The Stuntman

We’ve had many descriptions for various individuals over the past 9 months but we’ve just coined a new one for Cr David Dalgleish.  Following his latest proposal we now think he’s graduated from bush mechanic to stunt man.. not happy with how things are going within council, David loves to liven things up with clever publicity stunts such as measuring roadways, jumping out of planes and his latest.. calling for yet another study into a regional airport.. and not just any airport.. an international one at that!

We’re not quite sure where the 100s of millions will come from to build such a facility but we are sure Cr Dalgleish and his faithful sidekick Les have ensured that additional ratepayer funds will be successfuly wasted looking into this subject yet again.

With all the political grandstanding this man has done in the past twelve months, don’t be surprised to see Dave have yet another tilt at state politics.. and in doing so will most likely see Andy Pandy retain the seat..

 

We’re taking a short break.. Merry Christmas and a Safe New Year to all our readers and we look forward to bringing it on again real soon.

Questions re Local Hostels

Anon sent in the following by email:

I work at a backpacker hostel in Hervey Bay. And something came to my attention today that I though needed to be passed on.  I don’t know exactly who should be told but this is a good place to start.

With the financial situation as it is and people looking for work to make some extra money, why are we giving away jobs to travellers?

Our hostel had a traveller ask for some work with us stating that his “work contact” (and that term is used loosely) at another hostel was soon to expire.  We ran through all the details of what would be expected of him, the hours and duties etc., however as soon as we mentioned we required a tax file number before he could commence work he said “I don’t have one, I do not have a working visa”.  Which means the other hostel (which will remaining nameless for now) is giving jobs to people who legally cannot work in Australia to save money, which in turn robs locals of employment opportunities.

To give you an idea of possible job losses to locals:
There are 11 (registered) Hostels in Hervey Bay, 6 of which I know use travellers as a majority of their staff.  How many of these are legal workers?

BBS: If indeed what you say is true, we are sure the Department of Immigration would be rather interested in hearing from you.  Try speaking with the Immigration Dob-in Line: 1800 009 623

Why did they take flight ?

A big thankyou to Hannah Davies from the Courier Mail who wrote the following article exposing the real truth behind what really happened with the flight training school – now neither we nor the Courier can spell it out in full, there is more to this than meets the eye – the story the FCC ran today hints at it even further – conflicts of interest a plenty!   Regardless of whether it was a good thing for our region or not, council should not have stuffed around for so long on this one. 

The ground work was done by Maryborough City Council so this project should have gone to a vote of councilors – yes / no – we feel it would have been a no but at least we’d have had less divisions in the community.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24799258-3102,00.html

Also check out this post on Sue Brooks’ website which is a reprint of a letter a member of the community received from FTG:

http://suebrooks.com.au/2008/letter-from-keith/

It is good to see Sue giving the Right of Reply here.

Weekend Mail

Alan wrote about the planning staff all going to Hervey Bay. Is it true that a lot of other staff are going the other way, to Maryborough? The rates staff for example? If so where does that leave the 50,000 plus ratepayers who want to go to the council to discuss their rates? Especially the mistakes on the water and sewerage rates notices recently. Where are the engineers going? The waste staff? The finance staff? Surely with the miracles of modern internet and other communications all the same staff dont have to be all in the same place? But if my information is correct the councillors are being led around by the nose and bullied by a particular corprate affairs director to get what she wants. Funny how she is staying in the bay but a lot of her current Hervey Bay staff are being sent to Maryborough. When the councillors are not being told what to think they are being kept in the dark and not told the real issues.
 
And how about Wide Bay Water? All the water and sewerage rates stuff ups are done by the legendary infallible cutting edge Wide Bay Water. But for some reasons unknown, the staff at the Council [not WBW!] have to deal with all the public complaints. So what goes into WBW’s Annual Report? Yep thats right. Number of complaints per 1000 customers! No mention of the endless complaints about incorrect water and sewerage rates and other complaints that the “Normal” Council rates staff handle. I bet the other water providers in the other councils would have loved to know the true number of complaints per 1000 before they were taken over! Do the councillors know or even care?
 
We all know the story of Wide Bay Water buying the previous mayor’s property at Vanderwolfe Rd. Now it has some fancy name. Interestingly when the previous mayor owned it the road remained gravel. Now it is bitumened. Who really pulls the strings in the council?

Financial Laxates

John Neve writes:
 
While not as purging as the 1930 Great Depression,
this current financial downturn might just be the
laxative the worlds bowels need. It just might slow
the worlds resource consumption and assist in
managing our carbon footprint. After all, surely the
environment is more important than our banking system?
Until now there has been nothing that would combat
our desire for MORE. After all, we have been
continually fed a diet of growth, bigger is better, isn’t
it? Our pollies have failed to control our appetite for
a little more of every thing. So this purge is necessary
and may be a good thing.
 
Nothing had changed fundamentally, we still procreate,
crops still grow and there are problems to be solved.
But the world’s system of growth at all costs, has
failed us. The dependence on the existing wealth of a
few, to exploit the dreams and ambitions of the many,
the fragmentation of the people by rampant
consumptionism and greed. The constant need to
increase production to repay debt, which at the same
time depletes the worlds resources. Making our world
more and more uninhabitable and increasing the
chances of global confrontation (war).
 
This current purge give us the chance to start again,
a chance to exchange ideas. Structure our production
and services towards the preservation and restoration
of our environment and people. A fresh economic
system based on quality, not quantity. That slows life
down and allows time for culture, art and ushers in a
brave new world.
 

 

Standinman:  John, we agree with your sentiments although wonder how you are going to enjoy your Christmas bonus from K Rudd – cheers to you big K – Pensioners, carers and families will have a brighter one this year but in the long term our governments still have us wrapped around their little fingers.

Wednesday Mail Bag

Alan Writes:

I think your readers should be made aware of a Councillor decision made last week to move ALL Fraser Coast Regional Council planning staff in the Maryborough office to the Hervey Bay office permanently.  Apparently, all the major developers are based in Hervey Bay so therefore all planning staff should be in Hervey Bay too.
 
Apparently that is progress.  Too bad for all the mum & dad developers who want to do a dual occupancy on their land or subdivide their land.  Ratepayers from Tiaro, or Glenwood or Aramara (or Maryborough) will now have to drive to Hervey Bay to lodge their applications or to see duty planner staff.  For your information, some building applications require town planning to also be lodged.  Well you’ll be able to lodge your building application at Maryborough but will have to drive to Hervey Bay to lodge your planning application.  So too bad if you’re in a hurry.
 
You’ll just have to take a few hours off work or even a whole day if you live in the outer reaches of the region or further afield; just so you can have a 15 minute free meeting with a designated duty planner for the day.  Of course, if you want longer than 15 minutes then you’ll have to pay a fee.   Might as well just hire a town planning consultant to do it for you or maybe that’s the whole point of it?  You can of course try the telephone and hope you can understand enough to be able to lodge your application via mail.
 
Good logic from Councillors again.  Hervey Bay again is the centre of the region (universe? rolling eyes) in the minds of all Councillors, CEO, directors and senior managers.  Another blow to ex-Tiaro, Woocoo & Maryborough staff.  They’ll have to factor in at least an hour’s travel into their day, additional fuel & vehicle maintenance costs and perhaps think about downsizing that 6 cylinder car to a 4 cylinder car.  The only option for them is to opt out of their current job and go into a displaced persons group and await whatever job they allocate you to. And hope like mad that that one will be based in Maryborough. (oh and of course a drop in pay will most likely apply too)  They will get a guaranteed travel allowance up until March 2011 to ease their misery but that still won’t be sufficient to cover their extra costs. 
 
It makes you wonder what section / services they’ll move next.  The Woocoo office shut very quickly after amalgamation and the Tiaro office a few months back.  Perhaps the Maryborough administration office won’t be around for too much longer now that extensions for the HB office have been approved by Councillors.  And they’re building their own offices first as they all want one each!!!   I shall be intrigued to see if they actually do use them.  I can imagine Gerard O’Connell won’t be using his office that much as he still works full-time at St Mary’s High School.  Surely he isn’t going to waste an hour each day to commute to Hervey Bay to sit a couple of hours in his lovely new office.  Perhaps his chair will only see his bum on Council meeting days or rather the briefings before the meeting where all the real decisions are made.
 
As to what will remain at Maryborough, well perhaps a customer service centre to receive payments and complaints, a shrunken building section, and maybe finance staff?  It certainly won’t be a one stop venue as it has previously existed.
 
Well – I can tell you one thing – next election I won’t be voting for any of the current Councillors at all.  They have proved a disappointing lot in dealing with a difficult situation with the forced amalgamations. Where they so needed to be cohesive, logical and decisive they have proved to be the opposite.  So far they have proven to be an expensive liability to the region. Senior management have also proved disapointing as well but unfortunately we ratepayers dont’ get a say in hiring / firing them.  That’s the councillors job.
 

–0–

And John Neve has this to say yesterday.. our apologies John!

I have over the years heard many definitions for
democracies, but Nancy has come up with a new one!
Today (8/12/08), Nancy Says “Democracies work on
the principle of fair return for effort”. If this is true?
Democracy failed two thousand years ago.
 
Since when has the worker received a fair return for
their efforts? In most cases the person who makes the
article gets  less then the person who sells it!
 
Nancy’s paths and mine seldom cross, but I’d love to
debate this concept with her. I’d have to ask, why a
brain surgeon receives less than a football player? Or
why a nurse gets less than a real estate agent?
 
The worlds current financial situation is basically caused
by people receiving $millions for very little effort. The
workers taxes are now bailing them out. Is that a fair
return for effort Nancy?
 
Sad to say, on reading the editorial, I think Nancy is
being divisive and lurking in the background is the
Flight Training Group and the Maryborough airport.
 
I hope I’m wrong.

Tuesday Tuttle

If he’s so good, why won’t he leave?  This is the question that crossed our mind as we read the headline on this morning’s daily. 

Allegedly some wealthy Israeli business woman has made several attempts to lure Wide Bay Water’s Tim Waldron to join her international water company Miya.  While Mr Waldron may or may not have the goods, we can not understand why he would not jump at a fresh opportunity after being at the helm of ‘his’ baby WBWC for so long.

Surely it must be time for a change of scenery?  Or are there more sinister and concerning reasons for him not to go?  With his proposal for this foreigner to ‘invest’ $100m in a research facility in Hervey Bay, we wonder what massive returns the investor would be entitled to expect and who’s pockets this will come from.

If WBWC is such a cutting edge organisation, where are the returns to our region now?  Why are they not rolling in cash and building  research facilities themselves?

While we’re on the topic – if WBW is so successful, how come their proposed Water Park is so inadequate? 

With council set to rubber stamp this white elephant tomorrow, we only need to look at Mackay’s new water park and also the one about to be built on the Sunshine Coast to realise the little water fountains and pretty lights on Hervey Bay’s foreshore are not going to attract much attention from visitors.

Don’t say we didn’t tell you so when it happens but with the waterpark some 2 months behind schedule do to delays with government approvals, expect the costs to blow out significantly.  Who will pay?  The ratepayers of course!

Afternoon Edition

We’ve copped an ear bashing or three over our coverage of the Flight School debate.. we’ve had Sue Brooks asking us if we failed to read her blog.. we did Sue.. after we’d made our comments – for Sue’s perspective have a read of her site: http://suebrooks.com.au/2008/biased-media-or-not/

We also received the following today via email:

Naughty, naughty BBS you seem to be falling into the slipshod ways of the Chronicle. Nowhere in their front page article did I see Councillor Brooks quoted as saying she was undecided about the flight training school proposal, as you have claimed. Her two other fellow councilors felt they hadn’t got enough info to make a decision even though the Chronicle names them as strongly opposed, according to their “council sources”.  

So what about the rest of the pack. Surely eight votes still beats three, so why haven’t the proponents on the Council forced the issue to a vote. They have had some nine months to do this and they must have had enough information to make up their minds about the benefits, if you listen to their outcries.  

Perhaps these are the councillors who should be attacked for vacillating and not taking up the issue earlier. Better to be seen to have a position than none at all. But there is still a lot of darkness about the issue for many ratepayers like myself. I was unaware that Hervey Bay airport was to be used for flight training and I still do not know how many flights a day this would mean, or how many days a week, or how many weeks a year. 

In this I agree with John Neve that the Council has failed in communicating issues to their ratepayers. Even now it would be nice to get a Mayoral statement putting this issue in context but if the hints in the FCC are to be believed Mick has to spend a lot of his time guarding his back. 

Gavin Cantlon

BBS: Yes.. Mayor Mick has been rather quiet of late.. another for the too hard basket we’d be guessing.

Monday Mail Bag

John Neve writes:

Who’s side is she really on?
 
I am talking of course about Councillor Nior, the
councillor holds the Marketing & Tourism portfolio!
 
I would have thought turning the Maryborough/Hervey
Bay area into a flight training centre was counter
productive to tourism? But what would I know? Surely
the peace, tranquillity, laid back lifestyle and clean
environment are why people come here. They don’t
go to Bankstown or Essendon, both have bigger
airfields and more shops, but no they come here.
 
If our marketing & tourism guru is so keen on promoting
local business, why did she allow our NEW logo to be
designed at Mt Gravatt? The Fraser Coast Regional
Council’s website designed in Brisbane! Isn’t local
talent good enough councillor?
 
As she is promoting the FTG coming here, perhaps
she can tell us how the claimed $20 million will be
divide up in our region and who will benefit. Will the
discussed $1 a year rental cover councils costs
and make a small (very small) profit for ratepayers.
 
John A Neve

–0–

“Nancy Says vol. 28 “
                      (The goodies & the baddies)
 
Nancy Says (6/12/08), “A majority of good councillors
were elected in March”. Bearing in mind Nancy had a
greatly disproportionate influence on who got elected,
this could be seen as a little self praise!
 
In the recent past Nancy, Chris Foley and Warren Truss
have talked of parochialism in our council. Let me
remind you, there was two separate elections, one for
councillors and one for Mayor. If Hervey Bay ratepayers
had voted en block, all of our council would be from
Hervey Bay. They didn’t, which is why Tiaro, Woocoo
and Maryborough have representation and shows the
fairness of Hervey Bay people. Our council now has a
even spread of representation, so where is this
parochialism?
 
There is no new blood in our council, so Nancy and all
the voters knew what they were voting for (if they
really cared), so no excuses Nancy, you got what you
wanted.
 
Unlike Nancy, I feel our council has only failed us in one
area, communication, if we had the open and transparent
council we were promised, this sorry saga of the Flight
Training Group would never have happened.
 
John A Neve

What did they do?

We’re absolutely astonished to read today that councilors Brooks, McNeven and Hawes have not been able to get a grasp on the formerly proposed flight training school.

Firstly, we’d like to point out that this proposal has been out in the open for at least 9 months and secondly and most disturbing – these councilors actually flew to Adelaide earlier this year with CEO Andrew Brien to get the facts first hand from FTG!

Further to this, we understand that not only did FTG present thier proposal to the visiting council group but they also gave council a virtual tour of their operations.

Surely, if any of these councilors or the CEO had any more questions these could have been answered by a simple email or phone call to FTG?

Now it gets even more interesting – Sue Brooks on her blog has hosted a debate regarding the flight school and her last post on the matter made her position very clear – she does not want it!  How she can state publicly that she is undecided after she has blatantly dismissed the project on her own site is uncomprehensible.

In all this, Mayor Mick is nowhere to be seen although a small snippet in the daily suggests he’s thrown up his hands and taken to hiding down at his local.  Fair go Mick.. grab your troops by the ears and get them back in line!