Hello South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Russia...and welcome to the blog. Nothing too tricky today...unless you're talking about the very stinky...(very freshly printed-Ed)...wad of shiny A4 'Integrated Transport and Land Use Plan' information sheets that I grabbed from the Info Display at The Lakes Shopping Plaza last Thursday 6th November...along with my info CD.
Can't look at it online though because my home computer has crashed again...(crashed again or been crashed again?-Ed)...well quite, and to avoid such problems I only use my other computer for this blog...(paranoid much?-Ed)...well, no, it is actually going pear shaped on a regular basis...(fair enough-Ed)...I can't look at The Plan just now, but you can at: transportplan.sa.gov.au
My first thought: how much has this cost to produce?...as minimal as the information is on each of the 30 sheets...(and collectively-Ed)...someone has spent quite a bit of time on it, and as the sitting government, Labor can and has used taxpayers money to collate, print, promote and distribute this.
The whole thing puts me very much in mind of the Hospital Advisory Committee (Council?) meeting run by Grant King in late 2009 that carefully cobbled together proposed, theoretical, and actual services by mixing them across multiple slides to the extent that it was impossible to tell what it is, what it was, and what it shall be...a construct of misrepresentation and unaccountability designed to conjure confusion and avoid clarity.
On closer inspection, this 'Transport Plan' isn't actually 'a Plan' at all, but a
series of theories, ideas, suppositions and broad pseudo-statements that
grab Labor propaganda and cobble it together with mixed statements
about what Labor claims is happening, what's actually happening, and
what might happen at some point in the future...overall it can be summed
up by it's own oft repeated mantra 'What do you think about?'
Call me a cynic...(because you are-Ed)...but this looks very much like a pre-election self-promotion by Labor that carefully avoids the reality of what damage Labor have done to transport infrastructure and services, eg, nearly closing the Belair train services, the ongoing shambles with the 'electrified train service' to Seaford (south of Adelaide), the stupidity of clogging up Adelaide streets with trams, and the almost weekly on again/off again shenanigans with the Gawler rail line (to Adelaide's north).
And of course the abject failure of the Labor government to provide vaguely appropriate Transport in Regional South Australia barely rates a mention, eg, for Mt Gambier, where public buses only run on weekdays starting at 0900hrs, during term time stopping from 1500hrs to 1630hrs so the buses can be used for the school runs, and then stopping again by 1730...(and no buses at all weekends or public holidays, or any transport to the coast/beach 32kms away-Ed)...this bit piece, part-time service in SA's largest Regional centre is mentioned thus; "Continued support for Mount Gambier Provincial City Bus Services."
So no proposed change to the current woefully under-funded service, carefully worded to include the notion that Labor 'supports', when the actual sub-text is 'we probably won't pull the funding from that all together'...I refer to the previous post where I discussed the bunfight over the Bus Contract at the last state election in March 2010, when I exposed the lack of a 'contract renewal', was roundly abused for 'scare-mongering', but ultimately saved the bus service...again, I take 51% of the credit for that 'save'...
And yeah, come on Labor and Mt Gambier City Council, how's about running a bus to the beach during summer school holidays?...and the Grant District Council should get involved too because it could be great for businesses in Port MacDonnell...and the Plan also identifies 'Improved passenger transport that links centres across the region and to Adelaide'...and this quote seems to apply to everywhere outside the Greater Adelaide area.
I don't know to what degree or even if the State government 'supports Regional passenger transport', but surely a bus to/from the coast/beach is a simple enough thing to organise...as I understand it, 'over-time wages' are a real problem in providing a weekend service, but it seems good enough for Adelaide to have public transport on weekends so why not Mt Gambier?...what about a partial single bus service for weekends that runs the usual routes but half as often?...and slightly extended hours that would allow people to use the bus to get to/from work?...(ah, to dream, to dream-Ed)...
But The Plan doesn't just avoid specific definition of what is and/or isn't currently happening, it includes these things under 'The future is...', eg, the ongoing farce with electrified train services is avoided by referring to it constantly as something potentially ahead of us...(and they do that exact manipulation with the South East rail network-Ed)...how so?...(well, this incredibly critical piece of transport and economic infrastructure gets one line on the 'Limestone Coast Region' info sheet, under Freight Rail - Preservation of the South-east rail corridor for potential future freight demand-Ed)...of course prefaced with 'What do you think about...'
Not one word of actual plan...I don't know how much further one can get from a statement of intent, but I'd suggest that 'potential future' would be close...potential future...possibly maybe...And no mention of rail passenger services at all...and what does this mean for the infamous Easement through the Old Rail Lands in Mt Gambier that has already been re-zoned to Commercial/Retail/Community Use?
I'm quietly confident that I won't be the only person dismissing this 'Plan' as a grossly inappropriate misuse of public funds to promote the state Labor Party only 4 months out from a South Australian state election...(enter the Liberal Party stage far right-Ed)...Far Right; I like it...and yes that's who I'm thinking of, but spare a thought if you will for those alleged Independents who will be running as Labor stooges...I wonder if they'll go The Plan or quietly ignore it.
More Plan Tomorrow, but today is also,
Armistice Day: in 1918...and when now, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month we acknowledge those killed whilst in the service of their country...and in the case of my grandfathers (now deceased) who both survived the Second World War, it was just another day of not needing to be reminded about the horrors they had witnessed.
In honour of my grandfathers...they did grow old and at the going down of the sun and in the morning they did remember...
I view with great dis-ease the recent focus on the Victorian Crosses presented to Australian soldiers for service in Afghanistan...I don't question the conduct or 'bravery' of the recipients, but I do challenge the sub-text that it is somehow something to be aspired to...I am deeply cynical of the manipulation and expendable nature of Australian personnel in conflicts conducted by the very people who dish out the shiny trinkets...and then tell me to aspire to this ideal...
It's just not my place to question the person who went in under enemy fire and dragged their injured mate clear, or took on a machine gun emplacement to save their pinned down unit, etc...we all know that if we were lying out there bleeding, or our child was, we'd want them to come get us too...but when I start looking at who it was that put those people in those positions, and why, well those people I have no problem in questioning.
It is also not my place to tell individuals what they should think about their own involvement and what they think of the gaols achieved or otherwise...my opinion is just that, mine, and what others have experienced is for them to define.
As per my post re Anzac Day, out of loyalty and respect for my own grandfathers, I cannot and will not participate in an increasingly Nationalistic attitude to the slaughter of not just our own young people, but the thousands affected by their/our actions...
Also today in 1975 the then Governor General John Kerr 'sacked' Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam...(and his government-Ed)...after the Liberals 'blocked supply'...and then installed Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister, leading to 2 great moments in Australian TV history...1) the famous line from a departing Gough, 'God save the Queen, because nothing will save the Governor General', and 2) 'reporter' Norman Gunston (aka actor Gary McDonald) getting his infamous 'shaving cuts and toilet paper' mug (face) all up in Gough's grill and shizzle...now that's television people, not this relentless 'Reality' bullshit...
Tomorrow: ADTP Part II
Obviously more of the same only different...(yay-Ed)...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters
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