Sudmalis adopts Daily Telegraph Headline for Mail Out

 

 

This letter from Ann Sudmalis arrived in my mail box yesterday.

 

I've had conversations with Ms Sudmalis and believe the letter is a fair representation of how she speaks- so conversationally the letter works- but that is about it,

 

I found the letter offensive on so many levels so I thought I would share my thoughts with you on this one and see what you think.

 

First of all it was addressed to me on the outside of the envelope but the inside is a photocopy of a letter 'to the editor' and a colour insert introducing the Liberal candidate for Gilmore.

 

The Gillard Labor Government pretends to be working for the people of Australia, but most people believe the Labor Party is simply working for itself.

 

Well of course they are working for the people- the people in big business, certainly not for single parents, some people would say that all politicians simply work for themselves. Many more examples to choose from here, glass houses and throwing stones does come to mind.

 

Australia has a long and strongly held tradition of speaking out against those we believe are doing the wrong thing.

 

Perhaps- but that depends on what the 'wrong thing' is. As a 'nation' do we speak out loudly on 'wrong thing's in non Western countries? Do we offer asylum to people who suffer the'wrong thing' on a daily basis? 

 

Ann is simply pedaling a message here that she thinks we aspire to a message that has been sold to us and we perhaps believe it is part of 'national qualities'.

 

We have a government sick with worry, about its own survival and one of its 'cures' is to gag the press by creating 'Government sanctioned journalism".

 

This line is parliament speak from the boss Mr Abbott and of course is populated by the main stream print media. Do you think if the popular press had reported more good news stories about the work that has been done in this term of government that it would be less on the nose? Do you think that the main stream print press feel threatened to the core of their capitalist bones?

 

 I admit I have not read the new bills from beginning to end-however during the Finkelstein inquiry into the media- many respondents believed that a thorough review of the current media watch dog arrangements was needed.

 

Labor plans to sanction journalism........

 

No that's not totally right. The Greens have been working with the government on this issue to make sure that a single and independent press council that has real powers to support the community when it complains of media wrong doing.

 

Many people I know have turned away from the Big Press as it so......well you know.......

 

Is it little wonder that the Liberals are out shouting from the roof tops about the lack of free press- look who donates to their campaigns. Dig deep into the donations information - I think some people would be shocked at what goes on.

 

The press certainly don't make a fuss about who is buying democracy- surely fair reporting to the public would include such important information, check out what Crikey has to say.

 

Its the next part of Ann's letter that really irks me and of course is taken straight from the Daily Telegraphs handbook....

 

Comparing the current attempts at media legislation to political leaders like Mussolini, Stalin and Mugabe is outrageous, even Daily Telegraph readers have panned the paper for making the reference ( see 21/03/2013 print version for two pages of letters panning it - that's if you can bare to purchase it)

 

The statement is all part of the continual fear mongering, sky is falling in, stop this or that rhetoric, that many people are getting fed up with.

 

Oh and did I talk about the self perpetuating News Polling!!!!!! So if News Limited /Fairfax  keeps telling us that Abbott is the preferred Prime Minister and that Prime Minsiter Gillard is rubbish -that has to have an effect on the swinging voters thoughts.

 

Are we really going to accept this draconian limit.....

 

Ann please read The Drum and note that many ordinary citizens of Australia want media reform, they don't want concentrated ownership in the hands of a few, and they want a press council who has the resources to follow up on complaints and not just 'slap on the wrist with a wet tissue'.

 

Most people I know love the freedom's we have as Australians....

 

Yep would agree with this statement mostly, but ask those Australians who lives have been touched by the regimes and hangovers from the eras of Mussolini, Stalin and Mugabe and I'm sure they would agree that you are drawing a long bow here and it seems you have lifted your material straight from the Daily Telegraph.

 

So did Ann do that on purpose to try and connect with Daily Telegraph readers who would have seen that front page- who knows- maybe Ann will tell us.

 

 

 

Deputy Mayor- declares himself 'most senior'

http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/boss%20yes-men%20ja-men_100209

Yesterday was the first meeting of the reconvened Children's Services Reference Group, which is something I aimed at reviving in my last days of the last Council. So its great to see its reformation and the focus on how Shoalhaven City can do things better for kids 0-12years.

It was a full house with at least 15 community representatives in attendance from all the major children's services across the City including Cullengutty Children's Centre, Family Day Care, Noah's, East Nowra Family Services and the mobile pre-school.

Interesting but not surprisingly the majority of people in the room were women. Women who have been in the  'care' industry for a long time, skilled in running business', applying for grants, dealing with government agencies, all of them extraordinary in their talents to numerous to list.

The men in attendance Alan Blackshaw Council's manager of community development, Deputy Mayor John Wells, and assistant Deputy Mayor Alan Baptist.

I found that telling- that all three men in attendance were of rank ( Blackshaw) or considered themselves to be high ranking ( Wells and Baptist)

I nearly choked when Wells declared himself the 'the most senior Councillor in the room' and I so wanted to call him out - I would have done so by declaring "I hope you are referring to your age Sir" for that would have been closer to the truth, instead of the false attachment of power that he claimed.

So why do I find his declaration of power a problem-

The title Deputy Mayor is 'given' to a Councillor by her/his peers through an election process- it is not a rank- merely a position of assistance to the Mayor.

 All Councillors are of equal status other than the Mayor who has the ability to make decisions on behalf of Council between meetings ( often then ratified by the whole Council).

It is arrogant to assume a rank that you have no claim to and says a lot about Mr Wells attitude and considering the company that seemed to apply to his attitude towards his women colleagues female Councillors White, Tribe and myself.

I found it especially arrogant that Mr Wells would promote 'the agenda of rank and heirarchy' in a meeting dominated by women, I wonder if any of the other women found his declaration as insulting as I did.

Women often struggle to punch through the glass ceiling of gender roles and in the committee room yesterday we were faced with a classic male power hierarchy.

During the meeting I assisted the newly elected chair Clr Gemma Tribe by holding her baby and attending to the babies needs. At the conclusion of the meeting Mr Wells congratulated Clr Tribe on her meeting and me for my care skills- would he have done this if we were males- I sincerely doubt it.

My final word on this - Deputy Mayor - Councillor Wells is part of the transformation task force overseeing the restructure of Council. I am concerned that his self declared power will affect his ability to ensure gender balance in the restructure or will we see more of the same old school approach to gender norms.

Post Election promises and the 'truth'

Here is a copy of a letter I sent to our local newspapers questioning a statement printed in their paper.

WE DONT RATE IT

Dear Editor,

 

Mrs Gash knew about the city’s finances and said there would be no rate rise prior to the election. I find it interesting that The South Coast Register reported to the contrary. Mrs Gash’s Deputy Mayor the ex –Shoalhaven City Council Director John Wells- took the opportunity to brief the public at meet the candidate’s forums on Councils financial state, and how he intended to fix it.

                Mrs Gash was present at nearly all these meetings. I would also expect that Mr Wells being an ex-Director of the city knows the financial reporting of local government very well and was in a strong position to advise TEAM GASH of the impending deficit IF Council continues building new projects.

Apart from Clr Patricia White of TEAM Gash, the candidates were absent from the public gallery prior to the election. From the public gallery TEAM GASH-ers would have learnt meeting procedure and gotten a handle on current issues and been up to date with many aspects of Council including finances and policy. For people to take such an interest in the Shoalhaven to stand and achieve election it’s incredible they wasted this opportunity.  For the majority of TEAM GASH-ers the first time they set foot in the chambers was at the first meeting.  

TEAM- GASH have control of Council decision making and have no need to justify their position. This is evident in the lack of debate in the chamber. TEAM GASH-ers  deny residents  a   different point of view to debate issues and have any effect on policy.

 TEAM GASH members have admitted that they were “confused” at Council meetings and “don’t understand what’s going on”.  Another TEAM GASH-er commented to me that the floor of the ordinary meeting was not a place to bring up issues. I was also told to ‘write a letter as a private citizen’ rather than bring issues to the floor.

 

No Gag Order Please

Well its time I made some more noise on this blog- ( waves ) Hello Joanna Gash!

I wont be intimidated into not commenting about the reality that is Council- instead of the sanitised version that is presented to the community via the soft local media.

I'm glad to have someway of expressing things independent of the mainstream media who aren't interested unless it sells papers- we really need an Indy news source for the Shoalhaven even if its just electronic mail!

Last year you will recall my post Gash Doesn't Want to Hear Reality  . In writing that post I 'broke' the rules of confidentiality when it comes to Councillor Briefing's by quoting verbatim what was said. But I was so shocked by my first view of Joanna Gash verballing staff that I simply could not leave those words un-said.

In the past I had the occasional compelling moment from briefings to report but never did so.

Since publishing that blog the verballing haven't stopped. I was embarrassed as Gash bullied the Director I was sitting next to in one committee meeting.

However TEAM GASH asked me to stop blogging/reporting or they would cancel briefings and make stuff go directly to Council meetings- this telling off was attempted in a confidential session of Council- but Clr Guile demanded it come into open session- Thanks Andrew.

Oh and that somehow they (Team Gash) would try and compel us all to sign a confidentiality agreement- What The!

I find all this poor behaviour distressing on a number of levels-

Prior to working with Mrs Gash on this Council I had no idea that she was so abrupt, up to September she had always been relatively polite in my company. I know I should have been a bit more cynical.

During the election campaign I was nauseated every time one of the sycophantic TEAM GASH-ers got up to extol the virtues of Gash- "a woman of high integrity, a born leader, always doing the right thing" it was as if a script had been written and all were following!- another sign of things to come.

I had a preconceived idea- just like many others in the electorate that Mrs Gash was a polite but tough person and would show human decency to others- NOT so.

I'm not the only one who Mrs Gash has tried to gag and it seems she is training her Gilmore replacement Ann Sudmalis to do the same if Fiona Phillips' accounts of blocking are true- I'm sure they are that's why I'm repeating them.

 Oh and read Fiona's blog archive- she was threatened by Gash with legal action!

Tony Blain was also hit with an attempted gagging- you can see my comment at the bottom of the article and I will be asking the questions on that at the next meeting.

Andrew Guile also feels gagged as he attempted to get some questions at meetings answered and was shut down.

So there seems to be an interesting pattern emerging- I would love to hear from others who also felt they had been bullied or gaged by Mrs Gash