Watch yours Julia
The backstabbing that obviously went on to bring about Kevin Rudd’s demise as Prime Minister may not be over and it’s been suggested to me our new PM Julia Gillard might be the next in line.
When you analyse what’s taken place in recent times it’s most obvious that Julia knew what was going to happen. You only have to look at how she strolled into her new job with new policies falling out of her mouth as though she’s been practising them for some time.
What I’m hearing now is that her reign might be short and another move within the party will see her ousted and our latest PM will be none other than the Rudd look-alike Wayne Swan.
What a waste of money
To read that deposed PM Kevin Rudd will receive allowances of about $600,000 a year for the rest of his life when he leaves politics just leaves me cold.
But wait, there’s more.
He will also be eligible for a gold air pass, a car, at least four personal staff and his own office in Brisbane. Doesn’t everyone who retires need up to four personal staff and their own office???
All this rorting must be stopped and it’s high time we had a good hard look at how many pollies we have, what they get in lurks and perks, and the look might also include the public service.
It’s a woman’s world
But for now it remains a women’s world in Australian politics.
Not only do we have a female PM but we also have women in roles such as Governor General, Governor of NSW, Premiers of Queensland and NSW and locally a bunch of them in political spots.
There’s Sharon Bird, Joanna Gash, Senator Connie Fieravanti-Wells and the about to retire Jenni George in Federal politics and Noreen Hay and Lylea McMahon in State positions.
The days of being able to say “it’s a man’s world” are long gone.
A weird attitude
Soon to retire Shellharbour City Council general manager Brian Weir has copped a blast from some quarters for allegedly suggesting the growth down that way will hurt attempts to revitalise Wollongong.
“Do I give a damn? Not really” was his answer, and rightly so.
At least he’s shown leadership even in tough times and when he suggests Shellharbour is entitled to be a dynamic young city he’s right on the ball.
Future extensions of their local shopping centre will only further boost their economy and draw more people, particularly from around Dapto and the southern suburbs, and that’s why so many Dapto-ites go there now because it’s only a hop, step and jump from where they live and you can more easily get a park than in Wollongong.
Pity we don’t have someone of his vision and “let’s do it” approach to going forward.
A point that was very strongly put at a recent tourism operators’ gathering by Skydive The Beach’s marketing manager Tamahra Prowse was that many people from outside the area regard the outskirts of our central business district as dirty, worn out and ugly, and that we are particularly missing out on the backpackers’ business.
And when you consider that in the year to March backpackers spent $44 million on night accommodation alone in Australia at an average of nearly $6000 each, we need to get our act into shape, and quickly.
No ‘gongs’ for us
With our city’s current leadership problems I suppose it came as no surprise that nobody from here received a Queen’s Birthday Honour.
Kiama and Minnamurra scored and congratulations to Will Campbell and Vivian Wright for their success.
Once again, university professors didn’t miss out with 25 receiving an honour, and there were 27 doctors also on the list.
TRUenergy goes public
TRUenergy will hold a series of community information sessions in coming weeks to tell the public what they have in mind down Tallawarra way.
The land they will be developing in one way or another covers some 500 hectares and has been the subject of much community angst for some time now.
It’s good to see, however, that the company has put a lot of work into a new proposal and the public response will be interesting.
Noreen brings back memories
Local MP Noreen Hay brings back memories when she calls for the city mall to be reopened to traffic.
Despite the flack her suggestion has brought from some quarters there are those of us who remember when it was open to traffic and the whole area had life about it.
For a start cars in the mall day and night made it a safer place to walk around and made the route to our beachfront much easier to negotiate.
And you could also park in it, and there were specialist shops that brought many people into town.
When I first came to the city I found the mall at that time had real character.
But I don’t like your chances Noreen, and much may be the pity.
Currently the mall is an eyesore and dangerous after about 5pm and turning it, as council and some others want to, into our own version of ‘the Hanging Gardens of Babylon’ doesn’t do much for me.
It’s on the market
Local businessman Con Augoustou’s somewhat challenging publication 'Tell It As It Is' is now out and about and you can have a read by going online to: http://tiaii.wordpress.com
Con hopes it will be available from local book outlets in the very near future.
I can recommend the publication to you as a most challenging read.
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