Travel Tuesday #2 Toowoomba and Surrounds
Our Sporting Tide is Out.
Sporting Junkie, yep that’s me. A football tragic since 11 years old but have followers all the other codes and sports especially when they put on the green and gold,
The fact I have been involved in the world game and watched for my own benefit how nations prepare and perform in World Cups I struggle with how we Australians at times get it so wrong.
Most nations have a automatic review at the end of each Cup and after a celebration or commiserations the management’s and players hand in their shirts, and the process for the next 4 years commence within a month. (The top tier commence before the cup and appointments are within that month as the process is expected.).
We sacked two coaches in football women’s and men’s and installed one stand in and one new coach months out, and in the rugby reviewed a coach appointed him, knowing full well it was going to fail as the world knew when we went to the toilet.
Our Football and Rugby administrators need to hand in their shirts as well full stop.
We need to look at our international codes with a world perspectives.and ask ourselves how are we going to be competitive, and how do other Nations maintain their standards.
In my mind our parochialism in management is toxicand infects the backbone of the codes. We should encourage and welcome overseas appointments of the highest standards and learn the trade from a different prospective. Our culture will have to change over time and in the past it’s got just too hard not only for the players but the media and they have driven them out, especially when the media loose the dressing room key.
Again I’m seeing calls for a Aussie coach for the wallabies hours after being belted and loosing world rankings. Media attacking the kiwi Rayleighne Castle for asking hard questions when she knew when she was outvoted retaining Cheika we were not up to standard..
I’m tired of listening to the commentary from “The older we get the Better we were” brigade on out TV’s and outlets and in fairness I’m seeing Academies emerging but those institutions must have the worlds best practices and personal leading the way or we will always be also rans or a wanna bee nation on the world stage.
Grandchester’s Legend Leaves his Mark.
Often when someone passes on only the good memories survive and misdeeds often go unspoken..
Not so at Wayne Phillip Mainz’s AKA “Woona’s Case. He got the lot and it was taken in the true spirt of the man,the family, and the society that make up the Grandchester population.
Personally I met WOONA no more than 5 times one on one, often in working on election campaigns where he allowed us prime position for our corflutes. Socially it was at a birthday at Woodrows we had a extensive chat where he enlightened me on the world in his eyes.
A man of few words but those words hit the mark.
For years I passed the house and tooted and got the acknowledgment while leaning on the Ute.
I am a minnow in his life but he made a impression on me for my life.
His funeral the played Slim Dusty and it should have been Woona in that song instead of Duncan, I reckon, but I’m bias.
That rolly fag, a hot beer, and the Ute and chooks on the road will always be on that corner as long as I live.
Thanks Wooner, go check the fencing old mate.
Morrison Trump Marriage Toxic.
Like Marrage they say if you share the company of another person long enough you both become one of mind on various issues extending to even body language
That is a human habit can be seen since our PM has returned from Trumpsville Washington markedly in the foreign affairs, defence, social conscience, and right down to the weaponise the media making selective interviews and refusing to answer questions the people have a right to know.
I can’t imagine any PM taking a Spiritual Advisor who is under scrutiny expecting him to become part of a national delegation representing all Australians and then refusing to answer any questions when the hosts reject his attendance.
Secondly when the senior partner of a alliance abandons the people who fought alongside of our troops picks up his toys and goes home without notice, refuses to even question the action, which in fact opens the door to a resurgence and another mass extinction as long as it’s done humanly as his American mate describes, is accepted without question is inconceivable
What else on earth has our PM agreed to turn a blind eye to has to be asked and I’ll assure you he won’t answer.
We are at the early stage of Trump tactics of keeping the media away from any scrutiny and only releasing/ answering to friendly outlets, and that strategy was. Highlighted with the raids on journalists and silencing of whistle blowers.
The Trump doctorine is creeping in to our PM’s rhetoric and actions along with the baseball cap so we must call on our media and support them to call out, ask the hard questions without prejudice under the umbrella of true democracy and accountability of those in public office regardless of how high up they think they are.
Is the Councillor Tier Really Needed?
Their are a number of factors I feel need to be made public as we head towards our new council elections.
To be blunt many ratepayers I have spoke to are a asking why we need to be paying for that level of government at all. Since the sackings the sun did come up and things around the place just seemed to carry on regardless and for those who have repeatedly bleared keep politics out of Council would agree no councillors no politics.
I’m sure our professional public servants have proven they are quite apt in doing their role under the Administrator and I’m sure service delivery is much easier without political or parochial interferences.
The cost factor too cannot be overlooked and do we get the bang for our ratepayers now we have now experienced both sides of the exercise? Those figures would be interesting as for decades councillors have sealed their success on how much ratepayers money the have extorted for their electorate and claimed it as if it was them who were giving the money, creating the them and us mentality.
The elections will proceed with the new ground rules I hope the people elected should perform accordingly with new safeguards of transparency across every division, but keep in mind we are not the only ratepayers who have been caught out by mismanagement. Other councillors in other councils charged so I am comforted that the CCC investigations are still ongoing across the board , but in my mind the jury is still out on the value of the added tier after experiencing Council by Administration Only.
We Move into Uncharted Waters..
Today the 25/09/2019 saw a change that may influence the way we think about our politics and leaders.
Boris Johnson was ruled against by the courts on his dissolution pf Parliament in England and making them return to sort out Brexit before the exit date or he goes to the polls.
Where the ball bounces their is so ambiguous, and civil disobedience is a option.
Greta Thunberg nailed the ruling class to the cross on climate and made old men in suits cringe about lack of action and Morrison did not attend the Climate Conference pre UN Meeting. He also sided with Trump over China Trade with will impact on our trade and relations domestically and internationally. We are on the verge of recession and this could push us over.
The Start of Impeachment was commenced by the Congress on Trump.
He also stated in the UN that globalisation is a Failure and the world must embrace Patriotism.
All 3 in my mind will resonate across the world and Trumps poking Iran into conflict as a distraction is not out of the question.
Domestically the Trump Base will mobilise in my view and we will witness open conflict in the American streets and Civil Disobedience verging on War is not out of the question.
Trump will have no issues if his people are injured our killed to keep office home or be it overseas.
I cant see an alternative Leader to replace Trump in the Opposition YET but Trumps VP is possibly more erratic than his boss in particularly social consciousness .
We are in unchartered waters..
Us Older Fossils need to Stand Aside on Climate.
I know it must be hard for the older generation to accept the youth of the world are demanding we do more in regard to their and their children’s existence on this planet.
How dare they go to demonstrations or be allowed to address United Nations events or even contemplate they have more knowledge about climate science than us keepers of all knowledge.!
We will try to do our autocratic best to keep them in their little boxes and do exactly as they are told or we will cane them and keep them detained in their school rooms.
Like most of us older folk we see going backwards is the best way forward and that is a fallacy we ourselves crushed in the 60’s through to the 80’s where we took on the establishment and set up the wealth we “Silent Australians” have accumulated not even thinking that the planet was telling us it was in strife, and now when we are held to account we try and play the School Principal card over and over again.
Unlike the 60-80 years where we fought for workers conditions like wages, safety,leave leadings, and the 38-40 hour week, we/I was on the streets then only to see those conditions get traded off for what is called productivity gains and we are reaping those benefits industrial deaths, burnout, and mental health issues all related to the the magic dollar we are now geared to worship.
These kids are changing that ideology and us fossils can’t cope. They are smarter and more aware than we ever were at that age. They see their future not in a individual monetary sense but in a global vision we never imagined, and our only response is to refer to our god the magic dollar, aptly demonstrated by our governments obsession of a surplus over the needs of its own people’s welfare and wellbeing, so it’s not surprising that the old technologies resonate with that demographic as they try to stay relevant in a ever changing world gearing itself for the fight of its life.
That Rat is Smelling Stronger for the LNP.
Another media scramble, more accusations on political donations, and all we can hear is the sound of cash registers of the legal profession as loud as the F16 over West Ippy.
Like it or not the CCC in Queensland are doing a job of public transparency and shaking the trees of our elected or public appointees if they smell a rat, and rightly so, therefore I am completely astounded why this Federal Government is so dead against a Federal ICAC while the rest of Parliament see it as common sense..
Not often do you witness a political party under scrutiny itself call for greater powers to weed out corruption, fraud, or other offences at the highest level which begs the question of why this Federal Government wants to block it.
It fought doggedly against the Bank Enquiry, the investigation into Child Abuse in the Churches and other monumental cases all of which proved wrongdoing at the highest level and still would have been thriving if let be.
Yes that rat is smelling more and more the longer this government tries to delay its being and like all the other instances the chook will come home to roost.
Class War is exactly What it is.
It’s pretty clear the present federal government is in a position it never thought it would be and all its past would be forgotten and would have been quite happy to be in opposition watching Labor cope with a crumbling economy on the verge of recession, retail and wage stagnation accompanied by increased poverty and working poor and don’t start me on health.
All of the above in their eyes is acceptable as long as that phantom surplus is announced with the one and only policy of the ends justifying the means.
In ipswich alone we have destitute people living out of charity food trucks and barns feeding families and many not on the streets yet but just surviving in any accomodation they can.
This government has to think if giving a person food and a shower to get them off New Start will impact on their mantra of achievement. What a mantra to carry, watching its own people starve and die in squalor, yet having the power and resources help but choosing to give cash to people who are quite comfortable.
It seems to be a crime not only here in Australia but in America too to have a social conscience or empathy with the fear of being branded a socialist yet it is politically and socially acceptable to give money and incentives and hand outs to high end tax evaders who can afford to manipulate the system, call them astute, while we see wage theft becoming a minor inconvenience when caught and not a civil crime.
If the politicians have difficulty or fear backlashes by calling it Class War then so be it but I will call as I see it.
Keeping Council Under Watch
First rule of the change process is to inform the people involved what is the new direction intended and listen to the usually negative arguments as they usually highlight underlying often personal reasons of why change cannot be achieved. The council debate has achieved in that trumps.
For too long ipswich has been culturally divided by areas and demographics and it’s time we matured into a city of one direction where transparency of the our ratepayers rates distribution should be seen as fair and calculated.
The days of “look at me what I have done in my patch” mentality was highlighted when none of the old councillors allegedly knew what was going on across the entire council and run to their bunkers when the hammer fell. That’s pathetic corporate governance, and undeniable.
As stated by the administrator the new elected councillors will have to have broader skills and adaptability, and as a resident I too have to adjust. From a place where our one streetlight was a cause for a party to a place where our population is increasing that much the infrastructure cannot cope, the days of town and country reluctantly but factually are over. The city expansion and all its ugly traits are here and we not only need good councillors on the ground we need good competent administrators to provide ongoing advice and support across the entire spectrum of our local council areas.
Like it or not, local governments are not stand alone entities and are arms of state governments and when the dust has settled we will still need the oversight of statutory authorities like the CCC and the press freedom and vigilance to ensure we never revert to our previous state of disfunctuallity. .
The Lateral Hazard 