The self-styled gnomish Steve Etwell, The Chronicle’s Editor in Chief, has devoted front page after front page of his paper recently to incite public antagonism to our local government Councillors and respected Parliamentarians – all for the sake of daily circulation sensationalism.
On the principle of what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, we ask Etwell exactly the same questions he flung first at MPs Stuart Copeland, Ray Hopper, and Kerry Shine when their parliamentary superannuation was revealed and then at Councillors of the Toowoomba Regional Council when statutory pay increases occurred.
On the Parliamentarians, The Chronicle’s front page reads: “While the rest of us are worried about our jobs and life savings, three local politicians yesterday qualified for a “sweet” super deal."
This is plainly an incitement to undeserved public antagonism. That super “deal” is ratified by statute. Copeland, Hopper and Shine are honourable men, each having given years of public service.
On the Councillors, the Front Page screamed: “ Huge Pay rises for Councillors ! Are they worth it?" With photographs alongside of two of our most respected and hard-working Councillors, the Mayor Peter Taylor and the former Mayor of Cambooya Cr Carol Taylor (no relation).
This manufactured outrage from a monopoly newspaper which gives scant reporting cover for this, the first complex and difficult year of Council’s amalgamation, and which ignores political scrutiny of any kind of the performance of our Parliamentarians, either in their electorates or in the House.
Etwell has not once attempted to report the complexity of issues confronting the new amalgamataed Council – nor has he attempted to examine the crushing workload Councillors cannot escape.
So again, we ask Editor Etwell: In the public interest, Come clean on your own salary and superannuation benefits … Make clear to your readership the community responsibilities and ideals of your diminished paper …. And explain why it is that while the Toowoomba Region’s population increases, your circulation is going backwards.
It’s no good, Mr Etwell, to claim you are not an elected politician. True. But you ARE the Editor in Chief of the city’s only newspaper upon which the community depends for informed news cover.
You’re not coming close to doing your job in the best newspaper tradition.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Anna Bligh will triumph, according to Mackerras: State election prediction
For ideas, energy, thoughtful generosity and intellect, Anna Bligh is hard to fault as our Queensland Premier. There is not a single member of the Labor Government benches who comes near her for warmth and personality. It is too much to assert Anna is beyond the exercise of political cynicism but she does a good job in doing so.
And by comparison, Lawrence Springborg, worthy as he might be and admirable his background, is wooden and pompous. It is simple enough for the newly formed Opposition Liberal National Party to appeal idealogically in harmony. But it will be a dangerous risk for voters to imagine that the old, bitter rivalries which from Bjelke-Petersen’s day made coalition uneasy and jealous, if not unworkable.
Acknowledged national election expert Malcolm Mackerras
last month published his election year Political Pendulum for Queensland – confidently expecting the two-party preferred vote to be tied at about 50-50, a swing against Labor of about 5 per cent.
And that would leave Anna Bligh with an 11 seat majority – 50 seats for Labor with 39 for all the rest.
After the September, 2006 election, the result was 59 seats for Labor, 17 for the Nationals, eight for the Liberals, four Independents and on eof One nation.
Now about Toowoomba: The interesting feature of the pendulum is that the Liberal National Party needs a swing of about 7.6% to win the median seat of Toowoomba North, held by our veteran Attorney General Kerry Shine. So it would appear that Kerry has nothing much to worry about but it would probably help him a lot if he could stop thinking like a lawyer as in his definitions of rape as a crime – and if he could smile a bit.
And by comparison, Lawrence Springborg, worthy as he might be and admirable his background, is wooden and pompous. It is simple enough for the newly formed Opposition Liberal National Party to appeal idealogically in harmony. But it will be a dangerous risk for voters to imagine that the old, bitter rivalries which from Bjelke-Petersen’s day made coalition uneasy and jealous, if not unworkable.
Acknowledged national election expert Malcolm Mackerras
last month published his election year Political Pendulum for Queensland – confidently expecting the two-party preferred vote to be tied at about 50-50, a swing against Labor of about 5 per cent.
And that would leave Anna Bligh with an 11 seat majority – 50 seats for Labor with 39 for all the rest.
After the September, 2006 election, the result was 59 seats for Labor, 17 for the Nationals, eight for the Liberals, four Independents and on eof One nation.
Now about Toowoomba: The interesting feature of the pendulum is that the Liberal National Party needs a swing of about 7.6% to win the median seat of Toowoomba North, held by our veteran Attorney General Kerry Shine. So it would appear that Kerry has nothing much to worry about but it would probably help him a lot if he could stop thinking like a lawyer as in his definitions of rape as a crime – and if he could smile a bit.
Toowoomba’s Dynamic Labor Duo
I have often written complaining about the “invisibility” of the Australian Labor Party in Toowoomba. As a party organisation, it rarely announces it even exists – that is, until only a couple of months before an Election. That is no way to win an election – you need permanent political presence for that.
Mind you, I feel sorry sometimes for Kerry Shine, MP for North Toowoomba for his misfortune in being appointed State Attorney General. Becoming a Minister can be the kiss of death for a Member of Parliament in a demanding electorate.
It is easy for Kerry after 8 years – and for Liberal National Party stalwart Mike Horan after 18 years – to remember those things that cause voters to become restless.
There are so many things in Toowoomba that just haven’t been kept up to standard, for instance:
>>The scandalous delays in renewing the Range Crossing
>> The equally scandalous state of the roads, especially James Street with its endless procession of transport juggernauts.
>> The irritating neglect by the Railways Department to fill in the gaps beween rail crossings and bitumen on all the city’s crossings. That’s simple enough to fix.
>> The criminal waiting times for new patients to get listed at the hospital Dental Clinic. At the very least, specal measures should be taken to help those aged persons in need.
>> The lack of turning lanes on our main roads, particularly West Street leading out to the University which has some of the most perilous intersections in the city.
You’d think that Horan and Shine would notice these defects, minor though they may be, as they drive around their city – WE the public notice. Why don’t they?
Things are looking up for Labor! Contesting Towooomba South against Mike Horan is the brilliant and likeable young Labor lawyer Daniel Toombs who has won many community awards and who heads up the Toowooomba Advisory Service Centre, the public advocacy organisation.
It should be a fascinating electon year, with a Labor Party duo contesting both electorates – the steady but sometimes pallid
Shine and the mercurial Toombs who overflows with ideas the public wants to hear.
To know more about Dan Toombs, click on to his website http://www.dantoombs.com.au/ and then go to the Heading “14 things you should know about Dan Toombs.” Those 14 Things are an eye-opener to the lively campaigner and politician he promises to become.
Mind you, I feel sorry sometimes for Kerry Shine, MP for North Toowoomba for his misfortune in being appointed State Attorney General. Becoming a Minister can be the kiss of death for a Member of Parliament in a demanding electorate.
It is easy for Kerry after 8 years – and for Liberal National Party stalwart Mike Horan after 18 years – to remember those things that cause voters to become restless.
There are so many things in Toowoomba that just haven’t been kept up to standard, for instance:
>>The scandalous delays in renewing the Range Crossing
>> The equally scandalous state of the roads, especially James Street with its endless procession of transport juggernauts.
>> The irritating neglect by the Railways Department to fill in the gaps beween rail crossings and bitumen on all the city’s crossings. That’s simple enough to fix.
>> The criminal waiting times for new patients to get listed at the hospital Dental Clinic. At the very least, specal measures should be taken to help those aged persons in need.
>> The lack of turning lanes on our main roads, particularly West Street leading out to the University which has some of the most perilous intersections in the city.
You’d think that Horan and Shine would notice these defects, minor though they may be, as they drive around their city – WE the public notice. Why don’t they?
Things are looking up for Labor! Contesting Towooomba South against Mike Horan is the brilliant and likeable young Labor lawyer Daniel Toombs who has won many community awards and who heads up the Toowooomba Advisory Service Centre, the public advocacy organisation.
It should be a fascinating electon year, with a Labor Party duo contesting both electorates – the steady but sometimes pallid
Shine and the mercurial Toombs who overflows with ideas the public wants to hear.
To know more about Dan Toombs, click on to his website http://www.dantoombs.com.au/ and then go to the Heading “14 things you should know about Dan Toombs.” Those 14 Things are an eye-opener to the lively campaigner and politician he promises to become.
USQ’s great days seem to have dissolved
It is a very sad thing – but our University of Southern Queensland which once evoked great admiration and fondness from the Toowoomba public – particularly in concert, theatre, and art – has almost disappeared from public view. We know it still exists, if only because dozens of busses run out there.
I am sure my readers can recall, as I do, some of the academic endeavours and artistic talent that were so evident in past years.
Town and gown relationships are not so evident in the community as they have been in the past. Surely with the economic hard times upon us, the city and the Univserity need to work together even more closely than they did in the past to provide a stimulating educational atmosphere and preserve and enchance this important institution providing tertiary education to thousands of students both locally and around the globe.
I am sure my readers can recall, as I do, some of the academic endeavours and artistic talent that were so evident in past years.
Town and gown relationships are not so evident in the community as they have been in the past. Surely with the economic hard times upon us, the city and the Univserity need to work together even more closely than they did in the past to provide a stimulating educational atmosphere and preserve and enchance this important institution providing tertiary education to thousands of students both locally and around the globe.
Kerry Shine must mend his U3A fences
The 1100 or so members of Toowoomba’s University of the Third Age remember very well that in November 2007 our MP Kerry Shine and his Federal candidate colleague Chris Meibusch made a great election campaign play of finding the nearly homeless organisation somewhere new to live.
Shine chaired a meeting, with Meibusch in attendance, in which he publicly offered the assembled U3A committee members and rank and file members the lease of the unused Administrative Building at Baillie Henderson mental hospital.
Meibusch made a great play in his election publicity of the offer and his care for U3A and other organisations helping the aged.
There was however a catch – NO funding of any kind was attached to the offer and the situation now is that U3A members have to find funding of some hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring the building up to compulsory occupiable standards and to equip it.
So far, all U3A’s submissions to State Government departments have been denied.
And not a single word of explanation, apology or offer of assistance from the Attorney General. I don’t know how many of the 1100 live in his Toowoomba North electorate but Shine should remember that we all have long memories.
For that matter, how many of his constituents know that he point blank refuses;
1) To consider the appointment of a co-ordinating Minister for Care of the Aged in our State, being content to leave Age Care divided between five separate Ministries and
2) Refuses point blank to consider regulatory legislation to safeguard Age Pensions from predatory rental landlords.
Some caring Member is our Kerry !!!
Shine chaired a meeting, with Meibusch in attendance, in which he publicly offered the assembled U3A committee members and rank and file members the lease of the unused Administrative Building at Baillie Henderson mental hospital.
Meibusch made a great play in his election publicity of the offer and his care for U3A and other organisations helping the aged.
There was however a catch – NO funding of any kind was attached to the offer and the situation now is that U3A members have to find funding of some hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring the building up to compulsory occupiable standards and to equip it.
So far, all U3A’s submissions to State Government departments have been denied.
And not a single word of explanation, apology or offer of assistance from the Attorney General. I don’t know how many of the 1100 live in his Toowoomba North electorate but Shine should remember that we all have long memories.
For that matter, how many of his constituents know that he point blank refuses;
1) To consider the appointment of a co-ordinating Minister for Care of the Aged in our State, being content to leave Age Care divided between five separate Ministries and
2) Refuses point blank to consider regulatory legislation to safeguard Age Pensions from predatory rental landlords.
Some caring Member is our Kerry !!!
Felton Valley coal mining update
The Ambre coal and synthetic fuel company is quiely preparing for its open cut mine operation in the pristine Felton Valley. As this is election year, public debate will undoubtedly hot up – and not before time.
Friends of Felton is certain to ask all political candidates, particularly sitting Members of Parliament, whether they will oppose Ambre’s planning or vacillate.
A startling map has been published showing clearly the company’s intending layout for the first stage of its so-called Clean Coal Project. It proposes to mine coal and build dams, levee banks, and petrochemical plant infrastructure running along side Hodgson Creek, in the headwaters of the Murray Darling. Hodgson Creek readily floods over a wide area.
As the Friends of Felton point out with alarm, recent experience in Central Queensland with flooding of mine sites such as the Ensham mine should serve as a lesson to Government decision makers.
Ensham mine was allowed to pump out flood water into the Mackenzie River, resulting in the contamination of a large part of the Fitzroy river system with salts, hydrocarbons, selenium, and other minerals. The quality of Rockhampton's drinking water supply has been badly affected.
There is no doubt about the future outcomes for the Friends of Felton: It says unequivocally that the Ambre Energy "Felton Clean Coal Project" is a recipe for environmental disaster. It presents an unacceptable risk to the Murray Darling river sytem. FOF calls on Premier Bligh to reject it immediately
During the 2009 election campaign still to come, politicians can expect to be asked:
While some of the candidates are well known in the area, others are not, and it may be difficult for voters to make an informed choice. On past experience and practice, the Chronicle newspaper has been reluctant to devote space to allow each of the candidates to outline their background, relevant experience, and the platform on which they stand for election?
Each should be asked to respond to a number of questions regarding current challenges faced by TRC. Here are a few for starters -
1. Are you in favour of the development of a large open-cut coal mine, petrochemical plant, and power station in the pristine Felton Valley farmland, only 30 kms from Toowoomba?
2. Are you in favour of coal mining at Wyreema, Hodgson Vale, and Pittsworth?
3. If you answered "yes" to either of the first two questions, please explain what value you place on the protection of the natural resources of the Darling Downs- namely land, air, and water. Further, are you concerned about the social impact of such developments at a local and regional level?
4. Would you support the implementation by TRC of an Environmental Plan which would prohibit new coal mines, and instead promote the development of renewable energy infrastructure - a Plan which would allow Toowoomba to grow as a green city, surrounded by top quality food production areas with high tourism potential, populated by strong and cohesive local communities?
Friends of Felton is certain to ask all political candidates, particularly sitting Members of Parliament, whether they will oppose Ambre’s planning or vacillate.
A startling map has been published showing clearly the company’s intending layout for the first stage of its so-called Clean Coal Project. It proposes to mine coal and build dams, levee banks, and petrochemical plant infrastructure running along side Hodgson Creek, in the headwaters of the Murray Darling. Hodgson Creek readily floods over a wide area.
As the Friends of Felton point out with alarm, recent experience in Central Queensland with flooding of mine sites such as the Ensham mine should serve as a lesson to Government decision makers.
Ensham mine was allowed to pump out flood water into the Mackenzie River, resulting in the contamination of a large part of the Fitzroy river system with salts, hydrocarbons, selenium, and other minerals. The quality of Rockhampton's drinking water supply has been badly affected.
There is no doubt about the future outcomes for the Friends of Felton: It says unequivocally that the Ambre Energy "Felton Clean Coal Project" is a recipe for environmental disaster. It presents an unacceptable risk to the Murray Darling river sytem. FOF calls on Premier Bligh to reject it immediately
During the 2009 election campaign still to come, politicians can expect to be asked:
While some of the candidates are well known in the area, others are not, and it may be difficult for voters to make an informed choice. On past experience and practice, the Chronicle newspaper has been reluctant to devote space to allow each of the candidates to outline their background, relevant experience, and the platform on which they stand for election?
Each should be asked to respond to a number of questions regarding current challenges faced by TRC. Here are a few for starters -
1. Are you in favour of the development of a large open-cut coal mine, petrochemical plant, and power station in the pristine Felton Valley farmland, only 30 kms from Toowoomba?
2. Are you in favour of coal mining at Wyreema, Hodgson Vale, and Pittsworth?
3. If you answered "yes" to either of the first two questions, please explain what value you place on the protection of the natural resources of the Darling Downs- namely land, air, and water. Further, are you concerned about the social impact of such developments at a local and regional level?
4. Would you support the implementation by TRC of an Environmental Plan which would prohibit new coal mines, and instead promote the development of renewable energy infrastructure - a Plan which would allow Toowoomba to grow as a green city, surrounded by top quality food production areas with high tourism potential, populated by strong and cohesive local communities?
To Die with Dignity: Joan, the Nurse, versus Anna, the Premier
(The following letter is from Joan Russ, nurse, of Mary Street, Toowoomba.)
Queensland’s Premier Anna Bligh has ruled out any review of her State’s euthanasia laws.
“I don’t see any persuasive argument,” she has said, “that would make me of a mind to revisit the issue. I have a very conservative view of euthanasia. I think it is a very difficult area to legislate in and I know from discussion with medical practitioners it could be a very slippery slope for parliaments to enter.”
Nurse Joan , the writer of this letter, disagrees. It is the inadequacy of national debate of the issue of euthanasia that really astounds me, she says.
When a person has a painful terminal illness or incurable dementia what is the benefit to the person or to mankind, by prolonging their suffering and stress?
As a nurse, I saw many patients suffer greatly for months, weeks and days before finally dying, despite the pain relief administered.
My Grandfather was immobilised and brain damaged before dying at 102 years of age and my Father ceased eating and drinking for a month before his emaciated body stopped breathing at 90 years.
Perhaps they would have chosen another way to escape their pain and end their lives if a choice had been available to them.
I have a terminal illness and when I can no longer enjoy another day, I would like to think that I was able to choose my destiny. At the moment, my voice goes unheeded.
It should never be the role of Government to dictate what should be a person’s choice in thinking. Or to deny anyone the right to die with dignity.
In the end the decision made law should be for voluntary euthanasia: no-one has ever suggested enforcement. I consider this right of choice to be a fundamental right.
I would like to see open and free-minded debate, removed from the hysteria that surrounds it. This hysteria only over-rides and upsets the balanced views expressed, and demotes the seriousness of what is a most important decision for our country to consider and make into law.
Joan Russ,
Mary Street,
Toowoomba. Q. 4350
(Note: The Voluntary Euthanasia organisation, Exit International, is establishing a Toowoomba Regional Chapter. A meeting is scheduled for 2pm on Wednesday, May 5 at the Dr Price Rooms. Two meetings, one conducted by Exit’s founder Dr Phillip Nietschke, the other by Mrs Elaine Arch-Rose, Chapter Co-ordinator for the Gold Coast. Further meetings and practical workshops for “Dying with Dignity” are planned. Details of how to join Exit are available on
Queensland’s Premier Anna Bligh has ruled out any review of her State’s euthanasia laws.
“I don’t see any persuasive argument,” she has said, “that would make me of a mind to revisit the issue. I have a very conservative view of euthanasia. I think it is a very difficult area to legislate in and I know from discussion with medical practitioners it could be a very slippery slope for parliaments to enter.”
Nurse Joan , the writer of this letter, disagrees. It is the inadequacy of national debate of the issue of euthanasia that really astounds me, she says.
When a person has a painful terminal illness or incurable dementia what is the benefit to the person or to mankind, by prolonging their suffering and stress?
As a nurse, I saw many patients suffer greatly for months, weeks and days before finally dying, despite the pain relief administered.
My Grandfather was immobilised and brain damaged before dying at 102 years of age and my Father ceased eating and drinking for a month before his emaciated body stopped breathing at 90 years.
Perhaps they would have chosen another way to escape their pain and end their lives if a choice had been available to them.
I have a terminal illness and when I can no longer enjoy another day, I would like to think that I was able to choose my destiny. At the moment, my voice goes unheeded.
It should never be the role of Government to dictate what should be a person’s choice in thinking. Or to deny anyone the right to die with dignity.
In the end the decision made law should be for voluntary euthanasia: no-one has ever suggested enforcement. I consider this right of choice to be a fundamental right.
I would like to see open and free-minded debate, removed from the hysteria that surrounds it. This hysteria only over-rides and upsets the balanced views expressed, and demotes the seriousness of what is a most important decision for our country to consider and make into law.
Joan Russ,
Mary Street,
Toowoomba. Q. 4350
(Note: The Voluntary Euthanasia organisation, Exit International, is establishing a Toowoomba Regional Chapter. A meeting is scheduled for 2pm on Wednesday, May 5 at the Dr Price Rooms. Two meetings, one conducted by Exit’s founder Dr Phillip Nietschke, the other by Mrs Elaine Arch-Rose, Chapter Co-ordinator for the Gold Coast. Further meetings and practical workshops for “Dying with Dignity” are planned. Details of how to join Exit are available on
What the Canberra Commentators were saying over the Christmas break:
>> May the celestial bodies guide us: Mungo MacCallum in the Sydney Morning Herald, January 13, 2009 http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/may-the-celestial-bodies-guide-us/2009/01/12/1231608611888.html
So far the Rudd Government's spending program has been well-targeted - an added bonus has been some long-overdue work on our crumbling infrastructure. But much remains to be done and the money has all but dried up. What should the private sector, particularly the big end of town, do to help? After all it was largely these money-jugglers who got us into this mess.
Unfortunately most of the guilty coterie of clowns, frauds and poltroons live in the United States, immune from the retribution of Australians. But there were willing local accomplices to the explosion of corporate shenanigans and personal avarice. As a couple of indignant letter-writers have demanded, if they caused the problem, why are we the ones who have to pay the penalty? The gloomy fact is that the pain will be more or less universal; guilt or otherwise does not come into it.
But it remains intensely frustrating to see the chief executives secure in their little cosmos, living by their self-made rules in their self-made market, trousering obscene amounts of money with no regard to the consequences of their deeds, accepting their utterly disproportionate rewards without regard for the outcome, at times resembling those generals who measure their success by body counts, including those on their own side.
So far the Rudd Government's spending program has been well-targeted - an added bonus has been some long-overdue work on our crumbling infrastructure. But much remains to be done and the money has all but dried up. What should the private sector, particularly the big end of town, do to help? After all it was largely these money-jugglers who got us into this mess.
Unfortunately most of the guilty coterie of clowns, frauds and poltroons live in the United States, immune from the retribution of Australians. But there were willing local accomplices to the explosion of corporate shenanigans and personal avarice. As a couple of indignant letter-writers have demanded, if they caused the problem, why are we the ones who have to pay the penalty? The gloomy fact is that the pain will be more or less universal; guilt or otherwise does not come into it.
But it remains intensely frustrating to see the chief executives secure in their little cosmos, living by their self-made rules in their self-made market, trousering obscene amounts of money with no regard to the consequences of their deeds, accepting their utterly disproportionate rewards without regard for the outcome, at times resembling those generals who measure their success by body counts, including those on their own side.
>> Images of bloodshed obscure truth
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24945114-7583,00.html
Albert Dadon January 22, 2009
MANY friends have berated me about Israel's "crimes" in Gaza during the conflict between Hamas and Israel. I understand how they felt. When I saw the images of women and children, victims of that war, I couldn't help, still can't, but feel a profound sense of loss.
At the same time, however, my friends only saw the international media hysteria against Israel, which was predictably exactly the same as in past conflicts. But consider this: it was Hamas that formally declared all peace agreements with Israel null and void, which formally ended the ceasefire on December 19, 2008, after having violated it with the firing of thousands of rockets on the southern Israeli populations prior to Israel's invasion of Gaza.
I did not notice any media hysteria about these attacks on southern Israel, in fact, barely a mention. What country in the world would allow 3500 missiles to be fired during a 12-month period on its civilian populated areas and not retaliate?
Albert Dadon January 22, 2009
MANY friends have berated me about Israel's "crimes" in Gaza during the conflict between Hamas and Israel. I understand how they felt. When I saw the images of women and children, victims of that war, I couldn't help, still can't, but feel a profound sense of loss.
At the same time, however, my friends only saw the international media hysteria against Israel, which was predictably exactly the same as in past conflicts. But consider this: it was Hamas that formally declared all peace agreements with Israel null and void, which formally ended the ceasefire on December 19, 2008, after having violated it with the firing of thousands of rockets on the southern Israeli populations prior to Israel's invasion of Gaza.
I did not notice any media hysteria about these attacks on southern Israel, in fact, barely a mention. What country in the world would allow 3500 missiles to be fired during a 12-month period on its civilian populated areas and not retaliate?
>> Barack Obama's inaugural speech
January 22, 2009 12:00am
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24944379-5001030,00.html
The www link in the line above leads to the full text of United States' President Obama's inaugural speech. A key paragraph is:
We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24944379-5001030,00.html
The www link in the line above leads to the full text of United States' President Obama's inaugural speech. A key paragraph is:
We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Why does Premier Bligh refuse to appoint a Cabinet Minister for Care of the Aged?
Despite the growing number of the dependant aged in Queensland’s population, Premier Anna Bligh point blank refuses to appoint a specialist co-ordinating Minister for Care of the Aged.
At present this critical function of government is divided between the agencies of no less than five distinct Cabinet Ministers.
How disinterested the Queensland Government is in Care of the Aged is made clear by the job description of Lindy Nelson-Carr MP, who is Minister for 1). Communities; 2). Disability Services; 3). Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Partnerships; 4). Multicultural Affairs; and - WAIT FOR IT! - 5 and last). Seniors and Youth.
At the same time, the Premier and her Attorney-General, Kerry Shine, the Member for Toowoomba North, also point blank refuse to set in motion a rigorous inquiry into the rapidly growing rental residential industry targeting Aged Pensioner and making a meal of them. The standards of this industry in caring for the aged are entirely unregulated, apart from across the board rental regulations applying to all landlords.
The average age of the industry’s client residents is 85, very many on walking frames or suffering some disability, physical or mental.
Company on its knees
The company which claims to be the biggest national operator in this
field, the Maroochydore-based SCV Group Limited, several weeks ago announced at its Annual General Meeting, also notifying the Australian Stock Exchange, that its financial position is under such severe threat that its status as a “going concern” is threatened.
SCV Executive Chairman Michael Gordon reported to the AGM on Tuesday, November 19 as follows:
"The Board continues to address the issues relating to the Company's going concern uncertainty, including simplifying its core product offering, reduction in operating costs and repayment of debt. However, until working capital and long term funding is secured there remains material uncertainty as to whether SCV can continue as a going concern."
Channel Seven News reported a day later that the company probably could last only another three months or so.
Mr Gordon was re-elected to the Board on November 19. However on December 5, he resigned as Executive Chairman. Mr Dennis May also resigned as non-executive Director. Mr May is company secretary.
A Director Mr. Andrew Kemp , previously Chairman 2004-2006, is now Acting Chairman and the former Chief Executive Officer, Ms Andrea Slingsby, becomes Managing Director.
field, the Maroochydore-based SCV Group Limited, several weeks ago announced at its Annual General Meeting, also notifying the Australian Stock Exchange, that its financial position is under such severe threat that its status as a “going concern” is threatened.
SCV Executive Chairman Michael Gordon reported to the AGM on Tuesday, November 19 as follows:
"The Board continues to address the issues relating to the Company's going concern uncertainty, including simplifying its core product offering, reduction in operating costs and repayment of debt. However, until working capital and long term funding is secured there remains material uncertainty as to whether SCV can continue as a going concern."
Channel Seven News reported a day later that the company probably could last only another three months or so.
Mr Gordon was re-elected to the Board on November 19. However on December 5, he resigned as Executive Chairman. Mr Dennis May also resigned as non-executive Director. Mr May is company secretary.
A Director Mr. Andrew Kemp , previously Chairman 2004-2006, is now Acting Chairman and the former Chief Executive Officer, Ms Andrea Slingsby, becomes Managing Director.
Child care providers
SCV’s website reports that both Mr Gordon and Mr May were associated with Peppercorn Management, one of the largest listed managers of child care centres in Australia. Mr Gordon was Managing Director and major shareholder. Peppercorn managed over 575 child care centres and has been involved in establishing various corporate structures in the child care sector.
Readers are well aware of the notorious collapse at the hands of Flash Eddie Grove of the ABC Learning empire, leaving thousands of dependent working Mums in desperate worry.
ABC Learning targeted the vulnerable dependent young families end of the market. One of the reasons for the company’s collapse was the inadequacy of government regulation to ensure its stability. The truth of the company’s reckless hows and whys is yet to emerge.
At the other end of the market are, the dependent and frail Aged – the Age Pensioners and other Pensioners and War Veterans, These people are being targeted by the so-called Aged rental residential industry in which there are a number of corporate operators, the largest of being Queensland’s SCV Group.
Readers are well aware of the notorious collapse at the hands of Flash Eddie Grove of the ABC Learning empire, leaving thousands of dependent working Mums in desperate worry.
ABC Learning targeted the vulnerable dependent young families end of the market. One of the reasons for the company’s collapse was the inadequacy of government regulation to ensure its stability. The truth of the company’s reckless hows and whys is yet to emerge.
At the other end of the market are, the dependent and frail Aged – the Age Pensioners and other Pensioners and War Veterans, These people are being targeted by the so-called Aged rental residential industry in which there are a number of corporate operators, the largest of being Queensland’s SCV Group.
Operating standards unregulated
This industry’ standards are “unregulated” - how it treats its target market, the old and fail, is largely left to the operators. Food standards are not specified by legislated standards. Operators claim their villages are for ”independent living” but nevertheless accept tenancies from impaired clients.
Companies claim they do not offer “care” but there is obviously a “duty of care” inherent in their client base.
Not so song ago, The SCV Group boasted being the biggest national operator in the field, managing about 100 villages, coast to coast, on behalf of investor owners. SCV expanded rapidly in just two years from being a highly-regarded small operator with its own self-built stable of rental communities.
In a little over two years, SCV is now admitting it is on its financial knees.
In Kerry Shine’s city, Toowooomba, there are at least five of these rental residential communities, one managed by SCV, three owned and managed by the giant ING corporaton, and one by the Oxford Crest group.
It is beyond credibility that neither Premier Bligh or Attorney General Kerry Shine believe legislated standards are entirely unnecessary for this incapable industry.
Veteran Toowoomba Labor Party stalwart, the late Tom Baker, and Hugh Bingham, the writer of this article, together petitioned the Premier last Februry in a carefully reasoned and illustrated submission asking that she commission an independent inquiry into the operational and ethical standards of this industry.
Tom and myself were neighbours in one of the four communities SCV then managed in Toowoomba. Management of three of them have since been taken over by the ING corporation which owns them.
Anna Bligh flicked our petition to her Attorney-General who took several months to respond – but then rejected our submission in a tedious letter listing what he claimed were sufficiently effective existing regulation.
Rubbish. Now SCV follows its predecessor Village Life Ltd into a financial whirlpool
Readers should be reminded that the industry’s cashflow is enormous – rentals involved 85% of the Age Pension, plus the whole of applicable rental assistance, plus CPI increases twice a year.
Queensland needs a specialist Cabinet Minister for Care of the Aged, Why cannot Anna Bligh see the necessity?
Companies claim they do not offer “care” but there is obviously a “duty of care” inherent in their client base.
Not so song ago, The SCV Group boasted being the biggest national operator in the field, managing about 100 villages, coast to coast, on behalf of investor owners. SCV expanded rapidly in just two years from being a highly-regarded small operator with its own self-built stable of rental communities.
In a little over two years, SCV is now admitting it is on its financial knees.
In Kerry Shine’s city, Toowooomba, there are at least five of these rental residential communities, one managed by SCV, three owned and managed by the giant ING corporaton, and one by the Oxford Crest group.
It is beyond credibility that neither Premier Bligh or Attorney General Kerry Shine believe legislated standards are entirely unnecessary for this incapable industry.
Veteran Toowoomba Labor Party stalwart, the late Tom Baker, and Hugh Bingham, the writer of this article, together petitioned the Premier last Februry in a carefully reasoned and illustrated submission asking that she commission an independent inquiry into the operational and ethical standards of this industry.
Tom and myself were neighbours in one of the four communities SCV then managed in Toowoomba. Management of three of them have since been taken over by the ING corporation which owns them.
Anna Bligh flicked our petition to her Attorney-General who took several months to respond – but then rejected our submission in a tedious letter listing what he claimed were sufficiently effective existing regulation.
Rubbish. Now SCV follows its predecessor Village Life Ltd into a financial whirlpool
Readers should be reminded that the industry’s cashflow is enormous – rentals involved 85% of the Age Pension, plus the whole of applicable rental assistance, plus CPI increases twice a year.
Queensland needs a specialist Cabinet Minister for Care of the Aged, Why cannot Anna Bligh see the necessity?
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Our “sensational” Chronicle ! Part 2
INTRODUCTION: The Chronicle newspaper and its owner-operating company, Australian Provincial Newspapers, have been remarkably free of publicly available critical analysis.
That is what I am now attempting at age 80, myself a career journalist of wide experience.
I would be extraordinarily distressed should this personal analysis of The Chronicle’s editorial deterioration over the last years be interpreted as a criticism of its reporters and its rank and file journalists and photographers.
They are almost without exception evidently keen and enthusiastic and clever. The photographers are an enviable asset.
However, all Editorial Department jobs are captive to APN company policy and so to an extent are those of their editors. As myself a career journalist, I am concerned that the narrow professional experience offered young journalists now by The Chronicle doesn’t prepare them for any meaningful future in the media of the future.
Last week, I described the extraordinary sensationalism that has become characteristic of the paper under the editorship of Mr Steve Etwell. I asked what impression of Toowoomba can Etwell believe his addiction to sensationalism is describing – a city of violence and lawlessness and a less than desirable place to live?
More headlines than facts
Sensationalism? What is it? There was a classic and expensive example on Friday, October 17 with 105 cms of front-page headlines and photo but only 13 cms of actual report on Page 3.
Chronicle readers were paying for eight times more headline than report! That’s sensationalism! It’s not unusual, is it?
The 25cm high block of headlines “Pair to face court over attempted murder - Brutal bashing leaves man, 45, in coma” occupied pretty well all Page 1 – there was no text to go with them, Just a pointer to Page 3. The facts of the meagre 13cm report there had already been reported the previous night by WIN TV news and by the ABC.
The Chronicle was at it again on Saturday with the court sequel – 89 cms to headings and display to sell a report of only 36 cm. Harvey Norman uses space far better than that.
Here are some facts about recent Chronicle history:
Ø In the last 12 years, The Chronicle has had SIX editors, not one of them from the Toowoomba region.
Ø One editor, a top-ranking journalist from Sydney, left after only four months, in protest at management’s refusal to give him more editorial resources.
Ø Since the resignation of long-term General Manger Bruce Manning in 1995, The Chronicle has had three General Mangers, only one of them with a Toowoomba background.
Ø Since 1996, budgets for The Chronicle’s Editorial Department have depreciated as a proportion of total advertising revenue.
Ø The Chronicle has been converted into a monopoly advertising predator, giving less to the editorial resources that should automatically be afforded to a genuine community newspaper.
Ø In the last 12 years, The Chronicle’s editorial competence has gravely deteriorated and so consequently has its news coverage and commentary.
When Bruce Hincliffe retired in 1996 after 27 years as Editor of Toowoomba’s Chronicle newspaper, following his father Bert’s editorship of more than 25 years, it was the beginning of the end of public loyalty to and respect and affection for its community newspaper.
The loss of local ownership
That was when the multi-national media company Australian Provincial Newspapers entered the Toowoomba scene – when local ownership was halved and eventually disappeared altogether.
All during the "Hinchliffe Dyuasty" – which stood for quality involvement and decency - local ownership ensured The Chronicle was always closely identified with local social and political issues involving the entire Toowoomba regional community.
When Hincliffe became Editor in 1969, net circulation was 17,882. By the March quarter of 1983 it had risen to 26,692. Before he retired in 1996, average daily circulation topped 30,000.
So what has happened since the end of the half-century “Hinchliffe Dynasty” - as this newsletter commented last week, The Chronicle’s advertising revenue is buoyant and its circulation appears to be crumbling. Sheer advertising volume maintains its Saturday sales far above its Monday to Friday sales. Editorial content hardly rates in building circulation or in holding it.
Last week, this newsletter questioned what kind of city The Chronicle’s
sensationalist reporting represents Toowoomba to be – lawless and violent and a least desirable place to live.
Why on earth would any paper whose advertising revenue is buoyant but its circulation uncertain find it wise to lessen its editorial integrity? Why should its reporting and commentary cover have been allowed to deteriorate so markedly? How should it improve?
The target? Driving advertising revenue
The answers to the “whys” are simply given - this is a multi-national driven company with no links to the community it purposefully milks for advertising revenue, offering back only token contributions of good involved journalism..
Here are some of the growing gaps in The Chronicle’s news reporting record:
Ø It gives no continuing coherent coverage of Federal, State or local government.
Ø Its cover of the new Toowoomba Regional Council since inception at the start of the year has been sporadic and haphazard. This massive change in local government administration, effecting the people of Toowoomba and its seven contiguous shires, has all but been ignored. As have repeated TRC pleas for greater reporting cover.
Ø The Chronicle postures bombastically on “campaigns’ – blatantly it claims to run a campaign for a new Range Crossing but gives the issue only token occasional cover.
Ø In September it front-paged Mayor Peter Taylor’s call for a Crossing petition to government with a million signatures. There has been not a word since - despite the Editor-in-Chief’s finger-wagging Page 1 editorial calling on the Prime Minister to get up here.
Ø Readers of this newsletter will welcome the news that 11 South-East Queensland local authorities, including the City of Brisbane, together representing one-seventh of Australia’s population are supporting the petition. It is being professionally organised. Its wording is now being finalised to ensure it complies with the procedural rules for presentation to the Federal Parliament..
Ø The Chronicle should be giving Mayor Taylor full encouragement and support and offering, without charge, its own pages for signatures.
The Chronicle offers its readers no authoritative commentary on Federal or State governments, despite its being the flagship of the APN’s battery of wealthy provincial newspapers.
It fails to recognise the greatest asset of any newsroom – In my day newspapers had reporters who among their other assignments were expected to specialise in Political Rounds, Parliamentary Rounds, Council Rounds, Business Rounds, Police Rounds, Rural Rounds, Education and Entertainment.
When reporters were trained to be experts
Reporters specialising in local government were expected to understand and constantly examine the legislation, by-laws, and procedures regulating councils. Roundsmen were not haphazard occasional reporters.
With this reporting structure, no good community newspaper ....
Ø Would virtually ignore the coal mining threat to Toowoomba’s neighbouring iconic farmlands and families, at Felton, Acland, and Warra.
Ø Or fail to examine why Toowoomba’s water recycling referendum result came to be so final? Why Federal funding could not have been altered to kick-start non-potable recycling? And what were the political manipulations leading to this decision?
Ø Would fail to reveal the real effect of the Rudd Government’s Alcopops tax rather than the massive and misleading publicity generated by the liquor industry. The FACTS are that overall alcohol consumption has fallen since the tax rise. Alcopops have suffered a stunning collapse and although beer and spirit consumption is up, the increase comes nowhere near offsetting the fall.
Ø Would fail to report the confusion and political deceit of local Labor’s election promise to the city’s University of the Third Age of accommodation at the Baillie Henderson hospital complex – while here and now a year later it is cruelly evident that no enabling funding was intended and the U3A with its 1000 members are all but homeless.
Ø Would fail to enliven its readership’s political awareness of the performance and standing of its local politicians, thus virtually embedding them safely in their parliamentary electorates.
Ø Would posture sensationally that, as a committed but short-lived “campaign”, it was “protecting” the community from paedophiles – while at the same time inciting public disorder and contemptuously defying the State Government’s reluctant and proper decision not to make public a paedophile register for reasons of law.
Ø Could fail to recognise the growing public distaste for its editorial antics.
And so it could go on ….
I have always thought of journalism and editorship as a proud creative responsibility. The most precious of its privileges is the ability to offer informed opinion. An Editor’s most precious possessions are his paper’s Editorials – or his own personal column, should he be self-indulgent and want to stamp his own intelligence on his paper.
Currently on Saturdays we are offered instead the Editor-in-Chief’s comic idiosyncratic meanderings through his personal and family foibles. Ye Gods, how he thus shows his intelligent commitment to his community!
FOOTNOTE from Hugh Bingham: Health and age problems are becoming a difficulty and this newsletter, after today, will become occasional rather than weekly. It has been going for three months or so now. Not a bad effort for an 80-year-old who retains a passionate belief in community-involved journalism and who mourns the deterioration of The Chronicle with its long history of community commitment.
Chronicle readers were paying for eight times more headline than report! That’s sensationalism! It’s not unusual, is it?
The 25cm high block of headlines “Pair to face court over attempted murder - Brutal bashing leaves man, 45, in coma” occupied pretty well all Page 1 – there was no text to go with them, Just a pointer to Page 3. The facts of the meagre 13cm report there had already been reported the previous night by WIN TV news and by the ABC.
The Chronicle was at it again on Saturday with the court sequel – 89 cms to headings and display to sell a report of only 36 cm. Harvey Norman uses space far better than that.
Here are some facts about recent Chronicle history:
Ø In the last 12 years, The Chronicle has had SIX editors, not one of them from the Toowoomba region.
Ø One editor, a top-ranking journalist from Sydney, left after only four months, in protest at management’s refusal to give him more editorial resources.
Ø Since the resignation of long-term General Manger Bruce Manning in 1995, The Chronicle has had three General Mangers, only one of them with a Toowoomba background.
Ø Since 1996, budgets for The Chronicle’s Editorial Department have depreciated as a proportion of total advertising revenue.
Ø The Chronicle has been converted into a monopoly advertising predator, giving less to the editorial resources that should automatically be afforded to a genuine community newspaper.
Ø In the last 12 years, The Chronicle’s editorial competence has gravely deteriorated and so consequently has its news coverage and commentary.
When Bruce Hincliffe retired in 1996 after 27 years as Editor of Toowoomba’s Chronicle newspaper, following his father Bert’s editorship of more than 25 years, it was the beginning of the end of public loyalty to and respect and affection for its community newspaper.
The loss of local ownership
That was when the multi-national media company Australian Provincial Newspapers entered the Toowoomba scene – when local ownership was halved and eventually disappeared altogether.
All during the "Hinchliffe Dyuasty" – which stood for quality involvement and decency - local ownership ensured The Chronicle was always closely identified with local social and political issues involving the entire Toowoomba regional community.
When Hincliffe became Editor in 1969, net circulation was 17,882. By the March quarter of 1983 it had risen to 26,692. Before he retired in 1996, average daily circulation topped 30,000.
So what has happened since the end of the half-century “Hinchliffe Dynasty” - as this newsletter commented last week, The Chronicle’s advertising revenue is buoyant and its circulation appears to be crumbling. Sheer advertising volume maintains its Saturday sales far above its Monday to Friday sales. Editorial content hardly rates in building circulation or in holding it.
Last week, this newsletter questioned what kind of city The Chronicle’s
sensationalist reporting represents Toowoomba to be – lawless and violent and a least desirable place to live.
Why on earth would any paper whose advertising revenue is buoyant but its circulation uncertain find it wise to lessen its editorial integrity? Why should its reporting and commentary cover have been allowed to deteriorate so markedly? How should it improve?
The target? Driving advertising revenue
The answers to the “whys” are simply given - this is a multi-national driven company with no links to the community it purposefully milks for advertising revenue, offering back only token contributions of good involved journalism..
Here are some of the growing gaps in The Chronicle’s news reporting record:
Ø It gives no continuing coherent coverage of Federal, State or local government.
Ø Its cover of the new Toowoomba Regional Council since inception at the start of the year has been sporadic and haphazard. This massive change in local government administration, effecting the people of Toowoomba and its seven contiguous shires, has all but been ignored. As have repeated TRC pleas for greater reporting cover.
Ø The Chronicle postures bombastically on “campaigns’ – blatantly it claims to run a campaign for a new Range Crossing but gives the issue only token occasional cover.
Ø In September it front-paged Mayor Peter Taylor’s call for a Crossing petition to government with a million signatures. There has been not a word since - despite the Editor-in-Chief’s finger-wagging Page 1 editorial calling on the Prime Minister to get up here.
Ø Readers of this newsletter will welcome the news that 11 South-East Queensland local authorities, including the City of Brisbane, together representing one-seventh of Australia’s population are supporting the petition. It is being professionally organised. Its wording is now being finalised to ensure it complies with the procedural rules for presentation to the Federal Parliament..
Ø The Chronicle should be giving Mayor Taylor full encouragement and support and offering, without charge, its own pages for signatures.
The Chronicle offers its readers no authoritative commentary on Federal or State governments, despite its being the flagship of the APN’s battery of wealthy provincial newspapers.
It fails to recognise the greatest asset of any newsroom – In my day newspapers had reporters who among their other assignments were expected to specialise in Political Rounds, Parliamentary Rounds, Council Rounds, Business Rounds, Police Rounds, Rural Rounds, Education and Entertainment.
When reporters were trained to be experts
Reporters specialising in local government were expected to understand and constantly examine the legislation, by-laws, and procedures regulating councils. Roundsmen were not haphazard occasional reporters.
With this reporting structure, no good community newspaper ....
Ø Would virtually ignore the coal mining threat to Toowoomba’s neighbouring iconic farmlands and families, at Felton, Acland, and Warra.
Ø Or fail to examine why Toowoomba’s water recycling referendum result came to be so final? Why Federal funding could not have been altered to kick-start non-potable recycling? And what were the political manipulations leading to this decision?
Ø Would fail to reveal the real effect of the Rudd Government’s Alcopops tax rather than the massive and misleading publicity generated by the liquor industry. The FACTS are that overall alcohol consumption has fallen since the tax rise. Alcopops have suffered a stunning collapse and although beer and spirit consumption is up, the increase comes nowhere near offsetting the fall.
Ø Would fail to report the confusion and political deceit of local Labor’s election promise to the city’s University of the Third Age of accommodation at the Baillie Henderson hospital complex – while here and now a year later it is cruelly evident that no enabling funding was intended and the U3A with its 1000 members are all but homeless.
Ø Would fail to enliven its readership’s political awareness of the performance and standing of its local politicians, thus virtually embedding them safely in their parliamentary electorates.
Ø Would posture sensationally that, as a committed but short-lived “campaign”, it was “protecting” the community from paedophiles – while at the same time inciting public disorder and contemptuously defying the State Government’s reluctant and proper decision not to make public a paedophile register for reasons of law.
Ø Could fail to recognise the growing public distaste for its editorial antics.
And so it could go on ….
I have always thought of journalism and editorship as a proud creative responsibility. The most precious of its privileges is the ability to offer informed opinion. An Editor’s most precious possessions are his paper’s Editorials – or his own personal column, should he be self-indulgent and want to stamp his own intelligence on his paper.
Currently on Saturdays we are offered instead the Editor-in-Chief’s comic idiosyncratic meanderings through his personal and family foibles. Ye Gods, how he thus shows his intelligent commitment to his community!
FOOTNOTE from Hugh Bingham: Health and age problems are becoming a difficulty and this newsletter, after today, will become occasional rather than weekly. It has been going for three months or so now. Not a bad effort for an 80-year-old who retains a passionate belief in community-involved journalism and who mourns the deterioration of The Chronicle with its long history of community commitment.
Our “sensational” Chronicle ! Part 2
INTRODUCTION: The Chronicle newspaper and its owner-operating company, Australian Provincial Newspapers, have been remarkably free of publicly available critical analysis.
That is what I am now attempting at age 80, myself a career journalist of wide experience.
I would be extraordinarily distressed should this personal analysis of The Chronicle’s editorial deterioration over the last years be interpreted as a criticism of its reporters and its rank and file journalists and photographers.
They are almost without exception evidently keen and enthusiastic and clever. The photographers are an enviable asset.
However, all Editorial Department jobs are captive to APN company policy and so to an extent are those of their editors and even the Editor-in-Chief. As myself a career journalist, I am concerned that the narrow professional experience offered them now by The Chronicle doesn’t prepare them for any meaningful future in the media of the future.
Last week, I described the extraordinary sensationalism that has become characteristic of the paper under the editorship of Mr Steve Etwell. I asked what impression of Toowoomba can Etwell believe his addiction to sensationalism is describing – a city of violence and lawlessness and a less than desirable place to live?
That is what I am now attempting at age 80, myself a career journalist of wide experience.
I would be extraordinarily distressed should this personal analysis of The Chronicle’s editorial deterioration over the last years be interpreted as a criticism of its reporters and its rank and file journalists and photographers.
They are almost without exception evidently keen and enthusiastic and clever. The photographers are an enviable asset.
However, all Editorial Department jobs are captive to APN company policy and so to an extent are those of their editors and even the Editor-in-Chief. As myself a career journalist, I am concerned that the narrow professional experience offered them now by The Chronicle doesn’t prepare them for any meaningful future in the media of the future.
Last week, I described the extraordinary sensationalism that has become characteristic of the paper under the editorship of Mr Steve Etwell. I asked what impression of Toowoomba can Etwell believe his addiction to sensationalism is describing – a city of violence and lawlessness and a less than desirable place to live?
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Toowoomba's very own "community" newspaper
What sort of city does The Chronicle think Toowoomba is?
Day after day its sensational front pages and placards describe us as a community of violence and lawlessness and worse.
Our very own community newspaper projects this city and its people as one Australia’s most undesirable places to live.
Its Page 1, Page 2, and Page 3 are loaded with hoons, crashes, crushed cars, rapes, dog cruelty, interference with corpses, city mayhem, shotgun blasts, drug shocks, bare buttocks and racism.
Do you ever stop to wonder what an awful perspective The Chronicle’s incessant shock horror placards and front pages give of Toowoomba? I wonder the collective tourist industry and the Chambers of Commerce are protesting.
The Chronicle claims to be the flagship of the Australian Provincial Newspapers (APN) network – yet the figures published in the Australian Audit Bureau of Circulations show its readership is static and probably crumbling. Average daily sales for the three months to June 30 were only 23,128. For Saturday, sales were 30,838 on average. Which doesn’t say much for sales Monday and Friday.
In 2003, average daily sales Monday to Saturday were reported at 28.000, making it the bigget-selling title in the APN chain stretching from North Queensland to Northern New South Wales.
The Chronicle still commands a monopoly in Toowoomba – no opposition and no avenue for concerned criticism.
This once proud paper lets its community down scandalously on many fronts, the worst being first, its refusal to engage in government and political reporting analysis at any level and second, its refusal to report and analyse the performance of its local politcians at all levels of government, thus deliberately embedding them safely in their electorates.
One of Australia’s great journalists, Michael Gawenda, former Editor in Chief of one of Australia’s greatest newspaper, The Age in Melbourne, last week wrote splendidly about the squalot of today’s newspapers. He could very well have applied his criticisms to The Chronicle.
Gawenda writes:
“One of the great mistakes newspapers have made in recent years is trying to address their weaknesses rather than build on their strengths. So we have shorter stories, bigger headlines, more graphics, more bells and whistles, more tricked-up, overblown pages, more pages meant to look visually rich but which, in the main, look desperate and garish.
“Only newspapers can build a community of readers. What builds that community?
“Well, for a start, a shared sense of what the newspaper is about, what it considers important, interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking. A shared sense of the city, the country, even the world. That's about telling stories - stories from our courts and police force and local councils and businesses and governments and hospitals. No web news site will ever tell such stories.”
This is an extract from Gawenda’s A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism in Melbourne. It can be read in full on the Sydney Morning Herald www for October 7, 2008.
The Chronicle’s sensationalism sadly overshadows the values of some of its inside pages. I am thinking particularly of the columns of Peter Swannell and Merryl Miller and others. But these values are crushed by the weight of the deliberate sensationalism of its early pages.
Don’t believe me? Just scan through these dominant headlines of the last two weeks … but, first and in case The Chronicle thinks otherwise, this newsletter has been encouraged in this review by many many of its readers – and people who have given up on it.
>> Mum, kids cheat death (with picture of crumpled and crushed car) Page 1
>> Hard lesson for former teacher (charges involve dangerous drugs) Page 3.
Saturday, October 11
>> Young thugs walk free after woman beaten in savage attack. Page 1
>> Police allay fears over shooting. Page 3
>> Alleged brawlers front court Page 5
Friday, October 10
>> Tough times sink major farm group Page 1
>> Soldier faces trial on rape charge Page 3
>> Second torched car stolen from Boonah; Page 5
>> Horror Yarraman crash leaves man dead and women injured. Page 5
Thursday, October 9:
>> Cuts save family $500 a month Page 1
>> Dog cruelty costs owner $5000 Page 3
Wednesday, October 8
>> Teacher goes to trial over interference with corpse Page 1
>> Councillor was respected ‘straight shooter’ Pages 2 and 3
>> Former teacher to face trial. Pages 1 and 2
>> Brazen burglars target business Page 5
Tuesday, October 7:
>> Council shock, Business, community leader dies suddenly. Page 1
>> Blaze a shock for returning owners. Page 2
>> Youth dies in crash after alleged escape from police (wrecked car). Page 3
Monday, October 6:
>> BLACKOUT- City mayhem as power fails: Page 1
>> Fatal sneeze lands truck driver in jail: Page 3
>> Glassing attack earns man three months jail: Page 5
Saturday, October 4
>> Bad kids are getting worse Page 1
>> Bad school kids report shock Page 3
>> Car torched in cruel act Page 5
Friday, October 3
>> Police guard shotgun blast couple Page 1
>> Shotgun attack terrified couple Page 3
>> Holiday ends with rollover (pic crashed car and caravan). Page 4
Thursday, October 2
>> Drug Shock – I saw brazen dealer in action. Page 1
>> Shot fired through couple’s door, Police hunt gunman; Page 2
>> Drug deal out in the open; Expert teams probes crash. Page 3
Wednesday, October 1
>> Crop duster dies in crash (with picture of plane wreckage). Page 1
Tuesday, September 30
>> What a Waste, Millions of litres lot as vandals hit school.
>> NiteLife – Find out who was partying . Page 1
Monday, September 29
>> Serial nuisance bares buttocks at police: Full moon lands a teenager in jail. Brake mix-up, car smashes into shop (with photograph; Page 1
>> Hoon levels old man’s fence (with pictures of damaged fence and car); Page 3
>> Black activist sets new sights on Coon Cheese. Page 5
Saturday, September 27
>> Racism row flares. Black activist seeks $10.000 for hurt, suffering; Page 1
>> Teen speedster grounded. Page 2
>> Hotel ban for unruly three. Page 5
Friday, September 26
Worse still about The Chronicle is that demand for its advertising now crams the paper with full page advertising, so overflowing its main editions that the paper has now taken on a role as distributor for junk mail.
The Chronicle is a regional newspaper monopoly with a massive revenue volume. Its Saturday edition is splendidly printed and produced.
What a pity for Toowoomba that its news content has so deteriorated since the APN takeover – with imported editors, five of them one after the other, none of them with any connection to the city TOGETHER WITH an irrecoverable loss of expert reporting staff who knew a great deal about the exciting community they were part of.
“Do newspapers have a future?” asks Michael Gawenda of The Age. “And how long is that future? Well, I ask you to imagine Melbourne without The Age and the Herald Sun or Sydney without the Herald and The Daily Telegraph. Imagine Australia without The Australian.”
Perhaps the people of Toowoomba should ask themselves whether The Chronicle of today is as much loved and respected as it was in the past. As one reader of this newsletter, a farmer, emailed to me this morning – “In our household, we call it the Chronically ill”. Another long term subscriber who bought the paper for its local news, has cancelled the family's long-time subscription because she feels the graphic detail of crime was too traumatic for her children to read.
If you can imagine a newspaperless Toowoomba, that is in part because of Australian Provincial Newspapers’ failure to produce newspapers that attract the sort of fierce and lifelong loyalty they once attracted.
NEXT WEEK: More analysis of community expectations of the role of its community newspaper.
Day after day its sensational front pages and placards describe us as a community of violence and lawlessness and worse.
Our very own community newspaper projects this city and its people as one Australia’s most undesirable places to live.
Its Page 1, Page 2, and Page 3 are loaded with hoons, crashes, crushed cars, rapes, dog cruelty, interference with corpses, city mayhem, shotgun blasts, drug shocks, bare buttocks and racism.
Do you ever stop to wonder what an awful perspective The Chronicle’s incessant shock horror placards and front pages give of Toowoomba? I wonder the collective tourist industry and the Chambers of Commerce are protesting.
The Chronicle claims to be the flagship of the Australian Provincial Newspapers (APN) network – yet the figures published in the Australian Audit Bureau of Circulations show its readership is static and probably crumbling. Average daily sales for the three months to June 30 were only 23,128. For Saturday, sales were 30,838 on average. Which doesn’t say much for sales Monday and Friday.
In 2003, average daily sales Monday to Saturday were reported at 28.000, making it the bigget-selling title in the APN chain stretching from North Queensland to Northern New South Wales.
The Chronicle still commands a monopoly in Toowoomba – no opposition and no avenue for concerned criticism.
This once proud paper lets its community down scandalously on many fronts, the worst being first, its refusal to engage in government and political reporting analysis at any level and second, its refusal to report and analyse the performance of its local politcians at all levels of government, thus deliberately embedding them safely in their electorates.
One of Australia’s great journalists, Michael Gawenda, former Editor in Chief of one of Australia’s greatest newspaper, The Age in Melbourne, last week wrote splendidly about the squalot of today’s newspapers. He could very well have applied his criticisms to The Chronicle.
Gawenda writes:
“One of the great mistakes newspapers have made in recent years is trying to address their weaknesses rather than build on their strengths. So we have shorter stories, bigger headlines, more graphics, more bells and whistles, more tricked-up, overblown pages, more pages meant to look visually rich but which, in the main, look desperate and garish.
“Only newspapers can build a community of readers. What builds that community?
“Well, for a start, a shared sense of what the newspaper is about, what it considers important, interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking. A shared sense of the city, the country, even the world. That's about telling stories - stories from our courts and police force and local councils and businesses and governments and hospitals. No web news site will ever tell such stories.”
This is an extract from Gawenda’s A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism in Melbourne. It can be read in full on the Sydney Morning Herald www for October 7, 2008.
The Chronicle’s sensationalism sadly overshadows the values of some of its inside pages. I am thinking particularly of the columns of Peter Swannell and Merryl Miller and others. But these values are crushed by the weight of the deliberate sensationalism of its early pages.
Don’t believe me? Just scan through these dominant headlines of the last two weeks … but, first and in case The Chronicle thinks otherwise, this newsletter has been encouraged in this review by many many of its readers – and people who have given up on it.
>> Mum, kids cheat death (with picture of crumpled and crushed car) Page 1
>> Hard lesson for former teacher (charges involve dangerous drugs) Page 3.
Saturday, October 11
>> Young thugs walk free after woman beaten in savage attack. Page 1
>> Police allay fears over shooting. Page 3
>> Alleged brawlers front court Page 5
Friday, October 10
>> Tough times sink major farm group Page 1
>> Soldier faces trial on rape charge Page 3
>> Second torched car stolen from Boonah; Page 5
>> Horror Yarraman crash leaves man dead and women injured. Page 5
Thursday, October 9:
>> Cuts save family $500 a month Page 1
>> Dog cruelty costs owner $5000 Page 3
Wednesday, October 8
>> Teacher goes to trial over interference with corpse Page 1
>> Councillor was respected ‘straight shooter’ Pages 2 and 3
>> Former teacher to face trial. Pages 1 and 2
>> Brazen burglars target business Page 5
Tuesday, October 7:
>> Council shock, Business, community leader dies suddenly. Page 1
>> Blaze a shock for returning owners. Page 2
>> Youth dies in crash after alleged escape from police (wrecked car). Page 3
Monday, October 6:
>> BLACKOUT- City mayhem as power fails: Page 1
>> Fatal sneeze lands truck driver in jail: Page 3
>> Glassing attack earns man three months jail: Page 5
Saturday, October 4
>> Bad kids are getting worse Page 1
>> Bad school kids report shock Page 3
>> Car torched in cruel act Page 5
Friday, October 3
>> Police guard shotgun blast couple Page 1
>> Shotgun attack terrified couple Page 3
>> Holiday ends with rollover (pic crashed car and caravan). Page 4
Thursday, October 2
>> Drug Shock – I saw brazen dealer in action. Page 1
>> Shot fired through couple’s door, Police hunt gunman; Page 2
>> Drug deal out in the open; Expert teams probes crash. Page 3
Wednesday, October 1
>> Crop duster dies in crash (with picture of plane wreckage). Page 1
Tuesday, September 30
>> What a Waste, Millions of litres lot as vandals hit school.
>> NiteLife – Find out who was partying . Page 1
Monday, September 29
>> Serial nuisance bares buttocks at police: Full moon lands a teenager in jail. Brake mix-up, car smashes into shop (with photograph; Page 1
>> Hoon levels old man’s fence (with pictures of damaged fence and car); Page 3
>> Black activist sets new sights on Coon Cheese. Page 5
Saturday, September 27
>> Racism row flares. Black activist seeks $10.000 for hurt, suffering; Page 1
>> Teen speedster grounded. Page 2
>> Hotel ban for unruly three. Page 5
Friday, September 26
Worse still about The Chronicle is that demand for its advertising now crams the paper with full page advertising, so overflowing its main editions that the paper has now taken on a role as distributor for junk mail.
The Chronicle is a regional newspaper monopoly with a massive revenue volume. Its Saturday edition is splendidly printed and produced.
What a pity for Toowoomba that its news content has so deteriorated since the APN takeover – with imported editors, five of them one after the other, none of them with any connection to the city TOGETHER WITH an irrecoverable loss of expert reporting staff who knew a great deal about the exciting community they were part of.
“Do newspapers have a future?” asks Michael Gawenda of The Age. “And how long is that future? Well, I ask you to imagine Melbourne without The Age and the Herald Sun or Sydney without the Herald and The Daily Telegraph. Imagine Australia without The Australian.”
Perhaps the people of Toowoomba should ask themselves whether The Chronicle of today is as much loved and respected as it was in the past. As one reader of this newsletter, a farmer, emailed to me this morning – “In our household, we call it the Chronically ill”. Another long term subscriber who bought the paper for its local news, has cancelled the family's long-time subscription because she feels the graphic detail of crime was too traumatic for her children to read.
If you can imagine a newspaperless Toowoomba, that is in part because of Australian Provincial Newspapers’ failure to produce newspapers that attract the sort of fierce and lifelong loyalty they once attracted.
NEXT WEEK: More analysis of community expectations of the role of its community newspaper.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
This edition of Hugh Bingham’s internet newsletter is for the week beginning Monday, September 29, 2008
(Please note: Hugh Bingham will be out of action for two weeks and apologises for this to his four-and-a-half readers)
Features this week include:
> The puddle messing up Australian politics
> Advice for Turnbull – quit the schoolboy stunts
> Kevin’s magnificent Front Bench of Smart Women
> Don’t worry, Kevin! Julie’s totally in charge
> In Toowoomba, you’d never guess the ALP exists
> That 2% “blocker” in the Senate
> What the “Thinkers” thought about God
> How Anna’s losing touch with Toowoomba’s battlers
Features this week include:
> The puddle messing up Australian politics
> Advice for Turnbull – quit the schoolboy stunts
> Kevin’s magnificent Front Bench of Smart Women
> Don’t worry, Kevin! Julie’s totally in charge
> In Toowoomba, you’d never guess the ALP exists
> That 2% “blocker” in the Senate
> What the “Thinkers” thought about God
> How Anna’s losing touch with Toowoomba’s battlers
Puddle after puddle messing up Australian politics
This clever picture popped into my Inbox during the week without attribution. Without hesitation, I read into it this forlorn little puddle the crashing deterioration of Parliamentary Opposition and of the Liberal and National Parties since the rout of the Howard Government.
When a puddle gets that small, any farmer will tell you, the next thing is you get bogged. And that’s what’s happened first to Brendan Nelson and now to Malcolm Turnbull – BOGGED in their own populism and the public’s distaste for it.
Alan Ramsay, the Sydney Morning Herald irascible Canberra analysit puts it this way ….
When somebody asked one of the Turnbull team this week why on earth the new Liberal leader had kept the ineffective Julie Bishop as his deputy simply to maintain the electoral window dressing of a woman and her pearls, he was told: "Come off it. You know you can't shunt a sheila these days."
Obviously not, Ramsay writes. Not with the Government's Julia Gillard - Big Red - now Labor's Josephine to Kevin Rudd's Napoleon. Even John McCain sees value in a female running mate, however brutally thick.
Here's something else about Turnbull's mob: In just 10 months a full half of the last Howard ministry has gone, either to the back benches or out of political life. Voters ousted seven of them. Only eight of Howard's 18 inner cabinet ministers remain in Turnbull's cabinet. The bloke who was second from the bottom in seniority is now leader. Six junior ministers have gone, too. Sixteen of the 32 purged, one way or another.
The Coalition has been "de-Howardised", as some put it inelegantly. Nick Minchin's best efforts to keep alive the "Howard legacy" have crashed. Of Howard's top lieutenants, only Minchin and Tony Abbott survive. And Abbott has slipped from seventh in seniority to 10th under Turnbull.
If you’ld like to read Ramsay’s merciless view, log on to: http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/alan-ramsey/credibility-heads-straight-down-the-hill/2008/09/26/1222217514784.html
Malcolm must learn: Good Opposition should be more than stunts, taunts and schoolboy mockeries
The Liberals and Nationals in Oppositon are degrading our National Parliament and our respect for it – and worse denying established government process to Kevin Rudd’s sincere and hardworking Front Bench just a little over three-quarters into its first year.
Turbbull’s team – like Brendan Nelson’s – is bent on the destruction of government process – it is not the least interested on the betterment of government.
That Turnbull should taunt the Prime Minister so michievously for attending the United Nations Heads of Government conference is outrageous and self-serving.
That he should so quickly follow on Brendan Nelson’s stunt to make a political plaything of pensions is disgraceful.
To make such a populist plaything of pensions is sickening. It underlines what the Opposition has made clear since last November’s election – it has lost all sense of political ethic.
Voters, even needy pensioners, recognise Turnbull’s lot for what they are – a mob of carpet baggers.
“Glib nonsense” - Laurie Oakes brands Turnbull
Commentator Laurie Oakes will have none of Turnbull’s attacks on Rudd for being in New York with the world’s heads of State last week.
It was ridiculous to suggest Rudd should not have been on the spot, plugging into Wall Street and Washington, and spreading the message about the stability and strong capital base of Australia's financial institutions.
But that is what Turnbull did. When Laurie Oakes interviewed him on Nine's Sunday Morning News Turnbull conceded that Rudd's trip ``may be perfectly justifiable''. But he went on to bag it anyway.
"It's important to talk to those people,'' he said. "But there is such a thing as a telephone, you know?''
Oakes brands that as glib nonsense, but Turnbull got away with it - even though he'd justified his own trip to the US in April on the grounds that it was important to be there in person to understand the implications of the credit crunch on Australia.
Telephone calls are a nonsense substitute for face-to-face contact. Rudd would not have been able to take part in a financial round table with American economic experts and decision-makers, or attend a meeting on global economic issues convened by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, if he'd just let his fingers do the walking.
Rudd got his priorities right when he resisted pressure to abandon the trip, Oakes insists, and Turnbull knows it.
The new Opposition Leader, however, is proving to be just as much a populist as his predecessor Brendan Nelson. But because he has gravitas and credibility that Nelson lacked, he is better at it.
Those magnificent "In Touch" women working with Kevin
Remember those encyclopaedia saleman who used to go from door to door in the 50s and 60s peddling questionable education to unsuspecting families at exorbitating prices – that’s our Oppsotion.
God help us, if they put a dent into the vigor and vision of Kevin Rudd’s Government
The Liberal Party strategists – the Nationals have none – have no idea what it is the broad public likes most about the Rudd lot. It’s the genuiness of the leadership team – and above all it’s the talent, smartness and confidence of the women Rudd has backing him.
And remember that for all of them, this is their first experience of Government. They are handling it splendidly.
Remind yourself who these women are: The splendid Julia Gillard, Acting Prime Mininster, who also has the biggest and most vital portfolio of them all; the doughty little fighter Nicola Roxon, a Health Minister who can trade blows with parliamentary thug Tony Abbot; the remarkable Penny Wong who is working her way through the incredible complexities of climate change and carbon trading, the charming Tanya Plibersek who is plainly “in touch” with the electorate on housing and homelessness; and newcomer former policeman Justine Elliot who last week stood up well to Tony Jones on Late Line, clearly distressed to her core about that dreadul death in an indigenous age care home.
And then, let’s not forget the wise dependable Jenny Macklin, deputy Leader to Kim Beasley, and now in charge of Family, Housing, Community services and Indigenous Affairs.
What a serve Jenny gave to the Oppositon last week revealing the underlying outrage of their pension increase stunt.
And then there’s Kate Ellis, Minister for Sports and Youth, who lent the Beijing Olympics with her youth and energy.
And then, there’s Maxine McKew, the Prime Minister Slayer, waiting in the wings in training as a Parliamentary Secretary assiting the Prime Ministe, among other things in the early learning program.
Why is this team so credible? Because they’re all so clearly in touch with the electorate – our concerns, our fears, our aspirations and our political awareness.
God help us, if they put a dent into the vigor and vision of Kevin Rudd’s Government
The Liberal Party strategists – the Nationals have none – have no idea what it is the broad public likes most about the Rudd lot. It’s the genuiness of the leadership team – and above all it’s the talent, smartness and confidence of the women Rudd has backing him.
And remember that for all of them, this is their first experience of Government. They are handling it splendidly.
Remind yourself who these women are: The splendid Julia Gillard, Acting Prime Mininster, who also has the biggest and most vital portfolio of them all; the doughty little fighter Nicola Roxon, a Health Minister who can trade blows with parliamentary thug Tony Abbot; the remarkable Penny Wong who is working her way through the incredible complexities of climate change and carbon trading, the charming Tanya Plibersek who is plainly “in touch” with the electorate on housing and homelessness; and newcomer former policeman Justine Elliot who last week stood up well to Tony Jones on Late Line, clearly distressed to her core about that dreadul death in an indigenous age care home.
And then, let’s not forget the wise dependable Jenny Macklin, deputy Leader to Kim Beasley, and now in charge of Family, Housing, Community services and Indigenous Affairs.
What a serve Jenny gave to the Oppositon last week revealing the underlying outrage of their pension increase stunt.
And then there’s Kate Ellis, Minister for Sports and Youth, who lent the Beijing Olympics with her youth and energy.
And then, there’s Maxine McKew, the Prime Minister Slayer, waiting in the wings in training as a Parliamentary Secretary assiting the Prime Ministe, among other things in the early learning program.
Why is this team so credible? Because they’re all so clearly in touch with the electorate – our concerns, our fears, our aspirations and our political awareness.
Turnbull targets Gillard – two against one
In his shadow cabinet, reshuffle, Malcolm Turnbull is clearly trying to rattle Gillard. Some hope! So far in her parliamentary career in Opposition , she has stood up to and wounded Immigration Mininster Phillip Ruddock and Health Minister Tony Abbot.
Now Turnbull has given two relatively junior Shadows responsibility for attacking Gillard’s mega-portfolio - Chris Pyne, that South Australian dux of the school debating team in education and training and Michael Keenan in employment and workplace relations.
Turnbull’s bounce in two opinion polls shows that by nothing more than personality he has lifted the Liberals’ sagging rating in just a few days. His backers will be hoping that his new ministry will pick up some of that enthusiasm.
Julie Bishop might be the shadow treasurer after exercising her right as Deputy Liberal Leader to pick a port folio. But it should be accepted that Turnbull himself will take a big role in the shadow treasurer’s job. Julie looks almost an unsettled and uncomfortable by-stander as the Oppositon staggers from stunt to stunt.
Undoubtedly the star member of the Shadow Cabinet is the carefully-spoken and thoughtful Andrew Robb, Nelson’s former foreign affairs spokesman, who now will look after the critical emerging issues of the economy - the emissions trading scheme, which will bring a generational change to the economy; the efficiencies of federal-state co-operation through dealings of the Council of Australian Government; and the massive infrastructure program the Rudd government will launch.
Robb will be working with finance spokesman Joe Hockey, the former health spokesman, and shadow environment minister Greg Hunt.
As Canberra commentator Malcolm Farr observes …“Anybody could recognise that these days there is still relevance in the phrase, “"It’s the economy, stupid.’’ Turnbull has deconstructed this to specifics: "It’s the ETS, COAG and infrastructure, stupid.’’
Now Turnbull has given two relatively junior Shadows responsibility for attacking Gillard’s mega-portfolio - Chris Pyne, that South Australian dux of the school debating team in education and training and Michael Keenan in employment and workplace relations.
Turnbull’s bounce in two opinion polls shows that by nothing more than personality he has lifted the Liberals’ sagging rating in just a few days. His backers will be hoping that his new ministry will pick up some of that enthusiasm.
Julie Bishop might be the shadow treasurer after exercising her right as Deputy Liberal Leader to pick a port folio. But it should be accepted that Turnbull himself will take a big role in the shadow treasurer’s job. Julie looks almost an unsettled and uncomfortable by-stander as the Oppositon staggers from stunt to stunt.
Undoubtedly the star member of the Shadow Cabinet is the carefully-spoken and thoughtful Andrew Robb, Nelson’s former foreign affairs spokesman, who now will look after the critical emerging issues of the economy - the emissions trading scheme, which will bring a generational change to the economy; the efficiencies of federal-state co-operation through dealings of the Council of Australian Government; and the massive infrastructure program the Rudd government will launch.
Robb will be working with finance spokesman Joe Hockey, the former health spokesman, and shadow environment minister Greg Hunt.
As Canberra commentator Malcolm Farr observes …“Anybody could recognise that these days there is still relevance in the phrase, “"It’s the economy, stupid.’’ Turnbull has deconstructed this to specifics: "It’s the ETS, COAG and infrastructure, stupid.’’
Don’t worry, Kevin! Julia took over without a hitch.
Julia Gillard, as Acting Prime Minister. took Kevin Rudd’s place in Question Time last week without a single blip and not a sign of nerves. She was her usual articulate well-informed self as she served ace after ace at the Opposition and at Malcolm Turnbull in particular.The big serve came with this single accusation – “There is a stench of hypocrisy from those opposite.”
Gillard was zeroing in on Turnbull’s copycat of Brendan Nelson’s populist pensions campaign, his meaningless promise to reduce petrol excise, and his obstructive tactics in the Senate, aimed purely at destroying the process of orderly government..
On the ABC’s Questions and Answers program last week which starred the new Opposition Leader, Malcolm’s shifting and sliding and his ruthless gimlet eyes belied his charm and practiced confidence and humour. He seemed at times on the point of a temper tantrum and even the ABC’s urbane anchor man Tony Jones looked wary.
There is no doubt that Turnbull has plenty of “social ease” – it was clearly on display - and no doubt also that he has also a history of savage retribution. As he pointed out - about his undermining of Kerry Packer in the battle for the Sydney Morning Herald some years - ago “Kerry started it!”
Turnbull claimed on the ABC he was disturbed at how unruly and discorderfy Question Time had become and railed at the Government’s behaviour. He of course is blind to the ugly continuing mockery generated by his own Front Bench. Never has any Prime Minister been subjected to the prolonged tirade of suspicion and abuse levelled at Rudd by the Opposition parties.
Turnbull offers “bi-partizan” diaglue with the Government – as I wrote last week I would rather dialogue with a White Pointer.
Turnbull is a highly successfufl Merchant Banker He would be familiar with the Oxford Concise Dictionary’s definition of “mortgage” The word comes from Middle English and Old French usage meaning “dead pledge” – from the Latin “mortuus” meaning dead and the French “gage” bit meaning pledge.
“Dead Pledge” has a terminal ring to it! Merchant bankers are expert at
In Toowoomba, you’d never guess the ALP exists
Can anyone reassure us? Is there in fact any Australian Labor Party presence in Toowoomba? Can anyone name all those shown above. You should get three of them but I bet the Hon Lindy Nelson-Carr MP for Mundingburra, Minister for Communities, Disability Services, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Multicultural Affairs, Seniors and Youth, is new to you.
Sure, Queensland’s Attorney General Kerry Shine is the Member of State Parliament for Toowoomba North. Solicitor Chris Meibusch was the ALP’s candidate at last year’s Federal election. But who actually speaks for Labor here?
Is there in fact an active ALP branch? What does it ever do? Why are not its meetings publicised? Who is its secretary and spokesman? What is muzzling ALP opinion? Is it apathy, sloth, or ignorance?
Here we have Kevin Rudd’s Government under sustained attack … like, Rudd is overseas too much (ignoring the fact that he is presently in New York at the fulcrum of the global financial debacle) …. like, Fuel Watch and Grocery Watch are rubbish … like, proposed changes to the Medicare levy surcharge threshold promising tax savings for some hundreds of thousands of people now blocked in the Senate …. like, Alcopop drink taxation branded as a revenue raid … like, luxury car tax proposals attacked and delayed ..… like, Rudd and Swan are ridiculed as incompetent … like Rudd accused of being an inbred bureaucraft who doesn’t have the vision for Government …. and worst, that Rudd’s Government has no economic credentials and is leading us to ruin.
And Toowoomba offers not a single ALP identity to defend the party’s own Prime Mininster and Government - except me that is, and I’m independent and not a party member. And no one speaks up for Anna Bligh either, on the nose as her Government deserved presently to be.
No wonder the Opinion Polls show her administration is on the slide and unbelievably being overtaken by the Springborg team which so far has enunciated no policies at all? Springborg’s lot is advancing simply because Anna’s lot is on the nose.
On his occasional television appearance, Shine looks hangdog and worried.
And so he should be. Toowoomba is represented by two other Members of Parliament – Stuart Copeland whose electorate of Cunningham creeps into the southern sububs and Mike Horan whose electorate of Toowoomba South is its neighbour. Stuart, whose electorate has been declared redundant in the recent redistribution, is packing it in and won’t contest the next election even if a vacant electorate should come up. He’s a good man and a loss to politics.
But Kerry Shine doesn’t seem to get it – that as a highly prominent member of Anna Bligh’s Cabinet, and whether he likes it or not, he is in fact regarded as THE Member of Parliament for THIS City. So where are you, Kerry?
>>> Scroll down for “Anna’s losing touch with Toowoomba’s battlers”
Felton farmers go on parade
The worried farmers of the Felton Valley have made their protest public against the Ambre Energy company’s plan to turn their land into a massive coal mine and synthetic fuel factory.
The Friends of Felton joined the Carnival of Flowers parade with their own protest float which, so they reported, got a great reception from spectators, including the dignatories.
Which showed pretty clearly there is huge public disquiet about this planned commercial invasion of pristine productive farmland. That there is public awareness can be attributed to the ABC Toowoomba News Office and to reports by WIN news.
As the float passed, even some of the Toowoomba Regional Councillors got to their feet and applauded.
Ambre’s application for a onsite office comes up for council consideration shortly. This will be a litmus test for the likelihood of future poltiical opposition to the project.
You will note from the photographs that Stuart Copeland, State Member of Parliament for Cunningham, is prominent in the protest, standing next to “No Mines” sign holder Graham Lipp.
It would have been a great sign of support if standing next to Copeland had been other members of the Oppositon heirarchy like Springborg, Seeney, Hopper and Horan. Unfortunately Copeland who has been assiduous in his support of Freiends of Felton signalled this week he was standing down from the Front Bench and was getting out of politics.
“Blocker” in the Senate – elected with only 2% of the vote
Although attendance at Christian churches has declined to the point where only about 15% of Australians attend church at least once a month, the decline may be slowing. There are even signs attendance is increasing, according to Hugh Mackay, Australia’s most respected social researcher.
Some churches are classed as “high demand” – the Catholics’ Opus Dei and various forms of Protestant fundamentalism. Sydney’s Pentacostalist Hillsong Church claims 17,500 people a week take part in weekly services.
Such groups, accoridng to Mackay, depend on narrow prescriptive codes of dogma and religious practice. In his book “Advance Australia Where?” Mackay points to The Exclusive Brethren, a strict fundamentalist sect, which has emerged as a political pressure group.
So has the Assemblies of God, another branch of Petacostalism, which similarly represents a more overt cross-over between religion and politics than has been typical of Australian politics for the past quarter-century.
Now we come to Australia’s new Family First Party and its lone member of Parliament, Senator Steve Fielding who has become both unpredictable and troublesome to the Rudd Government. Fielding is in fact outdoing the Opposition in blocking Government initiatives in the Senate.
Fielding, a Victorian Senator, is strongly supported by the Assemblies of God. There is no mention of this on its website – in fact the site gives no indication at all of the persuasive influences that may be at work here.
Elected with less that 2% of primaries
Fielding hardly has a massive electoral power base. He was elected in 2004 with less than two per cent of the primary vote due to preference flows unlikely to be repeated. He faces re-election at the next poll.
Rather than share the balance of power with the Greens in the Senate, Fielding’s blocking approach aims to parlay Family First into holding the balance of power all by itself. His tactic is to wait to declare his postion on legislation so to capitalise on the already committed positions of the Greens and South Austalian Independent Sentor Senophon.
Family First desperately needs the profile which comes with the balance of power. Despite voting down the Medicare bill, Fielding remains open to a deal he claims will compensate low-income-earners for any increases in private health insurance premiums caused by the changes.
Mark Davis of the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Fielding’s tactis have infuriated the politicians on the other side of these transactions. But his approach is unlikely to prove sustainable. For if the Greens and Xenophon find every deal is gazumped, they may start playing last-mover advantage themselves, seeking to leap-frog Fielding's concessions in their dealings with the Government.
Some churches are classed as “high demand” – the Catholics’ Opus Dei and various forms of Protestant fundamentalism. Sydney’s Pentacostalist Hillsong Church claims 17,500 people a week take part in weekly services.
Such groups, accoridng to Mackay, depend on narrow prescriptive codes of dogma and religious practice. In his book “Advance Australia Where?” Mackay points to The Exclusive Brethren, a strict fundamentalist sect, which has emerged as a political pressure group.
So has the Assemblies of God, another branch of Petacostalism, which similarly represents a more overt cross-over between religion and politics than has been typical of Australian politics for the past quarter-century.
Now we come to Australia’s new Family First Party and its lone member of Parliament, Senator Steve Fielding who has become both unpredictable and troublesome to the Rudd Government. Fielding is in fact outdoing the Opposition in blocking Government initiatives in the Senate.
Fielding, a Victorian Senator, is strongly supported by the Assemblies of God. There is no mention of this on its website – in fact the site gives no indication at all of the persuasive influences that may be at work here.
Elected with less that 2% of primaries
Fielding hardly has a massive electoral power base. He was elected in 2004 with less than two per cent of the primary vote due to preference flows unlikely to be repeated. He faces re-election at the next poll.
Rather than share the balance of power with the Greens in the Senate, Fielding’s blocking approach aims to parlay Family First into holding the balance of power all by itself. His tactic is to wait to declare his postion on legislation so to capitalise on the already committed positions of the Greens and South Austalian Independent Sentor Senophon.
Family First desperately needs the profile which comes with the balance of power. Despite voting down the Medicare bill, Fielding remains open to a deal he claims will compensate low-income-earners for any increases in private health insurance premiums caused by the changes.
Mark Davis of the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Fielding’s tactis have infuriated the politicians on the other side of these transactions. But his approach is unlikely to prove sustainable. For if the Greens and Xenophon find every deal is gazumped, they may start playing last-mover advantage themselves, seeking to leap-frog Fielding's concessions in their dealings with the Government.
Let’s make it easier – change it to the Milmerran Regional Council
Remember back to the local government election which initiated the Toowoomba Regional Council. It seemed then that voters, particularly those in the City of Toowoomba, had taken hold of the concept of Regional Govrenment. Voters literally voided their City Councillors leaving only Joe Ramia and electing former financial planner Peter Marks.
However, the natives of Milmeran, represented by Cr Paul Antonia, Milmerran’s former mayor and now TRC’s deputy Mayor, are now very restless. They feel neglected.
This led to the recent outburst in The Chronicle claiming councillors were after the scalp of TRC’s chief executive officer. This report turned out to be rubbish, with all councillors signing statutory declarations this had not happened.
Only Milmerran is openly disgruntled. Cambooya, Jondaryan. Crows Nest, Clifton, Pittsworth and Rosalie seem either content or resigned. The citizens of Toowoomba are quiescent.
It fell to Cambooya’s former Mayor Carol Taylor, and now chair of the giant Emgineering Services Portfolio to teach the TRC Boys Club something of regional statemanship. In a courageous letter to The Chronicle, Cr Taylor laid it on the line to the restless natives of Milmerran:
“To be successful, Toowoomba Regional Council must be a partnership between the community, councillors and staff across the region. Despite recent negative press, the reality is that council staff are working very hard to ensure the success of this council
.
“Projects that were previously planned for each of the former shires are being carried forward and in many cases are being enhances through improved efficiencies of scale and knowledge sharing.”
It is a good, optimistic and encouraging letter, Mayor Peter Taylor should be very grateful there’s another Taylor backing him up. TRC should put her letter prominently on its website.
The nigger in the TRC woodpile in fact has little to do with council itself. If you don’t have a regional newspaper that itself helps the regional community come together and vigorously reports council’s deliberations and activities, of course achieving regional cohesion will be slow and difficult.
It’s anybody’s guess why The Chronicle doesn’t consider this a compelling obligation to its community.
Perhaps the whole regional concept would sit more easily with Paul Antonio if council’s name was changed to Milmerran Regional Council. If The Chronicle didn’t report it, nobody would know enough to object.
However, the natives of Milmeran, represented by Cr Paul Antonia, Milmerran’s former mayor and now TRC’s deputy Mayor, are now very restless. They feel neglected.
This led to the recent outburst in The Chronicle claiming councillors were after the scalp of TRC’s chief executive officer. This report turned out to be rubbish, with all councillors signing statutory declarations this had not happened.
Only Milmerran is openly disgruntled. Cambooya, Jondaryan. Crows Nest, Clifton, Pittsworth and Rosalie seem either content or resigned. The citizens of Toowoomba are quiescent.
It fell to Cambooya’s former Mayor Carol Taylor, and now chair of the giant Emgineering Services Portfolio to teach the TRC Boys Club something of regional statemanship. In a courageous letter to The Chronicle, Cr Taylor laid it on the line to the restless natives of Milmerran:
“To be successful, Toowoomba Regional Council must be a partnership between the community, councillors and staff across the region. Despite recent negative press, the reality is that council staff are working very hard to ensure the success of this council
.
“Projects that were previously planned for each of the former shires are being carried forward and in many cases are being enhances through improved efficiencies of scale and knowledge sharing.”
It is a good, optimistic and encouraging letter, Mayor Peter Taylor should be very grateful there’s another Taylor backing him up. TRC should put her letter prominently on its website.
The nigger in the TRC woodpile in fact has little to do with council itself. If you don’t have a regional newspaper that itself helps the regional community come together and vigorously reports council’s deliberations and activities, of course achieving regional cohesion will be slow and difficult.
It’s anybody’s guess why The Chronicle doesn’t consider this a compelling obligation to its community.
Perhaps the whole regional concept would sit more easily with Paul Antonio if council’s name was changed to Milmerran Regional Council. If The Chronicle didn’t report it, nobody would know enough to object.
How Anna’s losing touch with Toowoomba’s battlers
Premier Anna Bligh and Attorney-General Kerry Shine, who is also the Member of Parliament for Toowoomba North, have continually since February rejected requests to look into the rental residential industry targeting Age Pensioners in Queensland. There are at least five of these rental communities in Toowoomba. Here is the text of the appeal made to Bligh and Shine this weekend:
To:
> Premier Anna Bligh
>cc Phil Reeves MP, Parliamentary Secretary
> The Attorney General Kerry Shine, MP Toowoomba North
I can't believe that a Labor Premier and a Labor Attorney General, the State's chief law officer, can so blatently ignore requests for independent scrutiny of the rental residential industry targeting Age Pensioners. But you do ignore it.
Attached is the notification Toowoomba pensioners received today from The SCV Group Limited demanding, for the second time this year, all but $2.25 of the $15 increase in the Age Pension following the CPI increase of September 20.
You have been notified repeatedly of this automtic increase in rentals with the companies concerned not required by any legislated regulation to justify a corresponding increase in its operational costs.
What other landlord - particularly landlords for the aged - get two automatic increases in a year without any questioning? You evidently don't give a hoot.
Repeated messages to you both have failed to receive responses to the critical question of how the any substantial increase in the pension rate, as predicted, is not simply to flow to corporate landlords as has two CPI increases in a year.
There are dozens of Age Pensioners in Queensland and particularly in Toowoomba who are angered by your complete lack of interest. Do you wonder that your Government is increasingly on the nose. What's LABOR about it? - THE PARTY THAT'S SUPPOSED TO CARE FOR THE BATTLERS. You 're oblivious to the big proportion of the population aged over 65. You're taunting us to have a good think about why we should vote for you.
Signed: Hugh Bingham, Toowoomba, hughbingham@bigpond.com
To:
> Premier Anna Bligh
>cc Phil Reeves MP, Parliamentary Secretary
> The Attorney General Kerry Shine, MP Toowoomba North
I can't believe that a Labor Premier and a Labor Attorney General, the State's chief law officer, can so blatently ignore requests for independent scrutiny of the rental residential industry targeting Age Pensioners. But you do ignore it.
Attached is the notification Toowoomba pensioners received today from The SCV Group Limited demanding, for the second time this year, all but $2.25 of the $15 increase in the Age Pension following the CPI increase of September 20.
You have been notified repeatedly of this automtic increase in rentals with the companies concerned not required by any legislated regulation to justify a corresponding increase in its operational costs.
What other landlord - particularly landlords for the aged - get two automatic increases in a year without any questioning? You evidently don't give a hoot.
Repeated messages to you both have failed to receive responses to the critical question of how the any substantial increase in the pension rate, as predicted, is not simply to flow to corporate landlords as has two CPI increases in a year.
There are dozens of Age Pensioners in Queensland and particularly in Toowoomba who are angered by your complete lack of interest. Do you wonder that your Government is increasingly on the nose. What's LABOR about it? - THE PARTY THAT'S SUPPOSED TO CARE FOR THE BATTLERS. You 're oblivious to the big proportion of the population aged over 65. You're taunting us to have a good think about why we should vote for you.
Signed: Hugh Bingham, Toowoomba, hughbingham@bigpond.com
“The God Particle” – with thanks to Peter Swannell
Peter Swannell’s recent column in The Chronicle describing the search for the “God Particle” and the origins of matter and the universe has made lots of us think about God and how much we might know about him,
Thinkers through history and pondered the mystery of it too – and here are the thoughts of some of them:
>Geza Vermes, Israeli theologian: God is my highest instinct to know myself.
>Arthur Koestler (1905-1983): God seems to have left the receiver off the hook and time is running out.
> Anon but attributed to Empedocles: The nature of God is a circle of which the centre is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945: A God who allowed us to prove his existence would be an idol.
Arthur Clough 1819-1861: There’s no God, the wicked saith / And truly it’s a blessing / For what he might have done with us / It’s better only guessing.
Alexandre Dumas 1824-1895: If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which he infliected onme, He would ill himself.
Albert Einstein 1879-1955: The Lord is crafty but he is not spiteful. / Before God we are all equally wise and equally foolish.
Havelock Ellis 1859-1939: God is an unutterable sigh in the Human Heart, said an old German mystic. And therewith said the last word.
Sigmund Freud 1856-1939: At bottom, God is nothing more than an exalted father.
Galileo Galilei 1564-1642: I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with the sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
Heinrich Heine 1797-1856: God will forgive me. It is his profession.
Ronald Knox 1888-1957: O God, for as much as without Thee / We are not enabled to doubt Thee / Help us all by Thy grace / To convince the whole race / It knows nothing whatsoever about Thee.
Martin Luther 1483-1546: Whatever your heart clings to and relies upon, that is really your God.
H. L. Mendcken 1880-1956: It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himelf to the idea that after all God will not help him.
Something more to read: God, science and other dark thoughts - by Miranda Devine, Sydney Morning Herald, September 27, 2008 To view the entire article, click on: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/09/26/1222217514775.html
Thinkers through history and pondered the mystery of it too – and here are the thoughts of some of them:
>Geza Vermes, Israeli theologian: God is my highest instinct to know myself.
>Arthur Koestler (1905-1983): God seems to have left the receiver off the hook and time is running out.
> Anon but attributed to Empedocles: The nature of God is a circle of which the centre is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945: A God who allowed us to prove his existence would be an idol.
Arthur Clough 1819-1861: There’s no God, the wicked saith / And truly it’s a blessing / For what he might have done with us / It’s better only guessing.
Alexandre Dumas 1824-1895: If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which he infliected onme, He would ill himself.
Albert Einstein 1879-1955: The Lord is crafty but he is not spiteful. / Before God we are all equally wise and equally foolish.
Havelock Ellis 1859-1939: God is an unutterable sigh in the Human Heart, said an old German mystic. And therewith said the last word.
Sigmund Freud 1856-1939: At bottom, God is nothing more than an exalted father.
Galileo Galilei 1564-1642: I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with the sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
Heinrich Heine 1797-1856: God will forgive me. It is his profession.
Ronald Knox 1888-1957: O God, for as much as without Thee / We are not enabled to doubt Thee / Help us all by Thy grace / To convince the whole race / It knows nothing whatsoever about Thee.
Martin Luther 1483-1546: Whatever your heart clings to and relies upon, that is really your God.
H. L. Mendcken 1880-1956: It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himelf to the idea that after all God will not help him.
Something more to read: God, science and other dark thoughts - by Miranda Devine, Sydney Morning Herald, September 27, 2008 To view the entire article, click on: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/09/26/1222217514775.html
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Maranoa's Bruce Scott MP and the Range Crossing
Bruce Scott, MP, has held the Federal electorate of Maranoa since 1990. He can be described as the venerable senior statesman of the National Party. You can see from the Electoral Commission's voting tables that in last year's elections Scott earned 70.9% of the Maranoa vote after preferences. And 60.5% on his own.
The electorate map shows the immensity of Maranoa - running from Dalby to the South Australian border, north beyond Winton, south to Mungindi and Cunnamulla and west to Bedourie and Birdsville.
Now take a close look at the Warrego Highway and how it runs into the Diamantina Development Road - and give yourself a good reminder how this huge volume of traffic out to the west funnels up our risky Range Crossing and through Toowoomba. And look how our relatively little Groom electorate nestles into Maranoa's eastern edge.
Now, let's all shed a tear for Ian Macfarlane, Howard Cabinet Minister and MP for Groom , about the tirades of criticism he endures about the inadequacies of the Crossing and his lack of influence in getting it fixed.
Bruce Scott by comparison gets off Scott free, to coin a phrase. So where has his powerful political voice been, representing communities totally about 90,000 almost equal to Toowoomba's population? And how effective has Scott's influence been? Or that of the Nationals?
The electorate map shows the immensity of Maranoa - running from Dalby to the South Australian border, north beyond Winton, south to Mungindi and Cunnamulla and west to Bedourie and Birdsville.
Now take a close look at the Warrego Highway and how it runs into the Diamantina Development Road - and give yourself a good reminder how this huge volume of traffic out to the west funnels up our risky Range Crossing and through Toowoomba. And look how our relatively little Groom electorate nestles into Maranoa's eastern edge.
Now, let's all shed a tear for Ian Macfarlane, Howard Cabinet Minister and MP for Groom , about the tirades of criticism he endures about the inadequacies of the Crossing and his lack of influence in getting it fixed.
Bruce Scott by comparison gets off Scott free, to coin a phrase. So where has his powerful political voice been, representing communities totally about 90,000 almost equal to Toowoomba's population? And how effective has Scott's influence been? Or that of the Nationals?
This is Hugh Bingham’s newsletter “Poltalk” for the week beginning Monday, September 22.
This week’s features include:
> Never a “threat to sack” in Toowomba Regional Council
> Please explain, Editor-in-Chief Etwell ?
> Felton: How much is known about Ambre Energy?
> The single vote that gave leadership to Malcolm
> Barnaby makes it clear that he’s RURAL !
> It’s time for doctors to share their workload.
> Never a “threat to sack” in Toowomba Regional Council
> Please explain, Editor-in-Chief Etwell ?
> Felton: How much is known about Ambre Energy?
> The single vote that gave leadership to Malcolm
> Barnaby makes it clear that he’s RURAL !
> It’s time for doctors to share their workload.
A maverick somewhere in the TRC woodpile
Well, has a rift really developed in the ranks of the Toowoomba Regional Council, with the Councillors rebelling against the authority of the Chief Executive Office Phillip Spencer?
The answer is clearly NO! One Councillor’s discontent does not consititute a rift.
Cambooya’s former Mayor, the feisty Cr. Carol Taylor – herself a qualified Justice of the Peace – “volunteered” to sign a statutory declaration that Mr Spencer’s job had NOT been put under threat at a reported meeting of Councilors which, according to the Chronicle frontpage (Friday, September 19), discussed his possible sacking.
Cr Taylor has confirmed to me that she was not asked to sign. She volunteered – and was the first to do so.
Carol Taylor was the first of TRC’s Councillors to come to the CEO’s defence after reports appeared in The Chronicle. At the time of writing this, only two Councillors had not signed because of their unavailabliity but are expected to.
Mr Spencer has what is known to be the toughest job in local government - bringing together into a cohesive management the City of Toowoomba and the seven adjoining regional shires. It was Mr Spencer who tried to maximise the recognition of the regional cities such as Milmerran, Pittsworth, Cambooys and the others as a counter to the possible perceived dominance of Toowoomba City.
According to The Chronicle, Deputy Mayor Paul Antonio (who formerly was Mayor of Milmerran Shire) and Mr Spencer “are believed to be at loggerheads over the centralisation of services to the detriment of country areas.”
Interestingly, Cr Antonio has also offered a statutory declaration on Mr Spencer’s request.
Of course it was always to be expected that rivalry and jealousy could erupt in this unwieldy amalgamation of City and shires. Believe me there is a big enough restlessness in Toowoomba itself.
But that’s the way’s it’s likely to be, until the difficultires of amalgamation are ironed out. So the hotheads and mavericks have just got to settle down and work as the team.
On Friday night last, WIN TV news reported Mr Spencer was taking legal advice on the matter of unjustified publc revelation. So he should. You’ve got to wonder whether Our Chron had a one-source leak and how they went about verifying it.
The answer is clearly NO! One Councillor’s discontent does not consititute a rift.
Cambooya’s former Mayor, the feisty Cr. Carol Taylor – herself a qualified Justice of the Peace – “volunteered” to sign a statutory declaration that Mr Spencer’s job had NOT been put under threat at a reported meeting of Councilors which, according to the Chronicle frontpage (Friday, September 19), discussed his possible sacking.
Cr Taylor has confirmed to me that she was not asked to sign. She volunteered – and was the first to do so.
Carol Taylor was the first of TRC’s Councillors to come to the CEO’s defence after reports appeared in The Chronicle. At the time of writing this, only two Councillors had not signed because of their unavailabliity but are expected to.
Mr Spencer has what is known to be the toughest job in local government - bringing together into a cohesive management the City of Toowoomba and the seven adjoining regional shires. It was Mr Spencer who tried to maximise the recognition of the regional cities such as Milmerran, Pittsworth, Cambooys and the others as a counter to the possible perceived dominance of Toowoomba City.
According to The Chronicle, Deputy Mayor Paul Antonio (who formerly was Mayor of Milmerran Shire) and Mr Spencer “are believed to be at loggerheads over the centralisation of services to the detriment of country areas.”
Interestingly, Cr Antonio has also offered a statutory declaration on Mr Spencer’s request.
Of course it was always to be expected that rivalry and jealousy could erupt in this unwieldy amalgamation of City and shires. Believe me there is a big enough restlessness in Toowoomba itself.
But that’s the way’s it’s likely to be, until the difficultires of amalgamation are ironed out. So the hotheads and mavericks have just got to settle down and work as the team.
On Friday night last, WIN TV news reported Mr Spencer was taking legal advice on the matter of unjustified publc revelation. So he should. You’ve got to wonder whether Our Chron had a one-source leak and how they went about verifying it.
Please explain. Steve Etwell !
Last week, Peter Swannell devoted his wise and amusing Wednesday column in The Chronicle to an “Ordinary Man’s” explanation of the Large Hydron Collider, that immense scientific apparatus under the French-Swiss border attempting to define the origins of the universe.
Peter revealed that scientists examining particles hope to spot one called “The Higgs bosom”, named after Peter Higgs, the particle physicist who first postulated its existence in 1964. Peter Higgs, Peter Swannell relates, often refer to “the Higgs bosom” as the “God Particle” not because it will explain God but because scientists have long asked “Oh God, when are we going to find it?”
Now – my friends will tell you – I’m not one to bear a grudge but Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Steve Etwell certainly owes me an explanation over “The Higgs Bosom”.
Why my first political column “Broadly Bingham” in The Chronicle a month or so ago turned out to be the last was because Etwell rejected my intended reminiscences of my time as media adviser with Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen.
Why? Because, so he emailed me, no-one in his newsroom knew who Joh Petersen was and therefore he would not use the reminiscences. I couldn’t believe that possible. So I refused to write again for Etwell
Joh Petersen ran this State for 32 years until quite recently. Young reporters OUGHT to know, or at least be told, about it by someone who was there.
I am framing Etwell’s remarkable email to hang on the wall behind my desk where I will gaze spellbound on it every morning.
So now, Editor-in-Chief Etwell, please explain to us all how many of your newsroom knows about “The Higgs Bosom” or has ever heard of the physicist Peter Higgs?
Let’s be clear! I don’t mind for a moment that my good friend Peter Swannell is allowed to get away with “The Higgs Bosom” while I was vetoed on Joh Petersen. But I don’t think the once self-described “gnome” of The Chronicle should be allowed to get away with a veto like that.
As for “God’s Particle”, in my own elderly muddled way I thought it might refer to the delicate pastel pink of my azaleas in bloom.
Oh, and when I ran the Petersen reminiscences in this newsletter it was very well received indeed. I’m certain I know Toowoomba better than Etwell.
Peter revealed that scientists examining particles hope to spot one called “The Higgs bosom”, named after Peter Higgs, the particle physicist who first postulated its existence in 1964. Peter Higgs, Peter Swannell relates, often refer to “the Higgs bosom” as the “God Particle” not because it will explain God but because scientists have long asked “Oh God, when are we going to find it?”
Now – my friends will tell you – I’m not one to bear a grudge but Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Steve Etwell certainly owes me an explanation over “The Higgs Bosom”.
Why my first political column “Broadly Bingham” in The Chronicle a month or so ago turned out to be the last was because Etwell rejected my intended reminiscences of my time as media adviser with Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen.
Why? Because, so he emailed me, no-one in his newsroom knew who Joh Petersen was and therefore he would not use the reminiscences. I couldn’t believe that possible. So I refused to write again for Etwell
Joh Petersen ran this State for 32 years until quite recently. Young reporters OUGHT to know, or at least be told, about it by someone who was there.
I am framing Etwell’s remarkable email to hang on the wall behind my desk where I will gaze spellbound on it every morning.
So now, Editor-in-Chief Etwell, please explain to us all how many of your newsroom knows about “The Higgs Bosom” or has ever heard of the physicist Peter Higgs?
Let’s be clear! I don’t mind for a moment that my good friend Peter Swannell is allowed to get away with “The Higgs Bosom” while I was vetoed on Joh Petersen. But I don’t think the once self-described “gnome” of The Chronicle should be allowed to get away with a veto like that.
As for “God’s Particle”, in my own elderly muddled way I thought it might refer to the delicate pastel pink of my azaleas in bloom.
Oh, and when I ran the Petersen reminiscences in this newsletter it was very well received indeed. I’m certain I know Toowoomba better than Etwell.
FELTON: How much do we fully know about Ambre?
At long last, the Liberal National Party appears to be taking an interest in the worries of the Felton Valley Farmers. Stuart Copeland, MP for Cunningham, being as conscientious as usual, is said to be taking Jeff Seeney, his colleague from resources-rich Callide, out to Felton for a look at its unspoiled valley.
So that adds up to Mike Horan, Stuart, and Jeff – but not so far Leader Lawrence Springborg.
A suggestion that the wives of the Friends of Felton should invite Lawrence to have a morning tea talk was vetoed by the men – wonder who voted in that? That might have least got them a frontpage photograph.
What bothers me about the Felton Coal Project is that it is NOT just a problem for the Felton farmers. If this project goes ahead, it will have a massive effect on the Toowoomba region. Lifestyle will be changed, infrastructure will be crippled, environmental impact will be irreversible, and the demand for trade skills will put local industries under strain.
There’s no sign that anybody in authority is thinking about that.
Here’s a suggestion for the Friends of Felton: Plead with one of the Liberal National frontbenchers to question State Treasurer Andrew Fraser in Parliament - or the Mines Minister - how much the Queensland Government actually knows about the financial bona fides of Ambre Energy, the coal project company.
How competent is the company – given the global investments unheaval and its known entrepreneurial record – to carry out its ambitious plan to produce huge quantities of synthetic fuels from Felton's coal deposits.
Ambre Energy is not listed with ASX but is a public unlisted company with shareholders and North American subsidiaries.
If you “Google” Ambre Energy you can access the Board of Directors, none of whom are known to me. As it is not listed on the ASX it is not possible to access data on financials, say.
A lawyer would be able to search if there has been or is/are any action/s concerning the company. There is nothing on the easily available reference to show there's anything wrong or untoward aboutAmbre. It looks like they have raised some seed capital (they are incorporated in NSW) and set up a relationship with MLM (Metallica IMinerals Ltd).
I don't know how much money Ambre has expended in a feasibility study at Felton but suspect Felton will just be one of several prospects for them. Ambre will be looking through purely commercial eyes and will go where it can make the most money as quickly as possible.
I have not read or seen or heard anything other than positive comments on MLM and again, no negatives, in a commercial sense, about Ambre.
What we don’t know is how much capital they have for feasibility studies. My sense is that $500k would be the absolute minimum it would need to spend looking at any potential project (including Felton) before going to the next base.
I also note that it is infinitely harder in this climate, as opposed to a year ago, to raise speculative capital for Greenfield projects.
So that adds up to Mike Horan, Stuart, and Jeff – but not so far Leader Lawrence Springborg.
A suggestion that the wives of the Friends of Felton should invite Lawrence to have a morning tea talk was vetoed by the men – wonder who voted in that? That might have least got them a frontpage photograph.
What bothers me about the Felton Coal Project is that it is NOT just a problem for the Felton farmers. If this project goes ahead, it will have a massive effect on the Toowoomba region. Lifestyle will be changed, infrastructure will be crippled, environmental impact will be irreversible, and the demand for trade skills will put local industries under strain.
There’s no sign that anybody in authority is thinking about that.
Here’s a suggestion for the Friends of Felton: Plead with one of the Liberal National frontbenchers to question State Treasurer Andrew Fraser in Parliament - or the Mines Minister - how much the Queensland Government actually knows about the financial bona fides of Ambre Energy, the coal project company.
How competent is the company – given the global investments unheaval and its known entrepreneurial record – to carry out its ambitious plan to produce huge quantities of synthetic fuels from Felton's coal deposits.
Ambre Energy is not listed with ASX but is a public unlisted company with shareholders and North American subsidiaries.
If you “Google” Ambre Energy you can access the Board of Directors, none of whom are known to me. As it is not listed on the ASX it is not possible to access data on financials, say.
A lawyer would be able to search if there has been or is/are any action/s concerning the company. There is nothing on the easily available reference to show there's anything wrong or untoward aboutAmbre. It looks like they have raised some seed capital (they are incorporated in NSW) and set up a relationship with MLM (Metallica IMinerals Ltd).
I don't know how much money Ambre has expended in a feasibility study at Felton but suspect Felton will just be one of several prospects for them. Ambre will be looking through purely commercial eyes and will go where it can make the most money as quickly as possible.
I have not read or seen or heard anything other than positive comments on MLM and again, no negatives, in a commercial sense, about Ambre.
What we don’t know is how much capital they have for feasibility studies. My sense is that $500k would be the absolute minimum it would need to spend looking at any potential project (including Felton) before going to the next base.
I also note that it is infinitely harder in this climate, as opposed to a year ago, to raise speculative capital for Greenfield projects.
Brendan to Malcolm – only one vote fixed it !
As that pugilist Liberal Tony Abbott put it on the ABC’s Questions and Answers: On Monday, we were all Brendan Nelson’s men. On Tuesday, we were all Malcolms” Or words to that effect - it might have been: “On Monday we were all behind Brendan and on Tuesday we were all behind Malcolm.”
It’s worth keeping in mind the vote that gave Brendan the Leadership followig the defeat of the Howard Govenrment was 45 to 42.. The vote that last week lost him the leadership to Malcolm Turnbull was 45 to 41.
So Turnbull first lost it by THREE votes (after Tony Abbot withdrew from the race) and then last week won it by FOUR.
Now that’s what you call decisive. That’s what you call a United Party. However, the party having been captivated by Peter Costello’s games, at last seems delighted to be led by someone – Malcolm - who has long hankered after the top job and has no doubt whatsoever that he both deserves it and will do it superbly.
Strap on your seat belts – this is going to be a rough ride. Kevin knows he’s got a fight on his hands with a man who has both advicsed and then stood up to Kerry Packer and who took on Britain’s MI5.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Annabelle Crabb wrote this nice little epitaph for Brendan who, she said, managed to lose his job this week with a striking degree of dignity.
“Nelson has always had a keen eye for the misfortunes of others; the more graphic the tragedy, the greater the chance an account of it will appear as part of the good doctor's oral tradition.
“But on the question of his own misfortune, Nelson remained stoically mute this week. He must have smiled to himself as the war of the log cabin stories unfolded and we all tried to work out whether growing up in a flat, a la Turnbull, was worse than sleeping in a car like the young Kevin Rudd.
“Brendan Nelson, you see, actually lives in a shed. When in Canberra, he sleeps in the unheated garage of the house belonging to Joe Hockey, manager of Opposition business.
“He remains the Member for Bradfield and when the next election comes around, he says, he'll recontest. No ifs. No buts. No drum rolls.”
The first opinion polls to be published in coming days will show Mr Turnbull's elevation to Opposition Leader earns a positive bounce. The Sydney Daily Telegraph at the weekend had 73% of poll respondents going for Turnbull and only 26 % going to Rudd. But that was only out of 436 votes from Telegraph readers.
So what exactly has Turnbull changed so far? He’s hanging on to the 5c excise stunt, he’s hanging on to supporting pension increases but ONLY for Singles, and he’s continuing to block legislation in the Senate. He’s also offered bi-partizan consultation on the economy. I’d rather consult with a White Pointer.
It’s worth keeping in mind the vote that gave Brendan the Leadership followig the defeat of the Howard Govenrment was 45 to 42.. The vote that last week lost him the leadership to Malcolm Turnbull was 45 to 41.
So Turnbull first lost it by THREE votes (after Tony Abbot withdrew from the race) and then last week won it by FOUR.
Now that’s what you call decisive. That’s what you call a United Party. However, the party having been captivated by Peter Costello’s games, at last seems delighted to be led by someone – Malcolm - who has long hankered after the top job and has no doubt whatsoever that he both deserves it and will do it superbly.
Strap on your seat belts – this is going to be a rough ride. Kevin knows he’s got a fight on his hands with a man who has both advicsed and then stood up to Kerry Packer and who took on Britain’s MI5.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Annabelle Crabb wrote this nice little epitaph for Brendan who, she said, managed to lose his job this week with a striking degree of dignity.
“Nelson has always had a keen eye for the misfortunes of others; the more graphic the tragedy, the greater the chance an account of it will appear as part of the good doctor's oral tradition.
“But on the question of his own misfortune, Nelson remained stoically mute this week. He must have smiled to himself as the war of the log cabin stories unfolded and we all tried to work out whether growing up in a flat, a la Turnbull, was worse than sleeping in a car like the young Kevin Rudd.
“Brendan Nelson, you see, actually lives in a shed. When in Canberra, he sleeps in the unheated garage of the house belonging to Joe Hockey, manager of Opposition business.
“He remains the Member for Bradfield and when the next election comes around, he says, he'll recontest. No ifs. No buts. No drum rolls.”
The first opinion polls to be published in coming days will show Mr Turnbull's elevation to Opposition Leader earns a positive bounce. The Sydney Daily Telegraph at the weekend had 73% of poll respondents going for Turnbull and only 26 % going to Rudd. But that was only out of 436 votes from Telegraph readers.
So what exactly has Turnbull changed so far? He’s hanging on to the 5c excise stunt, he’s hanging on to supporting pension increases but ONLY for Singles, and he’s continuing to block legislation in the Senate. He’s also offered bi-partizan consultation on the economy. I’d rather consult with a White Pointer.
Our Barnaby Joyce makes it plain he’s RURAL !
Queensland's Senator Barnaby Joyce, just elected the National Party's Leader of Business in the Senate, has refused Malcolm Turnbull's offer of a front bench portfolio in his Shadow Cabinet.
Good on you, Barnaby.! Having crossed the floor umpteen times to protect Australia's "rural rump" on issue after issue, you're hardly likely to change spots now.
As Canberra commentator Glen Milne put it on the ABC's Insiders it'll be fascinating to see the rebel Barnaby "challenging his own leadership"
But country folk must applaud him - he's evidently a disciple of Sir Arthur ("Call me Artie") Fadden, Deputy Prime Minister in the Menzies years. In his plain-talking autobiography also named "Call me Artie", Fadden warned bluntly that unless the Country Party stayed independent as the "rural rump" of Australian politics it was doomed.
So now look - the Nationals down to just nine seats in the Reps. The days of Coalition authority are long gone.
The party's big new hope lies in the balance of power deal it has won in Western Australia. Its dilemma is the shakey deal it's struck with the Liberals in Queensland - and that is increasingly shakey.
Barnaby's mantra is "diffentiate or disappear" - and he evidently is determined that just won't happen.
Good on you, Barnaby.! Having crossed the floor umpteen times to protect Australia's "rural rump" on issue after issue, you're hardly likely to change spots now.
As Canberra commentator Glen Milne put it on the ABC's Insiders it'll be fascinating to see the rebel Barnaby "challenging his own leadership"
But country folk must applaud him - he's evidently a disciple of Sir Arthur ("Call me Artie") Fadden, Deputy Prime Minister in the Menzies years. In his plain-talking autobiography also named "Call me Artie", Fadden warned bluntly that unless the Country Party stayed independent as the "rural rump" of Australian politics it was doomed.
So now look - the Nationals down to just nine seats in the Reps. The days of Coalition authority are long gone.
The party's big new hope lies in the balance of power deal it has won in Western Australia. Its dilemma is the shakey deal it's struck with the Liberals in Queensland - and that is increasingly shakey.
Barnaby's mantra is "diffentiate or disappear" - and he evidently is determined that just won't happen.
Pensioners pittance - of the $15 CPI increase, they get $2.25
The email below was sent primarily to Kerry Shine, MP Toowoomba North, and copied to six other Ministers in Brisbane and Canberra. It concerned last Saturday’s increase in the Consumer Price Index which translates into a $15 increase in the Age Pension rate.
In Toowoomba, some 250 pensioners in five villages will personally benefit by only $2.25 in their pockets. The rest will go automatically in rental increases.
Kerry Shine as you know is Queensland Attorney-General and Minister Assisting the Premier in Western Queensland. Copies went to Premier Anna Bligh, Seniors Minister Lindy Nelson-Car, Treasurer Wayne Swan, Federal Ageing Mininster Justine Elliot, and Communities Minister Senator Joe Ludwig. A copy was also sent to Toowomba solicitor Chris Meibusch in case he remains ALP candidate for Groom.
Not a single reply has been received ! Not a word ! The email (misspelling corrected) read:
“As you know, on September 20 the CPI will be adjusted upwards by $15 to the Age Pension. Under the rental formula which was instated by the Village Life Ltd company some years ago the rental of tenants in all its villages is also adjusted upwards, taking 85% of the increase. Out of the $15 CPI increae, individual pensioners here and in other villages will benefit by only $2.25 - ie 15%
By only 15% - or about one seventh of the increase.
“I have not been able to find out - or inform my fellow residents - how this rental formula first came to be arrived at :
The whole formula being 85% of the Age Pension, plus the total of applicable rental assistance, plus the automatic debiting of CPI increases. Rentals are debited from bank accounts. Company revenues are thus virtually guaranteed bad-debt free.
“It has been generally thought that this formula was originally worked out with and approved by Centrelink - but I can find no evidence to support this belief.
“Will you please inform me of the history of this rental formula and which government agencies approved it in the first place and at present, if any.
“What this means of course is that pensioner tenants only benefit nominally by national cost-of-living adjustments. and that the corporations operating rental villages get two automatic rental increases every year.
“No other landlord benefits by such automatic benefit.. Operating companies in this industry can increase rentals without themselves being required to justify increases in their operating costs before any government agency.
“It must be pointed out that should there be a sizeable increase in the Age Pension, as predicted, early in 2009, we as individuals may only get 15% of it.
“Presumably you - the addressees of this email or the agencies of your portfolios - have known about this rental formula since its inception - but yet you have all ignored appeals for independent inquiry into the operations of this rental residential industry which has Aged Australians as it marketing target.
“The Queensland Government has also dismissed out of hand appeals for the appointment of a Minister for Ageing with Cabinet rank to overseas matters affecting the well-being of Aged Queenslanders.
“There are 48 units in the Toowoomba village I live in and there are at least four others in the city.. There and some thousands of Age and other Pensioners living in similar villages coast to coast.
Further appeals for attention have been addressed to Shine’s Senior Policy Adviser and to Minister Nelson-Carr’s people. Still not a word of reply!
I’ll think I’ll put my $2.25 towards a local TV campaign advertising this political
In Toowoomba, some 250 pensioners in five villages will personally benefit by only $2.25 in their pockets. The rest will go automatically in rental increases.
Kerry Shine as you know is Queensland Attorney-General and Minister Assisting the Premier in Western Queensland. Copies went to Premier Anna Bligh, Seniors Minister Lindy Nelson-Car, Treasurer Wayne Swan, Federal Ageing Mininster Justine Elliot, and Communities Minister Senator Joe Ludwig. A copy was also sent to Toowomba solicitor Chris Meibusch in case he remains ALP candidate for Groom.
Not a single reply has been received ! Not a word ! The email (misspelling corrected) read:
“As you know, on September 20 the CPI will be adjusted upwards by $15 to the Age Pension. Under the rental formula which was instated by the Village Life Ltd company some years ago the rental of tenants in all its villages is also adjusted upwards, taking 85% of the increase. Out of the $15 CPI increae, individual pensioners here and in other villages will benefit by only $2.25 - ie 15%
By only 15% - or about one seventh of the increase.
“I have not been able to find out - or inform my fellow residents - how this rental formula first came to be arrived at :
The whole formula being 85% of the Age Pension, plus the total of applicable rental assistance, plus the automatic debiting of CPI increases. Rentals are debited from bank accounts. Company revenues are thus virtually guaranteed bad-debt free.
“It has been generally thought that this formula was originally worked out with and approved by Centrelink - but I can find no evidence to support this belief.
“Will you please inform me of the history of this rental formula and which government agencies approved it in the first place and at present, if any.
“What this means of course is that pensioner tenants only benefit nominally by national cost-of-living adjustments. and that the corporations operating rental villages get two automatic rental increases every year.
“No other landlord benefits by such automatic benefit.. Operating companies in this industry can increase rentals without themselves being required to justify increases in their operating costs before any government agency.
“It must be pointed out that should there be a sizeable increase in the Age Pension, as predicted, early in 2009, we as individuals may only get 15% of it.
“Presumably you - the addressees of this email or the agencies of your portfolios - have known about this rental formula since its inception - but yet you have all ignored appeals for independent inquiry into the operations of this rental residential industry which has Aged Australians as it marketing target.
“The Queensland Government has also dismissed out of hand appeals for the appointment of a Minister for Ageing with Cabinet rank to overseas matters affecting the well-being of Aged Queenslanders.
“There are 48 units in the Toowoomba village I live in and there are at least four others in the city.. There and some thousands of Age and other Pensioners living in similar villages coast to coast.
Further appeals for attention have been addressed to Shine’s Senior Policy Adviser and to Minister Nelson-Carr’s people. Still not a word of reply!
I’ll think I’ll put my $2.25 towards a local TV campaign advertising this political
It’s time … for doctors to share their workload
It seems to me there is not a doctor anywhere whose workload is not almost overwhelming. Many have had to close off their patient lists and the Emergency Wards of public hospitals are equally overwhelmed.
Why then does the Australian Medical assocation resist so vehemently Health Minister Nicola Roxon’s proposal for doctors to relinquish their monopoly on procedures which can be done safely by other professionals, such as delivering babies, issuing repeat prescriptions and wound management.
Roxon, who from the start has been a forward thinking Minister, called at the called for an end to the "historical anomaly" of doctor-dominated health care. She was speaking in Bathurst at the "Light on the Hill" oration, which commemorates Prime Minister Ben Chifley, who fought an intense campaign by doctors against the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, established in 1948.
Ms Roxon recalled Labor also had to overcome entrenched resistance from doctors to introduce Medibank, then Medicare.
Unfortunately, in the present negotiation with the president of the Australian Medical Association, Rosanna Capolingua. Minister Roxon already has a combative relationship.
Why then does the Australian Medical assocation resist so vehemently Health Minister Nicola Roxon’s proposal for doctors to relinquish their monopoly on procedures which can be done safely by other professionals, such as delivering babies, issuing repeat prescriptions and wound management.
Roxon, who from the start has been a forward thinking Minister, called at the called for an end to the "historical anomaly" of doctor-dominated health care. She was speaking in Bathurst at the "Light on the Hill" oration, which commemorates Prime Minister Ben Chifley, who fought an intense campaign by doctors against the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, established in 1948.
Ms Roxon recalled Labor also had to overcome entrenched resistance from doctors to introduce Medibank, then Medicare.
Unfortunately, in the present negotiation with the president of the Australian Medical Association, Rosanna Capolingua. Minister Roxon already has a combative relationship.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Hugh Bingham’s newsletter, September 15, 2008 Edition
Features of this Edition include:
> Giant Range Crossing Protest March
> Why doesn’t Queensland have our own Minister for Care of the Aged?
> Politicians go to ground on the Felton Coal controversy
> Our ABC – Our Window on Democracy
> Candid Comments – That $15 CPI increase … What I’ve learned about turning 80 … Federal Liberals blind to Joe and Julie … Costello’s "come and go" reward ….
> Giant Range Crossing Protest March
> Why doesn’t Queensland have our own Minister for Care of the Aged?
> Politicians go to ground on the Felton Coal controversy
> Our ABC – Our Window on Democracy
> Candid Comments – That $15 CPI increase … What I’ve learned about turning 80 … Federal Liberals blind to Joe and Julie … Costello’s "come and go" reward ….
It’S TIME! - for the GIANT RANGE MASS PROTEST MARCH !
So Toowoomba Regional Council is weighing in heavily to pressure Federal and State Governments to get on with building the hugely-needed second Toowoomba Range Crossing.
Mayor Peter Taylor (pictured) has called for a million citizens to sign a compelling petition to lay before Prime Minister Rudd and Premier Bligh.
That’s good stuff and Mayor Peter should be patted on the back
But, Peter, I can assure you here and now that a million signatures won’t create even a ripple in the political morass that determines these priorities.
Toowoomba has no clout! We should wake up to it. This city’s history is of a rigidly conservative voting community with an occasional side track now and again to the ALP and for the Greens.
Mayor Peter Taylor (pictured) has called for a million citizens to sign a compelling petition to lay before Prime Minister Rudd and Premier Bligh.
That’s good stuff and Mayor Peter should be patted on the back
But, Peter, I can assure you here and now that a million signatures won’t create even a ripple in the political morass that determines these priorities.
Toowoomba has no clout! We should wake up to it. This city’s history is of a rigidly conservative voting community with an occasional side track now and again to the ALP and for the Greens.
For the last 10 years or so federally we’ve had a senior Liberal Cabinet Minister as our Member of Parliament. And all he managed was a non-core promise of funding only days before the Howard Government was emasculated. And even if Howard had survived, that wasn’t going anywhere until 2017.
So Mayor Peter, what IS needed here is a huge – I mean HUGE - mass protest march of no less than 10,000 people, led by yourself and your fellow councillors, starting at the top of the Range and blocking it for half a day right down to Withcott.
Look, the Chinese did it with their magnificent “Long March” of the 1930s when tens of thousands of them set about freeing themselves from the corruption and brutality of the Nationalist regime. Six thousand miles on foot in a year over savage country.
Well, we here in Toowoomba and all of us in Western Queensland right out to the South Australian border are captive to the political obduracy, incompetence, and unaccountability of both the Australian and Queensland Governments. Both have failed to keep essential infrastructure anywhere near the pace of growth.
So now, Mayor Peter, do it properly. Get our Western Queenslanders on side. Demand police permission, as you must, and police escorts as well. Use your Mayoral influence – or whatever political pressures you can think of - to recruit Ian Macfarlane, Kerry Shine, Mike Horan, Stuart Copeland and yes even Chris Meibusch if he’s still the ALP contender for Groom – to march with you and your Councillors all the way..
Block the Range road to all traffic for half a day – turn the Range March into a non-partisan political festival. Get the city’s charities to line the course with coffee and drink stops – and wheelchairs and oxygen tanks!
Get the television helicopters up there …Get the support of Huhgie Wiliams of the Transport Workers Union …Get the truckies on side … Make this a show of People Persuasion or with a bit of luck People Power.
This is the only way, Mayor Peter, you’ve got any hope of ramming down the collective throats of Governments the importance to the whole of Western Queensland of a high priority new Range Crossing.
Oh yes! And you can have copies of the Petition for people to sign as they march. You might even get that million signatures. But petitions don’t have the sheer muscle of People Power.
Don’t put the Chinese down just because they were Coms. Look at the life, strength and creativity of the Beijing Game. And admire!
Scroll down to remind yourselves of the history of China’s Long March.
So Mayor Peter, what IS needed here is a huge – I mean HUGE - mass protest march of no less than 10,000 people, led by yourself and your fellow councillors, starting at the top of the Range and blocking it for half a day right down to Withcott.
Look, the Chinese did it with their magnificent “Long March” of the 1930s when tens of thousands of them set about freeing themselves from the corruption and brutality of the Nationalist regime. Six thousand miles on foot in a year over savage country.
Well, we here in Toowoomba and all of us in Western Queensland right out to the South Australian border are captive to the political obduracy, incompetence, and unaccountability of both the Australian and Queensland Governments. Both have failed to keep essential infrastructure anywhere near the pace of growth.
So now, Mayor Peter, do it properly. Get our Western Queenslanders on side. Demand police permission, as you must, and police escorts as well. Use your Mayoral influence – or whatever political pressures you can think of - to recruit Ian Macfarlane, Kerry Shine, Mike Horan, Stuart Copeland and yes even Chris Meibusch if he’s still the ALP contender for Groom – to march with you and your Councillors all the way..
Block the Range road to all traffic for half a day – turn the Range March into a non-partisan political festival. Get the city’s charities to line the course with coffee and drink stops – and wheelchairs and oxygen tanks!
Get the television helicopters up there …Get the support of Huhgie Wiliams of the Transport Workers Union …Get the truckies on side … Make this a show of People Persuasion or with a bit of luck People Power.
This is the only way, Mayor Peter, you’ve got any hope of ramming down the collective throats of Governments the importance to the whole of Western Queensland of a high priority new Range Crossing.
Oh yes! And you can have copies of the Petition for people to sign as they march. You might even get that million signatures. But petitions don’t have the sheer muscle of People Power.
Don’t put the Chinese down just because they were Coms. Look at the life, strength and creativity of the Beijing Game. And admire!
Scroll down to remind yourselves of the history of China’s Long March.
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