Hello and welcome to the blog...let's call it post 398...and at 0935hrs it was a balmy 38C here in Mt Gambier, but at least it's fairly cool at night...(yay-Ed)...
Feedback: In yesterday's post I was not criticising Mrs Daw of Penola re the Fracking stuff, or particularly for her clear dislike of my 'activism' and/or style and/or blog...I had fully intended to blog about calling the 'Anti-Frackers' anyway as per the whole purpose of the call, that conversation is just how things panned out.
What I do find extremely concerning is her position re the 'relationships' that she is relying on to stop the Fracking when they are exactly the same relationships that see the drill rig already on site and drilling...I do not blame Mrs Daw for being deceived, manipulated and betrayed by people who are telling her they agree and will help, but the reality is on site, on schedule, and nobody in South Australian politics is going to lift a finger to stop it...(well nobody who counts-Ed)...quite.
I refer to Liberal MLC David Ridgway 'weasel wording' his way around the Liberals support for Fracking by trotting out the vacuous propaganda about 'no actual Fracking yet', 'no contamination', 'it's all good', etc, on ABC Radio last Tuesday 28th January 2014...if these are the people Mrs Daw is relying on then there is genuine cause for concern.
At best it sounded like David Ridgway was having a bet each way, vaguely opposing whilst not criticising, and there-in lies a glimmer of hope...possibly, just possibly Mr Ridgway is bitterly opposed to Fracking but doesn't want to show his hand until after the election and thus avoid unpleasant retaliation from Fracking proponents...(you don't actually believe that do you?-Ed)...no, just saying because it's also the sort of excuse I'd be offering Mrs Daw and others to justify my lack of opposition...
I clearly heard Liberal Mitch Williams on ABC Radio several weeks ago and he was openly supportive of Fracking which I believe is the genuine Liberal position...Labor openly support it...neither give a stuff about the South East.
People Aren't Wearing Enough Hats: and even then it's often those dinky little baseball cap style things that offer no protection/cover to the back of the neck, back of ears, etc, and very little real shade to the face area...also a lot of singlet work, etc, instead of collared shirts...these areas are often highly exposed for long periods,and subsequently vulnerable to skin cancers, particularly the back/top of ears.
Having had two 'regressed malignant melanoma' moles removed 18 years ago and several other 'iffy' moles since, I urge people to wear a wide brimmed hat, preferably with a 'Foreign Legion' flap down the back and a collared shirt, don't sunbake, stay in the shade, definitely never use a tanning bed or booth, etc...I know that this is all very unsexy and unfashionable but then so is skin cancer.
The irony in the opening statement is derived from the opening feature The Crimson Permanent Assurance...(from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life movie-Ed)...where an American corporate board are presented with the latest research re 1) People Aren't Wearing Enough Hats, and 2) a definitive statement about what The Meaning of Life really is...and they're more interested in the hats...scripted then as being sublimely ridiculous, it is ironically relevant in modern Australian life...(wear a bloody hat mate, it's not rocket surgery-Ed).
From Shadow To Shade: And at what point does a shadow become shade...(I'd suggest when it starts to get hot-Ed)...but it can be hot at night when there are many shadows but no shade...(I don't know, moving on-Ed).
The Rail Lands Concept Plan: was launched by Council with great fanfare, eg, a grand display and press
conference, etc, in November 2011, nearly 7 years after originally being
'gifted' the site, and was always, in all ways, an outright lie conceived and constructed by City Council to distract from the $11million+ Main Corner Project fiasco with it's (RLCP) $10million price tag.
The RLCP is a farcical work of fiction. Across multiple posts I have proven beyond question what Council has really been doing with the site, and I call that reality the Rail Lands Retail Agenda...I note that the information currently coming out of Council changes every time it's reported...(that could be the reportage by The Border Watch-Ed)...could be but isn't.
I note that Council keeps referring to different stages and jumps from 'it's budgeted' to 'we hope to get funding' and the amounts keep changing and that there is, even if you believe every announcement from Council and add them all up, only $4million total to be spent...furthermore, there is no money budgeted beyond the current works.
In TBW Wednesday 29th January 2014, Council's 'Regulatory Services Manager'....(whatever that means-Ed)...Micheal Silvy openly states that Council has applied for and 'hopes' to get government funding that will help to pay for the "second stage" which should cost about the same as the first, namely 'another $2million'.
Council's Budget Capital Works forecasts re the Rail Lands state $1.65m in 2013/14 and only $650,000 for 2014/15...(but that's only $2.3m all up...and didn't they get a $1million grant?-Ed)...yep, and doubled their borrowing capacity...and that's supposedly all for 'stage 1'...the whole thing is a text-book lesson in how Council just makes shizzle up as they go along, with the full and complicit support of TBW...
I am very concerned that the article 29/01/2014 talks about '3 stages' of which the tree planting, etc, is 'stage 2', along with renovations of various structures on the site...and even more concerned that article doesn't even mention the historic old Rail Station.
(So Council has burned what money it did have pointlessly removing rails, sleepers, moving the Easement, etc, whilst claiming they don't know whether or not they're liable for the cost of potential replacement)...yep...(clearly doesn't have the money to do what they claim they're going to do next)...yep...(and there's some vague, undefined, entirely unfunded '3rd stage' somewhere over the horizon-Ed)...exactly.
(And you're still convinced that the entire current works are purely about clearing the footprint for the Shopping Centre expansion that Council has openly pursued with multiple plans and appropriate rezoning to Retail/Commercial, but constantly denied?-Ed)...absolutely, no question...lie after lie, millions of dollars already wasted...and all for what?
I believe that Council will use the justification that they have just 'created' a parkland at the Old Hospital Site and the massive debt problems they have also created with the Hospital demolition and the Library and Main Corner massive budget blowouts and ludicrous running costs, etc, will use these to justify selling the Rail Lands site to a developer, or far worse, develop it themselves...(oh god no-Ed)...the rest of it is just lies...lie after lie after lie...
Enough for today but there will be more and I have covered the Rail Lands Retail Agenda in many previous posts...if you don't accept my brief summation of events please read those posts.
Tomorrow: Wind Turbine Latest and Stuff
Thanks for joining us today...I am your host Nick Fletcher and that's Ed...(ciao-Ed)...and this is our blog...cheers and laters...
(I'm not actually real, but don't tell him that, cheers-Ed).
No comments:
Post a Comment