Report card due

How the months fly.. in a few weeks our charming bunch of councilors will have been in power for twelve months. We’ll ask yet again what have they achieved? Precious little except perhaps meld four smaller councils together.. but honestly.. thats what the CEO and his officers have done.

How about our councilors?  Attended plenty of warm and fuzzy community events?  Yeah, quite possibly.. but what have they ACHIEVED??  In coming days we will compile a report card of sorts for each councilor.. we’d welcome contributions and thoughts from our readers.. should make for interesting reading! 

Stay tuned

Time for action

We’ve been reading in the local the past few days of changes taking place at Hervey Bay City Council.. oops.. FCRC.. and we’re pleased to see ex Maryborough City Council team member Wayne Sweeney appointed to finally get things moving with capital works.. why this was not done 6 months ago begars belief but we’ll just be happy to see more work on the go in coming months.

Now that we’ve done that and apparently realised that being a councilor is not about going to tea parties (sorry Crs Harris, Hovard & Arthur) but to make sure the wheels keep turning and the communities best interests are served.

There are several major projects on the cards that councils have failed to act on for many many years (Maryborough’s inner city revamp for one) and with an election looming, the time is ripe for some rapid decision making and acti0n to leverage resources (and not just cash) from the state government to get these projects (and the jobs they will create) off the ground.

Lets all write to our councilors and demand more.. more more more real life action (no more talking please!).. and less less less self promotion!

Friday Funny

From our northern cousins:

http://www.cairnsblog.net/2009/02/no-vanity-for-anna.html

Enough said!

Mangrove Egos

We’ve been doing some digging into the supposedly ‘new’ story of the problem mangroves taking over the inner reaches of the Mary river.  While previous councilors and probably some of the existing ones moaned on about how hard it was to do anything with the damn things (and in fact they publicly threw up their hands and claimed they ‘had’ to build the clayton’s wharf at Portside).. we’ve discovered it really aint that hard.

Four years ago or thereabouts Maryborough’s council wanted the mangroves gone to improve the ammenity of Portside and to install a proper jetty BUT… personal egos got in the way it seems.

Removing mangroves if you believe the media is a no no – they are important to the eco-systems of the rivers and they have all these wonderful benefits.. its true BUT.. there is a means to remove mangroves to allow development etc – mangroves that are removed are simply replaced elsewhere.. a bit like pine forrests.. some get removed so they plant as many if not a few more elsewhere and life goes on.

Back then, government’s advise to council was that if they produced a survey (headcount if you like) of the mangroves in the area they wished to clear, and an application to remove said plants, the department would consider the application and then a decision would be made as to where replacement plants could be sown.

But.. ego’s got in the way.. or one as the story goes.. he decided that it was too much trouble kissing the department’s behind so advised council that it was too difficult or something like that and so they took the soft option.

Four years on and an election looming and someone has decided to make it Andrew McNamara’s problem – firstly, his department is not the start of the process.  Secondly, its not even his electorate.. but here’s the real stupid bit people..  whilst some in the community and even councilors whinge about the mangroves, to our knowledge, council has not even applied to remove the damn things! 

Honestly people.. what are we coming to?  This council has been in for nearly 12 months now and put quite simply they are failing.  Not good enough folks.. yes John.. before you say it..  many DID vote for them but we all need to demand they get their act together or GET OUT!!

Access For All – No More

Hi Strewthers,
 
It’s happened – Access For All Alliance Inc, the only advocacy group in Hervey Bay which the Council  has not been able to intimidate for 10 years has had to go out of business.  Here is the reason why:
 
On  23rd October 2002 the Federal Parliament ratified the Disability Standards For Accessible Public Transport, which amongst other things mandated the infrastructure of bus stops constructed after that date.  This standard also set down a schedule for all bus stops constructed before 23rd October 2002, that was that 25% of all existing bus stops were to be made compliant according to this standard by 31st December 2007.
 
Some of you may recall that Access For All Alliance took the Council to Court in 2005 because they had defied this Federal Standard and constructed 22 non-compliant bus stops since  23rd October 2002.
 
Representatives of Access For All Alliance Inc travelled to Brisbane to hear the Court Hearings – but they never got to hear anything about the non-compliant bus stops.  The whole morning was taken up by Council’s QC arguing that we did not have standing as a group in the Federal Court.
 
The Federal Judge Collyer J, agreed, and dismissed our claim on the grounds  that Access For All Alliance Inc, as a not-for-profit, non-funded advocacy group of disabled people and their carers had no standing in the Federal Court, and awarded the council $55,000 in costs against us.
 
We dispute that we had no standing as a group, as the Interpretations Act 1903 states:
 
22 Meaning of certain words:
1)  In any Act, unless the contrary intentions appears:
 
(a)    expressions used to denote persons generally (such as ‘person’, ‘party’, ’someone’, ‘anyone’, ‘no-one’, ‘one’, ‘another’. and ‘whoever’,) include a body  politic or corporate as well as an individual’.
 
It seemed obvious to us therefore that as a ‘corporate body’, we did have standing in the Federal Court. However we did not have the funds to appeal her decision.
 
According to the Law we are therefore insolvent and as we only have $1,400 in the bank we have been advised by our solicitors that we have to stop trading.  That means that we can do no advocacy work which requires that involves accounts to be paid  for telephone calls, the internet, stationery, stamps etc, etc.
 
At the present time we have not gone into voluntary liquidation – that costs money.  We have closed down the Access For All Alliance Web site and cancelled our internet address.    We have asked our solicitors to ask the Council to waive this debt and are awaiting their decision – not however holding our collective breaths.
 
We did, however take the precaution about 2 years ago to register the name of Australia For All Alliance Inc.    This group has constructed an international  web site which is entirely devoted to accommodation and tourism venues which are accessible to people with disabilities.   It has won a number of awards, including an invitation to facilitate a workshop at the European Commission’s Accessible Tourism Conference held in Spain last November.   This invitation was taken up and our web site:   www.australiaforall.com was applauded by all who attended the workshop.  Since it’s launch just over 18 months ago the site has had 52,500 visits and 376,300 hits.   We see this web site as a community service and do not charge tourism providers to advertise their accommodation and/or tourism venue on it, with the proviso that it meets our access criteria.
 
Our new internet address is:  australiaforall@bigpond.com if anybody wants to know anything about accessible tourism.
 
Best wishes to all for 2009.
 
Sheila King
Co-ordinator
www.australiaforall.com
 
PS  The Council has at this time not converted any of the 25% of bus stops constructed prior to 23rd October  2002, so we might have to put in another discrimination case against them!!

One for Nancy

We can’t print the words that first came to mind when we read Nancy’s weekend rant in the daily over the weekend but we’ll just say the following.

Nancy wonders why there is still ongoing dissent regarding the waterpark.. why can’t we all just roll over and accept this wonderful present to the people of Hervey Bay.. conceived over a nice bottle of red by Pete’s man for the bay Andy Pandy and his good mate Tiny Tim.

Well for starters, we’re still angry that WBW is set up in a manner which absolves it of all requirements of a government department to be transperent and open to public scrutiny.  Clever though it may be, it is not conductive to trust from the community and until such time as council can be trusted to oversee its operations we must remain cautious.

Secondly, can someone please explain why ‘our’ waterpark does not get so much as a wading pool for the kiddies?  In fact, why is it even being built considering the organisation behind it is supposedly committed to helping us conserve water?  Spraying a nice ribbon of water over a roundabout might look great but it must have a fantastic evaporation rate also?

Finally, as long as the editor of the local paper keeps using the same to thrust this project forwards as a good thing when we know all too well that she was not so long ago on the board of WBW, we’ll be opposed to it.  It stinks.

It is time to go Ms Editor, sometimes we’ll agree with you but by and large, you also contribute to the problems our region faces.  Poor journalism might be the by-product of a difficult cut-throat industry but surely editors are paid enough to at least attempt a half decent product?

We can all play a part

Criticism of council seems to be the theme of the week regardless of bigger crisis elsewhere however we ask the question of our local’s editor and her developer friends aka advertisers:

Is the price right?

We hear of jobs going to out of town consultancy firms or construction companies etc but comments by a concreter today made us stop and think.

The strong growth that the region has enjoyed up until recently has led to a lot of greed amoungst developers, construction firms and even smaller contractors capitalising on so-called shortage of labour and plentiful work to pick from.

Now the boom times are over, it seems many of these are reluctant to lower their prices and as a result, consumers are shying away.  Recently the same concretor was asked to quote on a job as his competitor seemed too pricey – not surprisingly he was – our friend who employees more than double the staff of the other chap could still afford to undercut him by some 50% and still make a small profit for himself.  Better to keep the boys employed than to lay them off due to greed was his explanation.

Makes us wonder, how many others need to sharpen the pencil as times get tough?

On the nose

Feedback this week both in person, email and even reading the local indicates clearly that there is a growing murmur against our council regarding the current economic climate.

For months now we’ve had Cr O’Connell singing the praises of the five point plan that is going to save us.  Well Cr O’Connell, it is time you are your ten partners in crime moved faster to actually implement this plan.

Time and again we’re hearing that council is well behind in its capital works programs.. and time and again its blamed on lack of staff.  Now in these times, surely there are suitable personnel available to come in and take up the slack?

We’ve had enough of excuses – please council, lets get moving on projects old and new and also aggressively chase state and federal incentive programs to maximise the prosperity of the region.

As for projects that have stalled, lets get the chainsaw out and cut away dead wood and other obstacles that are holding things back.. this includes the council staffer ex-Maryborough who intentionally put his own personal pride / ego before the best interests of the city and the implementation of the urban renewal projects along the river.

Enough is enough.  Mangroves can be removed when required.. it simply takes a little money, plenty of negotiating and swallowing of pride and perhaps a  little commonsense.

Keating sees the light

We found this interesting post on ninemsn this morning – our governments over the years have helped us get in the current financial mess we’re in but here we have it.. a change of heart.  Now, an ex-labor PM says we should get our from under the United State’s skirt and start a brave new journey of global relationships.. a new world order perhaps?

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/736815/ditch-imf-g7-to-escape-crisis-keating

It just gets worse

The article ‘It just gets better’, posted by an anonymous and faceless contributor, reinforced my view of our political scene. While pointing out all the perceived failings of one of our elected representatives. It offered not one suggestion or solution! Once again, I would point out the government is our face and our voice. We elect them and when we re-elect them! Oops, sad isn’t it. We have allowed over the last twenty or thirty years democracy to be whittled away in this country. The people don’t even have a say in the candidates! They are chosen for us by a small faceless group called part members. The ‘Party’ doesn’t even have to field a candidate if it doesn’t want to! So supporters of that ‘Party’ don’t even have a candidate to vote for! Under the system as it currently is, I would argue we don’t live in a democracy, far from it. John A Neve