Wondered why Donald Trump's first presidential address to the Joint US Congress sounded coherent?

Here’s the answer.

With the help of two transparent autocues Trump read every last line of that speech written for him by someone who had actually mastered the English language.

Photograph by visual journalist  Victoria Sarno Jordan

Snapshot from YouTube NBC News, 1 March 2017

Regardless of any level of skill displayed by the White House  speech writer, this was still a Trump Regime speech so requires basic fact checking, which can be found here.

Tingle surgically slices Abbott down to size

Journalist Laura Tingle writing in the Australian Financial Review, 24 February 2017:

Politics is full of catastrophic debacles and tragedies that nonetheless finish up in weed-covered, neglected dead ends.

The Soviet Union comes to mind. All that work. All that butchery. All those millions killed. And then pffft! It was gone.

Similarly, Tony Abbott. Okay, not the millions dead, but what an utter destructive force, an utter waste of space this man has been on the Australian political landscape.

Can you remember anything positive that he has contributed to our polity that has not involved tearing something down? Even as a minister there is not much to recommend him.

He oversaw the introduction of a so-called private sector run employment market that was supposed to ensure that all the government subsidies went to those most in need of assistance. It has never, ever worked like that. Still doesn't.

Health Minister? Well, no-one remembers anything particularly positive there either.

Having torn down his leader in Opposition, he unleashed a feral – and deadly – negativism on Australian politics from which we have never really recovered.

So firmly set on a path of destruction, he set about making everything in his prime ministership a negative and ended up destroying himself.

You might think that at some point there might have been a moment of midnight reflection. But no.

Tony Abbott has continued on his destructive path, not just trying to destroy the man who replaced him but being happily prepared to burn the government of which he is allegedly a part, and some of his closest colleagues at the same time.

All in the truly deluded name of policies that he didn't have the political ability to implement when he was prime minister but which he still thinks might win votes.

Abbott's latest intervention has only had the effect of finally bringing out those who have been most admirably loyal to him - like Mathias Cormann - to call him on his disingenuous, hypocritical and dishonest policy critiques of the current government……

Abbott leaves a stinking pile of loopy policy ideas steaming on the footpath – ranging from cutting immigration to the renewable energy target – that others will have to go to some considerable trouble to avoid, or, worse, being the sort of populist nonsense they are, be adopted by those proffering simplistic solutions.

This was all done under the deluded contention that the political debate in Australia has been hijacked by the Left.

Backed by the tailwind of a gushing and fawning conservative media, Abbott had every opportunity to set a new highwater mark for the right in Australia.

But as his own conservative colleagues publicly abandon him, it is a sign of Abbott's utter failure that he has even made this unfashionable.

Clarence Valley Council: let's play the guessing game

The 11am 3 March 2017 Clarence Valley Council extraordinary meeting took a whole 8 minutes to move into a closed session which lasted approx. 1 hour & 21 minutes and, then a further 6 minutes was spent unanimously passing a motion to the effect that the closed session resolution concerning the General Manager's employment contract is to remain confidential before closing the meeting*.

The Daily Examiner on 4 March 2017 reported Mayor Simmons as stating "So far as I'm concerned Scott is still the general manager of the council". 

Nothing to see here, move along says the council.

However, this is an intriguing situation as the newspaper also reported; Sources inside the council confirm there is intense speculation among council employees about the future of the general manager.

So let's play the guessing game.....

The business paper and minutes of Clarence Valley Council’s 21 February 2017 ordinary monthly meeting contained Item 11.001/17 Mayoral Minute.

This mayor minute specifically dealt with the “General Manager’s Performance Agreement” or as characterised elsewhere in the monthly meeting minutes the “General Manager’s Performance Agreement – Proposed Variation”.

A Performance Agreement contains the agreed benchmarks used to conduct a General Manager’s Performance Review and the minutes stated words to the effect that that an agreement between council and the general manager needed to be reached on details discussed in the 21 February Item 11.001/17 closed session.

So far it seems pretty straightforward.

Either council or the general manager requested changes to the contents of the Performance Agreement ahead of a Performance Review conducted by the mayor, deputy-mayor, a councillor nominated by council and a councillor nominated by a general manager.

Because of the form in which it came before Council-in-the-Chamber, I suspect that the variation request came from the general manager.

It is noted that within days of the ordinary monthly meeting the general manager went on what appears to be unexpected leave scheduled to end on 13 March. This leave has since been publicly described as "sick leave".

Then ten days after this February monthly meeting an extraordinary meeting was held – with a council spokesperson making a point of saying that meeting process allows two or more councillors to call an extraordinary meeting.

Because of a remark made to a journalist on 3 March and reported online via video, it is unlikely that this meeting was called by more than the minimum number of councillors required.

By then the subject of the one item before Council-in-the-Chamber had changed from a specific mention of Performance Agreement to the term “General Manager’s Employment Contract” and, local media were saying that the extraordinary meeting was to decide the future of [the] Clarence Valley Council general manager.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to work out that it is likely that council and the general manager could not reach an agreement concerning either changes to the Performance Agreement, some aspect of the Performance Review or another contract issue  – and matters had quickly come to a head.

So what would happen in such a situation if the issue or issues remained unresolved?

Well the general manager could arrange to extend his paid "sick leave" indefinitely while employment matters continued to be argued. According to one local retiree with business experience this has been known to occur in management circles.

Though the simplest course of action would be for council or the general manager to terminate the employment contract before its expiry date.

Something which is allowed for in Guidelines For The Appointment & Oversight Of General Managers under section 23A of the Local Government Act 1993 (July 2011):

The general manager may terminate the contract by giving 4 weeks written notice to the governing body of council………..

A governing body of council may terminate the general manager’s contract at any time by giving the general manager 38 weeks written notice or pay the general manager a lump sum of 38 weeks remuneration in accordance with Schedule C of the Standard Contract. If there are less than 38 weeks left to run in the term of the general manager’s contract, a council can pay out the balance of the contract in lieu of notice.

Now 4 weeks written notice by the general manager would possibly see an end to his employment in April 2017 and, depending on the exact start date, 38 weeks’ notice given by council would possibly end in October 2017.

On the other hand, 38 weeks remuneration in lieu of notice for a Clarence Valley Council general manager would have to be in the vicinity of $183,000 if not more.

In the grand scheme of things neither April nor October are that far away, but I’m willing to wager that there are a number of residents and ratepayers who would be in favour of council paying out that large sum as soon as possible.

It has been five long years since the current general manager was hired and those years have been marked by varying levels of disapproval, discontent, distrust, tension and alienation within council's governing body, council's staff and the valley community - due in some measure to the management style and attitude of this general manager.

* It was stated on The Clarence Forum Facebook page that immediately the closed session segment of the meeting ended Cr. Richie Williamson left the meeting. This is not yet confirmed by mainstream media reports.

BACKGROUND

See Clarence Valley Council: a local government history lesson…..

Quote of the Week

Data released by travel app Hopper in early February looked at international flight search demand prior to and in the wake of Mr Trump's inauguration. Their numbers showed flight demand to the US had fallen 17 per cent since the January 20 inauguration, dropping in 94 of the 122 countries included in the analysis. [ABC News, 1 March 2017]