Thoughts Mindesque - Gareth - South Australia

A Grand Stand Against Excessive Control

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:15:23 -0700

Whether or not Victoria Park should have a new grandstand I am unable to say. Neither are the vast majority of South Australians if truth be known. The general public simply doesn't have enough information ready at hand to be sufficiently well informed for it's opinions to be valuable. But what we are painfully clear about is the horrendous extent to which Adelaide has become the 'no development' capital of the western world.

For decades now most proposed developments have been scotched because they were unable to gain planning approval, usually at the local government level. It has become a joke. We are a retarded city and state and we became so at a time when tourism was one possible revenue stream during a dearth of new industries to replace those we were losing.

Planning to perfection in the eyes of a few has cost us all massively. The geniuses with their Master's Degrees took into account everything except the state's economic prosperity.

Local governments are intent on doing their own thing independently of everyone else in the state. They profess to be protecting the interests of their ratepayers. That claim is uncertain, but even if it were, Adelaide cannot be an amalgam of principalities. Each part of it exists for all citizens. Each area council must cater for the needs of all South Australians. That is especially so for the Adelaide City Council.

Consequently, I believe that even if Kevin Foley's temporary grandstand proves not to be the right thing in the end, his action in being determined to ride roughshod over a council that has welched on a development that the majority of South Australians have voted in favour of is to be applauded. Let us hope his government follows through and continues to demolish opposition from the perfectionist 'visionaries' who have turned Adelaide into a sad and sorry backwater.

Uranium: A Future In Mining Our Own Business

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:09:56 -0700

The suggestion by Ian Plimer, Professor of Mining Geology at Adelaide University, that South Australia should become a nuclear energy facilitation state offering all phases of uranium on sale to the world is music to the ears of many people.

Baby boomers will recall that nuclear protesters of the nineteen seventies with their outrageous nuclear-charged emotional politics succeeded only in deferring the mining of uranium at Roxby Downs by ten years. Their doomsday prophesies sucked South Australians into agreeing to leave one of the world's most valuable resources in the ground until the price of uranium crashed. When the inevitable mining and sale of yellowcake commenced it was worth a mere third of what it had previously been.

The hare-brained bellyaching of these self-proclaimed intellectual giants succeeded only in costing the people of this state vast wealth in jobs created, royalties received and other economic spin-offs. Meanwhile, the rest of the world made atomic leaps into the modern era.

We should never forget that a high percentage of those protestors were in receipt of government benefits in the form of student allowances or the dole. They demanded the fruits of wealth but recklessly assassinated our available options for wealth creation. What does that say about their intellects? The fact was also plainly obvious to the general public that many of these people gained immense feelings of personal power from having created chain reactions of dissent. What does that say about their true motives?

We South Australians have wound up a backward state because we embraced backward mentalities. That occurred because we vested political power into the hands of small-minded pests given to irresponsible ear-bending.

Let us do that no more. The members of our government were willing to have votes counted in their favour. Let those votes now count for something solid in tough decisions and decisive action to place South Australia on an equal economic footing with the rest of the world.

Uranium is here to stay. Are we?

Move over Grim Reaper. Here comes the Grim Raker.

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:05:51 -0700

The proposed introduction of a $100 spot fine for SA motorists who fail to carry their licenses, even though recommended by the Road Safety Council, has ugly blotches on it's do-good face. It's true that bad-guys can cheat the current "present within 48 hours" system by giving false names. But the impost of heavy fines on forgetful good-guys, especially low income earners, is unfair and unneccessary.
Continue reading "Move over Grim Reaper. Here comes the Grim Raker."

Backwater Back-hander Well Deserved

nospam@example.com (Gareth) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:54:37 -0700

A Brumby has called Adelaide a brumby. One thing I will never personally forget is the stink of the Yarra when I was a child. You could smell it from miles away. My family moved to Adelaide from Melbourne in 1964. Much has changed since then. The Yarra no longer stinks. The Torrens is often a mud-hole. When I was a child water ski-ing competitions were regularly held on the Patawolonga. It is now clean, but for twenty years it was a sewer. The difference in development between Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide over that time almost makes you want to cry.
Continue reading "Backwater Back-hander Well Deserved"