SOCIAL HOUSING IN LAUNCESTON

With regard to the Building Better Regions Funding, offered ostensibly to alleviate the impacts of drought, a spokesperson from Bridget Archer's office commented today that "Bridget has no reason to believe at this stage that the funding will not be expended by the Council". However, it was acknowledged there is a some uncertainty in regard to the future of the Paterson Street Central project. 

Moreover, the spokesperson went on to say that if in the end the Council is not able to take up the grant, it would absolutely be Bridget Archer’s intention to advocate for the funding to remain in Launceston in some form. 

The spokesperson also said that "we are not sure that it would be able to be directed to social housing, given the funding would likely still have to be used in accordance with the original BBRF grant guidelines." They went on to say that it "would be something Bridget would consider in the event that the funding was not taken up by Council. But to reiterate – at this stage, we have had no indication that the Council will not be using the funding." 

"In her second term as Federal Member for Bass, Bridget intends to continue advocating on the issues of concern in our community, much as she did whilst in Government." 

In addition, the spokesperson went on to say that the "issues of housing and homelessness are of particular interest to Bridget, and she will work to ensure that the Labor Government delivers on its commitments in this area, just as she will in areas of health, education, and other funding commitments they have made in our region."

Interestingly, earlier on in the election campaign Bridge Archer's office was promoting the notion that, paraphrased, 'housing, thus social housing, was not a matter for the Federal government.'

What is really hard to fathom here is how a Council might virtually give away a 'development opportunity' at ratepayers' expense and to a development that on any credible evidence was unlikely to deliver a fiscal dividend to the city's ratepayers. 

Moreover, given other priorities, on what basis was the project founded?

Also, on what expert financial advice was council operating in regard to it purchase of the 'Birchalls' Building' at what seems to have been a price somewhat above 'market value'. That these things have not and apparently do not excite the interest of the various Tasmanian Ministers of Local Government is something that should be investigated given the impacts upon the city's ratepayers et al.

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BREAKING NEWS

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TRUTH TELLING ON kanamalukaTAMAR

 

On Paterson’s Plains near Launceston, in the late 1840s, the historian John West interviewed settlers about a visit to Launceston by 200 Aborigines in December 1826. He recorded that: "When crossing Paterson’s Plains they were wantonly fired on by the whites, and in their return some of their women were treated with indescribable brutality. When they reached the Lake River, two sawyers, who had never before suffered molestation, were wounded with their spears."

As much as anywhere in colonial Tasmania there are dark stories that until recently were like dust to be swept under the carpet until their memories were troublesome. As is the way of world such stories are ridiculed, then violently opposed and finally they are accepted on the evidence hanging in the air for all to see. There are no bouquets for lifting carpets yet eventually its something that must be done.

On Marbo Day there is no more room for dust and there is no hiding it anymore. Saturday 27th of May marks the 50th anniversary of the referendum that should have changed Australia more than it did. The statement Uluru Statement from the Heart was released on 26 May 2017 by delegates to the First Nations National Constitutional Convention. 

More recently palawa/pakana people have won accolades nationally/internationally and sometimes curiously appointed to 'reference committees' named mostly to be silent and authorised to do little. Stolen cultural property has been conditionally returned and late in the day the palawa/pakana story got to be told albeit funded from elsewhere. By-and-large reconciliation gets LIPservice as histories are carefully told.

On the kanamalukaTAMAR like elsewhere there is so much unfinished business and far too few who want get on with it. It seems that every fact of science was once damned and every invention was thought to be impossible. Likewise every discovery was shock to some belief system or other and every artist's new way to see the world has been called out as fraud, folly and downright silly. 

The entirety of culture and everything not 'natural', to far too many, is a manifestation of somebody's refusal to bow to some higher authority or other and comply.  If this is 'the truth' we are doomed to live blighted lives.

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LONNYshowers

Launceston is contemplating, yes 'contemplating', providing public showering facilities for people in housing distress. There are reports that there are apparently people being paid to look at how that might be done and at what cost. Chances are there will be little or no community consultation least of all with those who might be the users. 

Actually those people do not want to be singled out as 'the people who need these showers cum washing facilities' because what comes with that is the 'underclass cum hopelessness cum undeserving poor' branding and the patronising that comes with it. 

Then comes the professional pride of those tasked to looking for solutions to problems they are unlikely to have experienced and so, so easily fall into patronising mode. Whatever it is that stops them talking one-on-one with what are called 'clients' these days is bewildering. Likewise, whatever is that gets in way of engaging with 'designers and design networks' is bewildering as well. Whatever it is that says there is an 'industrial one-size-fits-all product' when it is not the BUNNINGS WEBSITE that product cannot be made locally that too is mystifying.

When there are MENsheds, teachers, students, lecturers, community organisations, etc in the community able to, and typically willing to, assist it is perplexing that whatever is to be done has to be 'done to' rather than 'done with' the community cum taxpayers cum ratepayers.

Well here is an ECHOsurvey of some options that might be considered but maybe they will fail some test or other.  However, it would be more than interesting if there was a predisposition to collaborate with, cooperate with, consult with networks within a community rather than CHERRYpick within, well who knows where, and come out with TOPdown lowest common denominator outcomes that are not by necessarily fit-for-purpose.

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LINKS [1] • [2] • [3] • [4] • [5] • [6] • [7] • [8] 

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CITY OF LAUNCESTON'S OUTRAGEOUS DEVELOPMENT BLOCKING

This 'development' will no doubt bring this current Council to its knees if the facts relative to all the behind the scenes goings on in camera ever see the light of day. 

Ratepayers have been left out of the equation at every turn. The non answering of questions etc has earned the mayor and his supporters a place on the list of international high achievers in the field of duck shoving. On this and so many other things the City of Launceston's Council is, or rather was, so very much singing from the Scott Morrison hymn sheet and the organ has now lost its verve.

There is such a nasty smell about all this and anyone with a modicum of common sense must be able to smell it. With councils in the south being bought to account and two being dismissed it truly is a wondrous thing that the City of Launceston's Council stands. With compulsory voting, and the promise of more lower house members in the State Parliament there might well be a change ahead. 

However, depending on how the development blocking pans out Launceston's ratepayers might not have to wait for this year's election results to see change.

This council should be put under administration. If ratepayers have wait until after the outcome of this development application is known the wait might be worth it. Notwithstanding that something needs to change soon.

L Blissett

Kings Meadows

TAMMYgCHAT #1

 

VIDEO  LINK

THE Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) on the kanamalukaTAMAR is not a rarity. The short-beaked echidna is one of four living species of echidna and the only member of the genus Tachyglossus. It is covered in fur and spines and has a distinctive snout and a specialised tongue, which it uses to catch its insect prey at a great speed. Like the other extant monotremes, the short-beaked echidna lays eggs; the monotremes are the only living group of mammals to do so.

It is pleasing to be able to say that if you keep a eye out almost anywhere in the  kanamalukaTAMAR catchment you might well come across one. People living near the Cataract Gorge  between May and September have seen an 'echidna mating train' where the males locate and pursue females. Trains of up to 10 males have been reported elsewhere, with the youngest and smallest male at the end of the queue, and they may follow a single female in a courtship ritual for up to four weeks. During this time, they forage for food together, and the train often changes composition. In Tasmania, females may mate within a few hours of arousal from hibernation.

Echidnas are known to feast on 'Jack Jumper Ants' which makes echidnas a welcome visitor in many suburban gardens. They are also the kind of visitor children like as they do not run away and anytime they feel threatened they will dig in until the danger passes. Presumably, they do this if fire comes upon them. If you attempt to dig one out you will need to be both strong and persistent. Interestingly they are also very good swimmers.

George Augustus Robinson reported that on Tasmanian Aboriginal people traveling with him roasting and eating an echidna. Within Launceston's palawa/pakana community there are stories of their Elders eating echidnas or 'porkypines' in their vernacular. The story goes that they taste like pork. This is totally unsurprising given that anthropologists working with indigenous people elsewhere report the same and that echidna figures in various communities' diets – and significantly.

TALK2TAMMYg ... LAUNYnaturalscience reference

21ST C SOCIAL DISLOCATION & FAILURES

As each day passes Australia's/Tasmania's social dislocation becomes more and more obvious. While one level of governance denies that it has anyrole to play as the other two wriggle and squirm, well this serves their constituencies very poorly.

The euphemism that went 'it is not my hose to hold' just has to be consigned to a time past along with those who spruiked such rubbish. 

The situation reported on in Hobart is diabolical but worse than that it is being played out in starker numbers all over. Between these Hobart suburbs, the very notion that the life expectancy drops to a level not seen in Australia since the 1930s is really alarming.

While ever Tasmania maintains 'status quo' peri-colonial Eurocentric thinking that it seems that it is glued to, in a changing world sadly we are ever likely see this kind number crunching going on as people die way too early and possibly worse still.

Tandra Val

LOCAL GOVT COMPULSORY VOTING

This has been a long time coming BUT sadly there is more to be done yet. What seems to have been forgotten are all those 'citizens' in local government jurisdictions who are TAXED via their rates or rent who might be left out. They are for whatever reason a part of a Local Govt jurisdiction's 'citizenry' who make communities work, who invest their lives in a place, who raise their families there and more still. 

Currently they are eligible to be registered on the General Managers Role but sadly via subtle obfuscation some GMs and Councillors are disinclined to proactively promote the concept. The fear seems to be that these citizens would disrupt the status quo. 

What is there to fear?

A GM's, or a Mayor's, or whoever's, disinclination to enrol these citizens needs to be circumvented via enabling enrolment via the Electoral Commission via a Statutory Declaration.  The Minister should consider this when he presents his bill to Parliament.

“Everyone who receives protection from the society owes a return for the benefit.”

John Stuart Mill, The Corn Laws

Ray Norman

The government has been criticised for not consulting with Tasmanian councils and the broader community ahead of the introduction of legislation to enforce compulsory voting in local government elections. ............ Local Government Minister Nic Street tabled the bill to enable compulsory voting and simplified preferential voting in Parliament on Tuesday for debate next week. ............ "It's a strange anomaly that we don't require people to vote with local government elections while it's implausible at state and federal elections," he said. ............ READ MORE: Bill for compulsory voting in local government elections introduced "It sends a message that decisions made at local council level are somehow not as important." ............ Should the legislation pass, failure to vote in a future council election will attract a $34.60 fine. ............ If a fine notice is not responded to, the fine is increased to $69.20. ............ READ MORE: Council rates system adds to disadvantage, Mayor tells review ............ A government spokesperson confirmed voting would still be done via post. ............ About 58 per cent of eligible voting Tasmanians cast ballots in the 2018 local government elections. ............ Local Government Association of Tasmania president Christina Holmdahl said the sector supported compulsory voting, but expressed disappointment it hadn't been consulted with before the legislation was introduced. ............ "We have not recently considered the issue of compulsory voting in local government elections, and while the proposal may increase participation in local democracy, this change comes with some risks and importantly councils have not had sufficient time to consider the implications of such significant change," she said.

EDITORIAL 

 Compulsory voting in Tasmanian local government elections should have been in place long before Nic Street surprised councils on Monday by announcing the state government's plans to ensure it is in place before October's scheduled polls. .

Councils and opposition parties have since made noise about their disappointment of not being properly consulted about the decision by the fairly fresh Local Government Minister, despite it being mooted a decade ago and talked about regularly. ................ Tasmania is one of the last states not to have local government compulsory voting, which is bemusing considering exercising your democratic right at both a federal and state level is a must. A pedestrian percentage of people have been voting in local government elections for decades with just 58 per cent of eligible Tasmanians returning a postal ballot in 2018. ................ People in rural areas tend to be more engaged in council elections and who is going to represent them, while those in larger population centres such as Launceston, Devonport and Hobart are disengaged. ................ It is a well-documented fact that Tasmania is over-governed and many councils struggle to find enough councillors to fill positions. ................ So if people have so little interest why should voting be compulsory? ................ Well, hopefully, it might spark some interest and a greater understanding of the closest level of government to the people. ................ People will be forced to take it more seriously and candidates will have to work harder for your vote. Councils are now so must more than rates, road and rubbish. ................ They are heavily involved in strategic planning, community services and support and community issues such as climate change and LGBTIQ+ gender diversity initiatives. It's an important function and people should have a greater say in who is representing them. ................ However, all the councils in Northern Tasmania told The Examiner they were not consulted before the announcement. ................ Making a decision that will enact widespread change to a sector of government surely requires some level of consultation - imagine if this was a section of the community that had been dealt with this top-down approach. It has made the announcement unpalatable for some, and councillors are now scrambling to understand the proposal's full ramifications. ................ For some it will be a hindrance, and for others it will be welcome, but let's hope that moving forward all councillors will be able to have their say and be heard at the table.

It is the citizenry that needs to be heard NOT the Councillors who hold their seats on a minuscule number of votes all too often

LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN TASMANIA IS BROKEN

https://www.futurelocal.tas.gov.au/

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When the current legislation for local governance in Tasmania was framed it was 1993, Internet communications was only just at a beginning point. Where we have come to today was absolutely unanticipatable. The 21st Century world is quite a different place yet the legislation essentially remains as if the world hasn’t changed one jot.

To think of the legislation as being redundant would not be an exaggeration – some go so far as to describe the Act as Neanderthal. Moreover, in terms of current understandings it is well past its use-by-date and it fails to deliver in so many ways. Most importantly the paradigm within which the legislation was framed leaves far too many opportunities for dysfunctional behaviours and at its worst corruption.

The first problem facing local governance in Tasmania is the wastefulness of having 29 local jurisdictions for a population that hovers around half a million people. That is:

•  29 mayors and however many councillors state wide;

•  29 general managers state wide; and

•  Unnecessary and it leads to wasteful capital expenditure and infrastructure expenditure state wide.

Even a ‘back of the envelope calculation’ will tell you that is something like two Billion dollars is being expended without delivering quality governance or the kinds of fiscal, social and cultural dividends commensurate with that expenditure. While the $2BN claim might seem a tad extravagant the actual 'over spend' is almost inestimable. By extension, this can be uses, indeed arguably has been used, as an argument for the maintenance of the status quo in Local Govt in Tasmania – if it isn't broken don't fix it etc etc. 

With an increase in members to the Lower House the Minister for Local Government will have an increased capacity to oversight the State's Local Governance. There will surely also be positive fiscal outcomes and arguably greater accountability to the electorate. Also, the appointment of Commissions to replace Council arguably deliver better governance and more effective management in a 21st C context. Moreover, local governance would be able to shed various 'cost centres' to standalone entities and embrace social housing for instance with benefits deliverable to constituents. 

To quote Rosemary Armitage, Independent Legislative Council Member for Launceston and once a Launceston Alderperson, she has invoked that famous quote that Albert Einstien gave us and where he  says "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result". So, there is some residual wisdom out there and given half a chance it can be engaged with.

While Tasmania is not Switzerland, the Swiss semi-direct democratic governance model is much more than functional . Since 2011 Swiss federal legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the Federal Assembly, the National Council and the Council of States.  Yes, this is a 'national model' but it one that is out of kilter with the 'national models' that surround it and with credible outcomes by comparison.

In Switzerland, for any change in the constitution, a referendum is mandatory; for any change in a law, a referendum can be requested. In addition, the people may present a constitutional popular initiative to introduce amendments to the federal constitution. The people also assume a role similar to the constitutional court, which does not exist, and thus act as the guardian of the rule of law. It wouldn't be rocket science to apply 'Swiss Modelling' to local governance.

Any argument that by comparison the 'Westminster System' of governance is superior, in the end it is hollow. The Westminster System is founded upon a failed and deeply flawed 19th Colonial paradigm. In the 21st C, there are growing and compelling needs for ongoing revision in governance, and that is so if the challenges of our times are to be faced and met. Moreover, communities' 'cultural realities' are diverse and one-size-fits-all understandings fail too many too often.

Sadly, the Local Govt. Board empanelled to undertake a "review of the role, function, and design of local government in Tasmania" appears to to be disinclined to consider anything beyond the current failing and largely redundant 'elected representational INDIRECT governance model' in respect to the function, and design of local government in Tasmania. 

So, where to from here? .... 2,500 words more presenting the BLISSET MODEL

ALARMING NEWS TO MUSE UPON

 

One has to really wonder just what the agenda is here and just who is trying to achieve what? The YMCA quite simply wants to survive and is up for change in order to do so. State & Local Govt for whatever reason is disinclined to offer a HANDup and it seems they have no charity. So apparently their regard for the YMCA is CONDITIONAL – CPR Town Hall Standard – and when you think about that the CoL Faux COUNCIL'S VALUES (Its discretionary KPI if you like) are not anywhere to be seen in this case. 

AND IT IS NOT ANYTHING THAT THE PRESS WILL PROMOTE EITHER 

To wit my recent letter to the Editor 

UPR ... A BRIDGE TOO FAR?

In the ‘health and caring professions’ there is a concept to do with professional relationships between service provider and ‘patient’. It’s acronym is UPR – Unconditional Positive Regard – in acknowledgement of the reality that a requirement to “LOVE” a patient would be totally inappropriate.

Anyone who has experienced a serious ‘medical event’ will have experienced UPR albeit that they might not be able to put words to what they have experienced. Indeed, like ‘love’, its not anything you can describe but you know it when it is there, and thankfully it is, and it is all around us all the time.

Arguably, that is not entirely the case in regard to ‘professionalism’ in local governance. It’s glaringly absent at the City of Launceston’s Town Hall.

On the evidence, Launceston’s Mayor, GM/CEO

WAVES 5 QVMAG

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WE ARE DIGGING DIGGING AND ANY INFORMATION

ON THIS TOPIC WOULD BE WELCOMED

Dr Luther Blissett lutherblissett7000@gmail.com>

https://www.examiner.com.au/story/7154307/long-lost-whiteley-artwork-found-hidden-in-qvmags-archives/

https://camd.org.au/qvmags-brett-whiteley-waves-v-rediscovery/

https://www.examiner.com.au/story/7155463/newly-recovered-whiteley-artwork-causing-a-stir-in-city/

The press is a watchdog. Not an attack dog. Not a lapdog. A watchdog. Now, a watchdog can't be right all the time. He doesn't bark only when he sees or smells something that's dangerous. A good watchdog barks at things that are suspicious. Dan Rather

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