I was astounded when I read what Nancy Says today.
“Information controls far too tight”, she goes on to talk about
“oppressive controls” and “secret society nonsense”, I ended
up wondering is this the same Nancy?
Our one and only Daily has fed us a diet of sanitized and
selective local government news for years. The “open and
transparent” council we have been promised, election upon
election, have never come to pass and in large part, I blame
Nancy.
The failings of past councils, be they factual of perceived are
embedded in the very fabric of our NEW Fraser Coast Regional
Council. We still only have one Daily paper and the same editor,
so what’s changed?
As I have written before, girth up your loins, it’s going to be a
rough ride.
John A Neve
Nancy Says Volume 11
Nancy Says #9
Ahh the sands of time.. through the hourglass they fall.. we at Bringbackstrewth are finding too few of them in the day.. thank goodness we have our good friend John Neve with his daily response to the intrepid Ed.
Nancy Says Volume 9
Nancy Says of our new council “One of their first official acts was
to vote themselves the maximum amount of salary under the
state guidelines”. She goes on to say that it’s “entirely proper” as
our councillors “swore they would fulfil their duties fairly and
impartially”! Is she suggesting that if they took less, their oath
does not count? Or that other councillors who chose to take a
lesser sum, won’t be fair or impartial?
In another part of our Daily we are given the reasons for taking
the maximum salary “other category five councils,had fewer
electors per councillor,less staff and lower operating revenues”!
I thought the number of staff was the CEO’s problem? As for
the number of electors, a third of ours chose not to vote, an
indication of their interest. Even so what do the numbers have to
do with a councillors salary? Regarding “operating revenues”,
the work involved has more to do with the state of a council’s
finances than the size. I would suggest a council in a worse
financial position than ours (if there is one), would involve more
work than one in a sound financial position, but what would I know?
John A Neve
The Usual Suspects 02/04/08
Well the first meeting of the new Fraser Coast Regional Council came and went today.. no real surprises today. Disappointing perhaps, that the councilor with the strongest vote of all candidates, Barb Hovard was overlooked for the fresh faced Belinda McNeven. However, democratic process was enacted and we are sure she will do a fine job.
For more stories on today’s events and reports on other recent local events check out our friends at http://frasercoastfreeclarion.blogspot.com/ Free Clarion is really starting to gain momentum as Bec T and her crew start to bring a credible new source of news media to the Fraser Coast.. we wish her all the best!
We’re keeping our powder dry for now but we expect to bring some hard hitting commentary very soon.. as Bill Knight mentioned somewhere else this week, the new council is under a very big microscope - The people. Never before has any council had so much expectation put upon them and the community is watching with interest.
If you have information, questions or comments on local happenings that are relevant to us feel free to send them in to bringbackstrewth@gmail.com
Finally, John Neve comes back today with his thoughts on the inaugural council meeting and continues with his Nancy Says column.
– o –
Today April 2, 2008, the new Fraser Coast Regional Council held
it’s Post Election Meeting. The room was full! Divided evenly
between relatives of our chosen leaders and cynics like me.
There were two nominations for Deputy Mayor, councillor Hovard
and councillor McNeven, with councillor McNeven being successful.
Portfolios: all the following are chairpersons;
Corporate Governance - Cr. McNeven
Arts & Culture - Cr. Harris
Community & Recreation - Cr. Muckan
Business Development - Cr. Hovard
Marketing & Tourism - Cr. Nioa
Economic Development - Cr. O’Connell
Water & Sewerage Infrastructure - Cr. Arthur
Environmental Sustainability - Cr. Brooks
Rural & Uban Infrastructure - Cr. Dalgleish
Councillors Remuneration: The remuneration tribunal set a
maximum and minimum for all classes of councils. Class 5, that’s
us, is as follows;
Mayor $101,250 - $120,230
Deputy Mayor $69,610 - $85,430
Councillors $60,120 - $75,940, plus 10% for the first four years
to allow for the transition period!
Our councillors chose to go for the top bracket!
Next meeting; Wednesday April 9, 0930hrs @ Maryborough.
BE THERE!
John A Neve
Nancy Says (Ep 6)
“Dump your baggage at door” Nancy Says. How can we Nancy,
you encouraged us to re-elect them and most of them have been!
If only Nancy had made us aware of our councils short comings,
we may have been able “to discover and share in building a grand
region”.
Nancy Says “communications has not been a strength with any of
our previous councils”! Why not? At least one had a full time
Media Officer and our local Daily selectively did it’s best for the
rest.
Nancy Says our new councillors need to “serve our region without
personal prejudice”, if only she practiced what she preached.
The Usual Suspects 02/04/08
John Neve continues:
I never cease to be amazed at what Nancy Says, today we are
told council’s mistakes, will “apparently, be paid by all ratepayers”.
Nancy Says, none of our four councils were squeaky clean! We
are told of their inability to look after our assets or plan for the
future! Further, she tells us “the new regional council is scratching
its head over a $4.5 million problem”.
Hold on, didn’t our self-appointed king maker endorse most, if not
all of these experienced, home grown community leaders? As I
have said before, I sometimes have trouble following our prophets
logic. Maybe she thinks we are all so dumb we can’t remember
yesterday and based on the election results, she could be right?
With only four years to go, I look forward to reading more
revelations from our prophets pen. Girth up your loins people, it’s
going to be a rough ride.
Ben Collingwood writes:
Its time for a change. The continuation of WBW as a seperate entity is a joke.. we’ve just done away with 3 CEOs yet we still have 2 on huge salaries being payed (if indirectly in Tim Waldron’s case) by ratepayers. This is the same duplication the state government alleged we’d be saving on under new amalgamated councils. Now pro-labor councilors trot out the minister of No Dress Sense (MNDS) to tell us what a great job WBW is doing and there is room for them to be involved across the state.. why not bring WBW back in house.. hey we’ll call it Fraser Coast Water, we’ll keep the operational staff that make WBW world leaders but trim the fat from the administration. Then we’ll stamp our mark on the state as the water smart region.
Speaking of ministers and meetings, how come Mayor Mick stayed here to meet MNDS when he could have been rubbing shoulders with the Anna Bligh and the rest of the State’s new mayors? He certainly has not done us any favours there - Ok so he did not have a deputy to delegate to and allow them to meet with the minister but surely the information and opportunites presented by the premier would have been much more valuable than a little meeting with Des? Surely that could have been postponed for a week or two.. escpecially as council had not even had its first sitting yet?
Then we hear that Maryborough City Council has such a dedicated team working for it that none of them ever took holidays.. or something like that. Here’s an idea for Mayor Mick and his merry band.. While the Fraser Coast Regional Council is still over crowded with excess administration staff, send all these dedicated workers ( and those from the other 3 councils) who hav excessive amounts of leave owing off on holidays.. I hear there is a nice condo over in China that isn’t getting much use! Given that many will be no doubt bored stupid once the final touches are done on the merger, I am sure even admin staff won’t mind trying out outdoor tasks to keep things flowing.. think of it as multi-skilling.
Furthermore, given that the Maryborough refuse site has now lifted its charges excessively, I am sure there will be funds available to pay leave entitlements! As of Monday, there was a 39% increase on Commercial & Industrial Waste at Maryborough’s Waste Sites. What else is going to follow suite I wonder? Water? Will we be stung with a levy to cover leave entitlements, undermaintained infrastructure and other problems that have lain hidden for decades? The new council has its work cut out and I am hoping they can shine in coming weeks!
Voice of the people
The controversial Ansons Road development project proposal is back on the Agenda.
Dundowran and Craignish residents who protested against the proposed development last year thought the issue was dead in the water. Not so, says Tanya Sanders who has organised a public meeting next Saturday, April 5, 4pm at the Dundowran Hall on Dundowran Road.
Tanya said the previous proposal was never submitted for decision but the developer, Braith Vidler, was asked to provide more information. She said Mr Vidler took 12 months to provide that information for council and now residents have until April 16 to lodge objections.
The original plan included 600 sq metre housing blocks, town houses, shops, a tavern and sporting facilities on a site with no sewerage connection and one access road. Land adjacent to the proposed development in Ansons Road and Sempfs Road is zoned Garden Residential, minimum 2000 sq metre blocks, which cannot be subdivided because there is no sewerage connection. The land proposed for development is currently zoned Emerging Community.
Tanya said Mr Vidler had submitted three alternative proposals for sewerage. The first was a piped connection to the Nikenbah Treatment Plant, the second to provide a large trap on site to collect sewerage and pump it daily into trucks for transport to the treatment plant, the third was to set aside an area of planted land and install a much larger system, similar to the systems now used in the area by individual householders.
Residents worried by the proposal were urged to attend the meeting. Tanya said it was probably the last opportunity the community would have to discuss the issues and lodge objections.
For more information Tanya can be contacted on 0401 356 878.
– The Usual Suspects –
John Neve on his favourite editor:
Nancy Says “We have the canvas to promote arts”, what arts?
The art of selective reporting, the art of looking the other way,
maybe the art of self promotion. Now the election is over, an
election where nearly a third of enrolled voters failed to do so!
Added to which many of those that voted, voted blind due to a
lack of comprehensive reporting.
What is a newspaper about? I thought it was about providing a
balanced insight in to what is going on around us. Not our daily,
it tells us what it thinks we need to know. But now the election is
over, the lid is being lifted. “Staff owed $4.5 million”, “sewerage
plant will have to be replaced in the next few years at an estimated
cost of $20 million”.
None of these issues just appeared, the vandalism, graffiti, budget
deficits, airport upgrades etc. To those who take an interest in
their community, they have been with us for years. But unseen by
our Daily, unreported by our council reporter and ignored by those
“safe hands” Nancy Says will guide us “to discover and share in
building a grand region”.
The Usual Suspects 30/03/08
John Neve writes:
Nancy Says “Long overdue is the clearing of the air on Wide Bay
Water by Tourism, Regional Development and Industry Minister
Desley Boyle”! Nowhere have I read or heard Ms Boyle comment
on the issues debated in this city regarding Wide Bay Water and
the old Hervey Bay City Council. Maybe I missed something?
Nancy Says “The corporate option should be explored by the
Fraser Coast Regional Council in relation to other units”! Why?
Corporatization is only one step away from privatization, is this
the step you want to go down?
I believe ALL public utilities should be owned by the people.
Water, electricity, sewerage, gas, roads, rail, health, none
of these should ever have been privatized. You tell me one
area in which privatization of public utilities has reduced costs,
improved service or increased quality?
However, as an ex board member? I can see where Nancy is
coming from.
The Usual Suspects 29/03/08
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
The Usual Suspects
Our regional soothsayer has changed her tack, her target
being “Children of streets”. Rather than making some constructive
and concrete suggestions, she does a Pontius Pilate and blames
our politicians!
When will our soothsayer and those like her accept that in a
democracy, the people are the government (aren’t we?), we
elect the politicians.
Violence on our streets, dole cheats, drug addiction and the
other items covered by Nancy Says, are our problem. Blaming
others is not the answer, even though it goes down well with her
readers.
John Neve writes again… (Part 4 we think)…
“Streets in third world countries are safer than ours” Nancy Says.
I thought that prophets could foretell the future and so guide the
people on the path to righteousness? Seems our prophet has failed us?
The Maryborough Central railway station has been graffitied and in
a state of disrepair for many years. One has to wonder at the
sudden clearing of our prophets eyes!
I walk Hervey Bay’s esplanade in the early hours of every morning
and have never seen our prophet! Often I walk it at night,save for
a few drunks or druggies, it’s a great place to walk. One has to
wonder about the “third world countries” our prophet frequents?
One more cynical than me, might feel Nancy Says these things to
distract us from her past meanderings, regarding her anointed ones.
Our leaders of her “brave new world”, but then, I’m not cynical, am I?
John A Neve
Strewthisback adds the following:
Who else is growing tired of Nancy’s neverending preaching and dicatator style editorials? Once bearable reading, her views were often sensible and regularly hit the mark but recently the quality has vanished.
Does Bringbackstrewth fall into her category of “malicious websites run by anonymous cowards with sly agendas”? Rest assured, we’ll continue to dig in against Madam Editor until she starts bringing credibility back to her beloved paper and stop trying to manipulate the community to her own desires.
There are no hidden agendas here at Bringbackstrewth, just a desire to give the community somewhere to voice their opinions, become better informed on important issues and encouraged to become involved in our community.
We’re not going away, we will get bigger, renew aquaintances with old contributors and we will develop a bigger network with the power of the people. But, most of all we’ll keep telling it like it is. Cheers!
Today’s Thought
Controversial NSW Premier, Jack Lang, cautioned all politicians to “never complain, never explain and never resign!”
Seems our local newspaper editor comes from a similar mould. A fortnight ago she was labelling anyone caught using the internet to be a misinformer or a defamer or a political cannibal or, at least, an enabler of such dastardly tactics; and therefore only fit to be assigned to the nearest political gutter.
Now with no hint of where exactly on the road to Hervey Bay, she had her Damascus experience, this morning, she has given her editorial blessing to our new councillors using the internet; provided “they know the difference” between fair and unfair debate. Too bad that a fortnight ago she did not manage to differentiate between candidates who were being fair and reasonable on the net and any who were not. I guess it is hard to remember such subtleties when you are busy laying out photographs on a page to optimise the guilt by association.
Anyway, let’s not dwell on the bad old days. Let’s hope that like most good babyboomers, she is ready to take yet another cultural change in her stride and factor the internet into our other modes of community discussion; after all, a collection of websites sure beats giving candidates one whole minute to introduce their policies at a public meeting. I believe it is possible to achieve a productive symbiosis between the grassroots chaos of the internet and the professional journalism of the newspaper. The result could be an interesting column called “from the blogs”, which draws together particular themes by referencing various posts which can be read on the net. Hopefully, the topics we discuss will evolve beyond the “mine is better than yours” type of argie-bargie and we will tackle some interesting projects of real benefit to our region. For instance, Cy’s concern about polution seems to be stalling because of our collective lack of scientific knowledge.
I would be very interested to learn how our local scientists are managing any potentially negative side effects of their interventions into our environment. Do we have base level readings of the pollutants to which Cy has referred? Are there any longitudinal studies of the impact of spreading treated waste on our soils. These are things with which, as citizens, we should be routinely familiar, so that we can avoid simpistic debates like “it’s either green or technological.” If we stop accusing them, without any fair trial, of cover up and scientific fraud, perhaps these scientists will contribute something to our shared understanding of the issue.
Brian Canute
Tittletat corner:
Before the dust on the Fraser Coast Regional Council elections
has had time to settle. The regions self appointed king maker is
issuing decrees! Thou shalt not be “taking part in, and giving
credibility to, malicious websites” and so she goes on. Her anointed
one has “promised a code of ethics”! This I assume is to take the
place of “The Code of Conduct” constantly ignored by recently
passed councils?
She goes on, thou shalt not “curry favour and assist re-election
chances”. Who’s I wonder?
At the start of a brave new era for the Fraser Coast, one can only
hope our newly elected read Nancy Says and do as they are told.
John A Neve.. who came back for another beaut swipe today (26/03)…
I must admit to finding it hard at times to follow the logic of our
local prophet, today was one such time. We are told of the “heavy
costs” due to “childish parochialism”. Of councillors “digging into
their bunkers ever deeper” and having an “imperious disregard for
compatibility” with other councils. Are these the same councillors
who with “experience” and a “safe pair of hands” are going to guide
our new $100 million plus council into the future?
But worry not, our Mayor/King “I’ll make us best”, will bring down
the gavel on those who pursue the old ways.
Self interest Vs The Common Good
John Neve writes:
I believe any objective review of our Representative form of Democracy, would have to admit it has been eroded over time. As a direct result, many people have lost faith in their ability to influence the direction of their lives.
Successive federal and state governments have introduced laws that restrict the ability of the ordinary Australian to participate. Very few people have the money or resources to stand for any level of government. Unless backed by a political party, church organisation or business group.
There are a number of ways we could endeavour to restore faith in our political system. Some of these are as follows; cap the money spent by or on behalf of any candidate, do away with blanket voting for the Senate by removing the LINE on the ballot paper. The voter would then have to mark every box. Scrap compulsory voting and introduce fixed terms, thus removing opportunistic snap elections. Giving the electorate the time to truly assess a government’s performance. Most importantly, insist on equal electronic media coverage and limit lead times prior to an election.
Better still, we could move to a Direct Democracy system. With a population of little more than 20 million, it would be easy to introduce a system similar to California or Switzerland. We could hold referendums quarterly, with the added ability for citizen initiated referendums, if 10% of the population so desired.
There are probably many other options, which would enable the people to have a greater say in how our country is run. But I believe some thing must be done, no one could deny the increasing loss of the citizens rights and privileges over the last 20 or 30 years. Those we choose to elect no longer listen to us, they now tell us what is good for us! Sad to say they often have gotten it wrong.
John A Neve
Brian Canute writes:
In WA, local government voting is not compulsory.
They also respect local government for what it is; local.
Between Perth and Fremantle, on the north shore of the Swan River,a distance of approximately 20 km, there are 8 local government areas. They talk periodically of amalgamation, but prefer to cooperate by outsourcing their various services. Meanwhile, the different councils are able to pursue their own philosophies, on matters such as debt level and entrepreneurial activity.
In Claremont, one of these LGA’s, the mayor used to wander around the shopping centre every Saturday, just chatting to people.
Interstingly, just to the north of these councils lies WA’s largest LGA, Stirling (250k). During the WA Inc era, around 1990, guess where all the brown paper bags full of cash were found; yep, Stirling City Council, dominated by the large political parties and remote from the voters.
Unfortunately, Nancy and the state government do not get it. The thing that makes a community prosperous is the linkages between the people; it works for bushfires and works for economic development. Hopefully these blogs will achieve what Nancy’s Newsletter (unless you own a horse) and amalgamation are trying to frustrate. These blogs have a huge potential to be the mechanism by which we share problems, dreams and ideas. And that can make us very prosperous.
