And while we're on the subject of the things they say, the Thing that I'm not sure I can say anything about is still a Thing that I'm not sure I'm even allowed to mention let alone explain...(well thanks for clearing that up-Ed)...yes I know it's frustrating but you'll just have to review recent posts re complaining and investigations...(all of your posts are about complaining-Ed)...fair enough...
Instant Feedback: and from my own child no less...apparently my attempt to be not completely negative, angry, critical, cynical, etc, and instead embrace the beauty of the Universe for one brief moment via my Bearded Dragon story of two days ago, was 'a little boring'...(charming-Ed)...indeed...
Caucus Is Mama's Little Baby: and Mama's little baby loves being Shorten led...Billy 'Off His Face' Shorten has won the Labor leadership by only 24 votes, but received the support of nearly 2/3 of the Labor Caucus...challenger Anthony Albanese received 50% more of the 'rank and file' members votes, but it just wasn't enough...(um, and I think you mean 'Faceless Man', not 'Off His Face'-Ed)...whatevs...and this result seems to suggest that factional control within Caucus still decides the leader...hooray...
What a Surprise: the Australian Council of Social Services and the National Rural Health Alliance state that poverty is much more pronounced in regional South Australia, 14.1%, compared to 8.1% in Adelaide...and the problem is exacerbated, even partially driven, by a lack of access to fundamental services like health and transport...but I digress...
In The Border Watch Friday 27th September, stone cold tripper Graham Greenwood really goes to town with 'Signs look positive for 'bargain-priced' old hospital'...deadset...a serial apologist and/or propagandist on behalf of Council, Mr Greenwood yet again trots out the Council line with either disregard for, disinterest in, and/or deliberate avoidance of the truth...(what happened to his multiple calls for an Inquiry into the Main Corner fiasco?-Ed)...no idea, but I don't believe that it was genuine anyway.
"The purchase of the old hospital for $1.4m by the City Council may go down as one of the best bargain buys in this city's history."...bollocks...and the more ridiculous the Greenwood hyperbole, you know the more the reality is going to hurt...I am not any sort of Realtor or related 'professional', but it has been explained to me that the Old Hospital was not selling at just on or even just under $1m, because of the drastically depressed economy and Real Estate market and cost of refurbishing (or demolishing) the dilapidated building...
Council payed nearly a third above market value for a building they always knew they could only ever afford to demolish...and that is going to cost a minimum of $2.5m to demolish...(of borrowed money-Ed)...indeed, and absolutely likely to spiral upwards from there...so at least $4m just to get it back to empty ground...and that's if it doesn't massively blow out like every other 'open contract' that Council has been involved in, eg, the Library and Main Corner projects...(strewth-Ed)...
"In taking ownership of the derelict building, City Council was forced into taking on another major project which it had not bargained or budgeted for in its 10 year plan."...more bollocks...Council never does anything it's constituent members don't personally want to do, eg, no Covered Pool; loss of the International Tennis Tournament; and most obviously, the ridiculous placement and expense of the Lady Nelson Bus 'Shelter'...(and he uses the term 'Shelter' advisedly because it actually doesn't-Ed)...indeed...
And nobody "forced" Council to waste $20m+ on replicating the Library and the pointless Main Corner...nobody forced Council to unilaterally decide to add millions to the Main Corner Project costs with extravagant lighting and/or 'technologies', the Commercial Kitchen, the ludicrously expensive 'Volcano' movie, etc...(with absolutely no public consultation-Ed)...quite...
At the Budget Consultation meetings earlier this year (previous posts) Councillors were repeatedly asked to not increase their borrowing capacity and therefore rates, and that if it meant the demolition had to wait, then it had to wait...(but Council did double their borrowing, and increase their rates, and the demolition is proceeding...it's almost as if Council ignored all of those people-Ed)...indeed, and don't forget that a goodly chunk of that borrowed money is leaving town via McMahons.
The rest of the article descends into a farcical and failed justification of retaining the Old Laundry structure: "...lack of definite views from the community might also have been because up until last week there was no clear vision of what use the laundry building might have."
Three issues here: 1) people don't bother getting involved because 2) Council never listens and 3) this is exactly what happened with the Main Corner, built on a whim with no defined purpose, other than to create a publicly funded Function Centre, to be handed free to Councillor Des Muttons's son...(you know, it doesn't matter how many times you write that, it just doesn't look any less corrupt-Ed)...yes, quite.
There's just no way known that either the demolition or the Laundry refurbishment are going to come in under budget, and I confidently predict that Council will routinely and regularly 'modify' their current plan, and that they are very much already planning a cafe there, again at ratepayers expense, and again to end up with a Councillors relative...
And again I wonder how Mr Greenwood comes by his version of events from Council meetings because he's never there...(the Minutes on Council's website perhaps, or from Councillors, or Sandra Morello-Ed)...fair enough...but his account of the voting procedure to save the Laundry is 100% wrong...and I don't think it's by mistake...I think it's a deliberate manipulation via very carefully considered wording.
"The council vote to retain the laundry building just got through by the narrowest of margins after some robust debate, even though several key councillors were absent."...I have already stated in a previous post that, according to my notes, when Council 'left the matter on the table' in August, two of the three Councillors absent at the September meeting were against the laundry project...(I don't follow-Ed)...sure...
If those two had been at the September meeting the original motion to demolish the laundry would have succeeded, meaning no new motion to save it (as tabled by Cr Mutton)...it was 'because' those Councillors were absent that it passed, not 'even though'...'even though' clearly indicates that the motion was passed despite their absence, thus inferring those absent supported the project, that it had broad support in Council...
This is a tad pedantic I know, but it is a critical and deliberate misrepresentation of the reality...(no, no, you make two very valid points, namely that Council is proceeding with this because 3 of 10 Councillors were absent...and Graham Greenwood has completely misrepresented the actual proceedings-Ed)...indeed...
And the crowning glory for my mind is the desperate observation that tour buses will stop there for the views, whilst the iconic Blue Lake has no such facility...why is there not a cafe at the Blue Lake, offering sheltered, catered views of what it is people actually travel to Mt Gambier to see?...there'd be busloads up there and Devonshire Teas all round...what's there currently looks like a bus ticket kiosk/shelter, and has no view of the Lake...
I've attached the article below, purely for reference...
Tomorrow: TTSNP Part III
Covering local member Don Pegler's extraordinary defense, support, and promotion of the Rann/Weatherill Labor government, including 'be grateful for the Gaol jobs' and 'they're doing great things with health service provision'...(no, he didn't say that about health?...surely not-Ed)...'fraid so.
And I had a call 'recently' from someone who found the blog whilst looking for something else, and had a compelling and confronting story to tell about their experience with the Education Department in South Australia...more to come soon...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters....
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