The Theocratic Kleptocracy That Is Australia

Howdy dear availees in Poland, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Argentina , and welcome to a post about a range of issues that have reared their ugly heads in recent weeks...once again I can only apologise that I'm just grinding through the days at a fundamentally functioning pace, I was genuinely shocked that it's actually 10 days since the last post, could have sworn it was only maybe 6-7...(had a bit of a shocker then?-Ed)...yeah, literally, and upon reflection there's no single issue I can identify, but the George Pell Appeal stuff is an obvious place to start...(is that because George Pell is such a personified and confronting reminder of the Pro-Paedophile Corruption that seems to define Australian 'society'-Ed)...well exactly, and even if I detach myself from his personal PPC, eg, years of moving paedophile priests and supporting them at Court, etc, or the absurdly unworkable internal investigation stuff of the 'Melbourne Response', or even his personal conviction for Child Abuse, there's all the associated stuff...(do you mean the rancid Right-Wing posturing from nasty li'l 'Nut-Jobs' like Andrew Bolt, Miranda Devine, Tony Abbott, John Howard, etc, etc, et al, all railing about how unfair poor ol' George is being treated?-Ed)...yeah, quite extraordinary, and I'd like to defer to 2 others in summarising my position on this pro-Pell 'reportage' from the morons at Sky News and the Murdoch Press, et al...

Firstly, from the lawyer representing the victim/witness in the Pell trial/verdict, I paraphrase thusly...**after an extensive police investigation, involving the Director of Public Prosecutions, etc, and then a lengthy trial where-in Pell's lawyer extensively cross-examined the victim/witness, etc, following which a judge and jury found Pell guilty of Child Abuse, etc, and after a thorough review the Appeal Court has dismissed all 13 alleged grounds for Appeal, by a 2-to-1 majority, etc, etc, it is therefore an unsupportable nonsense for professional arse-hats like Andrew Bolt to sneeringly whine about how unfair it's all been on poor ol' George, particularly given that said arse-hats weren't even present in the 'closed trial' and therefore haven't ever heard that evidence, etc**...(she didn't call Bolto an "arse-hat", surely?-Ed)...no no, that's my editorialising, but if the arse-hat fits, well...(good ol' Bolto, where everyone else might throw a hat into the ring, he brings the 'ring' to the hat-Ed)...nicely put Ed, witty word-play with just the right amount of scathing abuse...(hey, it's what we do-Ed)...or at least try to do...and I'll further paraphrase the Shaun Micallef Mad As Hell show, thusly...**it doesn't matter what way this eventually goes, whether Pell gets High Court-exonerated or the conviction stands, Sky and Murdoch et al will continue to decry the entire process as proving just how broken the Judicial System is, either by conviction or just that it's happened at all...it's a win-win for them**...(nicely observed, and we direct dear availees to that most recent MAH episode of 21st August 2019-Ed)...just another true word spoken in jest... 

(But what I don't understand is why was a retired Appeal Court judge enlisted to the Pell Appeal Court, only to then call the witness/victim a liar, etc?-Ed)...yes, indeed, and you ain't the only one who's asking that question...(I bet-Ed)...and I ain't the only one who views that appointment and resultant dissenting opinion/vote with abject cynicism and deep concern...(indeed?-Ed)...yep, because it reeks of being a deliberate construct that gives the current/serving Magistrates the position of insulated correctness in dismissing the farcical Appeal, yet simultaneously sets-up the grounds for a further Appeal to the High Court...(ahhh, based on the Dissenting Decision of the 'ring-in' Magistrate-Ed)...exactly, and whilst I see/hear this quite rightly being discussed, I didn't need it explained to me 'cos my extensive personal experiences of the Pro-Paedophile Corruption of the Australian Political System and/or Judicial System makes me wholly cynical of the entire process...(are you referring to your "bizarre trial" and 'Corrupt Conviction' for breaching SA's Farcically corrupt ICAC Act 2012?-Ed)...partly, sure...(a 'Conviction' that came even after you proved in Court that that "bizarre trial" was a "Malicious Prosecution" motivated by an official agenda of retribution/punishment for your speaking-out on SA's Institutionalised Pro-Paedophile Corruption?-Ed)...yep...(Institutionalised Pro-Paedophile Corruption as irrefutably defined by the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up?-Ed)...amongst many such examples, yes...     

Orchestrated Obfuscation:...so call me a deeply traumatised cynic, because that's exactly what I am, but always remember...(a Cynic is what an Optimist calls a Realist?-Ed)...well quite, but more to the point, I ain't just jumpin'  on someone elses' bandwagon, I'm sayin' what I'm saying about my personal concerns with this Pell Appeal situation because my life has become all-but-forfeit to exactly what this looks like, to this sort of (potentially) orchestrated Pro-Paedophile Corruption...and, of course, nothing would make me happier than to be absolutely wrong about this...(here's to being very, very wrong-Ed)...yes, here's to...and PM Scott 'Scummo' Morison can take his crock-a-shit crocodile tears about the poor li'l kiddies gettin' abused and the poor li'l adult survivors of abuse, etc, Scummo can take that rancid politically-expedient fakery and go stand next to his 'mentor' and good buddy Brian 'No Problem Here' Houston, who is rancidly complicit in covering-up Child Abuse within their precious Pentecostal Church...(fine upstanding White Men and pillars of their community-Ed)...sure, when-and-if it suits them politically and doesn't compromise the definable financial benefits of this sanctimonious hypocrisy, etc, etc...and meanwhile, elsewhere...

Literally On His Soap Box:...shreckin'  Barnaby Joyce, not satisfied with the relentless hypocrisy of opposing Marriage Equality because he believed in the "traditional model of marriage", he was literally on a box outside New South Wales Parliament wailing about the evils of Legalised Abortion...(you mean the 'model' where the husband effectively owns the wife who is required to dutifully run the household and incubate the offspring, etc, whilst he has affairs if he feels like it, usually with his staff/employees, then dumps the wife and kids, etc, etc-Ed)...yeah, like I said, the "traditional model", and then after jumping the help, eg, his office manager Vicki, organises her jobs in colleague's offices, etc...then when she was pregnant, Barnaby's first port-of-call was to say he didn't know whether he's the father or not...(ahhh, slut-shaming your new partner, classy Barnyard, real classy-Ed)...and of course there's the rancid corruption of the Murray-Darling Water Rorts with his mate Angus Taylor...(yeah sure, but let's back it up a bit there, what about the child? and what about Vicki's former fiancee who is possibly, and according to Barnyardy 'likely' the actual father, etc, etc? what about their rights?-Ed)...gourd knows mate, valid points I'm sure, and it is appropriate to acknowledge them and their rights, etc, but I got enough on my plate with the officially sanctioned corruption of the Watergate Rorts stuff, etc...

Some have suggested quite facetiously that Joycey, mate, he oughta' be the Minister for Home Affairs...(and fair enough, but can we just quickly make the point that, whilst there are obviously issues of employer/employee power-imbalance in any such relationship, we're not presenting Vicki as any sort of victim here, for all we know she was the 'instigator/pursuer/whatevs'-Ed)...sure, another valid point, and I agree, "whatevs", the issue here is very specifically about the rank hypocrisy of Barny's very public political position as it compared to his personal conduct...(and furthermore, can we also identify that Barny ain't exactly Robinson Crusoe when it comes to this sort of behaviour, let-alone for that specific hypocrisy regarding the Marriage Equality vs Traditional Marriage debate, and that there are plenty of others involved who have Little-to-be-Proud of, wink wink-Ed)...ah yes, that hilariously snide observation about the similar conduct of LNP Minister David Littleproud, but as you say, it wouldn't be fair to jab accusatory fingers at just them, it's a very large and well-crewed boat that one...but we digress, sort of...      

Completely Appropriate I'm Sure:...that Peter 'Spud' Dutton investigates himself via a $7m internal audit, an audit that then gets kudos from Scott Morrison & Co because it only cost $5m...(hang on, so Home Affairs were handed at least $5m to investigate themselves?-Ed)...yep...(and then found themselves to be without fault or failing?-Ed)...absolutely...(and there's completely no corruption in Home Affairs, no handing-out dodgy visas to au-pairs and escorts/prostitutes and convicted drug dealers who pay $80,000 bribes, etc, none of that actually happened?-Ed)...well I dunno'...(what do you mean you dunno'?-Ed)...well I'm not sure whether the self-audit concluded that that stuff didn't happen, or whether it decided that all that visa corruption stuff, that that's all just fine...(but it did happen! it all happened mate, it is well documented that there were dodgy visas for mates au-pairs and/or 'escorts' and at least one Get-Outta'-Gaol For $80k visa for a convicted dealer in immigration detention!-Ed)...well there's your answer then...(what??!!-Ed)...if that stuff actually happened, and it clearly did, but then Home Affairs gives itself a big tick of creamy goodness, then by definition, Spuddo and HA are saying that that official corruption is all completely appropriate, and all done in the best possible taste...(wow-Ed)...well quite...and of course it ain't the first time Spuddos got to investigate/exonerate himself, because it was his deciding vote in Parliament that meant that he wasn't referred to the High Court re his personal financial position/associations...(yay, Vote 1, Appropriate Scrutiny-Ed)...yay...  

And don't get me started about the supposed 'independence' of the Australian Federal Police, particularly in relation to Home Affairs, and most particularly in relation to the undeniably politicised role the AFP has played in these recent Media Raids...hands up if y'all believe that former AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty is gunna' find any corruption associated with Barny or Angus or any other water-rorting son-of a-gun...(sorry, whaaa?-Ed)...didn't you hear, Mick Keelty has been appointed the Northern Basin Commissioner, largely to investigate the disastrous Murray-Darling Basin Agreement and related allegations of Water Buy-backs Rorting and other corruption of that ilk...(you've got to be joking-Ed)...I think the appointment is the actual joke here...and for his part, Angus Taylor flatly refused to answer questions in Parliament about this stuff and/or his direct and clearly corrupt dealings with illegal land clearing and influencing NSW legislators to change the relevant laws, etc, etc...this stuff is widely covered in other media, so feel free to check it out in greater detail if you wanna' dear availees...anyhoos, when Angus got tired of refusing to answer, the Speaker helped him out by ruling any further questions "out of order"...(well, what are mates for, mate?-Ed)...running the Federal Parliament impartially and to the benefit of the Australian public not members of the LNP?...(haha, nice one man-Ed)...I wasn't joking...(oh, well then I can't help you-Ed)...

Also, Witness K has now pleaded guilty to the spuriously corrupt charges against him, and let us never forget what that supposed crime was, exposing former Liberal Foreign Minister Alexander 'The Bugger' Downer for having used Australian Intelligence Agencies to bug the East Timorese Parliament so's that Downer could get confidential insider information on behalf of his soon-to-be employer Woodside Petroleum...(ah that's right, when the LNP lost the 2007 Federal Election, and that Career Fop Downsy had a massive dummy-spit, quitting the Parliament because he just wasn't going to be subjected to the common-muckery of Opposition, and went to work for Woodside-Ed)...when not working for the CIA, apparently/allegedly...(wouldn't surprise me-Ed)...and equally complicit, good ol' Julie Bishop as LNP Foreign Minister cancelled Witness K's passport so that he couldn't travel to The Hague to give evidence to that International Inquiry into the bugging...this prosecution is blatant retribution for exposing the corrupt truth, and a deeply embarrassing indictment of just how corrupt our Federal Parliament is...

Classic Scummo:...to try and pretend he's doing something about Climate Change and pollution, etc, despite the fact that the LNP don't believe in any of that tree-hugging Leftist claptrap, our illustrious PM announces he's banning export of our 'recyclables' to countries that have already banned the import of said waste...(you couldn't make this shizzle up man-Ed)...well you don't need to with Scummo and the LNP at the helm...

And yet more news of a Liberal/National Party staffer being sexually assaulted by a senior colleague...(oh not this story again, this was doin' the news rounds months ago, can't the media find anything new to flog the LNP about?-Ed)...no, your obvious sarcasm aside, this is yet another story that just sounds exactly the same as several previous because it is more of the same, and similarly there are no answers from the LNP...(wasn't our mate Barnaby involved in publicly outing a senior LNP figure for her allegations that he had assaulted her?-Ed)...yep, got to love those 'traditional values'...  

And the crowning turds on this most recent massive pile of Institutionalised Politico-Corruption, is the newish Labor leader Anthony 'Eggs Over' Albanese stating outright that he has "never seen any corruption in Federal Parliament"...(oh come on man, if you're gunna sling abuse, at least make it believable 'cos nobody's gunna' believe he said that-Ed)......(insert stony silence and bemused stare here)......(am I to take it from that stony silence and bemused stare that that's exactly what 'Eggs Over' said?-Ed)...take it and run with it mate, it's exactly what he said, coinciding as it did with our Nouvo-Fascist Federal Parliament flatly refusing to instigate any sort of ICAC, let-alone a genuinely Independent one...(so an ICAC completely different to our charming Pro-Political Corruption Protection model here in SA?-Ed)...hmmm...(an ICAC which we like to wittily refer to as the Insidious Commissioner Assisting Corruption-Ed)...albeit someone else's joke, but as we said before, if the mocking abuse fits...so, 1) no corruption according to Eggs Over, 2) no Federal ICAC, and now 3) new bipartisan laws that protect Federal politicians from their own criminality and/or corruption...(from a Federal Parliament currently controlled by fundamentalist Christians-Ed)...and the mining Lobby like Gina Rinehart, Twiggy Forrester, and of course the Murdoch Media Mafia, etc, etc...Average Joe don't get a look-in, let-alone any hope...

But my very own personal fav this week was the extraordinary hypocrisy of My Bestie And Also In His Spare Time ICAC Commissioner Bruce Lander, following his Public Integrity Survey called 'In Their Own Words'...and I quote;
     "There should be no risk to those who speak up about inappropriate conduct."
...(wow-Ed)...wow don't come into it, and Bruce is quoted as saying that he's not seen any actual examples of the bullying though...(strewth!-Ed)...exactly, it's a farcical denial and redefining of our bestie Bruce mate's own deplorable conduct, not least of all as evidenced by his complicit collusion in my Pro-Paedophile Political Persecution...(when he conducted that faux ICAC 2013/14 investigation into Mt Gambier City Council's Institutionalised Corruption?-Ed)...yep...(the official ICAC investigation of an entire SA Council that was only 2 unrecorded 'chats', one with you held in a cafe with 6-8 people sitting within earshot, and the other with MGCC CEO Mark McShane in a hallway at the Adelaide Convention Centre?-Ed)...as I proved in Court during my "bizarre trial"...(and then Bruce completely exonerated MGCC of any and all bare-faced criminalities?-Ed)...indeed...(but then referred you to the Director of Public Prosecutions and SAPol Anti-Corruption Branch for daring to blog about this farcically corrupt faux-investigation?-Ed)...precisely...ICAC Comm Bruce Lander conducted a proven fake inquiry into MGCC, then initiated a vast official persecution of the 'Whistleblower', namely moi..."there should be no risk", get stuffed...

And by vast I mean the extraordinary existence of my very own personal ICAC/SAPol 'Operation Baritone', starting approx early February 2014...then SAPol Anti-Corruption Branch raiding my home in May 2014...then, in response to probing questions from my Legal Eagles, Bruce colluding with Labor's Attorney-General li'l Johnny Rau to change the ICAC Act 2012 via SA Parliament to allow for me to be prosecuted...as then followed by a "bizarre trial" (The Border Watch) that was started in February 2015 without me being 'Charged' or even Summonsed, etc, etc, and then went through 3 Magistrates across more than 3 years of over 30 hearing dates plus 10-12 days of full 'trial', etc, etc, etc, regular availees have read all this before...this huge effort to ignore what needed to be ignored, eg, when I proved "Malicious Prosecution" (Magistrate Teresa Anderson), and then that SAPol Prosecutions was lying, both proven in Court and both officially ignored...all culminating in the truly corrupted 'Conviction' of February-April 2018 and the ludicrous outcome of being fined $540,000, albeit commuted to 260hrs of Community Service, etc, etc...this was and remains absolute Pro-Paedophile Political Persecution as instigated, enabled, and controlled by the rankly corrupt ICAC Comm Bruce Lander...this is what ICAC did to me, a private citizen, for having the audacity to tell the absolute truth about Institutionalised Corruption..."no risk", what a shreckin' joke... 

Tomorrow: Back To The FARC

Yet another post in the recent series about the relentlessly corrupt Farcical Aquatic Recreation Centre process currently being foisted on ever-suffering Ratepayers by the ever-corrupt MGCC...and undoubtedly we will also have some other Pro-Paedophile Corruption stuff...(what about some plain ol' Corruption?-Ed)...sorry mate, I am increasingly of the belief that there's no such thing as "plain old", there's just so much Pro-Paedophile Corruption at play at all levels of government...(fair enough-Ed)...

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

Welcome To The Bungle - The FARC Realities

Howdy dear availees in Iraq, Bangladesh, France, and Ireland, and to y'all elsewhere...today we're gunna' follow straight-on from the previous post about the $40m Farcical Aquatic Recreation Centre...(ah yes, the FARC, unquestionably a litany of deceits, rorts and/or bungles-Ed)..."and/or", what do you mean 'or'?...(well I was just acknowledging what you've said many times before about the Deliberate Incompetence aspect of the perpetual rorting of Ratepayers by Mt Gambier City Council-Ed)...ah yes, the stuff about apparently deliberately stuffing-up projects and then forking-out more of Ratepayer's hard-earned to 'fix' those 'mistakes'...(exactly, like the multiple drainage works done on the Rail Lands, was it just the incremental incompetence of MGCC planners, or was it deliberate?-Ed)...mmm, either way it cost a fortune, sure, but I'd argue that the original massive and wholly unnecessary earthworks done on that site was the original and predominant rort...(well why have only one?-Ed)...fair point...(and that's not even counting the huge expenditure in early 2006 when MGCC spent gourd-knows how much on those extensive architect-designed plans for Retail/Commercial development on the site-Ed)...or all of the song and dance in late 2011 when MGCC launched the $10m Parklands Concept Plan with a highly publicised public launch and all it's associated coloured pamphlets, etc...(well quite-Ed)...and much of that stuff is available on previous posts on this 'ere blog, but we digress...

But it's only a mild digression when one considers the stark parallels between MGCC's diabolically deceitful and fundamentally incompetent handling of the Rail Lands, and the FARC issue...I refer dear availees to the previous post if y'all ain't read it yet, and to the related MGCC Agenda/Minutes from their FARC Special Meeting of Wednesday 23rd January 2019...to briefly reprise;
1)  MGCC has repeatedly discussed an 'Indoor Aquatic Centre', starting as far back as 1983, and
     stated quite specifically 25 years ago that an IAC was imminent;
2)  MGCC has then failed/refused to do that, instead producing multiple reports and/or official
     discussions (1983, 1995, 2004, 2006/07, etc), and instead spending well over $45million on,
      a) repeated re-vamps of the Town Hall/Main Corner, eg, the $12m+ Main Corner Project,
      b) $12m+ on a new Library and undisclosed millions on an associated massive Council
        Chambers renovation,
      c) $10m+ on the Rail Lands debasco that doesn't include many of the proposed features,
      d) nearly $10m on the Old Hospital Demolition and City Refurbishment (mostly paving);
3) in August 2013 MGCC again voted to 'defer' the IAC debate;
4) in 2016 MGCC officially removed the IAC issue from their agenda, and it does not appear in any
     of their multiple 'strategic plans';
5)  suddenly in early 2018 Liberal Member for Barker Tony Pasin resurrected the IAC issue;
6)  this IAC was going to be $8m in 2004, and was originally $25m for the 2018 version, which was
     then massively expanded to the current $40m+.

MGCC then organised a 'Community Steering Group' of their choosing...and as per usual I'd like to acknowledge that, whilst that CSG is clearly not independent of Council and is in many ways self-interested and/or biased, there are undoubtedly members of that group who are absolutely genuine in their belief that this is a positive thing and who act with genuine good intent...(and some who are biased and/or blinded to the realities because they are subjected to the same deceits and manipulations as the rest of us-Ed)...well quite, when referring to specific and deliberate deceits and manipulations, etc, I am of course referring directly to the role of Tony Pasin and MGCC, particularly former CEO Mark McShane...as with virtually all of these supposedly independent CSGs or 'Roundtables' or the like, they are inevitably loaded with and controlled by vested interests, with genuine participants scattered about but without any real clout...(and a perfect example was/is the ludicrously compromised Forestry Roundtable related to the Rann/Weatherill Labor sell-off of the South East Forestry Estate-Ed)...that, my friend, is indeed a perfect example, loaded with pro-Labor stooges and/or those who stood to directly profit...(as indeed they have-Ed)...well quite, as indeed they have...

And I'll repeat those undeniable truths, eg, I refer dear availees to the ABC South East report from 14th August 2013, where-in it quotes MGCC and a local IAC advocate...just Google it...then, in 2016, MGCC officially voted to remove the IAC issue from their various plans/agendas/whatevs, before it was suddenly resurrected by Tony Pasin in early 2018, and then a CSG was established, etc...prior to that MGCC had completely ignored and/or refused to act on the well-known public support for an IAC before then suddenly arguing that it was a 'ground-swell of public demand' that had generated the new plan...I have tried to pin-down that 'Official Dumping' of the IAC issue, but MGCC Agendas and Minutes from that time have been removed from the MGCC website...I apologise that I have not been bothered to go back through my reams of MGCC Agendas/Minutes from the dozens of Full Meetings that I attended across many years...however, I don't think it's asking too much of y'all dear availees to take me at my word that I was at that specific meeting and witnessed that 'Official Dumping'...the entire issue was officially dead and buried...again, please feel free to avail y'allselves of any of MGCC's multiple 'Plans', and y'all will see that there is no IAC anywhere in sight...(and that's why you use the term "resurrected", because it was completely gone, dead to rites, then suddenly SHAZZAM! it's back-Ed)...exactly...

After the IAC was resurrected there were very specific comments made by Tony Pasin and/or MGCC about the costs and/or funding, statements that were soon wholly contradicted...(does that make the original statements lies, or are the subsequent contradictions lies?-Ed)...great question, because absolute contradictions unequivocally define one part of that as a lie, and I'd suggest that whichever is the truth therefore by default identifies the lie...(ah yes, excellent-Ed)...so for example, when it is originally stated by Tony Pasin that;
     "...we will have more than one shot if we are not lucky enough to get the funding this time...it's not the only opportunity to source funding..."
...how does that then compare to MGCC's and/or Mark 'Mighty Marky Mark McShenanigans' McShane's repeated and borderline hysterical assertions that 'we'll never have the opportunity to access this sort of funding again'?...where-in lies the truth?...(hmmm, that's a tough one-Ed)...well hows about this one then, the drastically conflicting statements about the imminent and massive Rates rise to pay for MGCC's share of the FARC construction, let-alone it's running and maintenance...

It was originally reported (after the original public meeting in March 2018) that the Rates issue was raised relative to the impending Liberal state government's Rate-Capping Policy, and how that might "affect plans to raise rates to help fund (the) project"...(and the response?-Ed)...reportedly;
     "There are exemptions within the proposed rate capping policy and if they are prepared to
       provide State Government funding, the assumption would be they would allow the Mount
       Gambier City Council their own means to help fund the project by raising rates."
...this was further reported under "Financial Implication", namely;
     "Rate increases would be the most likely form of funding, outside of the grant etc which are
      for construction."
...which MGCC/McShane have repeatedly and completely contradicted with their recent statements that "there will be no Rate rises"...(indeed, it doesn't get any more contradictory than that-Ed)...and add that to MGCC's/McShane's definable lies about Ratepayer's share of the Construction Costs, stating that it's approx $9m, when MGCC has already committed Ratepayer's to $14-15m...(and that's if it doesn't go $$$squillions over-budget like everything else MGCC has done-Ed)...exactly,  

***(started this post yesterday Monday 12th August, and it was right aboutttttttt here! that I hit 'The Wall' and just saved this part-post, then closed the blog, switched off this 'ere computer box, and went-off to do something that brought 'pleasure' into my day...following advice, I try to do that every day...(we all should-Ed)...indeed, even if it's simple things like a walk in nature or the glorious simplicity of luxuriating under hot running water...(a hot shower is indeed a heck of a luxury when one doesn't have easy access to it-Ed)...absolutely it is...(in many respects it's a damn privilege-Ed)...exactly, and part of the life of relatively extraordinary luxury and privilege that I live for being born White and a Man in this Stolen Country...(I know we've discussed this stuff before, but I do think that is a very healthy attitude to have, based as it is on that cascading series of Absolute Truths-Ed)...and some days, at some point in the most average day, it's acknowledging these Truths and the resultant simple privileges that gets me through...(when all you manage is eat/wash/sleep, hopefully gym or a walk, shop if necessary? that sort of day?-Ed)...exactly, and whilst it can all be a bit average, I do try to follow that 'advice'...regular availees will recognise that this paragraph is as about trying to offer some sort of support/advice/guidance to others...(as much as it is also an indulgent wallowing in self-pity?-Ed)...well, it certainly strays into that territory, but why can't it be both?...(fair enough-Ed)...now, back to the actual post...***

But even these every specific statements only confuse the issue of 'funding' and 'Rate rises' as they relate to the Construction Costs vs Running Costs, itself likely to be near a $2m Net Loss, that is, after any income has been factored in...(sorry? let me see if I have this right, you're saying that even after all income is added, it's still gunna' be another $2m of Ratepayer's money needed to run it-Ed)...well that figure is my slightly expanded guesstimation based on the series of increasing Running Costs statements acknowledged by MGCC...(sorry?-Ed)...well in 2018 they started at $1m, then it was,"could be as high as $1.6m net loss to run such a facility", then back to $1.4m, and that then jumped to $1.8m, and recently back to $1.4m...(well I'm confused-Ed)...and back in 2013 MGCC was saying $1.8m-$2m...(ah yeah, but that was when they were looking for excuses to not do it-Ed)...absolutely, so what does it say when they're suddenly, relentlessly ramming it down people's throats but still acknowledging a yearly debt/loss of $1.4m-$1.8m?...(it says that it's likely to be more like $2m/pa, even more-Ed)...exactly...and the constant explanation of where that money is going to come from?...(well, simply by definition, if MGCC is paying for it then it's Ratepayer's money, and therefore most likely from increased Rates-Ed)...exactly, I refer back to that statement above, and that's where MGCC has openly contradicted themselves, originally stating 'it will need Rate increases', but then stating outright "no Rate increases"...               

And again, that doesn't include the Construction Costs MGCC is committing Ratepayers to...(hang on, but MGCC and their former CEO McShenanigans and current CEO Andrew 'Peddle To The' Meddle have furiously stated "no Rates increases", so what's with that then?-Ed)...well simple really, it's a lie, a flat-out, bare-faced lie...(super-Ed)...and it's such a lie that MGCC have already increased Rates to try and accumulate this farcical $5m Cash Surplus they reckon they'll have by 2021, $5m specifically for the FARC Construction Costs...(but we're in the frame for at least $14m share of the supposed $39m CC, so where's the other $9m coming from?-Ed)...slow down, 'cos you've just angrily trundled past yet another lie...(being?-Ed)...where MGCC and particularly McShane have said that Ratepayers/MGCC were only paying $9m Construction Costs...(but that's not true, it's clearly identified in that MGCC Special Meeting of 23rd January 2019, the meeting where-in MGCC, or rather those whom bothered to show-up, those 5 Councillors approved the 'Business Case' on the Agenda-Ed)...yep, they surely did...(and that 'Business Case/Funding Application' clearly identifies MGCC's commitment as $13.75m-Ed)...absolutely it does, but that didn't stop McShenanigans from going on the ABC South East the very next morning and lying through his teeth when asked that specific question, 'how is Council going to make-up that shortfall?'...

McShenanigans deliberately didn't identify the sudden $4m-$5m increase he/MGCC had just approved, instead he clearly stated, 'not a problem, we're gunna' go to the Basketball and/or Netball people and ask them to cough it up'...(but that's a lie! MGCC had already committed to $13.75m! was he absent as well?-Ed)...no no, he was there alright...(and was that $13.75m amount reported anywhere in the local media?-Ed)...not that I saw or heard mate, not then or since, otherwise y'all would've heard about it by now, right dear availees?...(but I have frequently heard and/or read you say exactly that, that McShenanigans lied about that Netball/Basketball stuff because MGCC had already committed to $14m-$15m-Ed)...indeed you have, but that was because I had deduced for myself that MGCC submitting a formal Business Case/Funding Application meant that they had to have done something to cover that $4m-$5m shortfall...(ahhh, of course, they couldn't submit that Case/Application without fully costing the project-Ed)...exactly...(and getting $15m not the $20m MGCC wanted from the Federal government meant a $5m gap that Council was obliged to close-Ed)...indeed, so when I heard McShenanigans carefully not identify that then blather-on about getting others to provide those funds, well...(well, you knew he was damn-well lying-Ed)...indeed he was, and indeed I did...

And dear availees, if y'all have done the homework I ever-so-politely suggested last post...(which was?-Ed)...and have gone to MGCC's website and read under AGENDAS AND MINUTES their Agenda for that Special Meeting 23rd January 2019...(ah yes-Ed)...y'all will have already perused the table on page 4 of 11 that identifies the $13.75m...(indeed I did, and then I scrolled through the many dozens of pages of attached documents and reports, etc, still haven't got to the end of it-Ed)...yes, all very impressive I'm sure, and I haven't finished it yet either, but I did pick-up some worrying dialogue about Potential Estimated Income being "assumed"...(and that's if everything goes really well-Ed)...well I think that's what they mean by 'assumed', assuming everything goes really well...what those documents clearly identify is the enormous expenditure on consultants, etc, and the documents/reports themselves, running into several million dollars...again I urge dear availees, if you've got the patience and the stomach for it, continue-on with those Agenda documents as best you can, it is very illuminating, and I'll try to synopsis it as best I can in the next post, eg, the calculations about what MGCC will borrow, therefore committing Ratepayers to re-paying, etc...

(Next post? we're not finished here yet, not even close...what about MGCC's current debts? don't we still owe money on the Library project?-Ed)...yep, $2m...(and?-Ed)...well according to those Agenda documents Council will or already has deferred that repayment for 5 years...(so does that mean accumulating no further interest on that $2m for 5 years?-Ed)...dunno'...(and that $2m is what's still owing 10 years after the Library was completed, so how much was borrowed then and/or how little have Ratepayers repaid in 10 years?-Ed)...dunno' either, but good questions...(and how does that then relate to repaying the minimum $10m Council will have to borrow for the FARC?-Ed)...again, one can only speculate, particularly given the secrecy, deceits, and manipulations that define this entire FARC process...(and we have barely moved forward chronologically with this, in fact, we're effectively going backwards with this Agenda stuff-Ed)...I know, but it's a massively convoluted process and the realities lie buried in the minutiae of that Agenda...(and we still haven't covered the gross manipulations and associated deceits of the farcical Postal Vote process-Ed)...sure, we'll get to that too, I did say this would take a series of posts...(that you did-Ed)...patience grasshopper...   
 
In the mean-whilst, nobody explains this 'Loans/Repayment' stuff better than MGCC themselves, albeit riddled with definable lies, and I therefore again urge dear availees to go onto Mt Gambier City Council's website, and this time also look under 'Community and Recreation Hub', and read it there for y'allselves...(I note they don't ever refer to the $13.75m figure-Ed)...hmmm, go figure...I realise that I'm setting a ton-a'-homework dear availees, but it is best that y'all read through this stuff for y'allselves because 1) y'all need to form your own opinions, by 2) being knowing of the details/facts as they are being presented...(or misrepresented-Ed)...precisely, not least-of-all because 3) otherwise I have to constantly provide/quote every li'l thing, eg, cut-'n-paste it all to support/prove my observations...(it all seems like a lotta' hard work to me-Ed)...correct knowledge usually is...(touche-Ed)...cheers...

Tomorrow: More FARC Nonsense

The Chamber Of Secretions:...I note with brimming belligerence but not a hint of surprise that MGCC have recently made a huge hue-and-cry in the local media, particularly a certain Councillor in a recent MGCC Full Meeting, and particularly as extensively reported in The Border Watch newspaper.........(about what?-Ed)...oh yeah, about the fact they weren't going to have 'Secret Meetings about the FARC'...(and let me guess, that "certain Councillor" who led the charge on this sudden reversal of attitude, a reversal given the current Council's penchant for hiding things from Ratepayers, hiding via 'Secret Meetings' and/or 'In Confidence' dealings within Council meetings-Ed)...as indeed they frequently do...(that that "certain Councillor" is the one you're not allowed to identify due to those "reprehensibly vile" politically motivated Final Intervention Orders as handed down by Magistrate Ian White, and as we covered at length in the previous post-Ed)...and many other posts to-boot...

Anyhoos, whilst there's plenty-enough right there to be belligerent about, that ludicrous 'openness' announcement, that's just the beginning...(how so?-Ed)...well, now, via a tiny article buried deep, TBW reports that MGCC intends to have 8 'Informal Meetings' across the next 2 months, effectively one a week...(and let me guess, 'Informal' actually means 'Secret', no public access/attendance-Ed)...spot on...(let me further guess that the subject matter will be the FARC-Ed)...amongst other things, but yep, the good ol' FARC...(so how does that render Council's recent billious statements about openness?-Ed)...well it just proves them to be what they always were...(ahhh, so absolute bollocks then-Ed)...absolute corrupt bollocks from serial liars...

And this further supports my recent observations about this disgraceful FIO and the direct intent of banning me from attending MGCC meetings, etc...(therefore denying you directly witnessing the litany of corruption that defines MGCC-Ed)...exactly, and how that ban impinges upon my right to attend public meetings, etc, but beyond that, how this FIO doesn't stop MGCC clumsily and arrogantly outing themselves in this exact manner...(and of course, the rankly corrupt MGCC know they can act so arrogantly because they know that the equally corrupt ICAC Commissioner Bruce Lander is gunna' protect them, again-Ed)..."again" of course referring to the ICAC's criminally deceitful and openly fraudulent October 2013 - January 2014 pseudo-investigation of MGCC...(where-in 2 unrecorded chats were the only 'investigation', and the only person actually charged was the 'Whistleblower', namely you-Ed)...which eventually led to the disgraceful Political FIOs that were/are intended to silence me on the issues of MGCC corruption, ABC corruption, and SAPol corruption...(and yet here we are-Ed)...well, one tries, one truly does...(and one says one because I'm just a confected literary device-Ed)...never say "just" Ed, never say "just", you are absolutely critical to this 'ere blog...(cheers mate-Ed)...         

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

What, The FARC Is Happening Now?

Howdy dear availees in Germany, the UK, Poland, and Ukraine, and y'all back here in dear ol' Oz...again, brief apologies for the latest blog-break, but instead of my own personal malaise*, it was pretty-much all due to technical and/or financial complications...(please explain-Ed)...oh, just needed new Interweb security program and then new Windows to run that, then a new wifi dongle 'cos that wouldn't work otherwise...(ah, so new stuff needed and the cost of that-Ed)...exactly, combined with the complication of not really knowing what I'm doing with this 'ere computer box thingy so there was some serious stuffing-about whilst figuring-out exactly why stuff wasn't working, etc...and it's also been a short, sharp reminder of my personal precarious position on the Disability Support Pension, a 'Welfare Payment'  relatively well-above the Dole (Unemployment Benefit)...(if you say "the best form of welfare is a job", I'm a gunna' job you mate, and when I say 'job', I mean punch you fair in the snout with absolute prejudice-Ed)...and fair enough, I'd thoroughly deserve it mate...(and of course, being a confected literary device, that is a metaphoric punch in the snout-Ed)...of course, that's a given mate, and dear availees understand that, as they also understand my Personal Gentleness, and that what I'm about to say is a metaphoric venting rather than a statement of absolute intent...

(**got a bit ahead of myself there...started this post early Saturday then collapsed into a draining slump for 2 days, and have literally forced myself back to this 'ere keyboard this morning (Monday)...no apologies for that, I'm doin' the best I can, and I do appreciate the continued support and requisite patience of regular availees, cheers...**)

The next smug, smirking, bigotted, self-righteous, happy-clapping, god-botherer who gets all up in my grill and shizzle and says "the best form of welfare is a job", is gunna' get slapped silly...(even sillier than they already are?-Ed)...if that's actually possible, yes...(and you are of course referring specifically to that serial smirk-fest looking for somewhere to happen, our illustrious Prime Minister Scott 'Scummo' Morrison-Ed)...well certainly, starting with him and working on down from there, but the one I saw/heard repeatedly yesterday was that trite piece of work Michaelia Cash viciously spitting it through those bitterly thin lips...(a truly despicable display from a thoroughly unlikeable person-Ed)...indeed...and just to completely clarify the metaphor, I ain't condoning or suggesting or anything else any acts of actual punching and/or slapping, it's an expression of disgust and frustration directed at these bigotted, entitled half-wits who get paid a base-rate $200,000pa, plus other expenses, with a Daily Sitting Allowance that is more per day than a full week of the Dole and can be spent/claimed whilst staying at their own properties in Canberra, etc...(and that's not even including chauffeured cars, rorting 'office funds' to refurbish private properties, printing allowances, etc, etc-Ed)...indeed, there's a long list...but it ain't just these two clowns, across the board the Liberal/National Party are spewing this disingenuous bigotted bile...

And before y'all contest that statement by saying, 'But what about Barnaby Joyce? he's calling for an increase', I'd ask you to consider just exactly how genuine he is...(or isn't-Ed)...my point precisely, ask y'allselves what it is that actually motivates our serial-rorting mate Barnaby to have this sudden epiphany and abruptly switch direction on this issue...(it almost looks like he's trying to generate some sort of sympathy with his alleged new-found empathy-Ed)...indeed, or at the very least distract away from any of the multiple rorting issues that define his conduct in Federal Parliament...(and I'd suggest that it's exactly the same with former PM John Howard, it's a farcically disingenuous distraction from the reality of who he is and what he's done previous-Ed)...agreed...anyhoos, we digress, and whilst I do fully intend to re-visit this ongoing issue, today I've promised the Farcical Aquatic Recreation Centre, the FARC, and so today dear availees, that's what you're gunna' get...(at last! hoo-shreckin'-ray!-Ed)...okay, sure, I've promised it many times, but here we are at last...now the problem is, where to start?...(to the beginning!-Ed)...make it so...

And so, from the beginning, I was rather bemused to see The Border Watch newspaper include in it's bit that they do about stories from years gone by, under 25 Years Ago, this;
     "July 25: Mount Gambier ratepayers will pay a minimum of $360 this year and contribute
      a total of $5.7m to City Council's budget. Among the major projects for City Council is
      work at the Aquatic Centre, providing for the development of a new 25-metre, eight-lane
      indoor heated pool, costing $1.35m."
...(and there in the same TBW issue, Tuesday 23rd July 2019, under 10 Years Ago-Ed)...;
     "July 30: Mount Gambier's main corner is now just a pile of rubble and the city is poised
      to usher in a new era for it's inner city landscape. The former 50-year-old RSL building
      has been completely demolished as part of Mount Gambier City Council's multi-million-
      dollar vision to revitalise the main corner."
...indeed, the Main Corner debasco, another MGCC triumph...ooo, and under 1Year Ago;
     "July 27: The city's political leaders have vowed they will not lobby state and federal
      governments for funding for the proposed $40m Mount Gambier Indoor Sport and
      Recreation Centre unless a poll determining ratepayer support is undertaken."

The Far Gone FARC:...(snigger-Ed)...like that one do you?...(snigger snigger-Ed)...anyhoos, 25 shreckin' years ago MGCC was gunna' do an Indoor Pool, and Mt Gambier Ratepayers are well aware that successive Councils have repeatedly trotted-out the same issue/plan/promise as-and-when it has suited them...it's not necessary to delve too far into that stuff though, because the blatantly obvious reality is that nuthin'  has ever been done about it, that all the pretty talkin' was deliberately disingenuous and didn't amount to a hill-a-beans...(let alone a new pool-Ed)...so let's jump from 25 Years Ago to only 3 years ago, when I was in the public gallery at the MGCC Full Meeting where-in they voted to officially and permanently remove the ' Indoor /Covered Pool Issue'  from Council's agenda...(gone?-Ed)...solid gone daddy-o...(well like far out man-Ed)...far out and far gone...(completely far gone gone-Ed)...hey! that's my rude pun-play on words!...(yeah yeah, but the point being, MGCC officially voted to remove the 'Indoor/Covered Pool'-Ed)...indeed they did, and as further proof of that decision, I offer the absolute absence of any mention of any 'Aquatic Centre' of any description as part of MGCC's various farcical 'Plans' for Mt Gambier...not in their '5 Year Plan', or their '10 Year Plan' or any of their other Agendas/Plans/Strategies...not diddly-squat not nowheres...

I was therefore somewhat stunned to see/hear in early 2018 that MGCC were suddenly considering an ' Indoor/Covered Pool', supposedly in response to a ground-swell of public interest/activism...(but I thought you said that it was entirely generated by Federal Liberal Member for Barker Tony Pasin as as an excuse for pork-barrelling self-promotion ahead of the May 2019 Federal Election-Ed)...yeah, what you've repeated is my mere observation of the reality, as opposed to what I've quoted from MGCC...(ahhh, of course, but I thought you also said it was related to the March 2018 State Election-Ed)...I did and I still do...(and also related to the November 2018 Local Government Election-Ed)...absolutely, any reason why it cannot be a multi-facetted, multi-election Liberal pork-barrelling manipulation?...(well, when you put it like that-Ed)..at the very least, it offers multiple opportunities for Liberal Party self-promotion...(that it does-Ed)...and it works equally well as a distraction away from the gross failures and/or rank corruptionings of all involved...(hmmm, yes, it works so well on so many levels-Ed)...and when-and-if it goes ahead, it'll continue to work best for the corrupt interests involved...("when-and-if"? I thought it was a done deal, fully funded and going ahead full steam-Ed)...well that's what they'd have you believe...(you don't sound so sure-Ed)...I have my doubts, and I'll explain them laters...

And MGCC have been actively manipulative and deliberately deceitful in their relentless promotion of the FARC, not afraid to engage in ludicrous minutiae or bombastic fear-mongering...(well hurrah-Ed)...and the very main culprit is/was MGCC's former CEO, your friend and ours, Mark 'Mighty Marky Mark McShenanigans' McShane...(are you talkin' about his multiple appearances on ABC South East Radio in the lead-up to the farcical Postal Vote?-Ed)...yep...(starting with relatively calm and rational discussion about the general alleged positives for Mt Gambier's economy, supposed increased tourism, etc-Ed)...yep, starting from his statements about what were potentially genuine albeit none-realistic issues, but then moving to one discussion where the sole motivation became 'Obesity Concerns' and how this FARC was all about the health outcomes/welfare of Mt Gambier residents...(but there's already several gyms and multiple other fitness groups and/or options available in Mt Gambier, eg, walking the iconic Blue Lake Circuit-Ed)...exactly, personal fitness is almost entirely a matter of personal motivation and dietary control, etc...but then literally the next week it was a mildly unhinged rant from McShenanigans about how 'Mt Gambier will die if we don't do this'...(yes, that was an almost desperate plea for support that one-Ed)...it was/is a deliberate hyperbolic scaremongering...

This extended agenda of media manipulations was accompanied by a heaped side-serve of Citizen Guilt Shaming...(you mean the relentlessly inferred and often blatantly unabashed direct statements from McShenanigans and his colleagues that if you don't support this you're a bad citizen who doesn't want to see positive things happen for Mt Gambier?-Ed)...exactly...(hey! that's us! we're wholly malicious nay-sayers who just oppose everything and/or complain about stuff because we love to hear the sound of our own keyboard!-Ed)...yes, well, I appreciate your deeply facetious sarcasm, referencing as you are the MGCC-led campaign to belittle and discredit me and this 'ere blog, but there's plenty a' people, some of then regular availees, who know exactly what motivates me and how I conduct myself, etc...(sure, but that's not stopped some people who do know, it hasn't stopped them from attacking you/us as being the only genuine problem...and you know of whom I speak, maliciously corrupt stooges like former MGCC Councillor Josh Lynagh-Ed)...yep, indeed, I've copped more than my fair share, but there's a far wider-ranging campaign to guilt and/or denigrate anyone who has questioned let-alone actually opposed this FARC nonsense...

And this media saturation led us all to the truly ludicrous and massively expensive Public Postal Vote...(what I don't understand is, why, when MGCC and Pasin, et al, were repeatedly stating that this was a project that everyone had wanted for years and wanted now more than ever, etc, etc, why then the need for a massively expensive Postal Vote via a supposedly independent third party?-Ed)...well, a cynical person would no doubt be looking to try and find out which Councillor's relative owned that supposedly independent agency and received that huge commission...(ahhh-Ed)...and whilst I'd be surprised if that weren't the case, regardless, it's my belief that this was first-and-foremost about Plausible Denial of Responsibility when the whole thing goes balistically pear-shaped and blows-out to $50-$60million...(riiight, so that Pasin and MGCC, etc, can all deny it's their fault and instead throw it back on Ratepayers by saying 'you's all voted for this, this is what you wanted', that sortta' thing?-Ed)...exactly...and my Plausible Deniability concerns were further defined when MGCC voted to proceed with their Federal Funding Application at a Special Meeting on Wednesday 23rd January 2019, but held that vote in the absence of 1) Mayor Lynette Martin, and 2) Councillor Ben Hood who was/is the head of MGCC's 'Hub Committee', and 3) a third Councillor whom I'm not allowed to identify due to those "reprehensibly vile" and wholly corrupt Final Intervention Orders as issued by Magistrate Ian White...

This would seem a good point to remind dear availees of those Pro-Paedophile Politically-motivated FIOs that Magistrate White himself introduced at the second-of-three bizarre 'Verdict/Sentencing Hearings' of February-April 2018, FIOs that he issued on 20th April 2018 without a single word of explanation, FIOs that are purely about trying to stop me discussing the rank corruption of all involved, particularly MGCC and the ABC South East and SAPol, and that deliberately effectively ban me from attending any MGCC meeting and potentially any local public political meeting/gathering, and bans me from contacting the ABC South East, etc...and if anyone considers that I am somehow being in 'Contempt of Court' for identifying these FIOs as being corrupt and politically motivated, etc, simply go back and look at the posts from that time where-in I've thoroughly covered these deeply worrying realities about the gross mis-use of Judicial powers and FIOs, etc...(what's happened about those multiple 'CoC' threats by Magistrate White and the associated Anonymous Threat Letters from the Crown Solicitors Office?-Ed)...nuthin'...(nothing? since April 2018?-Ed)...nope, not a thing...(well apart from those multiple SAPol attendances at ya' home in November-December 2018 when they kept harassing you about supposed breaches of those cynically corrupt FIOs-Ed)...well sure, apart from that, but that's all covered in posts from that time too, and I've also heard nothing about that stuff since that last SAPol visit on 27th December 2018...

Anyhoos, these FIOs mean that I haven't been allowed to attend a MGCC meeting since April 2018...and I gotta'  say that, whilst it is 1) a grossly corrupt mis-use of FIOs, and 2) it completely infringes on my rights as a citizen to attend public meetings, etc, and 3) it drastically compromises my ability to have direct access to and therefore report on a great deal of MGCC's various shenanigans, not least of all because of the appallingly inaccurate and/or very selective reporting of TBW, but also due to MGCC's propensity for censoring and/or outright changing their Minutes...(did someone say Rank Institutionalised Corruption?-Ed)...well quite, but despite all that entirely unacceptable shizzle, I comfort myself with knowing 1) I have done what I could when I could, for many years, often attending more meetings per year than most Councillors, and 2) I genuinely do not miss having to walk into that room of corrupt stooges and sit there in silence as they conduct their collective stoogery...(it's a small mercy though, considering the weight of the other issues of corrupt FIOs and denial of attendance and therefore information, etc-Ed)...indeed, it's a wafer thin silver-plated lining on a vast cloud of corruption...but again I digress...     

Re-Birthing Pool:...whilst there's a degree of 'My Personal Opinion' about the true motivation for the sudden re-birth of the 'Indoor/Covered Pool'...(sure, but I reckon you're actually pretty close to the mark-Ed)...whatevs, but when it comes to The Funding Issue, here's where we look at the direct deceits and manipulations by the Liberals and/or MGCC...(but I thought you said that MGCC is literally a Liberal-controlled stoogefest looking for somewhere to happen-Ed)...of course Ed, you are again correct, I did say that and continue to say that, absolutely MGCC is partisan Liberal...and the current Member for Mt Gambier, ICAC-induced Independent Troy Bell is formerly a Liberal...("ICAC-induced"? I assume you're referencing Mr Bell's resignation from the Liberal Party whilst their serving Member for Mt Gambier, after he was charged by the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption-Ed)...well I prefer 'Insidious Commissioner Assisting Corruption', but we quibble over terms...and of course Tony Pasin is a former MGCC Councillor...it is unquestionably definable that this particular project is Liberal-controlled...(well it's entirely Liberal funded, except for the undefined amount that MGCC Ratepayers are gunna' get saddled with-Ed)...and that's where the definable lies and deceits become evident...it's really very simple, and I have covered this several times in previous posts...

But having dropped that teaser, I'm gunna' pull stumps on this 'ere post 'cos 1) I've strayed a bit from the topic...(surprise surprise-Ed)...fair enough, but 2) there's still so much to cover that it may take another coupla' posts to cover it all...we'll close today with this li'l gem from MGCC's Special Meeting...(as identified at the top there-Ed)...ah, so it is, well then, it won't take dear availees long to find that Agenda and Minutes and peruse it all for ya'selves...(orrrr, not homework-Ed)...only if you want to, but it's well worth a read...I'll just identify this bit for being exactly what it is, a less-than-subtle threat-manipulation to withhold any-and-all potential funding if Ratepayers chose to vote 'No'...(so, you're a bad person if you vote No, and you won't get a red cent either-Ed)...yep, abuse, threats, bullying, and intimidation...(classic MGCC-Ed)...well it's certainly been my experience of them...***                  

Special Council Agenda -23 January 2019 Federal Government Regional Growth Fund Full Business Case Endorsement Page 5 of 11
It is important to recognise that the proposed funding available from both the Federal and State Government (pending assessment of relevant documentation) is a very significant vote of confidence in the region and is the highest level that has ever been considered for this region for any purpose. 

It is also important to note that the funding from government sources of $15 + $10 Million cannot be used for any purpose other than the proposed Community and Recreation Hub and if Council does not determine a pathway forward for meeting the funding shortfall then the whole of the $25 Million will be lost to this region. This means that all of the proposed economic, construction, employment, sport, health and community wellbeing benefits the Community and Recreation Hub will contribute to, will not come to this region. In addition, Council will need to consider it’s position after being given a strong mandate for progressing the project via the 72% yes vote in the Community Survey.

***...this is only one of several forms of the same threat, but I don't know that it gets any more obvious than that...(indeed, 'vote Yes or else'-Ed)...then followed by the deliberate deceit that "72%" of Ratepayers voted Yes...but we'll cover that in detail next time...having read through that whole Agenda/Minutes, I urge dear availees to do the same, there are some extraordinary things in there that MGCC have carefully kept very quiet...(like where they admit that MGCC Ratepayer's contribution will be at least $13.75m, not the $10m they keep referring to-Ed)...and how that directly identifies the outright lies from McShenanigans and/or MGCC about where Council intends to get that otherwise unfunded $5m shortfall...(so many lies, so many manipulations-Ed)...like I said mate, classic MGCC... 

Tomorrow: The Mt Gambier Gaol Conspiracy

Not happy to just outright lie to Mt Gambier residents about what does and/or doesn't happen, our charming State Parliament now pretends to quietly acknowledge the realities we are all aware of, but continues to lie and deceive about those realities, a deceit fully endorsed and supported and engaged in by Mt Gambier City Council...(how so?-Ed)...this farcical shizzle about Mayor Lynette Martin writing to the government to supposedly get clarification/information about what really happens with the functioning of the gaol and release of prisoners, etc, like MGCC doesn't know already...(well maybe it's not a deceit, maybe she doesn't know, maybe she's completely oblivious to the realities that surround her-Ed)...mmm, good point Ed, and it wouldn't be the only issue I'm sure...(exactly what I was thinking-Ed)...I thought it might be...     

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

(*PS: Please to be ignoring that 'Tomorrow' bit what I writ earlier before realising just how much space and time the whole FARC thing was gunna' take...that MG Gaol stuff will be the next issue, but only once we've gotten up to date with all the FARC stuff...*)

Apology Post - No Computer

Apologies dear availees 'cos I ain't had a computer for over a week...had to renew my security program thingy then it wouldn't function with my Windows Vista anymore, so's had to get Windows 10 and then that wouldn't acknowledge my Interweb connection thingy and that meant buying a new wifi dongle-thingy, etc, etc, etc...part of the problem was the escalating and unexpected cost, and I'll be 'paying' for it for months to come...being on the DSP doesn't allow a lot of wiggle room for this sort of 'discretionary spending', that is, spending outside of normal bills...anyhoos, I appear to have it all happening again and will do a full post tomorrow...again apologies and thanks y'all for your patience and ongoing support... 

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

This Is What 'Society' Is All About

Howdy dear globular availees...("globular"?-Ed)...yeah, from all over the globe...(I think you mean 'global'-Ed)...ummm...(yeah, "globular" means like 'moist lumps of stuff', ya' know? like ummm, 'he found globular chunks of oily gunk in the drain', yeah?-Ed)...well, okay, but you don't know, maybe 'moist lumps of stuff' accurately describes some availees...(oh super, way to win friends and influence people-Ed)...well I mean obviously not the dear availee actually reading this right now...(no?-Ed)...no, they're obviously a person of great intellect, a discerning consumer of high-brow socio-political discourse with impeccable personal hygiene...(riiight-Ed)...and I won't have you putting them down like that...(me??!! you're the one calling them "globular"-Ed)...ignore him dear availees in Egypt, Germany, Ukraine, and South Africa and everywhere else...there's been yet another major development in the whole Mt Gambier Farcical Aquatic Recreation Centre debasco (debacle meets fiasco), so I'm gunna' shunt it yet again, but only until tomorrow, promise...(strewth mate, what is it now?-Ed)...oh, nothing much, just Council admitting that there's issues with design and increased costs, etc...(oh, so only minor stuff like the design and cost?-Ed)...your facetious frenzy of scything sarcasm is both noted and appreciated...('ta-Ed)...what are mates for...  

Just a very quick point to be made about these ever more numerous 'under-payments' of hospitality workers...(do you mean this stuff about Masterchef's George Calombaris ripping-off his workers to the tune of $8million?-Ed)...indeed, and he ain't Robinson Crusoe either, Neil Perry is also in the same frame, being sued by a former employee and potentially owing more than George to 100s of employees...(nice-Ed)...and George is gettin' a well-earned bollocking, with people calling for him to be sacked from Masterchef...(well in breaking news, he's been dumped as 'the face' of a major West Australian Tourism campaign-Ed)...thoroughly deserved...(and oops, now it's being reported that all 3 Masterchef judges will "not return" next season-Ed)...really, is it related to this payment stuff...(dunno', possibly, officially it's about "failed pay negotiations", but doesn't say specifically that this other stuff ain't part of it-Ed)...fascinating...don't watch it myself, can't stand the pretentious carry-on, etc, but this is apparently one of Australia's top-rating programs, so it's a huge surprise to see all 3 'stars' go at once...(yeah, it's also a confronting insight into how many employers treat people in the hospitality industry, and unfortunately in many other industries as well-Ed)...indeed, not all employers and/or industries, but certainly many...(mmm, but what is the 'quick point' you wanted to make?-Ed)...ah yes...

I've heard some 'restauranteurs' effectively excusing this culture of under-payment by complaining about and/or blaming the complexity of the Penalty Rates system...(oh yeah, so these are apparently inevitable accidents, not malicious greed?-Ed)...allegedly...(well I've gotta' coupla things to say about that-Ed)..thought you might, fire away...(well, 1) the widely reported mistreatment of workers, the threats, bullying, and/or harassment, etc, that stuff ain't no 'accident'-Ed)...excellent point...(but even more damning, in my humble opinion, is that these payment errors never seem to fall in the favour of the workers-Ed)...oh Ed, I do so love your work, said it before, sometimes you don't so much hit the nail fair on the head, as drive it clean through the plank...(your praise is appreciated, but again, I think it's just another case of us doin' what we do best, namely, pointin' out the bleedin' obvious-Ed)...and sometimes that's exactly what's needed, sometimes it's the most obvious that remains obscure until revealed, then bathes all about in a blaze of the purest truth, reality...(fair enough-Ed)...and now this...         
Praisin' Myself Up Bigtime:...because just earlier this arvo', whilst returning home from the gym and shopping, I noticed that a home down in the next street, Buronga Ave, was in danger of being inundated...(so you left the house today then?-Ed)...well yes, I try to every day, even if it's just gym and shopping and home, or even just one of those then home, whatevs, that's not what I was on about here...(well I get it that the whole Agoraphobia/Depression stuff can be incredibly debilitating, but I'm not sure that you get to 'big-up' ya'self just for leaving the house-Ed)...well actually, some days that is exactly a small victory in-and-of-itself, but I was referring to the 'inundation' bit...("inundation"?-Ed)...yeah, a sudden influx of something, usually overwhelming, and usually referring to water and the threat of flooding, etc...(ah, you mean like when the Census Website crashed because it was 'inundated' by an overwhelming number of submissions?-Ed)...a perfect example Ed, but in this situation we're goin' old school with a good ol' biblical reference of actual liquid overload...(phew, all this learnin' 'bout words and stuff, I find it all quite draining-Ed)...indeed, but unfortunately the water wasn't...(whaaa?-Ed)...draining, the water wasn't draining...(oh nice one man-Ed)...cheers...

The clearly blocked drain...("clearly blocked", really? how can a drain be 'clear' but also 'blocked'?-Ed)...well now you're just being pedantic...the obviously blocked drain, meant that all the water running to that lowest point in the street was backing-up onto the road and over the gutter and into someone's front yard and was just starting to lap against their home...I stopped to knock and let them know, but there was no answer...I came home, rang the State Emergency Service, and started to make a coffee, etc, when I just had the dis-ease that there was something more I should do perhaps...(well mate, how much more could you do?-Ed)...well, I could do what I did, the exact same thing I've done several times in this street over recent years when the gutters have been blocked with bark and shizzle and water's running down my neighbour's driveway, etc...(and that is?-Ed)...I grabbed my trusty ol' yard broom, travel-mugged my coffee, and drove back down there...and good thing I did...due to the ongoing deluge, the gutter's were running hard and deep, and the water on the road had reached a 'critical mass' such that the incoming water was gettin' diverted straight onto the house's front yard...(strewth! what happened next?-Ed)...this...

Water was already several inches deep across the yard, inches deep up against the corner of the house, and now lapping onto the front porch...another inch or two and water was going to start goin' over the small step and under the front door...(oh no!-Ed)...water was also running across the drive, through the side-fence and into the backyard...there was nothing I could do to stop or divert the mini-torrent, and the SES weren't there yet, so I started sweeping water from the porch sideways across the driveway...despite my sweeping, the water crept across the porch and up to the house proper, another inch and it was going under the door...(oh my goodness! the drama!-Ed)...then the rain backed-off a fraction, and it seemed that I was actually stopping any further encroachment, and soon my sweeping was rewarded by a minor retreat of the water, albeit only by a foot or so...(yay-Ed)...I went to the car, took a coupla' photos, and therefore fortunately happened to have my phone in hand when the SES called me, they were at the wrong address in an adjacent street...they soon arrived and started sand-bagging and I think they rang the Mt Gambier City Council or whoevs about the drain...I was wet and cold, so I left, and came home to a fresh coffee and hot shower...(well done sir-Ed)...cheers...

And I ain't just writing about this because it will undoubtedly royally piss-off my 'critics', particularly those associated with MGCC...(that's just a cheery cherry on the soggy cake that someone left out in the rain?-Ed)...exactly, and didn't even occur to me initially, although it did cross my mind mid-sweep, but no, I just want to give a big soggy shout-out to the sort of society I wanna' be part of...(you mean one where a drippy hippy can, by simply involving themselves, can potentially prevent some poor prick comin' home to soddin' sodden carpets and gourd knows what else sortta' costly mini-catastrophe?-Ed)...exactly, hopefully, hopefully the SES managed to sort it out...and that right there's the broader point I'm making here, namely, that I could simply just ring someone and they showed-up in the pissing rain to help...(absolutely, king-size kudos to the SES brigades and all the other similar peeps, often volunteers, who routinely go out into this sortta' tumultuous tempest to help others-Ed)...absolutely, kudos one and all...I'm particularly grateful to those in the Country Fire Service and their ilk, 'cos I've done some very limited fire-fighting stuff with the SA Parks people at Cleland Reserve...(do you realise that that was nearly 30 years ago now?-Ed)...I know, anyhoos, it was only small controlled burn-offs, but it was still mildly terrifying...cheers to you one and all...

And today's sweepy episode follows-on from yesterday late arvo' when I happened to be on Bay Rd, as was a black calf of reasonable size...(look out!-Ed)...indeed, only a calf but it was more than big enough to do major damage, even if it was in the 60kph zone right near the Italia Club...some dude was already stopped on the side of the road, Southbound, with his hazard flashers going, and I stopped on my side, City-bound, and put my flashers on...several other cars stopped to help, and one of them helped the dude shut the calf in someone's backyard, whom the dude happened to know and had called, etc, etc...now, a coupla' knuckleheads just drove through at 60kph, which is a really dangerous and stupid thing to do on a very dark arvo with heavy rain with several cars stopped there with lights flashing, clearly something is amiss, etc, but the point here is that most slowed right down, several pulled-over to help, etc, etc, and the calf was coralled without incident...(yeeha!-Ed)...and here again, it's not about me, I'm referencing this as an example of what simple things people can and often will do to help others...(cheers to y'all-Ed)...absolutely, and that's the society that I wanna' believe in, that I wanna' believe that we can be, that I do see us as being capable of...

And I've done this very quick and predominantly positive post for exactly that reason...it's not just for my own Mental Health, it's because even I recognise and acknowledge that we here at TMGI tend to spend a goodly amount of our time and energy railing against corruption and inequality and delving into necessarily unpleasant territory, so it's nice for me personally to be able to do some nice stuff for others, relatively anonymously and without reward, etc, but it's even better for all concerned, including you's dear availees, when we can all take a few brief minutes to ponder the positiveness of relatively simple gestures and share in that...having said that, unfortunately it ain't gunna' last...(well, the occasional digression is perfectly appropriate, and indeed quite healthy, but there's shenanigans afoot and someone needs to put the literal boot in-Ed)...and that someone is us...(spot on-Ed)...hence...

Tomorrow: What The FARC Really Means For Mt Gambier

As I said earlier, even just today The Border Watch is front-paging MGCC's latest 'issues' with the Farcical Aquatic Recreation Centre...(here we go dear Ratepayers-Ed)...indeed, and it's just the latest 'issues' following on from all of the other shenanigans that have taken us unwittingly to here...it's a litany of lies, deceits and cynical manipulations based on false premises and fraudulent accounting...(can I do the joke about 'so what's the problem because that's playing to MGCC's well-defined strengths'?', can I do that joke?-Ed)...yep, it's the joke that just keeps on giving, but is unfortunately mired in a fathomless quagmire of truths...tomorrow dear availees...

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

Independent Australia Article About Morrison Jazz Academy

Howdy dear availees in Iraq, India, Germany, and the USofA...welcome to a post mostly devoted to the above stated article...(as provided below-Ed)...indeed, but there's a coupla' things I'd just like to pick-off before we get stuck into that...(well it is your blog I s'pose, you can post what you want-Ed)...well, within reason, but don't forget that we've had a heap of posts made "unavailable" by The Googles after various and often anonymous stooges have Defamation Threatened them (Google)...(you mean like 'lawyer' Bill DeGaris who has repeatedly bleated to The Googles about our alleged and supposed 'Defamations', and has repeatedly tried to threaten you personally, etc-Ed)...like those farcical Defamation Threat Letters from April 2018, as covered in our posts of that time...(oh yeah, hilariously incompetent Threat Letters from a rancidly corrupt betrayer claiming that, 'we're gunna' sue you stupid buddy', and then when you wrote back saying, 'let us to be getting together to sort it all out and officially record everything', he responded, 'not gunna' meet with ya' and not gunna' sue ya' 'cos ya' got no money'-Ed)...indeed, then threatening to attack this 'ere blog via 'other means'...(what a sorry joke, threatens 'sueing' you, then when you throw that back in his face, he tries to run away from it-Ed)...you, Bill DeGaris, are a betrayer and a coward and a liar...

And having proven all that repeatedly via this 'ere blog...(not least of all by using his own Threat Letters-Ed)...indeed, I again speak directly to The Googles about the way you's are being manipulated by corrupt stooges like DeGaris, manipulated into being complicit in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...(complicit like Billy is, and former SA Premiers Mike Rann and Jay Weatherill, the SA Parliament in it's virtual entirety, and SAPol (police), and the Education Dept, and the Teachers Registration Board, etc, etc, etc-Ed)...well quite, and in that context it's hardly surprising that The Googles would react in the ways that they have, frequently 'removing' post content and replacing it with "Post Unavailable", but I do not understand why, 1) I am not receiving any Removal Notifications from Google, 2) why Google removes these posts even though the 'Complainants' haven't followed Google's own directions to contact The Blogger first and try to sort stuff out, etc...(which only highlights the gross inappropriateness of DeGaris' actions in repeatedly threatening you but refusing to meet you to resolve matters-Ed)...exactly, and 3) what happened to those posts that were completely deleted from within the 'Draft Section' of this 'ere blog...

I understand that The Googles have 'Legal Obligations re Defamation' that they have to comply with, but I do not understand how that relates to, 1) my posts being removed without me being notified, and 2) why The Googles have not responded to my notification/requests for info about the posts that were deleted from within the blog itself, indicating potential 'hacking' of Google's 'Blogspot Site'...(I thought you said it was highly likely SAPol was using your laptop, 'seized' when they raided your home on 8th May 2014, using that to gain access to the blog's internals?-Ed)...indeed I did, and I refer back to the bizarre timing of Bill DeGaris claiming responsibility for the disappearance of those posts, as identified in those written threats to 'get' this 'ere blog...(oh yeah, when you posted about SAPol being in the frame, etc, and Billy suddenly wrote to you claiming responsibility, etc-Ed)...indeed, all covered in those posts from April 2018...and I'm deliberately re-visiting DeGaris's specific behaviours relating to his vacuous Defamation Threat Letters because it is critically relevant to the attached article about the Morrison Jazz Academy...(how so?-Ed)...because our mate Billy has repeatedly Threat Lettered the author of this article, Ms Matilda Duncan, on behalf of his client Graham Lyall...(and threatened her friends, and the New Matilda website who were covering her personal story, etc-Ed)...indeed, and we've covered this stuff several times, including where New Matilda and Ms Duncan were also directly threatened by the SA District Court, etc, so I yet again refer dear availees to those posts and/or the NM website...

But to just quickly digress, I'd like to cover a coupla' issues, starting with the ongoing Institutionalised Corruption that defines the Morrison Liberal government, from the Murray-Darling Water issues, through the Paladin contracts, the Barrier Reef Foundation funding, the Joyce/Campion jobs scandal, the Home Affairs Minister Peter 'The Spud' Dutton's Child Care profitting, etc, etc, etc...there are a litany of 'corrupt' issues that demonstrate the vast gulf of non-accountability between the actions of LNP members and their mates and/or supporters, and what is being done to everyone else...(are you talking about the extraordinarily Fascist politicising of the Australian Federal Police, as evidenced by these media raids, etc?-Ed)...exactly, the AFP doesn't look at multiple 'Departmental Leaks' that benefit LNP Members, eg, the Cash/Union Raid Leaks and the Medevac Leaks, etc, or any of these bizarrely corrupt 'Contracts', but they're going all-out to attack journos and 'Whislteblowers' who expose government dysfunction and/or criminality, etc...only this week Herr Spuddo was literally spittin' chips in that thin-lipped and hate-fueled manner that he does, about how journos would be investigated and potentially charged for exposing 'secrets'...it is widely reported that literally every document that goes through Cabinet and/or Parliament is getting stamped 'Secret', including ridiculous things like innocuous routine 'furniture requests', etc, with a view to 'Criminalising' and therefore completely silencing any discussion/exposure of anything that happens within government...

Meanwhile, here in South Australia, I dead-set fell off my bleedin' chair to see Opposition Labor's Tom 'Speedy' Koutsontonis mouthing-off about how there needs to be a formal inquiry into ICAC-based allegations of inappropriate conduct re the Yatala Gaol $150million refurbishment...(but wasn't Speedy protected by the rankly corrupt SA ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) regarding the farcically corrupt albeit ultimately failed Gillman Land Sale?-Ed)...absolutely he was, and whilst he, Speedy, was in government too...(and then of course there was the farcical ICAC investigation of the Oakden Nursing Home Scandal-Ed)...amongst other farcical ICAC pseudo-investigations, and I ain't seein' any Parliamentary Inquiries instigated by Labor into that stuff...oh, and 'Speedy' because Tommy was appointed Road Safety Minister, but then quit that position in 2009 after it was reported that he was subject to 30+ traffic fines, predominantly for Speeding...(I saw it reported that it was "58 fines" across several years-Ed)...yeah, not sure, minimum 30+ totalling $10,000+, could be as many as 58, whatevs, I think the issue here is one of hypocrisy...SA ICAC, as conceived and constructed and introduced by the Rann Labor government, SA's ICAC is an act of Legislative Fascism that is designed to 'Criminalise' and suppress 'Whistleblowing' as part of it's broader brief of protecting the Institutionalised Corruption that defines South Australian Politics...    

Language Warning:...(ooo, a big ol' LW at the start of a paragraph, this oughtta' be good-Ed)...well, Adam Goodes actually...(whaaa?-Ed)...so let's start with what a base fuckwit alleged celebrity Sam Newman truly is...an ex-footballer who's only other claim to fame is his relentless bigotted fuckwittery, usually expressed via that luminary broadcast, The Footy Show...his signature piece was/is 'vox-popping', carefully seeking-out those with Mental Health issues, etc, and mocking them, truly a class fucking act from an A-grade fucking idiot...I recall with a genuine hatred, the sickly criminal 'interview' he did with some school girls waiting at a bus-stop, where-in he just bailed them up, then 'flirted' with them, then 'hit' on them, including asking one how old she was...(how old?-Ed)...13, to which our mate Sammy commented about how she was 'old enough', etc...(wow-Ed)...indeed, it was sick-fuckery from a sick fuck...(I'm sensing that there's more to your anger here though than just that one horrendous incident, or even his broader propensity of mocking others for the entertainment of his 'viewers'-Ed)...indeed, I'm not one prone to expletive-laden abuse and even less likely to even allude to violence let-alone commit any, etc, but I readily make an exception when it comes to good ol' Sammy...(what is it mate, what's got you so riled?-Ed)...I refer availees to the recent documentary about Adam Goodes, a fabulously talented Aboriginal footballer who was repeatedly booed by AFL crowds...  

This doco includes a number of 'observations' from various bigotted and openly Rascist fuckwits like Andrew Bolt, Rita Pahani, etc, etc, all dismissing the issue of Rascism as irrelevant and/or non-evident, but it's Sam Newman who puts them all in the shade, stating that 'it's nothing to do with Racism, they're booing you because you're acting like a jerk'...(but Goodes was being racially vilified-Ed)...indeed he was...and Sammy doubled-down on that denialist fuckwittery with an embittered thin-lipped botox-puckered rant about 'Homosexuals, Boat-people (refugees), Transgender' etc, and how they all get special privilege, how they get 'their own days', and how he as a 'White Protestant heterosexual male, etc, looks forward to when he gets his own special day'...(but, but every day in Australia is White Protestant Heterosexual Male Day-Ed)...well that's my point mate, here's a pig-ignorant bigot angrily complaining about the gross inequality of how it's not all about him all of the time...(but it is, it is literally WPHMD, or Catholic Male or Jewish Male, whatevs, quite literally every day, particularly in modern Australia-Ed)...and that's what defines Sammy as an absolute fuckwit...End Language Warning...and I remind dear availees of how it was explained to me by a Centrelink staffer over a decade ago, when explaining why they were having trouble with my personal situation and how/where I fit into the Welfare System...and I quote, 'you present as a reasonably able, reasonably sane White Man so you don't fit into the Welfare System because, as such, literally all of society is geared to cater to your wants and needs, and we (Centrelink) are here for those disenfranchised from that White Male mainstream, namely single mums, people with Mental and/or Physical disabilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, etc'...

I watched what I could of that doco, but found myself repeatedly switching channel because I was just too embarrassed to be involved with that relentless White Privilege Bigotry...having said that, I urge dear availees to watch the doco The Final Quarter for ya'selves, see for ya'selves what was really happening and why that is something that all Australians should oppose and confront, and that includes that ffffool Sam Newman...if you see him in the street, particularly if you're a man, hit on him even if you're not gay, because 1) he's set the standard of what it's okay to do to strangers in the street, and 2) he'll absolutely hate it...and 3) whilst you'd have a better chance of teaching Shakespeare to a bowl of cold lasagne, explain to him his bigotry and ignorance...make Oz a better place, get in Sammy's face...you know it makes sense...

Now, to today's actual topic, the attached article (below) by Matilda Duncan, as copied from the Independent Australia website...only last week (Wednesday???) I found myself scratching my rather large and woolly head, somewhat bemused to hear James Morrison being interviewed on ABC Radio South East about the relatively low student numbers at the Morrison Jazz Academy...James was spruiking the positives of having only 70 students (approx), stating that they (MJA) had ascertained that this was the ideal number they could/should deal with, thusly allowing MJA to provide appropriate student/teacher contact time...more students apparently compromised that quality of service provision, etc...(but I thought he was sayin' a coupla' years back that there'd be 200 students-Ed)...indeed, by next year in fact, and I believe that that's what's in this article, so I'll let Ms Duncan explain...(hang on, if that IA article was published 30th June 2019?-Ed)...yeahhhhhhsss...(and the ABC Morrison interview was last week sometime, about 2 weeks later?-Ed)...yeahhhhhsss...(well, that's a bit of a coincidence don't you think?-Ed)...I don't think there's any coincidence at all...(ahhh, you implying that the article prompted the interview?-Ed)...me? implying? and you're questions aren't facetiously rhetorical?...(fair call-Ed)...well, we've taken up enough time and space with our belligerent belly-aching, so, dear availees, enough of us and here 'tis this...***   

Failing: Music Academy falling short of Government-mandated enrolments

By Matilda Duncan | 30 June 2019, 2:30pm | 3 comments

James Morrison (image by Addavideo via Wikimedia Commons)

There are serious questions to be raised about the operation of the James Morrison Academy of Music, writes Matilda Duncan.
WHEN THE OPENING of the James Morrison Academy of Music at the University of South Australia (UniSA) was announced in October 2014, Jay Weatherill, then the Premier of South Australia, was quick to publicly predict a large student body. “Once [the Academy is] established, Mr Morrison is forecasting an annual intake of 70 students building to a potential student body of up to 200 students by 2020," Weatherill said.
The James Morrison Academy of Music was awarded $500,000 by the State Government of South Australia to enable its opening and the offering of a Diploma of Music to students, as announced in October 2014. Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) records show the Academy is a for-profit business, owned privately by James Morrison.

The State Government funding awarded to the James Morrison Academy came after closures of VET music courses elsewhere in South Australia, for instance at the TAFE Noarlunga campus. This affects students in Adelaide's southern suburbs and at the University of Adelaide.
After four years in operation, student numbers at the James Morrison Academy of Music have shifted little from the initial 50 that were enrolled when the Academy opened in March 2015.

A post on the University of South Australia Mount Gambier Campus Facebook page showed just 15 new James Morrison Academy of Music students attending Orientation Week earlier this year. UniSA would not confirm new enrolment numbers in 2019, stating instead: "There are currently around 60 students enrolled in UniSA programs offered through JMA".

Conditions for the $500,000 government grant were outlined in a contract established between the James Morrison Academy of Music Pty Ltd and the SA State Government, drafted after the announcement of the funding in October 2014.
That contract, released under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, shows that special conditions were placed on the funding, including James Morrison meeting targets for student numbers.
Other requirements were that Morrison managed the Academy:

 [in a] competent and professional manner ... [devoting] sufficient time and attention to personally teaching students of the Academy, as well as participating in the ongoing management and promotion of the Academy, to the extent reasonably necessary to ensure that [he] is able to attract and retain a sustainable number of students on the basis of [his] reputation.

Despite the Premier's 2014 projections, the State Government set low expectations for student numbers in the contract that would have required a sudden influx of 100 students between 2019 and 2020 to reach a cohort of 200 students at the Academy by 2020.
Special conditions in the contract required the Academy to meet or exceed student number targets of 70 students in 2017, 80 students in 2018, and 100 students in 2019. Despite public announcements that the James Morrison Academy would be opening with 50 students in 2015, the Government's contractual target was just 30 students in 2015, increasing to 50 in 2016.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet would not comment on what actions the Government had taken to evaluate whether James Morrison had met the conditions of the contract, stating only that the funding agreement "is evaluated in line with its terms and conditions".
The funding period for the contract ends on June 30, 2019, at which point the James Morrison Academy must provide a "report on the level of any unexpended funding" and repay any unexpended funds to the Government — unless the company receives written approval from the SA Arts Minister advising that they can retain the money.

The James Morrison Academy has maintained unexpectedly low student numbers despite an email suggesting an incident of the Academy straying from usual university admission practices.
An October 2014 email appear to show Judi Morrison, James Morrison's wife, offering a prospective student full admission to the Academy outside of usual application processes required of other prospective students.

The email, seen by Independent Australia, is signed with Judi Morrison's name from a James Morrison Academy email address, showing an immediate offer of acceptance to the Academy being made, despite the prospective student not having undergone any audition processes.
It stated:

Thank you for your interest in attending the James Morrison Academy of Music.

Normally the next step in the process would be to arrange an audition, however both James and Graeme Lyall (Director of Studies) have heard you play and have decided an audition is not necessary in your case. You will find attached a letter of offer.

The young musician did not accept the offer to study at the Academy. They have stated that in the years that have since passed, the offer has struck them as unusual as they were unsure of how James Morrison Academy staff could have had evidence of their musical ability.
They told IA: 

I hadn't posted anything [online] of myself playing in 2014 ... the only way [James Morrison Academy staff] could have heard me was in person, but I don’t know where or when they would have done that. It think I would have been aware if they were in the audience at a gig I was playing due to their fame.

The James Morrison Academy of Music did not respond to a request for comment.

***...not included here are several 'Tweets' that didn't paste/copy across, so I refer y'all dear availees to the Independent Australia website for the full bizzo'...(there are also 2 other articles by the same author on the IA site, both about Sexual Assault On Campus and Institutional Responses, or rather the lack of responses, etc-Ed)...indeed, they are all well worth a read...

Tomorrow: (If You Say The FARC Thingy, Again, I'm Gunna' Scream-Ed)

Ummmm, derrrrr, wellllll...(I'll do it! just watch me!-Ed)...wellll, I just thought this stuff was important...(and it is-Ed)...and very relevant given the ABC's Morrison interview...(sure-Ed)...the FARC stuff is an ongoing deceit-riddled debasco (debacle meets fiasco)...(and again, it is-Ed)...so I was kinda' hoping that ya' might cut me a bitta' slack, ya' know...(hmmm, alright, but I'm screaming on the inside, believe me-Ed)...I believe you, really I do, so how's about this, instead of 'Tomorrow' being 6-7 days away, what if we, you and I, we'll do the FARC stuff actually tomorrow...(wellllll-Ed)...today's Friday, tomorrow's gunna' be a rainy Saturday, perfect day for posting...(mmm, okay, okay-Ed)...sweet...(I'm particularly keen to address this latest farcical nonsense from Council about how they're gunna' "agree to keep hub talks in open"-Ed)...yeah, I know mate, deceit upon denial upon delusion... 

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