but it continues to exist in parallel with my personal criticism of Mr Costello that results from my very limited interactions with him...these are not parallel universes just concurrent realities...

Ultimately it was put to me that Garry Costello is a weak person not a corrupt person, and even if 'corrupted', it was more by circumstance then design or desire...and that this is far removed from the behaviour of career 'corrupt bastards' like former local Member Rory McEwen...or my new best mate...

West Australian Liberal Don Randall, having claimed $5259 for flying to Cairns to buy an investment property, continues to argue that it was all about parliamentary business because he had to have a chat with a colleague, but has re-payed the money anyway...(so he says nothing wrong but repays the money?..that just smacks of untruthfulness-Ed)...indeed, but it gets better, because he is now being accused of having claimed for a trip to watch AFL football in Melbourne...I'm sure the poor fella is getting tired of having to explain the indefensible to us bloody plebs. 

Here's my tip, and tell 'em I sent you...when you do your taxes and you're doing your expenses, etc, remember that every trip to the footy, every drive whilst house hunting, indeed all associated food costs, etc, might possibly be a genuine deduction so apply the Randall Sanction and claim every bloody cent and then a whole lot of other shit to boot... and if called to account, deny, lie, and ignore, then finally begrudgingly throw your hands up and say I did nothing wrong but I'll repay it...and you're golden...even the Australian Tax Office is going to struggle to prosecute this crass hypocrisy.

Tomorrow: Post 299

Lookout...here comes 300...the Spartan post...the post that hurts the most...or possibly just some more self indulgent dross...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers big ears and laters alligators...

Deconstructing Demolition Disinformation

Hello Malaysia, Brazil, and Ukraine and welcome to TMGI...and particularly to the many new 'availees' of this here blog in the USofA...the more people who read it, the more pressure I feel to produce something worth reading...no pressure...

And Labor Minister Tom Koutsontonis is doing what he can to help me by providing great lines such as the recent "Food security arguments are hysterical", and then yesterday re the granting of massive offshore oil mining exploration licences for the Great Australian Bight, "This will be as big as the Gulf of Mexico"...(no...he didn't?-Ed)...oh yes he did...(but the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was one of the worst ever man-made environmental disasters-Ed)...bit like the Rann/Weatherill Labor government in South Australia...(nice-Ed)...

A massive Copper/Gold mine going in the middle of prime cropping land at the top of Yorke Peninsula, oil exploration and mining in the pristine Southern Ocean, gas exploration at Penola literally right in the middle of one of the world's premium wine production areas...(with that Gas exploration stuff, is that 'Fracking'?-Ed)...apparently...but according to the spokesperson (Beach Exploration I think) who was on the recent ABC Radio interview/infomercial, everything's just fine and there's nothing to worry your pretty little head about.

(But 'Fracking' involves pumping multiple chemicals into the coal seam to 'fracture' it and release the gas, and everywhere this is done it leads to atrocious contamination of ground water, methane pollution around wellheads, etc-Ed)...yep...(right in the middle of premium wine country?-Ed)...yep...(well that's just lunacy...no wonder the good folk of the area are rioting in the streets-Ed)...yeah, about that...(what? no protest?-Ed)...not a peep, not that I've heard...

Getting Serious: I seriously do not understand how the good folk of Penola and surrounds can have this happening right in amongst them and there is virtually no protest...again, not that I'm aware of...and these are relatively intelligent people who must surely understand the broader implications of having this sort of 'development' and it's potential to poison their water and air and thoroughly root their industry...(it's got me beat-Ed)...

And bonny British Prince George has had a Jedi Christening...watch the footage on the news/Interweb and as Queen Elizabeth and other guests are entering/leaving the chapel, check out the dude in the background with what looks like a giant light saber...(oh yeah...hilarious-Ed)...yeah, that or someone's got a hell of a lot of lint to be brushed off their suit...

Some Quick Feedback: and thankyou for the support and encouragement, particularly about the recent letters to Premier Weatherill and the ABCs Graeme Blewitt...and with the Thing that remains an issue of non-discussion...or not...I'm not sure...(thanks for clearing that up yet again-Ed)...it is what it is, allegedly...but I digress...

In The Border Watch Friday 18th October 2013 there is the usual pro-Council propaganda, this time about the Hospital Demolition...and call me a vain, arrogant prick...(you're a vain, arrogant, prick-Ed)...yes, thankyou...but it reads almost like they've got my blog in front of them and are trying to pick off my observations/criticisms point by point, particularly the comments of Council's Operational Services Director Daryl Sexton...please review my previous posts re this issue...

First it's all about how thoroughly McMahons "highly trained workers" are "scouring the site" for asbestos, "particularly the upper floors of the building"...but my understanding is that there are asbestos issues with all window frames and/or the adjoining masonry, and not just restricted to the windows in the 5 story building but also in the other smaller buildings, some of which have already been demolished...I am not an asbestos expert, but this is what has been explained to me...

I was up there Tuesday and Wednesday last week watching a small building at the back get demolished and broken up with a large backhoe, but I don't know if the window frames, etc, were removed first or under the rubble...and this 'crushing' created a cloud of dust blowing across the site toward the adjacent Apartments...there wasn't even someone with a hose at least attempting to keep the dust down...that site has been slowly disintegrating for over 15years, god knows what contamination is present in any dust...

"An independent consultant is also conducting daily air monitoring on the site to ensure public safety."...bollocks...and what does this even mean?...as per previous paragraph, I watched a large cloud of dust blow across the site and there was no-one within cooee, certainly nobody 'monitoring' anything...I understand any 'monitoring' is heavily subjective relative to wind direction and strength, weather, eg, damp dust dries out over days only to blow away later, activity on the site stirring up dust, etc.

The fundamental problem I have with this "independent" label is that when it comes to Council, my extensive personal experience of their lack of honesty and accountability and capacity to say pretty much whatever suits them in the moment, renders any report about anything virtually redundant...does anyone honestly believe that if Council are presented with a report that says a large cloud of pollutant has blown over the city that they will fall on their swords and admit it?

If this "independent" monitoring is within a contractor's control and Council are third in the process, it becomes even more problematic...(and you can avoid any potential complication by employing someone who you know will not present you with a problematic report-Ed)...indeed...unfortunately "independent" is a very malleable term.

Then the article states "a number of regional businesses have been engaged for the preliminary works" but does not name one....it really emphasises this point, and according to Mr Sexton, "There is no surprise in that, there was always going to be a combination of local and away personnel..."

Followed by paragraphs of gushing praise about what great folk McMahons are, "all works are performed with the highest standards"...(well that sounds pretty good-Ed)...that's actually a quote from McMahons themselves...(oh-Ed)...quite...and that brings us to Darryl Sexton's comments.

"Conceding some of the money would flow out of the region, he said a large "chunk" would stay in the city, particularly from the spin-offs to the region's industry...", and when it comes to McMahons workers, "They need accommodation, fuel, and they need to eat..."...basically, an unknown number of unnamed local businesses and the expenses of external contractors somehow insulates Mt Gambier ratepayers from the fact that this is borrowed money, to be repayed with interest, and the majority of it is leaving the region...

The whole article ends with a quiet admission that, "asbestos had been found around the windows in the upper floors..."...charming...and right alongside is another article (page 6) that explains how great this demolition is for the people in the luxury apartments...and several people have put it to me that some of those tenants are the ones that pushed Council into this ridiculous purchase, the Budget blowout, and the demolition, ie, it is all driven by certain people's concerns for their 'land values'.

And as always, please consider that this piece is the work of an angry, cynical man who genuinely hopes that he's wrong, and that what is being spruiked in this article above, is a financial reality and not just vacuous damage control in response to some twit's blog...(um, this is-Ed)...yes, I know, this is some twit's blog right here...        

Tomorrow: Bits, Pieces and Stuff

Which is code for 'I don't know yet'...give me this evening to get really pissed off about something, and I'll rail against that on the morrow...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...

Just Stuff and Nonsense

Hello, welcome, and apologies for a rushed, bit-piece post...I've been volunteering down at the Show, helping set stuff up, etc, and only got back in at 1730hrs...and I'm knackered...and my Internet is dropping out again...again...and again...

Uncle Bobo Does A Downer: in a move reminiscent of dummy spitting silver-spooner Liberal Alexander Downer, former Labor Foreign minister Bob 'Uncle Bobo' Carr has decided to do us all a favour and sod off out of politics, hopefully to never be heard from again...(you're joking aren't you?...he'll continue mouthing off about whatever, whenever because he thinks we need to know what he thinks...and you'd better explain the Downer/Carr dummy spit stuff-Ed)...sure...

At the 2007 Federal election the Liberals were defeated, and career silver-spooner Alexander Downer went from long term Foreign Minister to Opposition, and immediately quit politics...(but not before shopping around for lucrative jobs in the private sector, including at times he was actually meant to be in parliament-Ed)...and thus forcing a costly and inconvenient by-election for his seat of Mayo in the Adelaide Hills...what a knob...

No wallowing around in Opposition with all those grubby plebeians, no working hard to represent the interests of the electorate that he asked to vote for him, not for Lord Alexander...as soon as he wasn't swanning about the planet on the public dollar, as soon as he had to get off...(was knocked off-Ed)...his high horse and actually might have had to do some work for his electorate, he quit...what a class act...

And now Uncle Bobo has done exactly the same thing...lost the election and quits...and he wasn't even an elected member remember, he was appointed by then Prime Minister Julia Gillard using Labor's Senate vote allocation, and now that he's not going to get what he wants for him, he's off...and good shrekin' riddance...Bob Carr is a name I've been hearing for a long time re certain 'protection' issues that I have covered extensively on this blog...

Unwelcome news: that the 'new' Mt Gambier Ambulance Station has been delayed yet again, but I didn't catch what the official reason was this time...only 2 months ago...(possibly less-Ed)...quite, but then it was something about 'soil compaction' or some 'earthworks' issue, whatevs...and whatevs it's now stalled for an undisclosed period...

Joining the long rank of issues that I genuinely hope to be absolutely wrong about, is this latest delay the death knell for the new station?...is it going to happen at all now?...I had thought that it was a 'stunt' aimed at the March 2014 state election, specifically timed to be finished just in time for a nice bit of cross-promotion for the Labor party and their man, alleged Independent and current Member for Mt Gambier, Don Pegler.

Is this Ambulance Station about to go...(has it already gone?-Ed)...the way of the Rehabilitation Unit that was promised for Mt Gambier Hospital but has recently been canned?...and in the discussions I've had, it is the cost of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital that is blamed...(or rather the Labor government who instigated this medically fiscal fiasco that is literally sucking the life out of the states entire budget, but specifically Health-Ed)...as per previous posts. 

Absolute Labor stooge, former Chair of the Forestry Roundtable, and current head of the South Australian Forestry Industry Advisory Board, Trevor Smith was just on ABC Radio rolling out the vacuous, pointless pro-Labor rhetoric about the criminal sale...(both metaphorically and literally criminal-Ed)...indeed...the sale of the South East Forestry Estate...yesterday Forestry expert and vocal opponent to The Sale, Jerry Leech, concluded a long list of the problems, mistakes, and negative impacts of the sale by calling for a Royal Commission...get in my son... 

But not card carrying Labor front man Trevor Smith...no...for him it's all about the great things the Labor government is doing with the South East Forestry Partnership Program investing $16million into the industry which has been met dollar for dollar by locals, 'at least $32m into the industry'...and how the Forestry Industry has been low for some considerable time, blah, blah.

When asked about value adding, he trotted out the now traditional rhetoric about exciting initiatives from the VVP fibre study and how the Partnership is helping with upgrading 'a number of local mills', and helping them develop processes for the future...blah, blah...and yay...not one idea of substance, not one actual example...    

Then when specifically asked about whether he was optimistic, if The Sale had been for better or worse?...he just waffled on about there being 'a whole range of issues' and 'it's all about the long term relationship between government and industry', and that 'the industry has had great support from government', and then the ultimate seasoning of the wound, 'our conditions on The Sale were accepted by the Treasurer'...('our' being the Forestry Roundtable).

And at this point I was very disappointed with the normally astute and politely brutal interviewer Annette Marner...(the Velvet Sledgehammer, if I may?-Ed)...if you must...because she didn't hold him to account over the minimal log supply contracts currently in place, contracts that the bloody Forestry Roundtable continues to promote as some great achievement of theirs...bollocks...

All nicely rounded out with the observation from Mr Smith that anyone who talks down The Sale, etc, are "doomsayers" and criticised 'all this talk of ongoing doom and gloom that will now hopefully be put in it's place'...(mostly paraphrase and some scribbled quotes).

I'd invite Mr Smith to come to Mt Gambier and have a look at all the houses for sale, the businesses closing, and the people leaving town...and when Forestry SAs ludicrous 5 year contract is gone, that will be those jobs leaving Mt Gambier as well...and what then with the Fire Prevention that Forestry SA are supposed to cover...could it work the other way and this Fire provision necessity actually save the jobs that will be surplus to necessity when the 5 years are up?...lord knows...  

Only for that to be followed by discussion about the McCain's closure of their SAFries plant at Penola, meaning 59 full-time jobs gone and with them the peripheral jobs, money coming in to the local economy, potentially loss of contracts for growers, etc, and the talk is about ensuring entitlements are secure, WorkCover cases aren't compromised, etc, and 're-training' for other jobs elsewhere...forget the sarcasm, I wish them all the best 'cause it's going to be tough...

Sorry to stop here so abruptly but the Internet has just cut out again...having a few probs...

Tomorrow: The Demolition Deconstruction Thingy

Sorry not today but needs a lot of work...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers, laters, and timmmmberrrrrrrrrr...

A Little Light DeBelle and Other Stuff

Hello and welcome to the blog...and yet another day of ranting the way that is how I say that enough is enough is enough...and it's quite surreal watching the latest on the New South Wales bushfires, whilst here in Mt Gambier it is pouring with rain and 15C...and off the back of the latest Child Abuse cover-up re a teacher in 2004 accessing pornography at school and a student getting blamed... 

Another teacher from the same South East school was charged with trying to lure students (a student?) into being 'sexually agreeable'...(whaaa?-Ed)...I think it's a politically legalistic way of saying 'Grooming' without using the the 'G' word...and the teacher was charged in July and is suspended without pay...and apparently the parents and students were told by letter immediately...  

And this weeks Labor Education Minister Jennifer Rankine...(you know, with the March 2014 election so close, she could well be their last for quite some time-Ed)...indeed...stating that the teacher was stood down in July 2013 and parents "those who needed to know" were notified "according to the recommendations of the DeBelle Inquiry"...and kazaam, which gifted seer predicted that all will be referred to DeBelle, all deferred to DeBelle?...come on, who was it?...let me hear you say it...

(Alright, alright, yes you did say this would happen, but it's hardly 'visionary'...and as far as you know they have exactly followed the DeBelle Recommendations in this particular case...the gifted seer, indeed...more like steer fed git-Ed)...sorry, what, I was just reading this hilarious article about MP Chloe Fox, what did you say?...(nothing...but I will agree with your observation that the Weatherill Labor government are using DeBelle to screen a decade of inaction re the Layton Report from 2003...and of course back we go to 2002 and the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up-Ed)...

Indeed, but we digress...and it was falling off the chair time when Minister Rankine accused Liberal Education 'person' David Pisoni of playing politics with the latest issue...i) she is a politician, 2) all her government has done is play politics of denial and disassociation, eg, Attorney General John Rau  showing up at the first hearing of the Select Committee Inquiry with a letter to threaten them with defamation re a 1917 law, and Premier Weatherill the next week with a letter saying 'my peeps and homies won't front this "circus" to testify, dawgs'...

(But aren't  Labor MLCs Russell Wortley and Kyam Maher on that Upper House Parliamentary Inquiry that Premier Weatherill has repeatedly called a "circus"?-Ed)...indeed they are, indeed they are...and indeed he has my friend, indeed he has...(so a Parliamentary Inquiry is a Circus, where his colleagues are what?...the clowns?-Ed)...I guess so...


Rrrroll up, roll up, to see the Most Very Average Show On Earth...staring a cavalcade of clowns...and including the Illusionary Machinations of Weatherill staffer Mr Simon Blewitt who can magically make emails just disappear and even he doesn't know where they've gone...(wunderva, wunderva, tell me more-Ed)...

Well, there's the Premier himself playing DeBelles...(ohhh, lovely, I do love a good bit of Bell work, particularly that bit at the end-Ed)...yes, Ringmaster J and his amazing performing Royal Commission will precariously negotiate all of the gaping holes in evidence and factual pitfalls to arrive safely at exactly what it was instigated to do, to clear the Premier and his peeps and/or homies...dawg...to make Premier Weatherill's accountability magically disappear...(maybe his accountability's gone looking for that email?-Ed)...possibly...

And a lovely little piece on ABC Local Radio this morning about 'lawyers representing people they  know are guilty'...and lawyer (QC? sorry) David Quick stating that every person has a right to stay silent and challenge/test the case against them...(how's that done then?...hand signals?-Ed)...indeed...and the broader discussion was about the case of Eugene Magee, the lawyer who drunkenly ran down a cyclist, left the scene, then was driven back through it by his brother on their way to the police station where their mate was stationed...

And when they were stopped by police at the scene?...not one word...and this critical incident left out of the ABCs Australian Story coverage in February 2012...and then off to see their SAPol mate...and no breath testing of Mr Magee when he got to the station, but the cyclist Mr Ian Humphrey, now deceased, had a blood sample taken for testing...

And all about the Court case where the eyewitnesses to Magee's driving weren't called to give evidence (not mentioned in today's interview?), and how public opinion led to 'government involvement' and a Royal Commission and a 'review' by the Legal Practitioners Conduct Board and the Legal Practitioners Act and waffle about 'unfit conduct'...and 'lawyers make 2 oaths, one to the Crown and the other to the  profession', etc...but 'no' to higher standards for lawyers when it comes to giving evidence, etc...

Pardon my cynicism, but the whole thing sounded like parts of the 'Legal Fraternity' trying to distance themselves from the current furore about paedophilia and representation and minimal sentencing and the 'rights of paedophiles', etc...remember the main subtext for Magee's apparent 'Untouchableness' was directly related to his close personal and professional relationships with convicted paedophile Magistrate Peter Liddy and other associated individuals like Bill Morris, now a Magistrate himself...

And it's just gone 1500hrs (that's 3pm ACDST - Australian Central Daylight Saving Time- I think?) and a small but punchy thunderstorm has just passed right over and a huge strike, thick as a pencil, straight down, so close I only got to the 'w' in 'one and two and'...bang, then a gentle slap on the chest, you could actually feel the pressure wave...and another rumbling across behind the grey veil, like a heavy wooden table being dragged across a slate floor...and then the drizzle to heavy, soaking rain...just passing...

We are bugs, man...we are shrekin bugs...bugs in the eye of the storm wallowing about in the filth and insanity of our own self-realisation...(orrr dude, come back to us-Ed)...relax, I was just being melodramatic for effect...although many a true word spoken in jest...(indeed-Ed)...and it does literally shake you up a bit to be that close to a strike...and I digress...

Gobsmacked: that The Advertiser newspaper had on it's front page yesterday that it takes 5 minutes to get a taxi at the Stirling Hotel (Adelaide Hills), and a big article again today about 'taxi waiting times'...and then today on page 25 right at the bottom, couple of paragraphs, 'worst day of violence in Iraq in 5 years'...half a dozen bombings and over 40 people killed and hundreds badly injured...surely there are some very confused priorities here...

Never forget who it was, the 'Coalition of Compliance' or the 'Crusaders of Democratic Conscience' or whatevs, but we were part (albeit a small one) of a grouping of countries who went into Iraq and opened this Pandora's Box of extraordinary violence...but who's to say whether it wouldn't have inevitably happened anyway in a country subject to a long history of cultural conflict and sectarianism...it literally does my head in...

And another post gone and not sure I've actually covered anything...oh yeah, the hilarious Chloe Fox story...after a cartoonist lampooned her for having publicly owned art in her office, and she was mildly lambasted by the reportage, Ms Fox is going to sue for the slight on her character, blah, blah, blah...deadset...I'd tell her to build a bridge but god knows they don't need anymore lunatic ideas...

Tomorrow: Deconstructing Demolition Disinformation

A subsidiary of Things That Shall Not Pass Productions presents a witty dissertation on the structural dislocation of the old hospital...yay...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters...  

Some More Things That Shall Not Pass

Hello China, Malaysia, the UK, and Indonesia...and welcome to the blog...and no attempt at form, style, or humour today because there's just too much to catch up on...and away...

Recent Wind Turbine news has included stories about a Chinese Turbine site that was decimated by a typhoon, with 10 Turbines felled, 10 more badly damaged, and the remaining 10 shutdown pending repair or replacement...and a fire in a Turbine in Germany that saw fire crews having to employ the cunning South Australian strategy of standing back and watching it burn, baby, burn because it's just too dangerous to get close to a giant machine 100m+ in the air, loaded up with 100's of litres of highly flammable gear oil, and that may explode spraying debris more than a kilometre, which is considered a safe and legally unchallengeable distance from non-host homes in South Australia...

And apparently they don't already have enough Fascism in Victoria, because the Labor opposition is screeching about how the current 2km set-back (from non-host residences) and 5km from major townships, is like just way unfair on the poor Turbine companies...nahah, yeah it is...and has cost 1,000s of jobs...nahah, yeah it has...as reported in the Warnambool newspaper The Standard last Thursday 17th 2013, State labor vows to dump wind farm restrictions.

Victorian Labour opposition planning spokesman Brian Tee states,"One of the first things I will do as Planning Minister is rip up those constraints.", and is further quoted as saying that 'Labor would be guided by relaxed planning measures operating in South Australia'...I don't think you'll find any dictionary that defines Fascism as 'relaxed planning measures'...

(Hold on, back up a second...when you say 1km setback in SA and no possible legal challenge, that means the Rann/Weatherill Labor state government have legislated for the carte blanche installation of these massive Industrial Turbines only 1001m from peoples homes, therefore placing non-host houses well inside the potential debris shadow if these things explode-Ed)...precisely...
 
(Well at least Victorian Liberal Premier Denis Napthine is committed to these minimal distances, stating that, "These setbacks provide a buffer zone between residential addresses where people live and wind towers."...and don't these 'setbacks' mean Turbines cast a 'development shadow' onto neighbouring properties thus greatly reducing land values and placing yet further massive financial pressure on primary producers -Ed)...yep...

(But I just heard MP Gail Gago on the ABC Radio today banging on about how super terrific SA's produce is and it's so popular and how important 'farmers' are to the state's economy, and world food security, blah, blah, blah, so on and so forth...and this screaming hypocrisy from the same Minister who lied on the floor of Parliament about the sale of the Glencoe Nursery as part of the Forestry Sale Rort...a sale that is just a small part of the systemic dismantling of Regional South Australia-Ed)...indeed...

(And Mining Minister Tom Koutsontonis was just on, spruiking a massive mine on the Yorke Peninsula, stating that 'economic considerations will decide', but when questioned about the economic return of the land from cropping, he actually stated, "Food security arguments are hysterical"...everyone else on the planet is concerned with burgeoning population issues and food security, and countries like China are furiously buying up as much land as possible, but according to Mr K, the entire planet, including his colleague, is "hysterical"-Ed)...typical...

(If farmers/primary producers/whatevs are so bloody important to the Labor government why do they treat Regional SA with such contempt...axing or reduction of already substandard services, eg, gross failures and bias in the provision of Health Services as witnessed with the Keith Hospital saga and the bare-faced bastardry of the supposed Patient Assistance Transport Scheme Review that is openly looking to deny people access rather than increase the pitiful funding-Ed)...well, quite...

(And don't get me started about the recent repeated and quite extraordinary comments from local MP Don Pegler in not just defending Labor's appalling record in the 'failure of provision' of appropriate Regional Health Services, but actually praising them for 'improving services'...what bollocks...as far as SA Labor is concerned, Regional Health Provision is an inconvenient expense and annoyance they could do without-Ed)...again, quite...

(Mr Pegler paraphrases himself in his letter in The Border Watch Thursday 10th October 2013 when he writes, "Over the last few years, services that could not be obtained locally but now can be include renal dialysis, chemotherapy, geriatric evaluation and management, palliative care and expanded mental health services."...rubbish...many people continue to have to access services outside of Mt Gambier, particularly when it comes to things like hardcore chemo treatments that require specialist personnel-Ed)...for example the 8 month CHOP regime I went through in 2004/05...(indeed-Ed)...

(What about the 4 unused chemo chairs at Penola Hospital...the closing of obstetrics at Millicent...dismantling of Mental Health and/or Drug and Alcohol Services, eg, the axing of SEDAC's contract and loss of those personnel...no resident psychiatrist where Mt Gambier should have at least 3, preferably 6...for shrek sake, I'm on a Disability Support Pension for Agoraphobia, Depression, etc, and can only get 10 1hr appointments per year...not even one a month-Ed)...and I had to organise that 'Counselling' myself...(indeed-Ed)...

(There are only bit-piece, part-time Drug/Alcohol and Mental Health counselling services available, and patients suffering severe Mental Health episodes are still being literally drugged, restrained, and shipped to Adelaide...expanded services?...bollocks-Ed)... 

(Nobody is under any illusion that the March 2014 state election campaign is well under way in Mt Gambier, but Mr Pegler is on very shaky ground when he attacks Liberal candidate Troy Bell, stating that, "Troy Bell's ill-informed comments that the money would be better off spent on healthcare expansions and that our sick and injured have to be sent to Adelaide show a complete lack of understanding of what is happening."...really?...sounds like a very reasonable observation/request based on the actual facts-Ed)...

(Mr Pegler's well defined commitment to the Labor Party contaminates and compromises everything that he says and does re his supposed representation of the people of Mt Gambier, and it looks like nothing's going to change...indeed, if anything, it's going to get worse...and enter stooge left Grant District Council Mayor Richard Sage who is clearly preparing for a tilt at the 2014 state election-Ed).

(In Graeme Greenwood's 'Comment' in The Border Watch Friday 18th October 2013 it is quietly stated, "The district's two independents, local MP Don Pegler and MP hopeful Grant mayor Richard Sage..."...independent?...rubbish...I confidently predict that at the 2014 election there will be a Labor candidate and at least two absolute Labor stooges calling themselves independents...these colluding collaborators will do everything they can to splinter the genuine Independent vote, and then shuffle preferences between each other to get one of them elected-Ed).

(And as alleged to me recently, I hope that Mr Pegler enjoyed his meal the other week with former MP and perpetual Labor stooge Rory McEwen, and Labor Corrections Minister Michael O'Brien...wonder who's expense account that little soiree was charged to...make the most of it whilst you can because it's all over come March 2014...and sooner if I can help it...to me, Mr Pegler is just another complicit participant in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up-Ed)...

Ah, sorry Ed, but I might pull you up there and we'll do some more tomorrow...(oh, no, I'm sorry, I've completely monopolised today's post-Ed)...that's cool, you had some stuff to get off your chest...I understand, truly I do...

Tomorrow: Ploughing Forward Despite Reality

More letters, emails, encounters, aspirations, and philosophical deliberations...(more bullshit, yeah?-Ed)...yeah...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...all up in your grill and shizzle...laters...

St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Issue: Reprise

Good morning (now afternoon the next day) all and welcome to the blog...and it's unfortunately pretty much down hill from there...unless you live in a valley, then it's...well you know...

From the time I posted about it three days ago, the New South Wales bushfires flared due to a weather change and there are currently reports of hundreds of homes lost and several major fires that are still out of control or 'uncontained'...and one person died and growing concerns that there have been and/or will be more fatalities...it was another weather change that slowed the fires, and another that will yet again cause increasing problems in the week ahead.

It is only just half way through Spring, with a predicted long, hot summer ahead so the potential is there for catastrophic fires right up the East Coast...and a stark reminder for us here in the South East of what could be in store for us this summer...but as an Adelaide Hills boy born and bred, my thoughts are drawn to the thousands of homes embedded in that prime bushfire territory...

And I apologise for not properly explaining my 'Insanity of the Bonfires' statements whereby I was referring to the ludicrous things that Mt Gambier City Council does spend it's time and money on, eg, the pointless and costly replacement of perfectly good pavers in The Main (Commercial St) with ugly grey cement pavers that in some places are badly chipped and/or stained and look like seconds, rather than properly clearing the fuel load around the Crater Lakes...

(Indeed, by their actions in felling trees and just leaving them there, they have actually greatly increased their work in future...Council are responsible for resolving Fire Safety issues, not creating them...particularly when they could have had a crew up there working to 'chop and chip' rather than a large crew of Council workers engaged with the disgraceful 'pavers' fiasco-Ed)...astute observations Ed, but we digress...

This last weeks explosive story about the student suspended from a South East school after being accused of accessing hardcore porn websites on his school account...which was actually being done by one of his teachers...has blown open the whole issue of child protection, or rather the lack of, in South Australia...and obviously draws comparisons and/or questions re the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up.

With this pornography case, even after the Education Department discovered it was the teacher accessing the sites, whilst at work, in a school, and there was a second 'incident' in 2006, and they payed the student $30,000 in early 2012 in an attempt to buy his silence, the teacher was merely moved to Adelaide and continued teaching...in Information Technology mind you...and was only finally "suspended on full pay" last week when the case was exposed in the media.

This has clearly had a devastating affect on the young man, his education, and his entire family who were dragged into it by the Education Dept's atrocious conduct...and has rightly been the focus of intense media critique right across the country...I heard it quoted on ABC Radio's The World Today program as the issue that may bring down the Weatherill labor government at the March 2014 state election.    

However, as undeniably bad as this case is, it pales in comparison with what has happened at St Martins Lutheran School and the ongoing cover-up of the abuse of a class of 7 year old children...and begs the question, why does this recent story about one 15/16 year old student get national coverage on the ABC, The Australian, etc, but the abuse of a class of grade 2 children is deemed unimportant?

And that is of course a seethingly sarcastic and wholly rhetorical question because I believe the truth with St Martins it's not that it's unimportant, rather it is quite the opposite...it is because it is so bad...because so many 'important' people in positions of authority are so absolutely and apparently irretrievably committed to helping the Lutheran Church cover up these abuses...

Because the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up involves a decade of the duplicitous complicity of literally all senior politicians in South Australia, SAPol (the police), the Teachers Registration Board, the Crown Solicitors Office, etc, etc...all colluding with the Lutherans to hide rather than resolve the issue...colluding to protect rather than prosecute the paedophile teacher...

For example, SAPol flatly refused to interview parents or accept prepared written statements parents tried to hand them face to face..."spoke to" but never formally interviewed Dorling or ever charged him...and after only 5 weeks, without telling parents, "closed the file" which is a political way of saying 'dumped the case'...we have never received any sort of official notification of this 'closure'.

Police deliberately acted to avoid collecting any evidence...the exact opposite to the repeatedly stated justification of 'not enough evidence' for action against Dorling...and then the TRB/CSO hearing did exactly the same thing...eyes shut, fingers in their ears, yelling 'lalala lala'...and Nick Fletcher's a lying bastard...
 
When multiple parent complaints and children's disclosures forced the 'removal' of teacher Glyn Dorling from St Martins sometime on the June long weekend 2002, all of the resulting 'investigation' happened because parents forced it from reluctant, even refusing authorities...

The Lutherans did not Mandatory Notify until after learning parents had, and when I spoke to Principal John Alexander by phone on the public holiday Monday morning, he stated that he was not going to notify other parents to avoid causing "a panic"...and from then on in he/St Martins/the Lutherans and pretty much every one else involved has relentlessly attacked us parents as the only genuine problem...

I ask that you review my previous posts about the TRB calling me a liar; and the Crown Solicitor threatening to gaol me; and the Lutheran's lawyers threatening me with "defamation" and telling me I owe them money; and former MP and continuing Labor stooge Rory McEwen attacking parents on the front page of The Border Watch newspaper, and then trying to get us arrested whilst again attacking us on WIN TV News; etc, etc...

This is what I have been subjected to for trying to get something done about the abuse of my child. 

And all the time authorities did everything possible to avoid collecting and/or acknowledging the vast amount of evidence that we parents placed before them...again and again and again...but not just us...one of the children gave personal evidence to the Statutory Authorities Review Committee...what a courageous thing to do...and yet the fine upstanding members of that Inquiry saw fit to produce a report, SARC Report no.54, that is a factually errant exoneration of the TRB, the CSO and everyone else involved...

I am not going/cannot go through it all again...just please read my previous posts and understand that the trauma caused to families by the abuse of our children has been massively exacerbated by the deliberate cover-up...

Tomorrow: TTSNP Part whatever we're up to now...

More stuff and nonsense...yay...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...

Media Coverage of the St Martins Child Abuse Issue

Hello and welcome to Bulgaria, China, France, and the USofA...sort of a 'day off' kind of post today...I hardly slept last night after yesterday's effort...brain going at least 4mph...(phweugh, 4mph...life in the pleasant stroll lane-Ed)...

Given these articles and the information there-in, I don't understand why TBW now has such a problem with acknowledging the St Martins issue...and it has not escaped me that these articles were written by Sandra Morello...

The comments from former MP Rory McEwen are a critical factor, and Rory needs to explain to a formal Inquiry why he attacked us parents in this fashion, particularly when he had specific and confidential information from parents that meant he was fully aware of what had happened in the classroom...he knows but attacks parents...he actually accuses us of 'hounding the teacher'.

I had forgotten the Child inquiry story (TBW 30/06/06), where Commissioner Ted Mullighan says of us parents, "I understand very well their deep concerns."...we first met him in early February 2005, so by the time of this story, we had been 'liaising' with him for nearly 18 months already...and then he dumped us not long after this article...

And naturally St Martins Lutheran School Principal John Alexander leaps to the school's defense, almost apoplectic with exasperation...or not..."St Martins Lutheran School principal John Alexander yesterday declined to comment on the issue."...your school's getting named, again, in a Child Abuse Issue, and no comment...truly 'The Deafening Silence'...

Apologies for the sideways formatting but I can't get it set up properly, and I understand that it can be manipulated on some technologies...good luck with that...

Tomorrow: Some Stuff and TTSNP Things

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...thankyou for your patronage and feedback...cheers and 'ron (later on)...from the Latin laters...or maybe not...

Latest ABC Shenanigans

Hello and welcome to the blog...apologies for late blog and it looks quite long but is spread out so please persist...it's all self explanatory...

Tomorrow: The St Martins Review stuff 

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...