Hello, and...exhale...I know y'all 'ave been been collectively holding your collective breath for the joy and wonder that is this here bloggage......
Duds - MRI My Eye: Labor Anne McEwen is talking loud but saying nothing about a MRI machine (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) for Mt Gambier, and all the same political rhetoric shining bright under the harsh spotlight of reality that Labor have been in power for over a decade in South Australia and we cannot get basic equality of services, let alone an MRI...
And I know this is a Federal issue, but the former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard was an Adelaide alumni of Mike Rann, Jay Weatherill, Penny Wong, Don Farrell, etc, etc...
Only relatively recently Mt Gambier was passed over for an MRI license that went instead to Warnambool (?I think)...these MRI placement decisions...(all and any such Health infrastructure decisions-Ed)...quite...must be taken away from politicians and therefore subject to political necessity and/or whim, eg, pork-barrelling in marginal seats, and instead decided by 'public servants' based on population criteria, etc...
This would see Mt Gambier immediately qualify as the regional centre providing Health Services to a large area, not jammed away in a corner, an annoying irrelevance for a disinterested Labor...
Spuds: Potato farmers are left hanging as McCains/SAFries plant at Penola announces that it is to close with the loss of 60 full-time jobs, which is obviously going to have a devastating effect on the local economy...even if the current contracts for next year are honoured...
According to the ABC Local Radio this morning and their interview with a local spud farmer (name?-sorry) that after the Penola plant was built in 1990 to replace the Millicent SAFCOL business that was started in 1986, it (Penola) was bought by McCains in 1992.
This farmer was not backward in coming forward with his opinion about the plant at Snuggery (near Millicent), and that it was built under false pretences with state government support...(but why?...particularly in a market where there are already very strongly established companies operating locally-Ed).
That's a great question that may never be properly answered...this is of course South Australia...(yes, we do tend to spend an awful lot of time and money investigating stuff after it's been 'outed' via the media...and very little of either on actually prosecuting those who clearly should be-Ed)...
This closure will have devastating effects right across the South East and Wattle Range Mayor Peter Gandolfi claims that there were notifications to the Council or growers, etc...no notification of the Union or anyone else...(what, no 'gee whiz we're in a spot of bother, let's get together and sort it out'-Ed)...no...and identifying that subsidies being applied by other countries to their growers, so that those products flood the Australian market at prices that un-subsidised Australian producers have no hope of matching.
This is happening again and again, eg, the heavily subsidised Indonesian toilet paper that was allowed to flood the Australian market at prices below cost of production...and it is killing production and manufacturing in Australia...and all politicians know that...and yet do nothing...if I were Sherlock Holmes, I'd be suggesting that this demise is what they want to happen...
Log Flogging: The Inclusion of Glencoe Nursery (excluded initially), lack of transparency, the sale structure, different details in the Prospectus from Cabinet to 'inquiries of interest' to actual tenders, was only $635million not the $670 Labor has stated, 'Conflict Of Interest' etc, etc...all problems identified in the Auditor General's report re the Forestry Sale...
MLC Rob Brokenshire (above) statin' the bleedin' obvious that it should never have happened, and 'we must make sure this doesn't happen if they privatise other things'...(what things?...there's nothing left to sell...they've sold it already-Ed)...well exactly...I have a lot of time for Mr Brokenshire, but it left me exasperated to say the least...
Tom Kenyon, Labor Minister for Infrastructure replies 'there's no such thing as a perfect process, but the only problems were some minor paperwork neglectings' - "a form here or there" - and then he started banging on about 'Labor's South-East stimulus package of $17m matched by sawmills, and how this has improved profitability'...'people can see a clear future and are increasingly optimistic'...and that they got a better price than expected.
Gerry Leech called in to call for a Royal Commission, but TK reckons that the Auditor General didn't see any Conflict of Interest and 'just said tighten up administration'...and in response to questions relating the Sale to the Adelaide Oval Project, said no relation, 'in an ordinary year we sell the wood, but just selling it all at once has freed up the money to build the new hospital, fix roads', etc...and concluded with the official set up that 'the next stage includes bio refinery and bioenergy'...and that's paying 141 Plantations for their waste...
And from The Australian.com.au:
"A former student wrongly blamed for viewing hundreds of pornographic websites - some
featuring "rapes" - on a high school internet account has been given $30,000 in hush money
by South Australia's Education Department.
The settlement requires the former student to keep details of the case secret. And it comes
more than seven years after an investigation into whether his teacher was in fact the culprit.
The teacher is still working for the Education department, at a different government school
in Adelaide's southern suburbs."
I have been aware of this case, as mentioned in my post a couple of days ago, but did not want to wade into it and stuff it up for those involved...hurrah to that young man for his strength and courage...heard him earlier on the completely impartial BBC World Service...(on behalf of the Conservative Party...and what a strange voice he has-Ed)...yes, they altered it to protect his identity...but there's no confusing what he said...'I started failing...from straight As to not finishing school' (paraphrase).
'I would like an apology from that man/school because he used his power over me' (paraphrase) but a very close summation of the very issue that lies at the heart of all of these cases...these are people using their positions of authority and trust to firstly commit abuses, etc, and then to try and avoid accountability...
Just reported on the ABC Local Radio news (1630hrs and again1700hrs) the teacher has been stood down on full pay...and new Education Dept CEO...(Tony-TH)...Tony...(nnnHarrison-TH)...Tony Harrison states that more allegations were made against the same teacher in 2006 when he was found guilty but not stood down and it's all not good enough...and former CEO Keith Bartley was the one who authorised the payment.
And when confronted in the House of Assembly (Lower House) by the Liberal leader Steven Marshall, Premier Jay Weatherill says 'I don't have the details but I've spoken to him and on what I've heard he has a right to be upset' (paraphrase)...(wow, and I thought you liked having a bet each way...'I don't know, but I've spoken to him and he's right'-Ed)...
And just identified as a South East school (Nine News)...I couldn't say that before, but now that it's in the public realm...
Enough for today and more...
Tomorrow: That TTSNP Part III
Probably...(you do that every time...whatta' cop out-Ed)...probably...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers...
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