Baker's council chain saw

This quote in The Daily Examiner on 4th September of Andrew Baker, Clarence Valley councillor-elect, all but passed unnoticed until an acquaintance put it under our noses yesterday.

"Divisiveness within council is even evident in the seating arrangements in the council chambers of Grafton and Maclean where the mayor and council managers sit separately to the councillors. Until all councillors and management can sit together at the same table, at the same eye-level, no team approach to council governance is possible."

We hooted with laughter at the thought of the very expensive carpentry required to bring the mayor and general manager down a few notches to councillor height, making them almost impossible to see properly from the visitor gallery seats.

What turns this desire to take a chainsaw to council's architecture into the truly absurd is the fact that meetings are not always held in the same place or in the same rooms and sometimes it's a case of generic tables and plastic chairs for councillors, management and visitors alike.

Council can't get more democratic that that!

Lower Clarence wags are suggesting that door heights in all council chambers should be increased at the same time – so that inflated egos can pass though without bending those swollen heads.

Anony-mice
Yamba

* Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at gmail dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

Honi Soit recalls Tony Abbott

Honi Soit not so fondly recalls the Abbott era in an article on its website containing this reprint:

A Day in The Life of the SRC President

March 27, 1979

I arrive at the SRC to be immediately confronted by a garbage can on its side and papers scattered all along the SRC corridor. However, this does not seem as dirty as one might think, as the walls themselves have been covered in obscenities. A clean floor would seem almost incongruous.

I notice that the front office wall has been decorated with homosexual posters by one of the front office staff who stares sullenly and uncooperatively, especially when I take them down and ask him not to replace them with others of a partisan politico, socio, sexual bent. He complains to the Hon. Sec./Treasurer, the Honi editors and anyone else who will listen.

I walk down the corridor to my ‘office’. It is finally time, I decide, to remove the condom which has been pinned on my door. It rather clashes with the lesbian posters that have been plastered there. A notice I had placed on the door reads “Tony (confidentially) you are a fuckwit”. It has now been slashed for good measure.

My first phone call is to someone who has been trying to ring me for days. Messages are often strangely mislaid at “our” SRC.

Finding a copy of Honi, I check on a feature I had suggested containing photos of SRC graffiti, an article of mine condemning such vandalism, and one defending it as “art”. Photos and articles are almost indistinguishable on a blurred grey-spotted background, and the page is dominated by a daubed slogan. It seems the paint brush is at work even on the pages of Honi. Perhaps it is just as well – the pro-graffiti article is three times as long as mine. The Honi editors apologise profusely, but no, they will not reprint the feature.

Returning to my office I am troubled by the thought of the SRC’s utter irrelevance to the daily academic grind of most students. These thoughts are not dissipated while I remain for several hours, not receiving a single call, letter, or visit from any student, except occasional abuse from the “welfare” officers across the corridor.

I console myself with the thought that at least I haven’t had to remove candles, placed so as to jut obscenely from the front office wall, or try to stop payment on cheques disappearing from the front office.

WHY DO WE ALL CONTINUE TO TOLERATE PAYING FEES TO THIS ORGANISATION? I HOPE YOU WILL HELP RESOLVE THIS QUESTION BY VOTING IN THE FORTHCOMING REFERENDUM ON THE SUBJECT.

Yours,

TONY ABBOTT

SRC PRESIDENT

Now that North Coast council elections are over we can expect to find a lot of airborne pokers being reported by the media with a straight face.....

....as new councillors test our credulity.
So just to remind everyone what mockery for slipshod reporting looks like, h-e-e-e-e-e-r’s Aunty ABC's Media Watch:

Why is "our" Luke being overlooked?

A piece in today's Sydney Morning Herald examines the prospects of Barnaby "Loose Cannon" Joyce moving to the House of Representatives and replacing Warren Truss as leader of the Nationals.

If the coalition wins the next election Joyce, or whoever leads the Nationals, would become Deputy PM and, heaven forbid, Acting PM when that blokey bloke (sorry, Julie Bishop, but you ain't in the hunt for the top job ever, ever!) takes leave to go OS and visit such places as the Vatican which would have to be near the top of his list of must-visit places and check with his Boss that church and legislators are sleeping securely in the same bed.

But, as a real "insult" for Luke Hatsuyker, the Member for Cowper on the NSW north coast, and his supporters the Herald looks at who else might lead the Nationals after Truss's demise and Luckless Luke didn't rate a mention.

The Herald piece stated, "Darren Chester, from Gippsland, Michael McCormack, from Riverina, Fiona Nash, the senator who is still considering her own lower house tilt by running for Hume, and even Richard Torbay, drafted to take on Tony Windsor in New England, are all mentioned as potential candidates."

See!! There's no mention of Luke!!!

C'mon Luke, show some gumption, develop a backbone, and make a run for the Nationals' top post.