BREAKING NEWS: The bureaucratic tail is wagging the aldermanic dog at Town Hall

Launceston's long sufferer ratepayers are still getting a rough deal. Revealed today in the Examiner are cost savings presumably designed to disguise the kind of deficit BLOWOUT about to be revealed at the Aquatic Centre. The hit list is quite long but it all seems awfully short on strategic thinking or the prioritisation of funding.

The Town Hall bureaucracy is as unlikely as ever to deliver (suggest? recommend?) a plan to the aldermen that reduces the staff level at Town Hall. All the proposed funding cuts can be bundled together as 'city marketing' as much as it might be described as 'cultural expenditure'. Little doubt, if a performance audit was done for Town Hall's marketing division some positions surplus to requirement could be found – none of those are likely to be identified by management anytime soon one suspects.

The thing is, the aldermen need to be determining the policy and the bureaucracy needs to be implementing it. The tail is wagging the dog YET AGAIN at Town Hall and the losers are as always 'the ratepayers'. While the aldermen continue to accept the self serving low grade advice of bureaucrats looking after their salary and superannuation packages the quality of service is ever likely to diminish.

In the scheme of things the fortunes of these community programs probably can be managed BUT you have to suspect there is more to it than that. This could very well be the euphemistic 'gasping canary' down the coal mine. It is probably about time Launceston instigated a Truth Commission of some kind to get to the serial and systemic bureaucratic failures as well as the aldermanic short falls that all too often flow from them.

Rather than build upon the shortfalls of the past sometime it is going to be necessary to do a stocktake to take us to somewhere we really want to be.

TA7250

CAR INSURANCE: what next?

Yes, Yes, Yes, it really is Australia Post and they are now selling car insurance. Once upon a time they were the prestigious and trusted carrier of the Royal Mail – now they're flogging car insurance !!! Just what has the world come to?

Why car insurance? Well they don't explain that as they slip their promo material in our mailboxes and postboxes. To their credit they do not seem to be delivering to their customers – or is it clients these days – who announce on their mailbox that that they do not welcome JUNK MAIL – at least they seem to know that this stuff is junk.

We all thought that as a government quango their principal obligation was to provide a mail service – not compete with their car insurance customers. The purveyors of car insurance must be pretty pee’d off. Here it can be claimed that Australia Post is competing in an unfair way.

Only Australia Post can blanket saturate the postal system with virtually free advertising – well they might have paid for the printing.

It's bad enough that Australia Post shops sell everything from laptop computers to fluffy toys!! What next? What have we got to look forward to?

There is a little black duck out there that tells us that Australia Post cannot always get the right mail in the right mailbox or there on time. One wonders what kind of car insurers they'll turn out to be. There is that old advertising agency mantra that goes something like "the best way to kill a bad product is to advertise it!" One wonders if anyone at Australia post has heard that one.

Launceston's Marketing Credibility & Ability

BRAND LAUNCESTON, does that have a ring of credibility? It might but Launceston Council's track record of marketing just about anything is tarnished with systemic failures. Ald. Peck says that "at the end of the day you spend your own money better than anyone else," but here as they say "the wish is the father to this thought".

The notion that Council could get better value for money on any number of things is well founded. Sadly the reality has been that Council has built a marketing empire that just does not deliver. Its a 'Top End' operation that's quite probably lubricated by many a boozy lunch – quite probably at ratepayers' expense.

As a conference and convention destination Launceston has advantages and disadvantages. Trouble is Launceston's marketeers jump strait in and assume that they have a handle on the situation they are yet to research – but they have no appetite to do that in any serious way.

If we look around us there are Council marketing clangers all about us and one suspects that if Launceston's new GM has a critical bone in his body he's got quite a bit in front of him. He's just inherited a marketing bungle to do with parking and then there is the 'The Aquatic Centre' , then there's the museum – but let's not frighten him too much.

Rodger

Water Matters - May 20 Launceston

Yesterday in the Mercury Sue Neals reported that ratepayers are likely to be charged yet another brand new fee for stormwater management.

Apparently the State Government is currently reviewing laws governing Tasmania's drains and urban water. However, Launceston’s so called management is so far out of step as to be oblivious to all this.

Bryan Green, our Water Minister, has “announced the release of a consultation paper by the Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment Department, as part of a review of the 56-year-old Drains Act.” reports Sue Neals

Interestingly this report is driven by the need to be "more holistic" in respect to urban water.

Rather than focusing on preventing flooding much more attention needs to be paid to “storm water as a resource” Minister Green is reported to have said.

We can expect yet another transfer of responsibility from councils to the independent water corporations, as was the case water and sewerage.

Sue Neals report flags :

• Making rainwater tanks compulsory to reduce household water consumption and the demand on water treatment plants and reservoirs.

• Harvesting city stormwater run-off which now flows into the Tamar from Launceston's streets.

• Giving stormwater a value which the water authorities and councils can use to build stormwater retention systems.

• Improving stormwater retention to reduce water pollution problems for rivers such as the Tamar.

All over Australia stormwater is an untapped resource and Tasmania, indeed Launceston is no exception despite Launceston City Council managements’ ongoing comforting claims “that Launceston has plenty of water.”

Harvesting stormwater for safe reuse has obvious benefits, not the least being “improved flows in water ecosystems and increased water conservation, which eases the demand on drinking water supplies" according to the report. Launcestonians are hardly likely to argue about that!

It seems that the incentive for reviewing the Drains Act is to make sure that Tasmania is able to apply for the federal grants now available under the multi-billion-dollar National Water Initiative program. We need to make sure that Launceston does not miss out yet again because our planners are asleep at the wheel.

This is something the managers and planners at Launceston City Council were oblivious to when they advised the city’s aldermen the whack the ratepayers almost $2 million for a water management folly on Trevallyn.

The public are encouraged to contribute to the review. Launceston City Council needs to take lead here to alleviate the costs to ratepayers – and after that the be up with the game rather than tagging along behind as has been LCC managements habit recently.

Sue Neals reports that submissions can be made until June 11.

Reality Check – Launceston May 20 2010

The Aquatic Centre: Launceston’s gee-whiz regional swimming centre is struggling. This reporter popped in mid morning today, and a lovely day it was too, just to see how things were going and what the fuss was all about.

I was astounded to find that there were more staff in attendance than there were swimmers. There were a couple in the large pool plus a small group of what I presume were school children in one of the other pools. The failures are manifest and Launceston’s ratepayers are having pay the difference and it seems big time.

If our superannuation was invested in this enterprise this reporter for one would be looking to do a bit of bottom kicking. Council's dysfunctional marketing department would be a good place to start.

You really do have to wonder why our Aldermen are not doing some performance reviews in their budget process. We can all look forward to rate increases while the aldermanic allowances and management salaries and expense accounts climb.

It all smacks of Sir Humphrey's Hospital really! Why would the bureaucrats care if the pools are empty so long as there staff can maintain everything in good order

Chas Street

Launceston's Parking Fines To Increase In Number

Launceston has a self imposed fiscal problem in that the city's Council depends on Launcestonians and visitors infringing the city's parking regulations. They put on a bus to help people park outside the CBD – well that was the spin.

You see people get a free bus ride to the CBD after they've parked their car on the outskirts – and it seems that its popular. You'd think that'd be all good but OH NO SHOCK HORROR the upshot is that it helps people avoid being fined for a parking infringement. That's BAD, very BAD!

The bureaucrats did their sums in 2009 – GM Frank Dixon et al – and got is all wrong – they didn't see it coming. People are not paying enough parking fines and they are needed to pay the salaries of the bean counter at Town Hall – even when they get their bean counting WRONG.

It's a bit like the Launceston Aquatic Centre 2009-2010 bureaucratically driven budget blowout. There is seems that the forecast was designed to generate a performance bonus BUT the lack of a parking problem around the centre demonstrate that people are NOT turning up for a swim and the GM driven 'marketing spin' was just that SPIN.

The evidence for all this will be in the LOSS – when it is eventually winkled out of Council.

Now the rate payers are going to have to pay more rates 2010-2011 to cover the bureaucrats' miscalculation (no stuff up!) that served the bureaucrats well enough but the rate payers' poorly – very poorly.

Now Launcestonians and Launceston's visitors who avoid infringing the city's parking regulations can take some comfort in the fact that they are being fined in advance and are thus contributing to the city's bureaucrats' extraordinarily high salaries – salaries it seems that are never threatened by non-performance penalties. The penalties are left for the city's long suffering rate payers and their visitors!

The worry is that as Council succeeds in encouraging people NOT to drive their cars to town those that need to are going to be fined at every opportunity on everyone else's behalf – now in advance and for non infringement – just so the bureaucrats can continue to draw a salary for miscalculation and non-performance.

If Launceston's long suffering rate payers think that the dice is loaded against them, well perhaps that's understandable.

Launceston General Manager Frank Dixon stuffs up big time again


CLICK HERE TO READ THE DEC 2009 SPIN
CLICK HERE TO READ THE MAY 2010 SPIN
CLICK HERE TO READ FRANK DIXON'S 2009 $220K PLUS PERFORMANCE SPIN

TELEPHONE SCAM

AN eMAIL

From: A FRIEND
To: YOUR NETWORK

Subject: FW: Please pass this on, it has been confirmed by Telstra & Australia Police

Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 15:31:25 +1000

It's authentic
NO IT'S NOT!
CLICK HERE TO REVEAL THIS & OTHER SCAMS

" I got a call last night from an individual identifying himself as an Telstra Service technician who was conducting a test on our Telephone lines. He stated that to complete the test I should touch nine(9),zero ( 0), hash (#) and then hang up.

Luckily, I was suspicious and refused. Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing 90#, you give the requesting individual full access to your telephone line, which allows them to place long distance telephone calls billed to your home phone number.

I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many of the local gaols/prisons. DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE. PLEASE pass this on to your friends. If you have mailing lists and/or newsletters from organizations you are connected with, I encourage you to pass this on

[Name Removed]
Detective Senior Constable 123456
Victoria Police State Crime Squads
Level 12, 412 St. Kilda Road , Melbourne
(03) [Number Removed] or [Number Removed]
xyz@police.vic.gov.au

QVMAG ASBESTOS RUMOUR

Rumours are terrible things but so too is finding asbestos in a renovation. What do you do about it? Hush it up? Fess up? The risk of doing nothing is enormous but if you can blame shift you have something of a dilemma on your hands – like who can you load the responsibility onto.

This weekend on ABC Radio there was a program – Background Briefing ... click here – about asbestos in Tasmania. So if you had heard it and you overhear a conversation about asbestos being found "at the museum in the renovations" and the speculation that it is "being kept quiet" you have to worry just a little.

If the Aldermen are being kept out of it why would this be? Why hasn't the Council put out a media release? Is there going to be a cost blowout? Will this mean the ratepayers will have to bear the costs? What are the costs? What are the actual risks? Is the museum contemplating an exhibition on asbestos?

Now all this is going to be characterised as "alarmist" but what is actually alarming is the idea that there is a risk that is being swept under the carpet. After that, it is a bit of worry as to just how much it is going to cost the long suffering ratepayers.

SOME ASBESTOS LINKS:

1. Asbestos and your body
2. Asbestos and cancer
3. Asbestos information hub
   

The Cundall Test Case

Peter Cundall the Tamar's very own Guru Gardner and social activist's test case hearing will be on this Friday May 14th at the Hobart Magistrate Court at 10am.

It would be good to show Peter that he has your support by some Tamar People being there at the Hobart Magistrate Court.

If you are able to be there, please be through the security by 9.45am.

The Hobart Magistrate Court is opposite the front entrance of the Royal Hobart Hospital.

Watch This Space

Launceston Aquatic Centre

What a typically cynical media spin by the LCC, to let slip news of the financial disaster which is Launceston Aquatic, literally under the wraps of the Federal budget. Ratepayers should demand that Frank Dixon, who sloped off before the bad news became public, hands back his golden handshake.

If the still-sitting aldermen responsible for this ongoing financial haemorrhage had a shred of self-respect, or any community conscience whatsoever, they would resign forthwith. Gross mismanagement of this kind condemns us ratepayers to decades of needlessly wasted money, while works of an urgent nature, such as the plight of the upper Tamar Estuary, go unfunded. Those responsible however, carry on with their cosy salaries, fees, and careers intact.

In the face of the gross mismanagement displayed here, what makes the LCC think that Federal or State authorities would advance further monies into their care? Ratepayers should remember that these same aldermen spent tens of thousands of ratepayers dollars on legal costs so that they could bully, ridicule and ignore those who have now proven to be much wiser counsel. That counsel urged that a more financially modest proposal, subscribed to by all Councils in the region, would be a more apt and sustainable model. Instead, we have a massive white elephant sitting on the hill, bits of which are already falling apart.

It is such a monumental comedy of errors; I should fall about laughing, except for the fact that I am one of the poor idiots who have to pay for it all.

Swimming with snorkel Launceston

Tasmanian Police a Disgrace

A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

"Tasmanian Police, in charging Peter Cundall and several other elderly protestors, who were demonstrating in a non-violent, non-offensive manner against the Pulp Mill on the steps of the Tasmanian Parliament, have successfully demonstrated that they are now either a totally compromised and politicised arm of Government policy, or they have simply lost the plot.

Did the police ever get around to laying charges against Forestry workers who seriously assaulted Forestry protesters, and/or vandalised their property earlier in the year?

What can ordinary citizens do to publicly protest their serious objection to the ongoing destruction of Tasmania's precious old growth forests, and poisoning of its water catchments?. The Government doesn't care, and watches aimlessly while a Forestry Industry relentlessly continues to destroy some of the best carbon sinks in the world at a time that we desperately need them.

Monocultural regrowth on a 90 year harvest cycle does not maketh a complex, mature age ecosystem several hundred years in age.

In terms of human time scale, it is no different in principle to constraining the average human lifetime of 70-80 years to that of a 10 year old, then having the nerve to suggest that a generation of 10 year olds will carry the wisdom and complexity of life experience to that of a mature age adult population.

Well done Tasmanian Police for demonstrating that you can no longer be relied upon to apply the law with any common sense."

Darren Phillips
Lilydale, Tasmania