LOCAL GOVERNANCE AND HOUSING IN TASMANIA

Relative to 'housing and homelessness', the level of ineptitude discernible at Launceston's Town Hall is enough to give cause for civil disobedience and insurrection. Thankfully that hasn't happened yet.

It would be a safe bet that there would be ABSOLUTELY NOBODY who meets in this edifice in an official capacity that has any 'expertise' whatsoever relative to homelessness except for those being at one in their distrust in and distain for people in 'housing distress'. The 'Homelessness Response Committee' is deliberate tokenism and clearly it is designed and devised to meet and confirm 'that Council has no role to play in this space'.

The Member for Bass, Bridget Archer, in her election campaigning asserted that Social Housing was NOTHING that figured in her purview. Mayor van Zetten and his Deputy have expressed like sentiments variously and Cr. Gibson made his position crystal clear at the most recent Council meeting 'at the table'. So the intent is clear – albeit to some extent well intentioned – and Launceston people in housing distress can look forward to:

1 ... Enough meetings being scheduled to provide and sustain the 'GOOD LOOK';

2 ...  'The committee' being peopled with those who aspire to maintain the 'status quo';

3 ...  'The committee' being peopled with those who have no direct experience with or expertise relative to 'homelessness' – homeless people;

 4 ... 'The committee' being peopled with those who will NOT speak of 'committee deliberations and recommendations' undertaken in camera – indeed formally prevented from doing so;

 5 ... 'The committee' being peopled with those who have commitments to operations that are unable to, or are unwilling to, service the cohorts of people in housing distress not currently serviced by them.

Arguably, it is proffered that every elected representative, and every Council officer, at Town Hall somehow qualifies to provide informed contributions the deliberations – and as a consequence of them. That is so, and despite any 'good will', they would be totally ill equipped to offer meaningful ways forward based on real world experience or a relevant qualification. 

Indeed, some have openly advocated that 'these people' – the homeless – need to be "moved on" but can offer no advice as to where they might move on to from where they are not wanted. Typically, they have little to offer except to say that "the police must deal with it. etc. etc. ... its not our job".

The glaring point that is being missed is that this 'committee' is in fact a 'Clayton's Committee' and, on the evidence, an exercise in Machiavellian obfuscation. Curiously, it is being flagged that 'down the track will morph into a housing committee' and the case for it doing so right now is compelling given that the 'real problem' is a lack of 'affordable housing'.

The current 'committee' has clearly been set up to treat 'the symptoms', apply bandaids, latter ointments and offer painkillers for a malady that has taken hold and for which a 'cure' is needed. Sadly, it turns out that this 'homelessness committee' is an exercise in cynicism of the highest order.

FACEbook COMMENT

Mieke Senior-Loncin .... Somebody got paid to write that report ? Where are the architects, the eco building businesses, the environmental planning advisers, the social workers on the coalface, the homeless people ... Indeed where are they?!

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ANNOUNCING WORLDsillyWEEK IN LAUNCESTON 2022

 

2022

Friday June 17 at 11.11am to Monday June 27 AT 11.11am

ABOUT WORLDsillyWEEK

Founded in Launceston Tasmania in 2004 worldSILLYweek is the quintessential DIY festival and a festive time totally dedicated to the sanctioning of social transgression – benign social transgression where nobody is hurt – the relief of social tensions, unorganised foolishness, communal clowning about and, most importantly, a little bit of serious urine collection – all in the aid of charity.

 worldSILLYweek  is now an international festival celebrated in the middle of the calendar year and that encompasses "'the solstice". However other SILLYweek festivals at other times are possible and indeed appropriate. For example, there may be a time of year in a specific place when it would be appropriate to temporarily suspend all the social norms and niceties and turn conventions upside down just to allow a community "to blow off some steam" – and to do so without fear of reproach.

Let's call such a place "Zeon"! then SILLYweek  in Zeon might be a town festival that happens say after the harvest of something, or around some auspicious day in the community, that lasts for 11 days so it can take in two weekends and has a particular day in the middle somewhere when everyone observes some obscure and/or silly social convention. worldSILLYweek  is just such a time and one that can be celebrated all round the world in accord with the mid year solstice – Summer in the Northern hemisphere and winter in the Southern.

The motto for  worldSILLYweek is "collect the crap and take the urine". Consistent with all that been said before,  worldSILLYweek  is envisaged as being a relatively unstructured'midyear festival':

• Where everything important happens at 11something – for example, the week runs over 11 days starting at 11: 11am on the Friday preceding the weekend before the Midyear Solstice and finishing at 11: 11am on the Monday that follows the solstice – when everyone has to stop being 'silly';
• That allows people to make fun of institutions, organisations, leaders, elders, and important people who are used to not only telling other people what to do, but also, how to do it – and when, and with gusto;
• Includes a dynamic mixture of social, cultural and sporting events with a silly twist and conceived in the spirit of silliness – often interrelated events that spin off each other;
• That allows, communities, community groups and individuals working alone, to operate wi worldSILLYweek  in various ways  – Silly Parties, Silly Balls, Silly Dancing, Silly Concerts, Silly Parades, Silly Tournaments, Silly Games, Exhibitions of Silliness, Silly Lectures, Silly Walking, Silly activities no matter what form it may take;
• Which is understood, and imagined, as a time of sanctioned subversion, a time when the inversion of hierarchies is tolerated and a time given over to parody and satire.
• Where each day of  worldSILLYweek has a designated colour to guide the silliness ; 

 worldSILLYweek  should be celebrated between 11:11 am sillyFriday & 11:11 am silliestMonday. Action groups worldwide are dedicating their time to creating opportunities and marketing the ideas linked to worldSILLYweek rather than organising specific events.

Nonetheless, members of these groups are already working outside their groups on various projects and events. It is never too late to organise a event.

The 11 days of  worldSILLYweek  are totally dedicated to the sanctioning of benign social transgression, unorganised foolishness, communal clowning about and, most importantly, a little bit of serious 'mickey-taking' all in the aid of charity.

CONSTITUENCY EVALUATION

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. 'LOVE' is a loaded concept, it is emotional and beyond 'the rational' as is 'EROTIC LOVE' – both symbolised by the heart – and thus quite inappropriate in the context of the caring professions.

In the case of 'caring relationships' when intellectual cum rational concerns come into play, typically the 'gestural hand' turns up in the symbolism. This particularly evident in 'Eastern Spiritual Belief Systems' such a in Hinduism and Buddhism where 'the hand' is often to be found in iconography. 'Caring hands' are powerful symbols across 'cultural divides' and arguably usable in the 'value systems' espoused by local governance in a 'social science context' – eg. Launceston's. Unquestionably, UPR must be a KPI factor when evaluating a Local Govt's performance – no ifs, no buts!

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 and most, it would seem, of the so-called elected ‘representatives’ as well, regard their constituents quite differently to UPR. If the bureaucracy at CoL were to be put to the test in the way that the ‘caring professions’ can be they would find themselves in front of coroners, Royal Commissions and any number of professional accountability inquiries – and they would no doubt be found wanting.

It appears as if no longer does this council see it as their role to deliver on SECTION 2O of the Local Government Act 1993. Rather, it seems to see itself as a revenue collection agency, the ‘approver’ of developments that its constituency finds faults in and as a ‘operation’ well beyond the scrutiny of mere ratepayers, taxpayers and the press.

If the class of ‘professional standards’ applied to the ‘caring professions’ were to be applied to the governors and managers of ‘placemaking’ at Launceston’s Town Hall they would most certainly be deregistered – some might even find themselves in prison.

Tasmania's Huon Council and Glenorchy councils have been sacked, why not Launceston’s?

UPR in the 'caring professions' describes the prizing of the individual, meaning holding no judgement towards them and accepting them fully, just as they are.

This Carl Rogers UPR quote described a way of being in the relationship as: “A caring which is not possessive, which demands no personal gratification."  It involves an acceptance of and a caring for the client as a separate person, with permission for him to have his own feelings and experiences and to find his own meanings for them.” (Rogers, 1967)

For positive regard to be unconditional in a 'therapeutic relationship', the therapist must accept all of the client’s feelings and experiences equally and avoid making judgements about their value or validity. The same can be held true in governance albeit that politically there are often ideas in contest.

Using UPR Carl Rogers believed that self-acceptance is a key ingredient for therapeutic movement and growth in therapy. Again, the same can be held true in governance albeit that politically there is often ideas in contest

Rogers elegantly captures the essence of this sentiment in this  quote:  “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself as I am, then I change.” (Rogers, 1967) 

UPR means offering full acceptance towards clients, a constituency and others while operating in the their service – thus making growth and change possible.

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ELECTED REPRESENTATION AND STANDARDS

Link [1] • [2] • [3]

Link [1] - [2]

“It was all Mrs. Bumble. She would do it," urged Mr. Bumble; first looking round, to ascertain that his partner had left the room. ... "That is no excuse," returned Mr. Brownlow. "You were present on the occasion of the destruction of these trinkets, and, indeed, are the more guilty of the two, in the eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction." ... "If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass — a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience.” ― Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

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QUESTIONS FOR LAUNCESTON CITY COUNCIL ET AL

 

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SEE BEYOND READ MORE FOR MORE DETAILS

Given the burgeoning economic crisis impacting on all citizens in the kanamalukaTAMAR Esk catchments as a consequence of international, national and local factors will Council now work proactively with all local governance jurisdictions and the State Govt. in the relevant catchments to: 

• ... Empanel a ‘Catchment Assembly’ modelled on, and with members appointed, as is the case with ‘Citizen’s Juries/Assemblies’ empanelled in various jurisdictions throughout Australia and internationally; 

• ... Task the Assembly to interrogate alternative local governance modelling and structures in the context of 21st C imperatives, current technologies and the catchments’ geographic imperatives and their networks; 

• ... Task the Assembly to openly seek submissions and expert advice from a broad spectrum community members and experts in various fields intrastate and interstate; 

• ...  Task the Assembly to meet in an open forum context from time to time throughout the relevant catchments over the life of the Assembly; 

• ...  Task the Assembly to develop better and inclusive understandings of the diversity and the cultural realities present within communities within the catchments; and 

• ... Task the Assembly to openly report on its finding and recommendation throughout its period of tenure and finally to the State Govt and all Councils in the relevant catchments. Yours sincerely, 

 .................................. 

FOOTBALL OBSCENITY UPON POLITICAL OBSCENITY

EXAMINER: From The Editor's Desk Sunday June 12, 2022 

Tasmania is often described as being an AFL "heartland" that has for some time been desperate to be recognised by the AFL as a legitimate place for an expansion club. ........................... With a number of great AFL players coming from Tasmania, the news that AFL head Gil McLachlan was travelling to meet with Premier Jeremy Rockliff to discuss granting Tasmania the AFL's 19th licence was met with great interest. ........................... The campaign to get Tasmania it's own AFL team has straddled so many boundaries, whether that's media boundaries, political boundaries or even sports boundaries. ........................... But McLachlan's ultimatum to Tasmania is not a moment that should be seen as surprising. This is especially true with the way the narrative around the state's chances have changed. ........................... There is now some obvious resistance from AFL clubs about having a 19th member. ........................... Mr McLachlan made it official on Thursday while standing next to Premier Jeremy Rockliff - for the state to have its dream realised, the proposed $750 million waterfront stadium in Hobart must become a reality. ........................... As well as a hurdle that other expansion clubs have not had to overcome, the AFL chief has just handed Mr Rockliff something that will be a very hard sell indeed, especially to those in the North and North-West. ........................... Launceston has long been understood as being the "home of AFL" in Tasmania, it was something that was planned when the York Park (now UTAS) Stadium was built. Bellerive, on the other hand, was panned as the home of cricket. ........................... AFL fans in the North and North-West will be justifiably disappointed in the claims from AFL House, because of the inference that the new stadium will be the home base of any Tasmanian AFL side. ........................... The cost aside, it is likely to be at the expense of the North, if that stadium is built. How long will the charade of "games in Launceston" or "the North" be played before they are all subtly shifted to the south? ........................... The question now, despite the obvious desire to be part of the AFL, is whether it is actually worth it if this expensive piece of infrastructure is a non-negotiable. ........................... One thing is for certain though, Launceston and the North (as well as the North-West) should not be forgotten in this decision.

THE BIG QUESTION: The Editor or anyone else for that matter, did not raise is IF this obscenity is built, how many homes will NOT be built?

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The Liberal Arts in Launny toooo

 

A HOSE AT TOWN HALL?

 

COMMUNITY BATTERIES: When will Launceston get some?

LINKS [1] • [2] • [3] • [4] 

In Launceston there is a Council that has a 'CLIMATE EMERGENCY POLICY' and since it was invoked, by-and-large the elected representatives have sat on their hand – job's done – and the status quo management team has done almost nothing either. One cannot say nothing, as to do so would be inviting some bureaucrat to scream "look here" at some inconsequential tokenistic initiative that does not disrupt their world view. OH MY GOODNESS is that something that'll ban one from lots of LAUNNYdinnerparties?

There is even a Councillor who should/could know better and even able to profit from such an initiative but it seems that there are other things to profit from. Community batteries do offer income opportunities and social development opportunities and if they cannot be seen, then the NAY SAYERS are just not looking.

Cries of "its too expensive ... you cannot get return ... people do not really want it" is little more than an indication that such people are card carrying members of the Launcestonian Flat Earth Society (LFES), Tasmanian Grand Design Alliance (TGDA), Tasmanian Dinosaur  Network (TDN) and the She Will Be Right Cobber Club (SWBRCC), some members carry cards for several groups. They meet regularly at LauncestonTown Hall, mostly every second Thursday, to talk about their future prospects and as likely as not, to consider income opportunities. 

That's perhaps a tad unfair but there we go. Whatever, being elected to high office or being employed to do their bidding is no protection from criticism and critique.

Dr L

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ABC ... A community battery 'like a corner store': Is this the future of home energy storage? ... When Australia's first community battery trial came to the Perth suburb of Alkimos Beach in 2016, Kelly was sceptical. 

 "There was a whole lot of discussion about whether it would save us money or not. The fee structure was quite complex," she said. 

Eventually, her family took a punt and signed up to the trial. 

"And it did save us money. It was at least $100 every two months." 

A 1.1MWh lithium ion battery located in bushland on the edge of the suburb stored energy in the daytime, when rooftop solar panels were pumping out cheap and abundant watts, and released it into the grid in the evening, when residents came home and demand peaked. 

Half a decade later, the Alkimos trial has finished (more on this later), others have begun elsewhere in the country, and community batteries are being promoted as a key part of the transition to clean energy. 

WHALES & CULTURALrespect

COMMENT: The question hanging here is did anyone look at palawa/pakana cultural practices relative to beached whales? More to the point is there an appetite to interrogate the issue of ‘cultural respect’ in pre-colonial context. Indeed, is there the INTELLECTUALgrunt to do the paradigm shifting in a peri-colonial cultural reality?

This Man Has Helped Give 460 Dead Whales a Second Life—As Art

Hori Parata handles dead whales on New Zealand beaches the Maori way: He extracts the bones so they can be carved into jewelry or art. BY EMMA MARRIS PUBLISHED APRIL 10, 2018

When Hori Parata talks to a dead whale on a New Zealand beach, he welcomes it home. “It is returning to where it was born,” he says.

The earliest whales walked on land—evolutionary biologists learned this from fossils that show a four-legged land animal gradually evolving into a marine mammal around 50 million years ago. Parata, 75, learned it from his elders among the Ngātiwai, a Maori tribe of northern New Zealand. The forest god Tane, they said, noticed that the whale, then a land animal, liked rivers and marshes—wet places. So Tane gave whales as a gift to Tangaroa, the ocean god.

Parata is a Ngātiwai environmental resource manager, and for him a dead whale on a beach isn’t just a smelly and potentially hazardous mess. It’s a gift from the sea.

The fighting continues for Paterson Street development after the council's questionable rejection

Click on the image to enlarge

One day this debacle must come to an end but how, and what that will look like who knows. It all looks a lot like someone behind the scenes has something riding on a particular outcome. Thus far it is hidden but for whatever reason there seems to be reason enough to play this game out to its bitter end.

If there is to be 'a victor' it is not likely to be the municipality's ratepayers given the outrageous expenditures linked to the 'Council preferred development' and apparently all the expenditure has been initiated by Council and thus it is down to the Council. 

One day someone will reveal the metrics and every ratepayer is likely to be horrified. That will be especially so as they look at their next rate demand. Right now it will be denied but the 'lost dollars' would more than likely pay Council's executive management's salaries bill for quite a long time. As they say watch this space! ,

In fact, reading between the lines, there are very good reasons to bet on the Councils somewhat hubristic dream of a fancy bus stop with a somewhat nondescript 'creative enterprise' over it; funded in part by a Federal Govt. grant ostensively deemed to be 'drought relief funding'; plus a disposition apparently to give a developer a 'free kick'; well it all looks like falling into a horrible heap in a law court. 

This City of Launceston Council it seems is ever ready to give developers free kicks. A tally for the last decade would be a somewhat ominous reminder of the past and the mindset that brought much of the city's apparently ever growing debt burden all about. Just when do you look away?

Which ever way the wind blows the whole thing, in regard to this in-house development proposal, if looked at in retrospect, looks quite implausible. On the evidence, it should have been called out at the very beginning with alarm bells ringing loudly. However, the situation is what it is, and the municipality's citizens and ratepayers look like carrying a fiscal burden alongside missed opportunities for long time yet.

A merit based assessment of the 'owner initiated' Paterson St Central Development would satisfy a great deal of what a 21st C ideal urban development should/might look like. That is, in regard to onsite water management, the provision of housing, and with some minor tweaking, the possibility of onsite energy generation as well. In fact, arguably the parking facility should be 'placescaped at ground level'. However, it seems that the above ground parking plan was possibly a concession made to the mysterious ideology in play.

Nonetheless, in this case it appears, pitched as it is against an aspiring developer, and apparently aided by internal Town Hall imperatives, an ideologically motivated 'placemaking cum development', set against the 'owner initiated project', the latter curiously finds itself wanting. Even so, mostly for the lack of 'ownership of place', and that being something that was something unlikely to be gained by Council, it is perplexing to consider one project against the other. More to the point, how a change of 'ownership' could have been imagined is bewildering.

So, it seems that when an ideologically driven concept comes up against a merit based plan, in this case, the 'ideology' trumps merit. Therefore, it seems that there are questions begging to be asked. In totalitarian regimes the ideology always wins. 

However, if this development ever gets to be 'tested meritoriously', all things being equal, the outcome, as likely as not will be quite different to the determination that a majority of Launceston Councillors handed down at Town Hall June 2 2022.

Interestingly, on the evidence, the CH Smith carpark that opened just on three years ago in 2019 apparently fails the planning compliance test that the 'owner initiated' Paterson St Central Development is now claimed to fail – and on the available evidence based on some apparently ideologically driven criteria ... See Mayor van Zettens' opinion piece in The Examiner JUNE 2020. 

Anecdotally, as a 'public investment', the CH Smith carpark is failing to deliver the income projected for it but that is another matter. Reports of low usage abound. When this 'Council' puts on its developer's hat, and plays with tax and ratepayers' money, it's competency to do so is questionable on the evidence. Let us not even mention the issue of ‘social licence’ here.

If public monies are being risked a rigorous public consultation cum assessment cum engagement strategy needs to be in place. Basically, untrained minds playing roles that they are ill-equipped for, even untrained for, and who take their own processes as valid for all, and their asserted self judgments being deemed as absolute truth, the outcome is typically nothing more than hubristic risky business. It is so albeit ever likely to be contested and vigorously.

All this being said, the really big question left hanging is to do with 'accountability'. It is well understood that when 'government' makes a monumental fiscal mistake it is their constituency who pays – not the perpetrators. In an elected representational mode of governance – such as the British Westminster system – it is said that it is a matter for election time and arguably we have seen that played out in Australia quite recently. 

However, if governance and management gets to be 'blended' as is sometimes the case in Local Govt., 'election time accountability' is something more than imperfect. Typically high stakes players walk away with extraordinary benefits to see them right and well into their next life – whatever that may be. Even here, the blighted constituency, in the vernacular, is left to 'carry the can'. It has been argued elsewhere that Tasmania's 1993 Local Govt. model is broken – and arguably beyond repair.

In Tasmania in recent times two Councils were placed under administration because they were "dysfunctional". So, by what criteria was 'dysfunctional' measured there and then. Likewise, when was the cost deemed to be inappropriate, with what measuring device and at what point?

SECTION 65 of the Tasmanian Local Government Act 1993 is supposed to ensure that a Council's elected representatives make strategic policy and planning decisions  on expert advice. In practice, and typically, what might pass for 'expert advice' cannot actually be assessed objectively albeit that it might be asserted to be totally appropriate. When ideology comes into play expert advice's 'veracity' can only be assessed subjectively with 'risk levels' being elevated and unintended consequence ever likely. SECTION 65 in reality offers constituencies no realistic guarantee of best practice decision making.

If the yardstick for 'dysfunctional' is to be measured fiscally it needs to assessed at arm's length. On past criteria the responsibility for that falls to the Minister for Local Government. Thus aggrieved constituencies are left to lobby the Minister to take action in order to protect their interests.

Ultimately, the situation is what it is! However, does that mean that 'elected representational democracy' demands, ideologically, that a constituency has to live with it until 'hell freezes over'?

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