WHAT AN EXAMPLE!

Watching the Senate debate on TV at the moment. What a schemozzle of poor behaviour. More akin to the behaviour you would expect in a poultry pen than an august house of debate.

And question time in ANY AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT. The behaviour, rudeness, shouting, and crass misconduct is beyond the pale. This is what our children and young people see.

And these example setters earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year!

BRING BACK THE ABC THAT ONCE WAS

How I wish for the good old days of the ABC. When radio broadcast regional as well as state,. Territory and national news. When the 7.30 report was produced locally in each state and territory. Bit by bit and little by little the ABC has withdrawn from rural and regional areas. The 7.30 report is nationwide and only four nights a week.

All the hoopla about online listening applications, podcasts and iView is fine. But it has all come at the sacrifice of what was a meaningful approach to broadcasting.

And it is more of the same with changes to radio in our Territory. Less and less local content, more and more relays from Sydney and Melbourne.

As for political bias on radio and over TV. Well, we could do with less on politics overall and more on what is substantive and meaningful rather than trivial and fad focussed.

CHANNEL NINE UNFAIRLY CANNED

I think criticism of Channel 9 for not covering the NT in television news bulletins is unfair. Based on last week, they top the ABC TV news. Allow me to share.

From Mon 4/6 to Fri 8/6 Channel 9 shared 41 NT News stories with viewers. ABC TV had 24 and 5 more over the weekend. Nine outdid the ABC on local content. Its reputation for no local news may be a perception but it is not a reality.

NOTE: Last night June 12, Channel 9 carried 10 NT stories, the ABC television only 2.

DEVELOPING REGURGITATED POLICY IN THE NT

AVOIDANCE

To avoid ‘new policies that are discarded and regurgitated old policies’ the Northern Territory Government might give consideration to establishing a group of people who are long-term residents in the Northern Territory. This group might be asked if there is any previous history about ideas being fleshed out out as “new beaut schemes“.

This group might comprise people with background into the operation of various departments and with experience in life and living in the Northern Territory in general terms.

Neither might it be necessary for people to meet physically to consider every issue, rather being asked for feedback by email or by phone on occasion. This will enable people living out of Darwin and Palmerston to be involved.
The thought is not that this group should be remunerated; that’s not the motivation of everybody who wants to support our Territory and see it is a better place. The thinking was that in the interests of avoiding mistakes, particularly where those mistakes might arise from revisiting previous policy that had been discarded, a group of such a nature could lend itself to the betterment of the Territory.

I wanted to share this with you and wondered what you might think about such a development.

DEVELOPING POLICY BASED ON IGNORANCE IN THE NT

THE ISSUE

The rebirth ‘as new’ of old and dispensed with ideas occurs in large part because of ignorance about our history. One of the standout examples to illustrate my point is that of the CBD and particularly the mall having been re-visited at least four times during my time in the Northern Territory. There are other examples to do with our infrastructure development that have been similarly revisited.

Within departments, the same sort of thing happens. I’m most familiar with education. The idea of regionalising (decentralising function) educational management has been tried at least three times. When revisited nobody takes account of what has gone before. They often don’t know that ideas have been previously tried. That’s because we have a very poor record of recording history in the NT.

Another reason for regurgitation is that people in high level decision making positions often come and go after fairly short periods of time. People new to these positions often don’t know what has gone before. As well, they are often interested in adding their own “personal touch” for the sake of building curriculum vitaes to gain positions elsewhere and generally not in the Territory. The Territory is used as a stepping stone.

NT ROAD TOLL

The NT road toll for 2018 is alarming, extremely alarming. Not for a moment would I trivialise its seriousness. However, there is a need to consider a few specifics that add to our toll. These go beyond the direct impact on drivers of alcohol, drugs, phones and speed.

* The parlous state of many of our outback roads. We have more gravel and unformed roads than most of the rest of Australia.

* The ‘bragging’ by ‘heroes’ on Facebook and social media when they’ve drive dangerously and arrive early. Others seek to emulate.

* Pedestrian deaths arising from people sleeping on roads being run over.

* The number of tourists in hire vehicles who are not used to our vast distances.

* The promotion of speeding and risk taking driving by car and vehicle advertisers.

* The excessive power of vehicles that are on the market for purchase.

* Road fatalities and injuries caused by the drivers of stolen vehicles.

* The bravado that can overcome drivers urged on by peers, passengers, and crowd encouragement. That ‘attitude’ is rife up here.

Just some points to consider.

AUSTRALIA DAY NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM

Those who knock Australia Day infer there is nothing for Indigenous Australians to celebrate. That for mine is not right.

* Celebrate the growing percentage and contribution of indigenous sportspeople.

* Celebrate the growing number of our indigenous population making it in the academic world.

* Celebrate those schools and communities who are developing sound habits of school attendance and the development of local industries.

* Celebrate the growing number of first Australian who are politicans.

* Celebrate the growing group of indigenous artists and those who share culture.

* Celebrate the festivals which are increasingly a manifest part of our demonstration of heritage.

* Celebrate the growing number of Aboriginal businesses and corporations.

* Celebrate the growing number of Aboriginal people who are now being elected to parliament.

* Celebrate the confidence of Aboriginal women in many places to speak out and share their viewpoints.

* Celebrate indigenous Australian who have home and property ownership.

The list goes on. This construct took less than ten minutes.

There is much to celebrate about Indigenous Australia and for our Aboriginal people.

IT IS NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM. CELEBRATE ALL PEOPLE ON AUSTRALIA DAY.

THE UNFIXABLE ISSUE OF DARWIN’S CBD

Likely the vision will not last,

We fail to learn from what has passed,

Visions and plans are all we do,

Beyond that, it all falls through,

Plan has followed plan you see,

For the Darwin CBD,

What then follows is sad pain,

Planning money down the drain.

The reality creates sad pall,

There seems no hope for Darwin’s mall.

We must confront the reality,

The vision will not transform you see,

Until real issues are addressed,

Time and time again they’re stresed,

But to fix – no one is game,

And that is just a bleeding shame.

EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES !! COME ON !!

The City of Darwin Council has a new CEO. I hope that he is able to lead our Council into a strong leadership position on behalf of our city. But to pay an employment vetting agency $78,000 to find this person!
HUH!!
I find that hard to understand.
Do councils REALLY have to pay out these huge amounts of money, purportedly to find the right person?!

That’s a good salary for a whole year for many an employee and then some.

I’m a Darwin ratepayer and pay around $1500 a year in rates. So a ‘go find me a CEO’ agency was paid the equivalent of the rates of 52 ratepayers to find a new boss.

Not happy, but mighty incredulous!!

KEEPING SENIORS IN THE NT

The NT Government wants to keep seniors in the NT. To help, it has changed and confused the schemes available to seniors. The previous government started it all in 2014, but the present government, after major consultations, has done nothing other than to dilute and reduce the scheme.

That minimisation applies to all who became eligible for entry to the scheme after June 2014. For many seniors this now (post June 2014) program offers only $500 per year as an ‘incentive’ to stay in this high cost place.

NOT THE BEST OR WISEST SCHEME IN THE WORLD.

Not a scheme likely to counter to government’s call for old ones to stay put, keen our flagging population in the NT – in order tp prevent a further GST loss because of declining population.