...(because that's what South Australia's ICAC is designed for after all-Ed)...well exactly Ed, exactly...and a big TMGI howdy in Bulgaria, the USofA, Bangladesh, and Latvia, and cheers to y'all else all elsewhere...it's a very short, sharp post today because the game is as obvious as it is afoot...(whaaa?-Ed)...the game is afoot, the game is currently being played-out...(oh oh, right, I get it, it's happening as we converse-Ed)...yeah, and by it's very existence makes itself immediately obvious...('as obvious as it is afoot', nice, I'm going to use it in conversation-Ed)...be my guest...
Another bludgeoning week just passed, what with yet another Court appearance, mini-heatwave, extended family visitationing...(is this where I say 'we love them 'cos they're family, but sometimes...'-Ed)...indeed, or as I like to say, 'we love to see them back, but eventually we love to see them backs'...(you ol' poet you-Ed)...and there's the physical reality of being occupied effectively all day every day with said visitationings...(and of course the bizarre Court stuff continues-Ed)...indeed, and I surely don't handle the heat at all well these days either...(what I can't understand is how The Border Watch newspaper had direct quotes from your latest Court hearing, 'cos I didn't see a TBW person in the Court proper or even in the building-Ed)...yes, I'm keen to learn myself just exactly how that is done, so how's about...
Tomorrow: Holding Court With Notorious N.I.C.
But as for today's simple post, well, it's simple...just over two weeks ago Mt Gambier Mayor Andrew Lee was in the news re some seriously dodgy dealings with his Chinese business partner whilst in China on a Ratepayer funded trip in early 2016, the Mayor's subsequent part-purchase of a Coonawarra winery, and failings by Mayor Lee to disclose ownership and/or income, etc, etc, ad infinitum...sus' as all get-out...and this was reported in The Advertiser, and then 'responded' to in the Mt Gambier media...(and like, wow!-Ed)...not 'like wow!' Ed, exactly wow!...one of the worst, arguably the most pathetically inept 'Dorothy Dixer', armchair-ride interviews I've ever heard on the wholly corrupted Mt Gambier ABC Radio... (sus' - suspect)
Mayor Lee repeatedly contradicted himself to the point that I actually lost track of what he was saying...first and most critical was 'I've got rid of my business (restaurant?) to concentrate on being Mayor', a statement that appeared to go entirely unchallenged by the ABC...(but the whole thing was about Lee buying into a business?-Ed)...well exactly, so why wasn't he held to account on that?...(and doesn't he have other businesses as well?-Ed)...apparently, but he doesn't want to talk about that/those...(oh well that's ok then, if he doesn't want to talk about them, I'm sure it's because that's all fine, just fine-Ed)...indeed, just super-fine I'm sure...and then it was an incoherent ramble through Mr Lee's various assertions about his own honesty and integrity...(well if he says so-Ed)...and I've no idea what was going on re the meeting in China, because Mr Lee seemed to say he wasn't there, but then that he was, but purely socially, and that he didn't speak to his business partner about the winery they co-owned only months later...(wow! with a strewth! chaser-Ed)...it gets better...
Mayor Lee, having been outed for not declaring income from said winery, stated 1) that he didn't realise that he needed to declare it...(I find that very hard to believe-Ed)...you and every other actual person in Mt Gambier...and then 2) that it wasn't actually a breach because he still had 5 days left to declare...(so he'd been sitting on it for several weeks, but hadn't declared it?-Ed)...apparently, but the real jewel in this crown of interviews was Andrew's attempts to laugh-it-up by stating that he wanted to 'thank the journo for pointing-out to me my careless omission because otherwise I would have forgotten to declare that income'...(I personally cannot stop laughing-Ed)...again, you and every other actual person in this town...
But even more bizarre...(how did I know, how did we all know that you were going to say that?-Ed)...were Mayor Lee's statements re that reportage in The Advertiser, because he seemed to be saying that they had contacted him for comment, that he had then corrected and/or explained the situation/allegations, but that The Advertiser had proceeded to print the story they did, with those allegations...(but if he'd spoken to The Advertiser and explained the supposedly appropriate 'facts' and the newspaper then went ahead and knowingly printed those non-truths, then isn't that defamation of Mayor Lee by the paper?-Ed)...well quite, Mayor Lee clearly stated that The Advertiser had printed things he had told them were untrue, things that clearly bring the Mayor's reputation and credibility into question...and that right there's 'Defamation 101'...
The entire interview was one long infomercial for Explain-Away, it neatly white-washes over those nasty allegations and unsightly improprieties, Explain-Away...a mind-numbing traipse through accountability and away out the other side entirely unscathed...pathetic...and then comes the truly, truly bizarre response from Mt Gambier City Council to this extraordinary conduct by the Mayor...(here we go, you're smiling, this'll be good-Ed)...only if you call the crassly conspiratorial collusion of carefully constructed criminality to completely cover-up City Council corruption good, if you call that good, because apart from that it's exactly as I just described it...(yeah yeah, 'Mt Gambier City Council acting corruptly', whatevs dude, we've heard it all before and it's like saying 'this steak is beefy'-Ed)...no, this isn't them just being corrupt amongst themselves with the litany of corrupt Tenders often involving the rankly criminal Nepotism stuff, the raft of Councillors 'Conflict of Interest' issues, usually ignored, etc, etc, what they've done this time directly breaches the ICAC Act 2012...(as I said before, yeah yeah, Mt Gambier City Council acting with wantonly corrupt disregard for legislation, what's new?-Ed)...this is different, this is very different, this is the ICAC...(let's pretend like I don't understand what that means exactly, and explain it to me-Ed)...sure...
Corrupt, Nepotistic Tenders and various other internal rorts and corruptions, are all very much against the law, supposedly, but the Independent Commission Against Corruption and associated ICAC Act 2012 specifically governs elected and other public officials, and includes very specific sections/directions stating that any public official/politician/whatevs, they are all absolutely obliged to report any concerns re corruption, malfeasance, etc, and that there is not to be any discussion of those allegations, the report, who's involved, etc, etc...(who are you sir, so learned in the ways of ICAC?-Ed)...I'm the dude who went to ICAC Commissioner Bruce Lander's totes-hilarious One Man Comedy Roadshow, ways back in November 2016, where-in The Big Bruce-kowski clearly stated that this is how it was to be so...(clear as mud-Ed)...simple, if you're a politician/Councillor/public servant/whatevs you are obliged under the ICAC Act 2012, you are obliged to report any concerns/suspicions/incidents/whatevs, to the ICAC, possibly via the Office for Public Integrity, whatevs, but you are obliged to report, bound by law to report, and then obliged to shut-the-hell-up, bound by law to shut-the-hell-up...(I think I can see the problem here-Ed)...away you go champ...(cheers-Ed)...
(Well, in it's broadest sense, the allegations should have gone straight to the OPI/ICAC, and then no-one should say anything about it-Ed)...that is exactly accurate mate...(it's way out-of-bounds for Mt Gambier City Council to do what they've done and hold a 'secret meeting' to discuss this-Ed)...absolutely in direct contradiction of the ICAC Act 2012...(there is no discussion to be had, MGCC and/or individual Councillors were/are obliged to report, it's not open to debate, and then it's not to be discussed-Ed)...and leading on from that, why did MGCC put this 'secret meeting' in their official 'Minutes', for it then to be reported by TBW, itself a further breach of ICAC Act 2012?...(the whole thing really reeks mate, and I mean like really reeks-Ed)...and welcome to The Game...
The Game:...is about taking the rank corruption of the Mt Gambier City Council and burying it for years in the wholly corrupted SA ICAC...SA ICAC is where SA corruption goes to hide...just look at the rankly corrupt 'Gillman Land Sale' farce from SA ICAC...(and the 2 year pseudo-investigation and exoneration of Labor Minister Jennifer Rankine and her subsequent outrageous outburst in State Parliament, using Parliamentary Privilege to rail against a journalist and call directly for SAPol (police) to arrest him!-Ed)...that's the one, right there...(now that's corrupt!-Ed)...and that's The Game we are playing now...(ahhh, I get it now-Ed)...go on then...
(Well we don't know who tipped-off The Advertiser, but it's likely one of 2 things, namely, 1) a very disgruntled employee has had a gutful, and apparently MGCC is currently festooned with angry soon-to-be-ex-employees and others abundantly under-whelmed by Council and it's wholly Nepotistic corruption, etc, etc-Ed)...well, it's certainly possible..(but it's far more likely that, 2) someone from within Council has deliberately exposed these relatively minor infractions by Mayor Lee, as a way of getting in front of the current wave of community fury, etc, and shutting-down any further discussion on any of Council's multiple corruption-related issues/allegations-Ed)...bingo!...(and that's why they had to have that meeting, and the wholly complicit The Border Watch reported it, to get that discussion point out into the public consciousness, 'it's gone to the ICAC'-Ed)...spot on Ed, but still one more step...(ummm, because now McShane et al can and will unofficially refer/defer to this alleged ICAC investigation, whilst officially stating that he/they cannot comment-Ed)...cannot comment until?...(until he/Council gets official written permission from the ICAC Commissioner that they're allowed to talk about it, then it'll be 'we're allowed to say that we cannot talk about it'-Ed)...and here endeth the lesson...
And CEO Mighty Marky Mark McShenanigans is gunna' have to be known as CEO Mark 'Sgt Shultz' McShane because he apparently 'knows nothing' about any of it...(and neither does Wattle Range Mayor Peter Gandolfi, even though he was at that same dinner party in China-Ed)...whatta' joke...this whole thing is a reeking, rotten set-up, be it right from the
beginning or in response to a genuine complaint, whatevs, this is now
100% about burying Mt Gambier City Council's corruption in the ICAC for
years...and this is exactly what the SA ICAC is designed to do, threaten
genuine Whistleblowers and make genuine Whisleblowing effectively
illegal, whilst providing a haven for the rankly corrupt, people the
like of Mt Gambier City Council...(mmm, indeed that does smell very Gamey-Ed)...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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