A balance of power

If current counting is anything to go by, the Fraser Coast Region is set to enjoy a very even representation between the Big City and its ’suburbs’.  Tiaro and Woocoo look like scoring a representative each and Maryborough should retain all four sitting candidates.  In the bay it looks like we’ll lose Trevor McDonald but retain Sue Brooks, David Dalgleish, Belinda McNeven and my ‘mate’ Les. 

 What a facinating mix of politics this team represents.. will it prove to be a positive that we have ten experienced councilors leading us into this new era? 

Will the coming term prove to be more of the same or will they grab the bull by the horns and really ramp things up for the region?

 There is a handful of solid projects on the boil and this writer hopes the new council can start to really drive these opportunities once the nuts and bolts of amalgamation have been finally screwed down. 

For better or worse?

John Neve writes:

I have long been an advocate of council amalgamations, with one proviso, that being amalgamation had demonstrable benefits for the people. Sad to say the events of the last few months, have caused me to doubt myself. 
 

Due to our state government, council amalgamation has become a hodgepodge of a system, some regional councils have wards/divisions, some don’t. Both federal and state government have electorates/wards/divisions, so why not local government? 
 

As a result of the March 15, election we now have a mayor who has less than 50% of the electorates support! Is this democracy? Again, both federal and state elections use the preferential voting method, why should local government be any different? 
 

Rather than uniting the people of our region, I believe this election has widened the gap between the urban and rural sectors. Based on discussions with a widely diverse group of people, I believe many voted on a strictly parochial basis, fear of being left out causing people to vote for their own. 
 

The comments attributed to voters in a local paper are cause for concern; “I’ve voted already, but I can’t remember who I voted for now.” “No, I’m planning on just ticking the boxes as I go down the list, I’m not really interested.” “No idea, I’ll find out on the day and hope I pick the right ones.”

The Spartans, Tolpuddle Martyrs and the miners at Eureka, would be amazed at how we have allowed our rights, freedoms and democracy to be eroded.  Unless we all take more interest in what all three levels of government are doing, DEMOCRACY will become a thing of legend. Even now, how many people could really describe what it is? 
 

John A Neve

Now for the wait!

Well, hopefully we all got out and had our say today and made it count.  Early indications are that Mick Kruger will be the first mayor of the new regional council.  Its going to be a tough job and we’ll be watching him very closely.  Now we will wait with interest as counting for the councilor positions begins early next week!

Strewthisback writes: Feedback this afternoon has been that people are having trouble posting to the site.. seems to be a glitch with comments.  If this problem persists please email your comments or contributions to bringbackstrewth@gmail.com and just put the desired target location eg. Now for the wait! in the subject line and we’ll sort it.  Bear with us.. we’re still ironing out the format but we’re getting there.  Thanks to everyone who has given direct feedback and constructive criticism..

The final hit out

We’ll leave the last post on the election to regular Strewth! contributor who has now found Bringbackstrewth, Bayzeyes:

If ever there was “Another Nancy Bates/Fraser Coast Comical epic Production” this was it. (Last night’s Hervey Bay meet and greet the candidates)

Meeting advertised to start at 5.30pm ends up in total chaos when the Chairman starts things rolling around 5.35 only to find that after a handful of candidates have their say, comment is made from the gallery that we should go through it all again at 6pm because the meeting had started too early…excuse me??? How can a meeting advertised to start at 5.30 be starting too early?
Easy; the Comical in true form had mentioned in an article apparently (can’t confirm this as I refuse to buy it  and have done so for years,) that it started at 6pm, so as an example of why nobody should believe what they read in the paper, the majority arrived from about 5.50 onwards.
Eventually, a show of hands allowed the meeting to proceed.
Mayoral Candidates basically gave a rather quick summary, with Chambers and Hefferan both showing their abilities to articulate clearly what amounted to a thank you style of message. John Neve, again, honest, straightforward and to the point…………………then we got ‘you know who’ Nance’s lad.
With a cross between a swagger and a stagger, he hit the podium. After he got through the muttering and giggling, he then give us a qwik tork on a coupla things that would have done the Ted Sorenson School of Elocution proud, quite a contrast to the other Mayoral Candidates. One could be forgiven for feeling that perhaps this meeting may have interrupted his normal nocturnal social activities.
Then to ad insult to insult, he then tried to go over time using his membership of the Chamber (the hosts of the evening) as an excuse while he went through a list of anecdotes that apparently are produced by or in association with the Chamber. He was told by the crowd to sit down and shut up in no uncertain manner. (No doubt the Comical will manage to get a spin on that).
Candidates Currie, Stewart and Paussa all came across well apart from Ernies bit of a terminology gaff, but most impressive, particularly when you meet him one on one was young Troy Sullivan. Man, what a human dynamo and one with an ever questioning brain. Judging books by covers is never a wise move, never more so than with this one; worth a tick in anyones box.

Of the less impressive, I found Debbie Hawes presentation gave the impression that she was one step off bursting into a couple of bars of “The Sound of Music” whilst Les MucKan did his usual comedy routine on coloured jokes which further enhanced his reputation on being more show than substance.
Dalgleish, who seems to have the happy knack of finding a new way to insult and enrage most people who attend public meetings he’s at, tried a tack of sitting on the doors and basically managed to get himself and his “mate” Les in the face of most arriving or leaving. A bit like a couple of high pressure encyclopedia salesmen.
Bob Campbell gave the impression he was still trying to understand why he was there. Hmm… 

And another makes.. ok so the blog sites are taking over

Another catchy blog has been brought to our attention by the guys over at Hervey Bay Gossip.. seems a Maryborough author has taken up the cause and given his views on the Fraser Coast Regional Council election.  You can find his views at  http://widebaydirections.blogspot.com/ 

 And while you are checking Bevan’s views out have a look at another that came to our attention this morning: frasercoastfreeclarion.blogspot.com

The word is spreading and as all these blogs spread the word people are slowly finding us.. today alone we’ve had another 2300 hits and we hope to be appearing in google searches soon.

Need more information

Hi everyone.  Only a few days to go and given the sudden demise of the original Strewth! we haven’t been able to fill the gaps for you on many of the candidates.  One that was added this morning was a post on Darren Dickson.. Darren’s catchy caricature signs have caught our attention and he makes some strong points in his flyer.

 If anyone can fill in the gaps on any of the other candidates particularly the new comers we’d be very much obliged!  Contributions can be directed to bringbackstrewth@gmail.com or alternatively added in by clicking on the comments link on the relevant page.

 Exciting times indeed as we smashed our way through 5000 hits overnight.. not bad huh!

Lookout.. here we come!

Ok, we’re a little overwhelmed at the moment.  Bringbackstrewth! has only been up since late Saturday night and already the counter is showing over 3800 hits.. and rising.. rapidly.  The FCC’s advertising us across five different pages on Saturday just served to spread the word further that the truth is out there.

Coming up soon: Whats in the water?  by local council watcher and political commentator Cy d’Oliveira.

 Do you have a story you wish to share with us?   We now have a contact email: bringbackstrewth@gmail.com we’d love to hear from you.  Please treat this site as a Letters to the Editor style page and keep your message a reasonable length, preferably factual and to the point.   

Just a friendly warning:  If you are going to make a big claim against anyone please be prepared to put your own name to it.  Bringbackstrewth! again asserts that we hold no responsibility for anything posted on this site.  

If you feel a post, comment or topic is inappropriate please contact us via our email and we will review the issue and remove if necessary.  Bringbackstrewth! is simply a platform to have your VIEW heard!  We reserve the right to withhold or moderate posts in order to keep the site alive.  Not censorship - just a measure to ensure this blog continues into the future.

More from Strewth! reloaded: Red Pill

The public’s hunger for the truth is huge. Another twelve hours and large number of hits, and it’s come to our attention another fan has created another mirror of Strewth. This will be linked shortly, just as soon as we work out how things will work.Strewth Reloaded is not yet on Google, but as soon as it is, we predict an even higher influx of people seeking the real deal. Thanks of course, to our good friends at the Fraser Coast Chronicle for naming Strewth as they triumphantly crowed from the rooftops that the Fraser Coast’s brief flirtation with open democracy was no more.Big thanks to those who have contributed and assisted with getting this on the road. Today so far we’re pleased to present an entertaining comment by John Neve.

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Germany Calling?Have just read today’s Fraser Coast Chronicle for the third time. It did not get any better. Every thing the paper claimed about Strewth! can be said about the Chronic in spades. Cannabilistic, secretive, biased, selective, the use of innuendo. Any
objective look at the Chronic would find it guilty of using all of these to misinform it’s readers.
 
If any thing has undermined democracy in this region, it’s the Chronic’s lack of fair and unbiased reporting.
 
I would love an open inquiry into the accuracy of both Strewth! and the Chronic, I know who would get the tick of approval.
 
The Chronic’s editor claims to be a trained, professional journalist, if she is, God help democracy. She puts Lord Haw Haw to shame.
 
John A Neve

Another from the archives:

Inside Trader writes:

Latest story NOT to hit the press (i.e. Nancy Bates’s personal election platform for her favourite council candidates - the ChronicallyIll) is the “Secret List”. Apparently Mick Kruger’s campaign lackeys have been handing out a secret list of who HIS wants on his council when HE wins. (Yes that is right not “if” but “when” he wins.)

Anyway, turns out that the principle electoral officer found out about it and has taken action and there is a bit of an investigation. Election material must fit a particular format and be duly authorised etc etc, all of which Mick knew of course as did his campaign manager but not being overly bright they seemed to think it would be easy to keep it a secret. Even funnier is the fact that some of the candidates that thought they were Mick’s mates found out that they were NOT on the list initially (Refer Bob Campbell) and it had to be amended several times to keep the whingers happy as Mick likes to do. Some are still “NOT HAPPY JAN (Mick)!!!” With over 20 years working in council and over 10 years as a councillor, Kruger is very familiar with the laws and ignorance cannot be used as an excuse for flouting the laws on this one.

Also questions starting to be asked about funding of election campaigns, Kruger’s in particular. One of the anomalies in the election process is the declaration of campaign contributions. Developers can make huge contributions to any candidate they want to get elected, all legal and above board. The problem is that we, the voters, cannot find out who is getting funded by who. Not for weeks possibly months at least and by then the election is over and it is too late. There has been a call for all candidates to publicly declare their contributors before the election. How many do this we will have to wait and see. How many do it and do not tell the whole truth, we may have to wait even longer to see. Don’t hold your breath for the ChronicallyIll to do any in depth investigation. Well, at least if the anointed one gets in. Wouldn’t put it past them to do a witch hunt if he doesn’t though.

Dogs

Ok, here it is.  We have created this page solely for the discussion of barking dogs.  What bringbackstrewth! would like to see is not just the problem being discussed but serious solutions readers may have for the problem.  As previously stated elsewhere, we will not tolerate any debate dropping to gutter level.  Please keep your posts polite, keep the length reasonable (no endless preaching please) and above all remember that everyone is entitled to having their own views.