Inside Trader writes:
Loved catching up on reading on your site. [and others]
There are 2 issues I have noted of interest, maybe also to your readers.
1. The full page ad in the Hervey Bay Independent (28/03/0 
about the Waterpark. Something really smelt funny about that ad. It looked like a typical political ad in many ways. Whether Wide Bay Water and/or Andrew McNamara were involved behind the scenes is yet to be seen. But there was some scary non-factual info in the ad. Apart from the usual Andy Pandy supporters saying how wonderful it will be the ad also said things like $5million from the state government but won’t cost the tax payers a cent.
Where do the authors of the ad think the $5million comes from? How much will it also cost the ratepayers of the Fraser Coast? If it will all be free except for a wave rider machine as stated in the ad, who is going to pay the ongoing wages, costs, maintenance and refurbishment? One can only assume the ratepayers, now including the ratepayers of Maryborough, Tiaro etc.
Even if Wide Bay Water magnanimously agree to pay those costs, it is still the ratepayer who ultimately pays. It does not come out of the pocket of the CEO of WBW. What part of our foreshore will be lost to the waterpark? If it is the Seafront oval area where do we then put those festivals etc? Will the ratepayers then be up for the costs, possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars, of developing a new facility for festivals?
To give some credit to some of the previous Hervey Bay councillors, they asked similar questions but I am not aware of any answers they received. Maybe Sue Brooks could advise?
2) Fraser Coast Freeclarion had an interesting article on Council and councilor decision making. It is always easy for councilors to make the easy/give money decisions. But can the current crop of councilors make the hard take money/cut jobs decisions that are really in the best interests of the ratepayers? You’ll find that article here:
http://frasercoastfreeclarion.blogspot.com/2008/03/hard-work-begins.html
Three weeks ago, Chronicle readers were given a stern lecture on the potential of the internet to spread misinformation.
In two editorials and a frontpage spread, this and related shortcomings were contrasted to the professional ethics of journalists, whom it was implied were above reproach by virtue of the journalists’ rulebook they always keep close by.
One of the more useful recent ethical innovations has been the way many journalists now include a reference to any sources of potential bias, in relation to the subject matter in their given article.
It was therefore interesting to note that Saturday’s editorial in the Chronicle was supportive of the Wide Bay Water Corporation’s current discrete structure which is now at arms length from the Council. This was probably a useful endorsement for the supporters of WBBC, who are in a bit of an on-going blue with those who would like to see an end to the separation.
Now if you check last year’s annual report, the board of directors of WBBC includes one N. Bates.
Right, this is only a speculation, but I imagine her appointment is related to her media skills rather than any arkane knowledge of hydrology. She is presumably there to smooth the path of the Corporation’s view of life, through into the media.
And we can be sure her’s is a very productive role on the Board.
However, as readers we might politely request that in future she adopt the habit of including a little insert at the conclusion of her musings on this subject, along the following lines: “the author is a Director of the WBWC.”
She is after all a professional role model for all of us amateurs who publish on the net.
Brian, your closing statement describing Nancy as a “role model for us amateurs” fair curdled my beer. Please do not make such statements too often!
However, on related matters, Australia was structured during its formative years to provide a service to people in areas such as education, health, transport, communications, power, water, etc, by the governments of the time imposing taxes to supply these ‘public utilities’. These utilities were to be non-profit services belonging to the taxpayers, and administered by a government appointed bureaucracy who could successfully demonstrate the ability to handle this job. The result was a highly successful infrastructure that worked for the welfare of all Australians.
Then the rot set in – private firms, through mates in power, gradually took over control of any public utility that could make a profit. We keep hearing that private enterprise is more efficient. Bullshit! Given the same expertise at management level public utilities were always more efficient, as they were not required to make profits. Mind you, the taxes still remain, and you may notice are increasing.
Our laws do not allow public utilities to be privatised, but do allow them to become corporatised. And guess what, corporations are allowed to be privatised!
Wide Bay Water is a corporation, and to put it back under the control of the people who have paid for its creation, its infrastructure and its financing will not sit well with the powerbrokers who are flogging off our ‘public utilities’ to their multinational mates.
Keep in mind the State Government assumed rights to all water in Queensland (Water Bill 2000, Chapter 1/4.1, Chapter 2, part 2/19, ask your local member for a copy) in contravention of our Federal Constitution. As such I can see little possibility of WBW being returned to the fold, unless sufficient pressure is put on our treacherous politicians to return to being accountable to the electorate. An effective media complying with a decent code of ethics is the only way to achieve this.
The appointment of our current erudite editor to the board was a smart move by WBW. A guaranteed biased reporting of the achievements of the organization, and the public suppression of any adverse comment. I wonder about the issue of conflict of interest and the integrity of her employers in allowing this situation to go on for so long.
Someone once asked Ernest Hemmingway what he thought one needed to become a good writer.
Papa thought for a long, long while, and finally said, “I think it helps to have a darn good crap detector!”
Maybe, that is what we should build as the next major regional project; it would sure get a lot of use.
Brian, Suggest that a ‘darn good crap detector’ may be this forum.
Let’s give it a go!