Hello and Happy New Year to y'all...just another day quite frankly, and one where I'm glad to wake up but can't help feelin' that I'd be a whole lot happier to be doin' that wakin' up somewhere other than Mt Gambier...anywhere other...given recent events around the City, I'm not sure exactly what people were planning to celebrate...(ya' know, normally I'd be suggestin' that ya' harden the shreck up and/or stop being such a grumpy ol' man, etc, but on this occasion, well, I'm kinda' with ya' on this one...what are we celebrating exactly?-Ed)...
In the closing weeks/months of 2014 there were multiple trés casual announcements dropped just quietly into the mix of the usual frenzy of deceit and corruption that has defined the conduct of all 3 levels of government, starting with Mt Gambier City Council, multiple other senior local officials, on up through the Labor state government with it's now irrelevant turncoat Ministers Geoff Brock and Martin Hamilton-Smith, and a wholly pointless, complicit Liberal Party...and so on into federal politics, where again, there's far more 'complicit' than 'conflict'...(this is about the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up again, isn't it?-Ed)...when is it not?...(as much as I usually hate a question answered with a question, fair enough-Ed)...
And tell me it's just me when I look at the front page of The Border Watch Tuesday 23rd December2014, and there right above the headline 'Prison blues Mount Gambier MP criticises major expansion plan', re this latest scurrilous announcement, immediately above that is a big photo of our charming local Liberal Member for Barker, Tony Pasin, a key player in the St Martins Cover-up, with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop...(also a key player in the St Martins Cover-up-Ed)...indeed, the pair of them are aware of the St Martins Cover-up and have chosen to be part of it...and there they are with a bunch of local school student leaders lined-up on the tarmac at the Mt Gambier Airport for Ms Bishop's recent visit to the South East...(yay-Ed)...
I also note with some seguing concern that several blocks of land have been sold in the very odd little re-zoned area along the Nelson Rd, right on Mt Gambier's Southern boundary...just in passing I mentioned this to someone re my comments that 'at least someone is selling their property in Mt Gambier' given low house prices, flagging land sales, etc, and in response it was stated/alleged to me that these blocks belong to Mr Pasin and/or his family and as such were another albeit small part of the many very corrupted Bunnings/Penola Rd/Re-zoning issues, as covered in previous posts...
The Bunnings case shows absolutely complicit behaviour between multiple Councillors and senior staff on both Mt Gambier City and Grant District Councils, collusion and corruption conducted with the full support of the Labor state government and then planning Minister Paul Holloway...I do not know, but it was stated to me as fact that these blocks/this land was/is Tony Pasin's and that this farming area was re-zoned into these blocks despite assurances to other home owners in previously re-zoned adjoining properties that this would remain forever farmland...there has also been discussion of the state government buying land to build on for 'support housing' for the massively expanding Mt Gambier Gaol...
Surely it cannot be the case that our 'local' federal Member Tony Pasin has 1) been involved in corrupt land re-zonings whilst a local Councillor, and then 2) sold those blocks to the state government for 3) housing for sexual offenders being 're-socialised' in Mt Gambier...(and that on top of his complicit silence re the St Martins Cover-up-Ed)...indeed...and the 'sexual offenders being dumped in Mt Gambier via the gaol' issue is the one that continues to be officially denied but locally obvious...just have a real look yourself at some of the very problematic looking men shambling about Mt Gambier and hangin' out at the Centro Plaza, etc...
In an act of the most cynical contempt towards Mt Gambier and it's residents, it was very quietly, very casually announced via the Adelaide media (TV News on the Sunday evening 21st December and then Monday morning 22nd on ABC Radio being broadcast from Adelaide) that the Mt Gambier Gaol was going to be expanded by nearly 200 more prisoners, on top of the recent/current expansion of roughly the same number...and an ever so casual passing comment by Minister Tony Piccolo that the Weatherill Labor strategy to deal with burgeoning prisoner numbers is to do even "further expansions"...
I absolutely guarantee you that this means yet more expansions in Mt Gambier on top of last weeks 190+ inmate increase announcement...snuck into the news cycle days out from Xmas...
On the same Sunday evening (Monday? sorry) I caught a bit of a story about a 'new tourism campaign for the Limestone Coast'...the bit that I saw showed an upward shot from inside Umpherston Cave but nothing else I recognised of Mt Gambier and I didn't see the Blue Lake at all...could've missed that bit or it might have been stock footage from the TV station for their own story, whatevs, but I searched and apologies cannot find the story or anything more recent than early 2014 re some other 'Limestone Coast' alleged Tourism promotion...have a search ya'self but I couldn't find what I was lookin' for...
I mention this because there continue to be produced a series of Tourism items that seem to be trying to not actually mention and/or show Mt Gambier and/or the regions no1 Tourism icon...(a day-trip 'round your opinions?-Ed)...my opinions? in one day?...(yeah sorry, one day, what am I sayin'?-Ed)...no no, the Blue Lake...(oh yeah-Ed)...lookin' at one 60 page A4 size book that only mentions the Blue Lake in a section separate to the Mt Gambier bit, and the photo in the brief MG section shows a couple sitting on a bench with a wafer-thin wedge of blue behind/beyond them that could be any bend in any river anywhere...(or a very clean toilet somewhere-Ed)...and gives no indication of the extraordinary sight that the Blue Lake can truly be on any given day, Electric Light Blue in high-Summer or Steely Bruised Green of deep-Winter...
Why aren't we doing a massive Tourism campaign re the Cave Diving and Southern Ocean and the whole 'come and stand in a volcano and bathe in the glory of you're own insignificance' thing and gettin' people here all year to enjoy all the great gear we have near abouts to offer...and crazy as it sounds that means including the Blue Lake...even local tourism stuff produced by Council clearly identifies several Council run attractions but doesn't identify the Blue Lake Kiosk/Aquifer Tours thingy...it's almost like Council's trying to ignore it's there as well...(and I'd suggest further proof is the run-down condition of the 20-30 years and older look-outs around the Lakes Area, several of which were built by local service groups in the first place-Ed)...indeed, for the South Easts premier Tourism icon, it is all pretty amatuerish and shabby...
Saw federal Labor's Kate Ellis (from South Australia) whinging about federal Liberal government cuts to funding this/funding that/whatevs in SA, and bemoaning the Sow Strayn Liberals and their lack of complaining about their fed counterparts...(but SA Labor have trumped up $100millions of their own cuts and tried to blame it all on the federal Liberal cuts that are happening, many of which PM Tony 'The Mad Monk' Abbott promised would never happen...can't trust any of them-Ed)...indeed...and Kate sayeth, "all we've heard from the SA Liberals is silence, and too much of it"...you figure it out, I can't...
And state Health Minister Jack 'The Rat' Snelling was on radio this morning warmly congratulating himself and Labor for their $2.5m increase to the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme...to a grand total of approx $10m per annum for the entire Regional SA...and as Jack proudly trumpetted, this is nearly a 30% increase on funding that hasn't been increased for over a decade...saying it as though it's something great that they've done for us poor plebs, acting to right someone else's heinous trespass against us...(but they've been the government in this state for that entire decade, that's Labor's own trespass-Ed)...absolutely...
(So he was trying to big-up his own announcement about a pitiful increase to a fund that largely wouldn't need to exist if Labor hadn't so thoroughly rooted the Health System in this state and instead provided the much-needed proper infrastructure and services and specialists, etc, in Regional centres like Mt Gambier, rather than forcing people to travel 450kms (MG-Adelaide) for often relatively basic scans, treatments, etc, by highlighting/comparing this increase with what is actually his own failure to properly fund the PATS for over a decade?-Ed)...exactly...and it's pitiful increases at best, with 'accommodation allowance' up from $30 to $40 per night and no mention I heard of any increase to the farcically low 16c/km 'travel allowance'...
Tomorrow: Tidying-Up A Few Loose Ends
That stuff about the complicit and deceitful language used by people like TBW and Sandra Winter-Dewhirst, etc, as covered in some recent posts...
Result: as just now announced on WIN TV 90 Second Ad Break News Service as sourced from TBW, the Saturday Rotary Market will not be moving from it's current site at the ol' Fletcher Jones building to the Old Rail Platform, which itself has just been hugely and pointlessly extended...this 'move' has been repeatedly stated by Council and/or reported in TBW as being a done deal...(hey, we've covered that several times recently as one small plank in a raft of deceits, collusions, and crass corruptions re Mt Gambier City Council and the Rail Lands Retail Agenda-Ed)...indeed we have Ed...
And only yesterday I went for ma' first wee li'l ol' stroll round the heavily sodden ground that makes up the 'open section' of the Rail Lands at the Bay Rd end...after less than 10mm of rain 2 days before, water was still pooled across the many small swales of the lawned area and parts of the supposed paved area alongside the Old Station and platform...this is only one small part of what is a litany of disastrous decisions/works that define what a fundamentally incompetent and corrupt project this is, and in that context so very, very Mt Gambier City Council...
And yet again, I make these statements about corruption and collusion and deceit and disgrace re the Mt Gambier City Council in 2 contexts, namely 1) Confidence - that comes from standing in front of the truth and sayin' 'hey, what's this 'ere right behind me now...(ah, backing yourself up with a massive wall of albeit unpleasant truths...clever-Ed)...ta...and 2) Relevance - in that these claims apply only to those they be about and nought but they should take offense nor fear this 'ere blog...(so obviously there are those involved with Council whom are genuine in their intent and not the scummy little rats that you are pointing directly at-Ed)...truly, the only people who should take offense at these truths truly should...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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