Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

It looks like the only way to stop corruption in our state will be to make CIR Citizen Initiated Referenda an issue at this state election come March 20th 2010.

We need to know just how every candidate will vote when Kris Hanna puts his CIR Bill on the table again.  I don't even remember him doing it back on October 13 2004, I will certainly be paying attention this time after seeing how two councils are refusing to hold referenda on extremely contentious issues.  Burnside and Charles Sturt no doubt will be fielding strong CIR teams at their next council elections.  The only politicians who do not want CIR are the ones without moral courage and integrity and we need to challenge every MP on this issue as an electorate.  We do NOT want vested interests controlling our legislature.  We all know how our elected representatives voted about an anti-corruption commission - they didn't think they needed it! 

Richard Tonkin's post, "not guilty...",

leaves me in two minds.

 I have come to dislike Rann and the State government's arrogance. St Clair is the culmination rather than the beginnng, as to this process. Compared to NSW Labor or the federal coalition opposition, the Rann government is still functional, but the firewall erected to keep the public "out " during the second term and the nature of some the obscured stuff going on behind that firewall, is troubling. 

But I loath Clinton style tabloid witch hints based on issues that are arguably private. I don't like gold diggers, perhaps sponsored by vested interests, who give no thought of the disruption to government , hence other people, while they are in pursuit of their venal objectives, either.

You know, its getting difficult to find out anything relevant at all, with the mess the local press is in.

You can read whole weeks of the Advertiser with not  a news item worthy of the name to be spotted.

Watching it on TV mews, the AG obviously is well aware of public sentiment, but determined to "crash through or crash", in pursuit of a policy that employs the St Clair parks also as a message to developers that the electorate is "contained", as outlined in the conversations reported involving Rann and Bob Ellis a few years ago, that the government controls the electorate, not vice versa.  It's a very Jeff Kennett (repressive) early nineties type scenario, as politicians seek to drive off community input in the interests of corporatism and lack of accountability.

This is Right or New Labor's attempt move from its community roots to a more lucrative position of arbitrage, free of accontability,  in the re-allocation of community wealth away from the community to would be controllers inthe formof developers and politicians.

Good also to see the Eastern suburbs group fighting for the Chelsea cinema, not capitulating.

Ms Redmond came out very strongly on the steps of Parliament House in support of the residents and ratepayers of Charles Sturt Council Thurs 3rd December.  I'm not sure how much coverage the media have given it since I was there, but she spoke about her own experiences seeking justice in a similar experience with the Stirling Council.   She certainly gave an assurance that if she won there would be no land swap which certainly satisfied the ratepayers who were there.  Her speech might need to be put on Youtube if the TV stations won't play it.

Rann's advisors as usual have been brilliant and he has come out with his plans for Adelaide Oval AFL, in time to distract from his government's forced backflip over the legal battle and the corruption allegations that are gathering momentum.  

As a Charles Sturt Ratepayer I would really like to see local govt reform so that this situation never happens again, with citizen-initiated referendum legislation for councils, where if 5% of ratepayers and residents on the electoral roll have signed a petition, that should be enough to free up the council pursestrings for a referendum.  It is a good use of ratepayer money to hold a referendum anytime there is an issue this contentious, and it's time that a cohesive policy was put into place for the next election on this issue and if the ALP adopted it, that would normally be good enough for me.

 Unfortunately it is not, because I have seen too much suffering from my own  children under Rann policies in the school and health systems.  Mental health is a huge issue and we have had so many more murders, not from bikies, but from people who should be on medications and under medical care.  We are much more likely to be murdered now as a result of Rann's mental health policies, than we are to be murdered by a criminal.  Similarly with the violence situation in the classrooms - mainstream schooling does not work with Autism Spectrum Disorders when those children have no regard for the consequences of their actions.  They need specialised and isolated schooling for the safety of the rest of our children.  Other states like NSW and Vic do it. It would be a much better use of tax payer money to use one of those campuses that they want to sell off to house the violent ASD children.   Not all ASD children are violent, but the ones which are, they are not dealing with properly in the South Australian school system, putting teachers, SSOs and more importantly, our vulnerable little children at risk of being physically assaulted because of their outdated policies.  

Rann's Law and Order policies are laughable when you consider that after so many years of him as Premier of our great state, we are less safe than we were before as a direct result of his mental health policies for adults and children in the community and schools.  For this alone I would like to see him gone from state politics, but coupled with his total lack of regard for justice and fair dealing in the matter of Charles Sturt Council, I cannot see how his government can survive at the next election.

I can easily understand the fuss about the land swap.  These two announced Tranist Orented Developments are part of the same pre-election smokescreen as the Tramstop To Nowhere- or as we prefer to call it, the Tramstop to The Gov.

The idea is to create a population-growth "urban infill" in our long and skinny city by creating a chain of these T.O.D.s.  With the "showrrom floor" at Bowden-Brompton (wonder what it's new name might be?) almost undeway, and the land for the next link in the T.O.D chan organised, all that needs to be done is to organise the connective transport.

 The "first Tran-Tram line in Australia"; Bingo!  That's what the tramstop in front of the pub is ment to be.  When the trainline (behind the pub) is electrified (currently mooted to be in 2015) the tram would theretically merge back to the train route.  It would then run through the T.O.D at St Clair.  These two T.O.D's would then have direct tram. access to a lot of Adelaide.  

All that's been built of this system (apart from the light guage rail stracks that were laid (in anticipation) through parts of Port Adelaide a few years ago. is the one tramstop.  All that's being built of the new mode of Adelaide living is a Government funded showroom on Robert Gerard's land    Armed with these two Rann could present for re-election claiming to have created a new Adelaide lifestyle.

The landswap was necessary to free up landspace on the transpoprt route in order to present the package; now that the courts are supporting the protesting locals, the presentation of the T.O.D system appears shakier than a house of cards.

To make matters worse for the government, our Attorney-General has been implicated.  His electorate is smack-bang in the middle of all this.  Last night, in the dying gasps of this year's local Parliamentary session, Indy MLC David Winterlich accused the A.G of using bullying tactics to facilitate the land swap.  Winterlich cited exertion of undue influence over City of Charles Sturt councillors and the misuse of a campaign website.  Atkinson has responded on radio this morning with an accusation of politcal stalking and an invitation to repeat the claims without Parliamentary Privilege.  

This is not the first time, I must say, that I've heard political grumblings that Atkinson spends too much time running the Charles Sturt Council and not enough being Attorney-General..

Winterlich raises the same ethical problem that's the centre of of the Rann/Phillips/Chantelois scenario.. how can you be in charge of our ethics when you're not behaving ethically yourself?

Atkinson was just on the tranny,defending himself against the priveged claims.He talked about the transport benefits to St Clair/Woodvile locals, but seemed to be avoiding talking about the T.O.D.

 

 Rick Phillips' charges have been reduced from aggravated  assault to  the plain old garden variety.  Papers have finally been lodged for his court appearance on Monday.

The Supreme Court has set aside the SA Local Govt Minister's approval of the St Clair land swap.  There's to be a Ministerial Inquiry. Sigh/

Geoff Pahoff, I agree with youth that the pizzas on that menu look mouth -watering.

But prawns, oysters and anchovies appear missing from the menu options.

Do you not regard this as a serious omission?

You know, the saddest thing about Tania Hubmayer's comment is that the working people of the western suburbs largely are the sort of people who would have originally unhesitatingly voted for Labor in good faith. They didn't realise that New Labor is just a shopfront and an advertising gimmick, and as Media Watch shows us, there is not a lot you can do about false advertising.

How deep the treachary, before these people would have "turned"? 

People know that council operates within the boundaries permitted it by state government legislation and state and federal funding. Therefore they know that council's behaviour is a consequence of pro developer legislation that commenced in the Olson era and gathered apace under this current lot, so the claim by state government that it's a "council decison" , is the sort of hollow response that really does begin to antagonise people after a while.

As for a referendum, because  they know what the result would be, they would shift heaven and earth to prevent any thing like real democracy in the western suburbs or anywhere else.

As for Charles Sturt council, I've seen enough of them lately to be confirmed in my view that they are incorrigibly arrogant, smug and probably venal.

 Welcome to Webdiary Tania.  I've beem admiring the stand being made against  CS Council.  I've given up believing in anything much from them.. too many broken promises that have needed renegotiationg.  Give me a ring at the Gov.. would love to have a chat some time.

I went to three days of "community consultation" regarding the Bowden Transit Oriented Development, saw several drafts of plans, and a nifty 3D model that made our pub look almost comically miniscule..   They're doing the same thing with community landspace here- putting open greensspace on areas too toxic for housing reclamation.  Given that tdevelopers have been goig down thirty feet  to remediate in Brompton, I guess they've figured it's too expensive on a large scale.  

What worries me is that earlier soil-replacement work has been proven to act as a poultice;. fresh earth drrawing the poisons out of the ground till it appears in garden beds at  unsafe levels.

And don't believe when they tell you that T.O.D greenspace will be at the World's Best Practice level of 20%.  I was amazed how quickly it could be whittled back to 12.

The biggest irony of the Bowden development is thje notion of building a living area based on public transport in an area that serves as a carpark for Mike and Jane's (Lomax-Smith that is) new Entertainment Precinct, about to be proclaimed.  440 carparks for round 13,000 worth of capacity.?  The CS council's new undercover parking fine collectors (you know about the dodgy animal protection vans, don't you?) will be Rolls Royces next time around.

And watch out  for Mayor Harold.. he complains to his neighbours that lots of folks say cruel and untrue things about him, but he'll try to shut you up with a solicitor's warning of  a defamation suit at the earliest opportunity.  I have papers to substanitate this.

The T.O.D system is a gold mine for CS Council, not to mention some of its past employees.  Care about the locals?  Look at Brompton.. most of us have already been squeezed out!

 In the last post I sent, I mentioned that Rann Labor is vulnerable on some issues, including some to do with what's seen as a too-cozy  relationship with developers.

This very moment the Ten news is presenting a story concerning the western suburbs where folk like Richard Tonkin,  not to mention myself, reside.

 Charles Sturt council, in concert with a  state government intent on "developing" the old Cheltenham race course and environs, have tried to swap prime land currently employed as the glorious St Clair reserve system, for degraded industrial land.

 700 residents turning up to protest the highhandedly implemented process at council last week apparently hasn't been enough to have the council, which is part of the Labor Right's western suburbs machine, to come to a more intelligent response for local residents.

 With Rann,  what  offends is not the sex, it's the antic as evidence of  a general casual attitude toward the public. It confirms the impression given through incidents like the one the writer relates , concerning St.Clair parklands. As Richard and Trevor Maddock have indicated, it's not the sex incident in isolation, that's scarcely deserving of anything but dismissal.

It's in its aspect as a confirmation of a sequence of events that suggest growing duplicity and hubris.

But why are the Liberals silent on much of this?

Their own members have been caught out involving various sexual peccadilloes themselves, and their corporatist, development at any cost policies are identical to Labor, so like their federal mates, they have no legitimate way to tackle a sitting government.

So, as Richard suggested in conversation with this writer, the secret with Chantelois-gate was to remove this promising issue from the cosy suffocating relationship that exists between a state government and limited mass press and media, to figure a way of getting national media and press to cover the thing, instead.

But it may be of some benefit in the end, if Rann dimly realises that huge pain in the ass that he feels results from a stiff kick up the butt from a public irritated at being taken for granted.

But on the basis of the Charles Sturt example, I don't think the epiphany has eventuated, even yet.

Ya shag just one sheep - oh dear, now I know why Mum said I could never make it in politics. She was right all along. Now where are those damned wellies - Father Park!!!

"I am constantly surrounded by advisers, members of Parliament come in and out, ministers come in and out, staffers come in and out, members of the Opposition come in and out."

I was in fits when I heard that from your esteemed Premier, Richard!

Rann comes in and out, no doubt!

He is a smooth and confident talker You are most certainly right about  no sex on the golf course being mentioned by Michelle or the media.

Perhaps he's trying ..too hard!

Halliburton plants, Geoff, are about to grow at our pub's front door, what with KBR being the "vegetation consultants" for Rann's "Tram to nowhere", which stops spitting-distance from our verandah till the second-next electoral round.  And no, hadn't missed Michelle's American background, but figured that others might pick it up.  Does Old Glory still fly on the wall above your comp?  However, the Flint/MM bit had quietly slipped by. Ta  Phil!

Glad to see we're all discussing the nature of the game here, as that's what it's all about.  I was once told, by a pretty interesting Australian literary figure, that Rann had aspirations to be President of Australia in an alliance with Hillary Clinton's Presidential successor.   Unfortunately under Hogarth Club (where the convo occurred) laws I'd probably have to hop naked down Rundle Mall wearing reindeer antlers if I told you who.. maybe something even worse.  Anyway I'm guessing that if Rann was indeed involved in any such "long game" negotiations.then he'd see the demise of Hillary and the advent of Obama not as a career-killer but an agent-of-change in his long term tactics.

How a situation like this is handled might be intrinsic to such longevity

Trevor  your post echoes (SA beer joke) many of my concerns.  It's been a case of development for it's own sake, and we're going to find out that it was considered a fairly safe bet, using Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Royal Bank of Scotland (read Icelandic) money.  Look at how quickly the PPP possibilities disappeared after the collapse.  And little old Brompton, the jewel in the crown on the engine of many a politician's gravy train over Robert Gerard's land.  Rann's had to build a "showroom"  (incluiding the tramstiop and the adjacent $64 million dollar conversion of our Entertainment Centre (the entrance to the carpark is supposedly going to be breathtaking) to entice potential customers to our little Monoipoly board, but it's not working... they're sitting in offices up and down Port Road, waiting for the next roll of the dice.  

There's much more at stake for Rann than merely the karmic fall-out from a sex scandal.

Paul Walter, I don't normally watch Channel 9 breakfast telly, but I wanted to have a look how they worked with Seven's exclusive.  Different extracts every half-hour, a website vote on resignation, repeated mentions that Rann had declined to talk to them.  Porn?  Nine didn't pay a cent, but did quite well perving from a distance..  Austereo were running Michelle's soundbites at ten to nine, radio prime time, and more than a couple of mothers were turning it off as they drove their kids to school.  In terms of media Hot Property this story's a Penthouse, and I doubt you'll find many outlets that weren't vainly searching under the pot plants for a key to the elevator.

Forgive me, folks, but for a couple of reasons (but  mostly for the humour in the lines if one has a tawdry mind, I'd like to present a couple of lines from Rann's statement today:

"I am constantly surrounded by advisers, members of Parliament come in and out, ministers come in and out, staffers come in and out, members of the Opposition come in and out.

"The suggestion that I would have sex on a golf course in Adelaide, as a fairly visible citizen of this state, is totally, absolutely ridiculous.

"So I reject these allegations.."

But hang on a minute, has Michelle (or anyone in mainstream media) been discussing a hole in one?   As far as I know Michelle hasn't mentioned any more than "intimacy" in a parked car on the roadside... nothing, Kathy, about shennanigans in the bucket seat of a Potomac, or even holdin' in a Holden.  Such Freudian Slips are the stock-in-trade of too many detective stories..

Richard Tonkin, disputing that ,

 "...payment for the interview compromised Michelle's credibility".

Yes Richard, it does compromise her and demonstrate her (possibly breathtaking)  lack of integrity. She's accomplice to a smear campaign run by the press and Liberals prior to an upcoming election?

No?

 Looks that way...

 I'll try to avoid 7's politically motivated and exploitative porn show on the thing, and must say I find Michelle Chantelois at least as despicable and detestable as Rann, although I recognise that the Chantelois may have a reason for ramping things up; to save the husband from further court action. 

Pahoff mentioned she's American. She sure sounds it. That's enough for me, coming from the land of  "litigate or perish" and the vile Linda Tripp of Lewinskigate notoriety 

Hi ya Richard..

 I can't help but think of this song when I read about  "stiff and wooden"  (sniggers)  sexual  escapades 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd4o_hUXbfs 

Mind you for a politician, porkies  are just ' par  for the course.'   In this case, the North Adelaide Golf Club!

 On the desk..On the floor ...Against the wall... Behind the door.. 

Oh okay, I made some of it up..

 Can't get that Sarah Silverman song out of my mind ;)

Richard:  Allo Kathy!  Lovely to see you back here!  Pardon me for putting the green eyeshades on for a minute, but I did a wee bit of tidying here.  Given that Rann's denied the lot and is threatening a defo on both Seven and New Idea, thought I'd err on the side of caution and look after Webdiary's scalp.  We wouldn't want to be caught up in dandruff...

As someone living in South Australia, Premier Mike Rann’s sexual misdemeanoursare of little concern to me. If anything, they make him seem more human to me than he has so far. I always found him to be rather wooden, although he has got a bit better with the years. I also perceived him to be the one in government to announce the good news, with other ministers getting the more onerous tasks.

Given all this, I see the sex image as, if anything, a bit of an improvement. Perhaps, after all, he is more than a machine. What concerns me with Mr Rann’s administration is not what the premier does on his desk, or behind the North Adelaide golf course, in his spare time.

The Rann administration is the most reactionary and populist Labor government to \occupy office in my life-time. To me, it most resembles the far right nationalist Bjelke-Petersen administration that ruled Queensland for more than twenty years. Bjelke-Petersen was a steadfast opponent of all things socialist, an ultra-conservative, a promoter of fundamentalist values at a time when secularism was part of the required persona of an Australian politician. That the party born in Queensland to represent workers against the worst excesses of capitalism has in South Australia come to resemble such a administration as Bjelke-Petersen’s disgusts me far more than any sexual impropriety. I have lived in the same seat almost all my life and until the last two state elections it had always returned a conservative Liberal Party candidate. Now it returns a Labor candidate. There have not been any demographic changes to explain this shift and, personally, I find myself as unrepresented now as I ever did.

I live among a group of people who return the most conservative candidate in all elections. Nothing has changed, except the name of the party who fields the most conservative candidate. Last week I received a newsletter from the local member, a glossy full-colour publication that was light on traditional Labor topics but made much of the fact that the Rann government was giving police the powers they need to crack down on illicit drugs, on ‘hoon drivers’, on bikey gangs. In a previous post (Truth and Democracy, November 7, 2009) I pointed out the deceptions used to justify such powers. Here, these powers are being used just as Bjelke-Petersen used them, to court the popular vote as Labor principles take second place to being in office.

What disturbs me most about the Rann administration is not its reactionary populist ideology, however, but its real intent, which is far from any concern with working life. Their driving aim is the accelerated development of Adelaide in particular and South Australia in general. They plan to double the population of South Australia, despite the fact that there is insufficient water for the people and industry that is here already. The water and sewerage infranstructure of the city is at the end of its life but an increasingly privatised state no longer has the resources to replace them. Privatised and commodified by previous Labor administrations, the state has the continuing responsibility for the maintenance of the public transport system but with fewer resources. It relies on gambling for an increasing part of its revenue. I could go on and on.

Meanwhile, recreational drug users, hoon drivers and bikeys – essentially, the working class – are the subject of increasing police attention for jumped up reasons in order to appeal to the most reactionary among us. In my view, it is for this that Mr Rann should lose office, not what he does in his private life.

I can't believe you guys missed the most scandalous aspect of this affair. The alleged shagee in question is an American !

Yep. Born in Flint, Michigan no less, she's as American as Pizza Primavera.

No doubt the connections are now obvious to you. What? Do I have to spell it out?

South Australia? Big defence contracts? Working as a barmaid in Parliament House? Extraordinary opportunities to closely inspect what's on the Premier's desk day and night?

Now do you get it?

She was obviously a Haliburton plant!

Channel 9's Today, grumpy that Rann's "busy schedule today" procluded an interview, are suggesting that Rann's future is cloudy, reading emails and running a resignation poll..  Will check in later.

Rann's released a pre-statement this morning:

[Australian extract]

“I repeat that my friendship with Ms Chantelois, who I haven't seen since 2005, occurred prior to my engagement to my wife, Sasha, who was fully aware of the friendship at the time.

“Last night's program was malicious in nature and concerned matters that had nothing to do with my role as premier.”

Now that the story's escaped for this one-paper-town and into the national media Rann's not going to be getting the help he's been getting from the Advertiser lately.  Or are there other reasons that the story on the front page of Saturday's Oz and not in the 'Tiser at all?

Not that anyone over here bothers much about reading out-of-town press. No worries, Mike.

He has, however, very quickly earned the moniker of Randy Rann..

It's an unsavoury thing. Tiired, morbid, low level bottom-feeding sleaze. 

No major  protagonist comes out of it smelling of roses, although we at least begin to comprehend the wild behaviours of the cuckolded husband . The abhorrent tabloid cheque-book, grubby media and press, are already ranker than seventeen dead cats and  the public begins to drool, in their  village way, also.

On its own, it's not enough to knock Rann  Labor out of government at the 2010 election.

But it may begin to put an end eventually to Rann's career and Labor in 2014.

Kevin Foley, the long-term 2 ic also looks nearly burnt out and the way is becoming increasingly clear for Jay Weatherill; a sort of slightly lefter Brumby, groomed as a medium term prospect for premier.

But the easy election the ALP may have thought coming due will not necessarily happen now- Complacency has exacted another hit amongst Australian politicians and so the wheel turns.

And as in other states, some South Australians have got fed up with another sitting ALP state government that seems to have become remote from the ordinary public; as it has grown cosier with the big end world of developers, financiers and TNC's.

It's eight years old and looked competent (if running a little stale) 'till recently. It looks tired, but has one more term in reasonable shape. But for the first time in eight years the Liberals are not the issue and they are sitting back quietly this time, a little like the Rudd opposition stalking Howard, a while back.

Offsetting this, the bizarre behaviour of the Fe'ral Libs will scare many of the centre, often mortgage belters more comfortable with Labor's small "c" centrist conservatism. Near and actual consequences arising of tarnished capitalism and neoconservatism make the public less likely to gamble on radical left or right; Labor and its pocket Rooseveldt look "safer" to these, one wonders?.