In Case Anyone Needs Reminding: I would like to acknowledge that for all my Grinching across the festive season, I had a roof over my head, plenty of food for me and the dog...(and Aristotle the Axolotyl, and the fish-Ed)...well certainly...and petrol in my little registered and insured car, and clothes on my back, and a fridge, a TV, etc, etc...all the material things that so many millions don't have everyday.
As previously stated, I never lose sight of the fact that for all the bollocks I've been through...(and in many circumstances have been deliberately put through by others-Ed)...yeah, sometimes...I live in a society/culture where we provide support to others who find themselves knocked down if not out...and again, that's the society I want to live in, that's the society that I strive to maintain, and where it fails or doesn't exist, to improve and achieve...
But what I see happening legislatively at Federal, State, and even Local Government levels is a concerted effort to re-establish a firm divide between the haves and the have-nots, a divide that can be accurately described as a 'class structure'...it is absolutely unacceptable that basic services are being slashed in Aboriginal Health and Legal Services, the Disability Support Pension...(that is currently a 'poverty line income but still well above Newstart-Ed)...indeed...and Mental Health and Alcohol and other Drug Services, all Regional services, eg, Court access, PATS, etc, etc, whilst 'middle-class' welfare is being expanded, politicians wages massively increased, etc...
And it doesn't matter which side you pick because, apart from the lunatic fringes, Labor and Liberal are completely indistinguishable...eg, Labor under Julia Gillard axed the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme, forced mums onto NewStart Allowance when their youngest turns 8, etc...but I digress...
I See Icy Sea Shepherds: The Australian government has either 1) cowered from a potential diplomatic row with Japan, a row in which Oz is perhaps being a tad hypocritical given our fondness for Cetaceous Slaughter right up to the 1970s when we started to actually run out of whales, or, 2) has tacitly expressed support for the Sea Shepherd organisation and done them and the whales a huge favour...(whaaa?...the Oz government have refused to send a monitoring ship to Antarctica...how is that helping?-Ed)...
Well, if there was an 'official' ship present, that would heavily compromise Sea Shepherd's ability to act and give the whalers the wriggle room of deferring to 'international regulation' whilst they continue to whale...(ok, sure-Ed)...with no 'official' ship on hand to intervene, this gives Sea Shepherd all the justification they need to act in ways that no 'official' ship could even contemplate...(fair enough, but you don't really believe that this is a deliberate strategy of support?-Ed)...no, that bit was just a joke.
For Balance: it has been put to me, quite demonstratively, in fact quite tersely, in fact quite rudely...(oh you poor thing-Ed)...that I'm absolutely wrong about there currently being a vast majority of paedophile inmates at Mt Gambier Gaol and it's never been the case, and that they are all returned to Adelaide, they're not moving into Mt Gambier...not ever...the words 'conspiracy theory' were mentioned several times...(oh well that is plain rude-Ed)...quite.
And the identifiable credibility of the information is the same accreditation that immediately undermines it...(sorry, what?-Ed)...the information would claim to be based on extensive experience within the Adelaide corrections system, and so it is, and therein lies the credibility...but that information is therefore effectively the 'official line' from a South Australian government authority via someone working 'within' that system...(and that immediately compromises the credibility because of the state government's proven history of deceits-Ed)...exactly...
It's an opinion based on information emanating from Adelaide, made without specific access to the reality of what is happening on the ground...(and in the shipping containers-Ed)...here in Mt Gambier and our shiny new Gaol Expansion...and conflicts greatly with yet another 'allegation/rumour' that has crossed my path, namely that when a local family recently reported a small child missing from home, they were shocked by the sudden proliferation of SAPol officers on their front lawn.
It is alleged the police response was explained as being so robust and immediate because that street was considered a 'high-risk area' due to the proximity of 'paedophile housing' or supported housing for paedophiles, whatevs...I emphasise that at this stage this is just another amongst many such rumours that I regularly hear...but I digress, again...
Clear As Mud: could be the alternative title for this post, or even 'Look, Nothing To See Here'...either would accurately describe City Council's latest attempt to fake Public Consultation and/or Transparency as reported in The Border Watch Tuesday 31st December 2013, 'Confidential items to be released' (attached below, sorry about orientation).
(This is a joke you are playing at me yes?-Ed)...I wish, this is apparently serious...ridiculous but serious...this vacuous rhetoric about 'enhancing ratepayer connection' is a whole lot of puff and absolutely no substance...and flies in the face of how Council has definably behaved re public consultation and the expenditure of ratepayers money, as covered in numerous previous posts here in TMGI...
This 'Confidential Item Register' is an attempt to address the criticism Council is receiving about their cavalier and self-serving decision processes...it's nothing but a cynical joke...even in that uncredited article Council CEO Mark McShane's own admission is that 'some items would remain in confidence' to be 'perpetually reviewed'...and all of the Workshops info and minutes, etc, is largely irrelevant and typical of the 'un-threatening information' that will be provided to bulk out this alleged new strategy.
Furthermore, it only goes back to April 2011 so therefore does not include any of the stuff related to the Library and Main Corner projects and the associated massive cost blowouts and missing monies, etc.
I'm sorry...my tolerance is slipping a little, but I'm not just lashing out at Council, this entire production, from inception to implementation to reportage is absolute waffle, poppycock and balderdash...I don't believe that anyone is going to be fooled by it...nobody I've spoken to is...
Tomorrow: Mo' Rail Lands Retail Agenda Nonsense
Can't help but laugh when I see issues raised in this here blog feebly countered by articles in The Border Watch, and so it is with the latest Rail Lands article in TBW.
I am Nick Fletcher and this is arguably at least the second greatest blog in the history of large, angry, hippies...and it's mine, mine I tells ya'...laters.
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