The Bywong Soapbox

How Greasy can you get?

I just saw an interesting ad on television tonight….  It was one of those ‘Political Statement’ type adverts, by none other than ‘Kingsley’s Chicken’.

Kingsley’s is accusing the Rudd government of holding back their chicken joint expansion in the Canberra area.

How, you ask?….  They blame the government of refusing to allow 457 Visa applications to be filled.  The 457 Visa is for overseas immigrants who want to work in Australia..  Now what does that suggest to you?

It suggests to me that the greed of Kingsley’s Chicken has gotten the better of them. It also suggests to me that this chicken outfit want to hire cheap, overseas labour, so they can expand their greasy chicken empire in the Canberra area and put a few more dollars in their pockets.

Get a grip Kingsley’s.. Hire local Australians to run your chicken outlets.  Too expensive, you say?  Tough shit… Plan on building fewer chicken outlets and pay a bit more for local labour.

What’s better for your image? Greed or Civic Duty?

There’s an interesting article on the Bywong Community Association website that talks about the Macs Reef Road Tip and the vote to turn it into a Waste Transfer Station.  Here’s an excerpt:

“Last Council meeting in March narrowly voted for the waste transfer station proposed for Macs Reef Road but it could still come unstuck if money is not found to build it. Discussion by Councillors about the 2010/2010 Management Plan to fund works will be happening soon. Bywong Community Association would like to urge all Bywong, Wamboin and Sutton residents who want a local waste management facility to contact all the local Palerang Councillors to urge them to follow through on their agreement to build a new facility at Macs Reef Road. Email all Councillors via councillors@palerang.nsw.gov.au”

“If the money is not found to build it”?    WTF!

Palerang Council

All the council has to do is backcharge the local resident Building Contractors who have been filling the tip with contractors rubbish from Canberra  for the last 20 years..  You see… if you have a residents tag, you can dump all your contractors garbage from your Canberra building sites in the local tips and bypass the need to pay a fee at the Mugga Lane Tip in Canberra..  where the shit belongs in the first place.

Find the money… indeed!  Cough it up  ‘Palerang Council’, as it’s your turning of the blind eye for so many years that created the problem in the first place.

The heading says it all, to take a quote from one of the sweetest politicians in Australia.

A lasting friendship

For the last seven years, this enterprising ex-pat has been quietly running a low-power American Multicultural radio station, out in the middle of the wine district around Lake George and just a few tens of kilometers from Canberra.

Dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s, it quietly promotes multicultural Baby Boomer music, with a slant towards American 70′s Rock, Soul & Blues.

No Government funding, not many advertisers, but a plethora of avid listeners, the little station goes on day after day, keeping to the constraints of it’s limited license allocation.

Now, could someone please explain how the Chinese Government can set up a Propaganda station, smack dab in the middle of Canberra, Australia’s National Capital.

Not only is there a Chinese Propaganda station running 24/7, it’s also using the same Tourist Information frequency as the American Multicultural station, but at some enormous power level that allows it to be heard over the entire ACT region and deeply into New South Wales as well.

A slap in the face to both the great democracies of the United States of America and the Australia Governments to have the Communist Chinese flaunting their propaganda within earshot of both the US Embassy and the Australian Parliament House.

The Chinese

But then again… depending on just who’s country is the flavor of the month….I suppose all Governments are equal… it’s just that some are more equal than others.. (sorry Mr. Orwell, that semi quote just fit the theme so well).

So, while the Chinese station, with it’s direct feed from Beijing, keeps waving it’s red flag over Canberra, the little American multicultural radio station will keep on pumping out it’s eclectic tunes and waving the Stars & Stripes to whoever might still be interested.

The Federal Trade Commission will try to regulate blogging for the first time, requiring writers on the Web to clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products.

Take 'this' FTC

“Hello There!”  Would you like to try ‘this’?

Wonderful!  Try it today!

Try it tomorrow!

It’s BAD for you, but try it anyway!

These Federal guys are beginning to sound like Australian politicos, always trying to squeeze a few more dollars from our pockets.  What will they try to ‘regulate’ next?

Now come the candidates, all in their respective boxes, ready to do battle with the Shire’s  problems in general and replacing the poor, harrowed woman councilor who couldn’t deal with the pressures of party & private lobby.

Palerang Council

In the time leading up to the election, the schisms between the candidate was made apparent and the mud-slinging began.  But Whoa!..  This is a by-election for a simple seat on a local shire council…  Considering the heat of the innuendos flying back and forth between the various localities in the shire, you’d think they were electing a new Prime Minister.

Now, if the contest were just confined to East & West of the Shire, you’d be able to make some sense of back-stabbing.  I mean, I was positive I didn’t want to vote for “A big bloke with a mo”….  I just didn’t feel the ‘Mo’ was going to instill confidence in me with regards to running the shire I live in. Besides… he’s a Braidwood Boy..

But what about the two West side candidates?

First, there was a woman who had come pretty darned close to winning a seat in the last election.  She seemed intelligent and well informed of the issues and holds a Doctorate.  Seemingly, truly interested in helping to right the wrongs she saw in the Shire, totally unaligned with any ‘pressure’ groups and self-funded.

Then, there was the male candidate.. Another West side body.. A small businessman turned public servant (evidently because he wanted to ‘take it easy’). That in itself didn’t instill confidence in me. He sorta inferred he was happy to slide on through life as a ’9 to 5′ public servant.  Considering what I pay in taxes to support these sorts, I was duly unimpressed..

But wait! There’s more!

For reasons of tipping the power-base balance, every man and his dog was flogging this last candidate as “The” candidate of choice!

The Wamboin saber rattler’s were out in force, banging this candidates drum.  A member of the Bungendore Residents group was using the Group mailing list to electioneer for this candidate. A photographer for one of the local rags was ringing people and slinging mud at the woman candidate by inferring nefarious alignments with other politicos.  There were even Shire Councilors, out on election day, wearing their Council name tags, handing out “How to Vote” circulars on behalf of the candidate.  That would send me the message that the council was openly endorsing a particular person for a seat next to them and perhaps help to sway particular issues this way or that.

To what end?

What worth is the power base in Palerang that would cause this much commotion?  Who has the delusions of grandeur that would justify the name-calling and mud slinging  that went on for this seemingly innocuous by-election?

I suppose the matter will unfold in coming months and I, for one, will be watching it all closely.

The Council elections are looming in Palerang Shire. The local rags are abuzz with allegations of this & that, the apparent lack of interest from the public to actually seek a seat on the council… ad nauseum…

I was mulling over the reasons why anyone would want to cop the abuse from the public for being a councillor and the only really poignant reason I could come up with, was money. Why else would you want to devote your precious time to the administration of a shire that was doomed to fail due to amalgamation?

Then, I had one of those ‘light bulb’ episodes… Why not pass a law making ALL political donations a form of bribery and punishable to the full extent of the law? I’m talking about the hundreds of thousands of dollars big business pours into the current political parties. I’m also talking about every donation, luncheon or cigar passed to an elected member, whether they be Local, State or Federal members.

Make their income details public and accountable.  If they want to ‘serve’ the people, them let the people see from which plate these politicos dine. If they don’t want to offer up their financial details, they must have something they want to hide.  In which case, perhaps another candidate would be more suitable.

If the source of corruption dried up, I can’t help but wonder if Australia would lose it’s politicians, but gain a few Statesmen….