Open Letter To The Residents & Ratepayers Of Mt Gambier & Districts

 Hi, hope you're all well and stayin' cool if that's your thing, etc etc...short post, not least of all 'cos I just can't be bothered right this moment to do more...(also, everything here-in is effectively a reference to multiple other posts on said issue/topic-Ed)...well exactly, and in that vein, let us open with this cut-'n'-pasted 'Reply/Comment' I left this morning on the Most Excellent Mt Gambier & Districts Residents and Ratepayers Association Facebook page...(I've included the MEMGDRRA 'Comment' for context-Ed)...cheers, good idea...***

MEMGDRRA 'Comment'

Unfortunately this is the case. The ability to investigate, remove them and place the Council under administration is purely up to the Minister. Comments on here about community "vote of no-confidence", "petitions" etc. are not readily applicable. People need to write directly to the Councillors to express their displeasure and then vote them out if they don't get adequate responses. Sad but true!

My 'Reply/Comment' 

Mount Gambier & District Residents and Ratepayers Association Inc. Apologies for repeating myself, but in late 2013 I submitted official, document-supported reports/complaints to Don Pegler (then Member for Mt Gambier) and the Ombudsman re some of the litany of 'Corrupt' actions by Mt Gambier City Council, eg, Insider Trading, Nepotism, Theft, that I'd witnessed while attending MGCC meetings, etc. By law those reports had to be sent to ICAC, who then did almost nothing before completely exonerating MGCC. ICAC and SAPOl then came after me via SAPol 'Operation Baritone', raiding my home, changing the ICAC Act to prosecute me in a 4 year trial, etc etc, before 'Convicting' me in my absence. 'The Minister' knows exactly what diabolical financial trouble MGCC/Ratepayers are in, and exactly how they/We got here, and that's exactly why 'The Minister' will never act. The last thing the State Government wants to do is bail-out Mt Gambier. Cheers, Nick. 

***And that right there pretty-much sums it all up, albeit it in a very polite 'Facebooky' sort of way...regular availees will understand why for me, it's a very short, very thick, very dark line between any 'Corruption' issue and the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...(oh, did I mention? they've put out a book, last year I reckon, celebrating 40 years of St Martins-Ed)...have they..(yes indeed they have-Ed)...well bully for them...anything for 2002?...(well certainly nothing about sacking teacher Glyn Dorling for grooming and physically abusing the 7 year olds in that class, and then acting to cover-up that abuse, etc-Ed)...well I'm sure it's just an unfortunate oversight and they'll acknowledge the truth in the 80 years edition...regular availees will also understand from the tone and content, that we here at TMGI The Blog are not in a particularly good mood today...(mood schmood, it changes nothing of the factual accuracy of the content, merely steers the phrasing somewhat toward the ribaldly direct-Ed)..."ribaldly direct", nice, but Language Warning, I'm not sure that saying "they've fucked everything beyond repair" is strictly 'ribald'...(well cooeee Capt Pedantic-Ed)...let's move on...oh, and End Language Warning...

1) It's Too Late Baby Now It's Too Late:...the damage is done long, long ago...going back across at least 2 decades, I have personally witnessed the relentless, Institutionalised Corruption of Mt Gambier City Council, so there's a vast history of Corruption in MGCC, in the Elected Members, in MGCC's senior paid staff, and a resultant litany of Insider Trading, Nepotism, Fraud, Maladministration, etc, before you even get to Wulanda...

2) That Shizzle Has Sailed:...Mt Gambier's new 'Outdoor 50m Pool' reminds me of an Aussie beach...(how so?-Ed)...well from above it looks it's sunbathing topless in a thong...(aha, is that a witty reference to the fact that there's only a tiny strip of shade-sail awning over the shallow end and the rest is entirely exposed to wind/rain/cancer-causing UV, that sortta' stuff?-Ed)...yep, all anybody really wanted was an 'Indoor 50m Pool', and $100+million later, there's no cover and it's still closed half the year due to heating/running costs...(and that money is long gone but the debt will remain for the foreseeable forever, and all the MGCC lies/deceits/gaslighting and gross Maladministration, all of that, it's all done-Ed)...indeed it is, now all that remains is the continuing MGCC deceits/lies/maladministration, the upward-spiralling debt, and all the associated secrecy, etc etc...

3) No-one Is Coming To Save You:...certainly not the pathetic 'Minister', who-evs that is this week...besides, these stooges are all the same animal, and they all know, Labor/Liberal/Alleged Independent/whatevs, you don't get allowed into the barrel of monkeys that is the South Australian Parliament unless you're already rotten, unless you play the game their way, unless you are complicit...

And if y'all think I'm being a bit heavy-handed with the 'complicit' stuff, bear with me, we'll get there...I routinely go back and read old posts, get a few paragraphs in and go 'strewth, angry old man much'...(but then get a few paragraphs further and quickly re-evaluate to, 'strewth, no wonder you're angry'?-Ed)...precisely, as cathartic as it can be to get some of this stuff out there, re-reading can be re-traumatising...but we digress... 

4) Run For Council:...off ya' trot, best of luck to ya's...it's a carefully 'fixed' Liberal-dominated structure and once on there you will toe-the-line/remain silent/be rendered complicit, or be subjected to bullying/harassment/actual legal threats from MGCC...three potential candidates have asked my advice on running, and I pointed them to MGCC's very chequered history of Corruption, but more importantly, the MGCC 'Secrecy Provisions'...(as I understand it that includes Councillors being required to officially 'Log' any random convo they have with some random down the street or at the supermarket, etc-Ed)...terrific, but I was referring to the much more concerning and very specific 'Gaol Time For Talking About Council Business' provisions...(oh it's all fabulous stuff, and all done in the best possible taste-Ed)...sure, and each of those 3 came back to me and said 'thanks, I had no idea, I ain't stickin' my beautiful neck in that noose'...(that's a very specific sentence for 3 unrelated randoms to say-Ed)...paraphrasing mate...

5) Wouldn't Touch It With A Ten Foot Pole:...MGCC has such an appalling reputation that no-one who truly understands wants to be dragged into it...there wasn't a single candidate for Mayor last election, only the incumbent, so no-one got to vote for or against anyone at all...and this 'No Candidates', it wasn't a glowing acknowledgement marking years of high achievement, stunning success, it was straight-out 'I ain't touchin' that'...(the year you ran for Mayor, was it 2014?-Ed)...yep, 2014...(10 years ago now, wow...anyway, in 2014 how many candidates?-Ed)...8...(8?-Ed)...yeah 8, me included, and 2 serving Councillors, 5 others...and point there is, some people have said that I should've run for Councillor instead and I'd have likely got in...(but then as a Councillor you'd have been effectively silenced, upto and including having to stop this 'ere blog, by MGCC's extraordinary, self-imposed 'Capital' sanctions re even discussing MGCC business-Ed)...as I explained, and each person has conceded that as validating my unlikely tilt at Mayordom-ness rather than Councillor...  

6) Did We Mention 'Complicit'?-...'cos that's arguably the biggest hurdle that anyone faces when trying to address MGCC's Institutionalised Corruption, how complicit everyone else is...take for example, the South Australian Independent Commission Against Corruption...(I got this, as described above, and in multiple posts on TMGI The Blog and TMGI Facebook, the ICAC, under the specific direction of Commissioner Bruce Lander, did a 1-hour/2-chats 'investigation' of MGCC, nothing recorded, no hearings, no Elected Members even spoken to, etc, then completely exonerated MGCC of any and all 'Corruption'-Ed)...and then...(and then, under the specific control/direction of Comm Lander, ICAC investigated you/us/this 'ere blog, and then Comm Lander directly personally referred you/us/this 'ere blog to SAPol's Anti-Corruption Branch-Ed)...and then?...(and then SAPol 'Operation Baritone' specifically about you/us/this 'ere blog, 4 years in Court being prosecuted by SAPol, etc etc etc-Ed)...yeah fair enough, it's all here in other posts if y'all wanna' read more detail...

So when 'sorting-out' the problems with the FARC, you not only have to sort-out all of MGCC's Corruption, but you also have to sort-out the levels of corruption demonstrated by, for example, ICAC and it's unequivocal protection of and support for MGCC's Corruption...

And I'll go a step further and state that my 'Conviction', as it happened in February 2018, was the ICAC giving MGCC a big fat green-light to indulge in even more rampant Corruption, and that it is no coincidence that literally that week in February 2018 Liberal MP Tony Pasin, former MGCC Councillor and himself directly complicit in MGCC's Corrupt Conduct, that's when Tony started his now notorious 'Mt Gambier Must Have An Indoor Pool' campaign...(big call, but fair-Ed)...yes it is...

I genuinely believe that all involved were simultaneously celebrating and congratulating themselves, etc, thinking that with my 'Conviction' TMGI was effectively over, would be shutdown by the Court, etc...(and/or that you'd give up, but yeah, the trial farce was definably about shutting-up you/us/this 'ere blog-Ed)...and that this 'Conviction' and forced silence meant open slather on even more intense, voluminous MGCC Corruption..(and here comes Tony's $39.1m Indoor Pool that realises as a $100+m debasco (debacle/fiasco)-Ed)...yep...(yeah, it is an extraordinary coincidence of timing-Ed)...well, as I'm stating here, I don't believe there is any coincidence at all... 

So I lay-down this specific but very simple challenge to any Mt Gambier City Council Elected Member, past or present...and I don't wanna' hear "oh gee whiz I would, really I would, but MGCC has reams of really strict 'Secrecy/Confidentiality' rules"...(but they do have reams of rules-Ed)...sure, but what I do want to see/hear is one single person publicly state that it's not appropriate for MGCC to utilise 'Secrecy Clauses' and alleged 'Commercial Confidentiality' to effectively hide the truth about the cost of the FARC (Farcical Aquatic Recreation Centre)...(sometimes called Wulanda-Ed)...fine, Wulanda...(or 'The White Elephant'-Ed)...okay...(or the 'Oh My God What Have We Done!'-Ed)...you done? yeah? and I know I'm wasting both our's time dear availee even raising this challenge, 'cos it just ain't gunna' happen...

Language Warning:...I'll give a singular fuck if and when one of these fine upstanding members of our beloved City, all of whom supposedly love our beloved City the mostest, like totes love it, when one says enough is enough, and quits...when a current Mt Gambier City Council Elected Member quits, then I'll stop using catch-all terms like 'Complicit'...End Language Warning... 

And to the Residents & Ratepayers and associated other Citizens, I'm not advocating giving-up, quite the contrary, have at it good Madams and/or Sirs, MGCC deserve everything they cop, but I want everyone to be intimately awares of what and or whom you all are up against when trying to get a straight answer...(indeed any answer-Ed)...from Mt Gambier City Council, let alone that they be held accountable for their conduct...please do carry forward, be concerned/frustrated/incensed, but never resigned, never ever give-in...in the immortal words of that great woman and/or man, "don't give the bastards the satisfaction"...(I believe it was Ghandi-Ed)...no it wasn't you idiot...

Tomorrow: Gourd Knows

Nah seriously, only certainty is that it's not likely 'tomorrow' at all, rather, see you in April sort of thing...TMGI The Blog still is, obviously, but TMGI Facebook is more regular...

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