Dear Incoming Council, Here Comes The Pain

And it ain't me I'm talkin' about, The Pain is the vast and insurmountable wall of debt that this incoming Council has inherited from the last Council, combined with a series of unfunded and partially completed projects...a departing Council defined by it's fiscal incompetence and litanous corruption...('litanous'?-Ed)...if you wrote a list of what they've done, it'd be a definitive study in small town local government corruption starting with the Mayor and CEO, and downward from there...

Hello one and all and welcome to The Mount Gambier Independent 2.0, the Re-Boot...following the fragmented spasmodic postings of recent times, and my renewed decision to produce this 'ere blog, well, 'ere it is then...and I'm gunna have my work cut out just to catch-up with some of the stuff that's happened recently, eg, the latest changes to the Sow Strayn Independent Commission Against Corruption and their farcical carry-on about improving protection for Whistelblowers...(isn't that Federal legislation?-Ed)...I reckon their both talking about it...

And talking about it is about all they'll do...it's vacuous lip-service to 'Rights' to alleged protection that we as citizens don't really have now, and talking about 'improving' this legislation is completely ignoring the realities of how this shizzle currently plays out...for example, I made official reports via the official Sow Strayn Authorities about the clearly self-evident, epidemic, rank corruption in Mt Gambier City Council, and that was allegedly investigated and entirely cleared by the relevant official Authority despite the fact that these issues have been/are in TBW, Council Minutes, etc, etc, and it's then me that gets my home raided by SAPol Anti-Corruption detectives and my laptop seized as "evidence" whilst being told "expect to be charged"...

And even though I still haven't been charged, more than 6 months after this critically necessary raid, I can't say the Authority's name re this heinous crime what I done do, apparently, because that "might" be contravening the legislation that I have apparently transgressed, but I can't name/identify/discuss that either because that would immediately identify said Authority, etc, etc...(I know we've been through this before, but it just doesn't get any less bizarre and quite frankly scary-Ed)...damn straight scary...this Authority has absolute power above and beyond the unaccountable power of SAPol...

But to kick-off the re-vitalised blog, a classic 'vested interests' letter in The Border Watch...(oh not Graham Greenwood again, nobodies surprised to hear/see him churn out yet another rank chunk of pro-Council dross-Ed)...no no, far better than that...(better than that?-Ed)...indeed...here comes yet another self-appointed 'Community Group' to save the day...(oh boy-Ed)...oh yeah, and I just about fell over when I read it because right there's so much of what I've been talking about right here on this 'ere blog...(yeah mate , I just read that too, whatta' joke-Ed)...a joke with no punchline... 

Regular availees to the blog will be aware of my predictions that Council will move to 'restore' the Old Laundry on the now otherwise demolished Old Hospital site up on that thar' hill, and spend a fortune doing it, and it will involve a Councillor's relative...(deadset...all the ingredients are there...getting Council to finance a restaurant and use Kirby Shearing to do it...unbeshreckinlievable-Ed)...and then onto more money for the Rail Lands and some ridiculous nonsense about a lift down into the Blue Lake...I'll cover these at length tomorrow in Part II...

This is yet another blatant attempt to ambush public debate and attempt to manipulate the agenda with another self-appointed group acting on behalf of the vested interests that have caused so much damage to Mt Gambier with their greed and corruption...it's exactly the same as the recently announced Tourism Taskforce Roundtable Working Party thingy with Steve Perryman, Rory McEwen et al...both of these 'organisations' are clumsy and obvious attempts to use some farcical self-appointed group to push the Agenda on behalf of Council...

OMG: because I thought I was having a 'Brown Acid'  flashback (referencing Woodstock) when our charming Foreign Minister went into the United Nations Security Council and told the world to stop dragging their heels when it comes to addressing the current Ebola crisis in West Africa...(sorry what? us here in Oz, or more specifically the Tony Abbott Liberal government, have been absolutely recalcitrant even darn-right obstructionist when it comes to addressing Ebola...who the shreck are we to criticise others?-Ed)...hence the OMG...(OMG? more like WTF-Ed)...yeah, fair enough...

We in Oz have initially chucked small change at the problem ($20million qpprox), officially blocked our own people getting involved officially (meaning they'd not be covered by the government, etc), and then have given $100m(?) to a private company to set up a clinic in Sierra Leone...(sorry for the bad pun, but it's a bit like we/the Liberals are trying to wash our/their hands of the problem, ie, we've hand-balled it to a private company rather than deal with it ourselves-Ed)...indeed...why don't we send a large military medical unit or 2 and financially 'justify' it by using it as a hard-core training exercise?...(that's a great idea-Ed)...even if you do say so myself...

(Is this where you make note again that I'm not an actual person but a confected literary device?-Ed)...yeah, sorry, just quickly...(go on then-Ed)...ta'...Ed is not a person, well not another person...this 'ere shizzle is all my work, Nick Fletcher's work, and I use Ed as a way of creating a discussion, discussing conflicting views, setting up jokes...(oh we do jokes? I hadn't noticed-Ed)...and yes, you've never used that joke before either...but seriously, TMGI is just me regurgitating life as I experience it and Ed is I and I alone...

Furthermore, we've introduced (Oz has, not Ed and I) tough new restrictions for people coming into the country from West Africa, restrictions that don't ignore but rather far over-reach international guidelines that infection from indirect exposure is not likely, and screening procedures currently in place are sufficient to pick-up symptomatic travellers...and Australia has been officially named as a country that hasn't done enough...and yet off the back of all that, Ms Bishop felt it was appropriate to hold forth, berating the rest of the world for what we are 'guilty' of...     

Rusty Nails It: saw some reportage of a Russell 'Rusty' Crowe interview (Aotearoa (NZ) actor, eg, Gladiator, often called an Aussie) from last night in which he stated re Gallipoli that 'we invaded a Sovereign Nation'...and highly experienced  interviewer Mike Willesee stated that he'd 'never heard it put like that before'...(well then he's clearly not been reading this ' ere blog because you're always bangin' on about that shizzle, eg, 'we were sent as expendable cannon-fodder to serve British interests in invading a Sovereign nation, namely Turkey'-Ed)...yes I have said that on occasion...and as observed on Morning TV by host 'Kochie', the Turks were only defending their own country, and that these truths don't take away from the ideas of ANZAC...'get in there you Colonials as cannon-fodder' he said (paraphrase).

Tomorrow: DICHCTP Part II

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...