Friday 29th of March 2024

we will destroy your suburb, your houses and your streets...

bairdus


no real savings, only ransacking democracy...

 

The state government is facing a black hole of tens of millions of dollars in its costings of forced council amalgamations as the result of a KPMG report which has been described as being "awash with errors".

A report by the accounting firm has become central to the state government's case for its policy of forcing NSW councils to merge. Though it is yet to release the report in full, the government has often referred to its headline conclusion, that mergers will reap economic benefits of $2 billion.

But the release last week of a small section of that report, outlining KPMG's calculations, has invited a wave of criticism.

 

Labor leapt on the report, saying that KPMG had calculated the amount of redundancy paid to laid-off council workers based on a national employment awards, when they would in fact be entitled to considerably more generous payouts under council contracts.

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"When you're using the wrong formulas  with the wrong data you're going to get the wrong result," said shadow local government spokesman Peter Primrose. "This raises serious questions about what else is wrong with Mike Baird's claim of $2 billion in [economic benefit]."

At many stages of tenure, the difference between the two awards amounts to a doubling in an employee's eventual severance package. 


The degree to which this would affect KPMG's $2 billion bottom line depends on how many workers end up being retrenched and for how long they have served. But it's understood the amount that could top $10 million.

Professor Brian Dollery, the director of the University of New England's centre for local government, described the report as being "awash with errors".

Professor Dollery said KPMG had presumed employment costs across merged councils would decrease, but he said recent history in Queensland showed staffing costs grew by 8 per cent a year after mergers, at a rate much higher than non-merged councils.

He also accused KPMG of employing different calculations in reports commissioned by state governments – who support amalgamations – and recent commissions from local councils, many of whom wanted to argue against them.

Professor Dollery said KPMG had presumed a 2 per cent reduction in costs of materials after amalgamation in its analysis for the state government. But in a similar report, commissioned by a regional council, KPMG had used a lower saving of 1.5 per cent.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/council-amalgamation-report-awash-with-errors-20160124-gmcsri.html#ixzz3yQFiFWVF
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Meanwhile, we, the local council rate payers will be shafted nonetheless despite protesting loudly and stridently about these UNNECESSARY mergers. There could be thousands and thousands of us, but the Bairdus government does not listen, does not want to listen nor will it regard OUR democratic rights as important. Baird should be thrown out like Abbott was and his hypocritical smile should be wiped out. 

 

 

bairdus, the barbarian destroyer...

 

There is photographic evidence that disputes claims from environmental campaigners that fig trees being ripped out along Anzac Parade in Sydney's east were planted to commemorate the Anzacs, the Department of Transport has said.

Workers pruned and felled several trees at Moore Park today, with a total of 17 to be removed to make way for the CBD and south-east light rail construction.

Jeff Angel, from the Total Environment Centre, said it had now come to light that dozens of trees earmarked for removal in the next few weeks were planted in 1917 in honour of the Anzacs.

"I think the Government should hit the pause button," he said.

"The public are horrified by the tree clearing already going on and by the new chainsaw attack on these Anzac Parade trees planted in 1917 to commemorate the Anzacs.

"They will find that an even more revolting action."

But a spokesman for the Department of Transport said a photo from 1914 showed troops marching through Moore Park on their way to board ships at Circular Quay past what appeared to be fairly mature figs.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-27/100-yr-old-sydney-trees-to-be-felled-to-commemorate-anzacs/7116608

 

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In the past in Sydney, such acts of government vandalism would have been stopped forthwith by the power of Green Bans. These days workers are "on contract" and could not care less beyond their pay packet. SAD sad days of stupidity and greed. 

These "workers" should be ashamed and "we're just doing our job" is not an excuse.

 

sydney poor to become nomads...

If Mike Baird can introduce a progressive social housing policy in New South Wales, why aren't we seeing this sort of push from the Commonwealth and other state premiers? Catherine Yeomans writes.

New South Wales Premier Mike Baird's social housing policy will see 23,500 new or replacement social and affordable housing dwellings built in Sydney.

The policy, announced at the weekend, was long-awaited and long-demanded by agencies like Mission Australia. And thankfully it's a progressive policy.

It is progressive because the initiatives won't just provide more homes, but will support individuals and communities so that the issues of entrenched disadvantage are tackled.

The policy recognises that many people living with disadvantage - who are in social housing now or on the long waiting list - can progress towards independence with the right supports.

And it acknowledges that some, especially elderly people, can lead fulfilling lives in stable and secure social housing.

It's comprehensive in scope, with more transfers of public housing properties to community housing providers, new Personal Support Plans for social housing tenants (offering "tailored supports and services") and Place Plans to address estates of concentrated disadvantage.

Although the implementation detail is yet to be seen, we welcome this policy as an indication that at long last we see a Government taking this matter seriously.


read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-27/yeomans-commonwealth-should-take-l...

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Seriously? So far I believe NOT ONE NEW SINGLE NEW PUBLIC HOUSING has been built in Sydney, while more than 4,500 low renters in Waterloo are about to be evicted and many low renters in the rocks have already been evicted to profit the state government that is selling its real estate cheap. Meanwhile some of these old houses have been de-heritaged by vandals buyers and developers. 

It is expected that Mike Baird will pass the stick of public housing to PRIVATE ENTERPRISE which won't provide the same security of tenancy as REAL PUBLIC HOUSING. One can already see most of the poor becoming like a bunch of nomads in search of a tent... every two or three years. Read more and see toon at top.

 

http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2013/1587/05-public-housing-crisis.html


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-27/senior-residents-fear-forced-evict...


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-16/nsw-government-says-millers-point-...


http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/national-trust-appeals-to-premier-mike-baird-a...

this motorway exchange would bring 20,000 more cars per day...

St Peters exchange

 

The best solution would be to not build anything, but should you wish to build something from the 1980s for cars of the future than will become obsolete in the next 20 years, the two tunnels (M5 and WestCONnext) should be joined and go directly to where ALL THE TRUCKS ARE: BOTANY BAY HARBOUR. Simple enough. A small deviation could be made to accommodate the trucks and container depots and terminals alongside Canal road (Garderner's road). Bugger off, Baird!

 

Note that this interchange area was also earmarked by Coal Seam Gas companies... (see crazy gas...). As well, about 989.5 trees will be destroyed to make room for this monstrosity.

why would you merge with these clowns?

 

The Auburn Council seems to be run by a bunch of clowns, some of them affiliated to the Liberal (CONservative) Party of which Mr Baird is the boss of...

 

Here you see the worst part of what some suburbs have on offer and this could make the case for council mergers even worse... WHO WOULD WANT TO MERGE WITH THIS COUNCIL?:

 

Now they have been told it could be up to two months before the building, developed by Auburn councillor Ronney Oueik, is deemed safe enough to return. 


...

 

But the council strenuously denied a decision to grant Cr Oueik a modification to the building's roof led in any way to its being more prone to storm damage. 

"This modified the roof structure to [remove] a central box gutter and provide a traditional pitched roof," a spokesman for the council said.

"The proposed modification to the roof structure was of minimal impact and resulted in substantially the same development."

The modification was passed by the council in 2008, in a vote at which Cr Oueik excused himself and declared an interest. 

Cr Oueik is responsible for a string of multi-million dollar residential tower projects in the area and is a member of Auburn council's controversial "super six" majority bloc that includes Salim Mehajer

The majority group on council have come under scrutiny for business relationships between Cr Oueik and Cr Mehajer and the council's mayor, Le Lam. 

Cr Oueik is a former mayor of Auburn and ran as the Liberal Party's candidate in the state seat of Auburn in last year's NSW election. 

Records show he contributed $150,000 of his own money to running that campaign. 

The council is likely to be suspended by Local Government Minister Paul Toole this week, after it was given two weeks' notice to make the case for why it should not be suspended. 


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/lidcombe-residents-face-months-away-from-home-after-fierce-storm-20160201-gmizhe.html#ixzz3ywxqzAfk
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Some clown in the State Government might say that by merging councils, this sort of behaviour would disappear.... BOLLOCKS... The con-artists would end up having a bigger area to bugger the system of council approvals and proper "developments" including the rod-shod WestCONnex the Liberal (CONservative) Government want us to swallow. Go away Baird and play in the middle of your street.

 

mikus bairdus' arse should be kicked to smithereenus...

 

A series of public hearings that begin today into forced council amalgamations in New South Wales have been dismissed by critics as little more than a farce.

The hearings are part of the NSW Government's plans to slash the number of councils in the state from 152 to 112.

At least one hearing is being held into every merger proposal, with delegates appointed by the Office of Local Government due to report back to the Local Government Minister and the NSW Boundaries Commission with their findings.

Premier Mike Baird said the meetings were likely to be heated.

"Obviously we've asked for these public meetings so the community can have a say. These is one of those issues that isn't easy," Mr Baird said.

"All this is about is trying to deliver benefits to communities ... but obviously we welcome any feedback that comes and we will consider that as part of the final determination."

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-02/council-amalgamations-councillors-say-public-meetings-a-farce/7132778

 

The final "determination" has been already worked out by the Baird Government. All they want to let the voice of dissent be expressed as if "there was a choice", then Baird will go ahead with the demolition of councils. Obviously, Bairdus should get his arse kicked.

 

raging against the elite...

Back in Australia, and Sydney, the NSW Liberal Party seems to be in the process of disconnecting from the voter base.

Premier Mike Baird is running an imperious and undemocratic campaign against local government, in the name of imposing operating efficiencies. These efficiencies are the business of ratepayers, they are questionable, and forced amalgamations will result in much higher executive salaries for much bigger councils.

Baird also comes from a NSW Liberal Party increasingly controlled by what I call the Concierge faction, because it is dominated by lobbyists and staffers – the door-openers. The Concierge faction is mounting several internal coups seeking to strengthen its grip on the party.

You might ask why the party would move to replace Senator Connie Fierravanti-Wells, one of the senior woman in the federal government, a hard worker who was number one on the Liberal Senate ticket in 2010, and is only 55, with Richard Shields, a career staffer and lobbyist?

Down in Melbourne, the Liberals' Senate preselection field is absent anyone with a substantial career outside the political bubble. Coincidentally, among that field, for a time, was Julian Sheezel, a staffer and former Liberal Party deputy director, who is the brother of Richard Shields (who changed his name).

As for Labor, its parliamentary ranks have never been more dominated by former union officials and staffers.

The major parties, by their insularity, are not responding to the deeper trend. The electorate is less tribal and more cynical than ever. Hence the turbulent, poll-driven, bloody churn.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/for-voters-elite-is-a-dirty-word-20160203-gmkq88.html#ixzz3z8bSUBq5
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in bed with baird...

telecrap councils

The Daily Telecrap is once more in bed with Baird. This time it is the proud announcer of the news that there is SEX, LIES AND SOME RED TAPE  in councils... AS IF ALL THE COUNCILS WERE IN THE SAME CATEGORY... Here you are: a blanket statement from the Turdograph. 

 

You can sniff the shit that the Merde-och outfit has been told to promote unpopular Baird's undemocratic Council mergers, without appearing to do so. So one rubbishes the "COUNCILS". As if merging the councils would "REMOVE THE CRISIS". In your dream... The Council red tape is about 99 per cent designed to protect suburbs from developers who cannot stop fiddling with building phallic symbols in the shape of apartments. And this "red tape" pisses off the boffins at the Merdocrap because their mates — the developers and Baird-the-concreter cannot by-pass some objections, unless one is in the council of Auburn where developers got onto the council and voted themselves some handsome short cuts to build more high-rise.

 

Go away, Shitty Telegraph — YOU STINK. Forced merges are illegal.

$16.8 billions to create a bigger traffic jam...

Community angst over the WestConnex motorway will soon spread when plans for new motorway interchanges are unveiled for Rozelle and at Sydney University, Camperdown.

The interchanges will almost inevitably involve property acquisition and, in Rozelle and adjacent Lilyfield in particular, will require the construction of elevated ramps to Anzac Bridge and Victoria Road.

More detailed plans for the motorway interchanges are set to be unveiled by NSW Planning and Environment in the next few weeks, after the organisation building the $16.8 billion toll road – the Sydney Motorway Corporation – lodged planning documents last month.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/westconnex-anger-to-spread-to-rozelle-and-camperdown-20160302-gn8n9y.html#ixzz41md4G7R6
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baird is a nazi...

 

A proposed Baird government crackdown on anti-mining protests could expose anti-CSG protesters across NSW to criminal penalties and up to seven years' jail.

It has previously been reported the government's proposed anti-mining interference bill would expand police powers to search protesters intent on attaching themselves to mining equipment, seize their materials and levy heavy fines greater than $5000 upon them.

But the bill also potentially exposes a wave of anti-coal seam gas protesters across NSW to criminal penalties and a maximum custodial sentence of seven years' jail.

The bill would amend the state's Crimes Act to extend the crime of "interfering with a mine site" - including hindering a mine's equipment - to CSG extraction and exploration sites instead of an existing focus on coal mines.

"We could see people like [Australian rugby player] David Pocock locked up for seven years; he locked onto an excavator in the Leard State Forest," said Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham.

"Or the Knitting Nanas, 70-year-old activists who are peacefully locking on but doing no damage to equipment. Is that what we want?"


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mining-protesters-face-seven-years-jail-under-baird-government-csg-plans-20160310-gnfdi8.html#ixzz42UeLWeI7
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billions for brawn, nothing for brains...

"Allianz Stadium will become Australia's first fully covered naturally lit rectangular stadium with natural turf," a promotional video advertising the trust's 2013 master plan said.

"The new roof represents the latest in technology and innovation, while maintaining the iconic nature of the existing venue," says the video, removed from the trust's website but obtained by ABC Radio National's Background Briefing program.

The irony of the emergence of the 2013 plan is that this is now the proposal Mr Ayres and the trust are determined to avoid.

The earlier policy also accords with the current preference of Sydney's NRL clubs. Many of the clubs see their demographic future in Sydney's west, closer to ANZ Stadium at Olympic Park, and clubs are also worried about traffic and transport around Moore Park in the city's east.

Fairfax Media has previously reported that Premier Mike Baird asked the trust late last year to investigate a refurbishment of Allianz Stadium - along the lines of the trust's previous plans for the stadium, which it now disowns.

The reason for the trust and Mr Ayres' change of policy, it would seem, is that in 2013 it was not possible to promote the idea of a new stadium at Moore Park.

A "material adverse effects" clause with the owners of the ANZ Stadium at Olympic Park prevents a major new stadium from being built in Sydney.

But the government has now decided to buy the lease of ANZ Stadium, meaning that, when it does, there would be no restrictions on the size or scale of a new stadium.

"In 2013, the SCG Trust and the NSW government were constrained by the material adverse effects clause resulting from the agreement with ANZ Stadium," a spokesman for Mr Ayres said.

"The prospect of public ownership of ANZ Stadium has allowed the SCG Trust to reconsider their master plan and put forward a truly world-class stadium for the sports fans of Sydney," the spokesman said.

Mr Ayres has since threatened NRL clubs with the prospect of losing about a billion dollars of the government's $1.6 billion stadium funding if they do not sign up to the proposal that includes a brand new stadium at Moore Park.

"If we aren't able to reach a resolution, and I have said this to the NRL, the additional $1 billion the government has allocated ... is at risk," Mr Ayres told The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.

At a meeting on Friday, Sydney NRL clubs said they wanted about half the promised $1.6 billion to be spent on turning ANZ Stadium into a proper rectangular football venue. That would leave only about $400 million to be spent on an upgrade to Allianz Stadium, while a new stadium at Parramatta would also be built.

But the clubs' position is being resisted by powerful figures in the NRL hierarchy.

For instance, the NRL's head of strategy and investment, former Queensland Labor treasurer Andrew Fraser, and former Liberal staffer and NRL government relations chief Jaymes Boland-Rudder are understood to both back Mr Ayres and the trust's preferred new stadium at Moore Park.

Despite the 2013 promotional video's glowing account of what a refurbishment of Allianz would look like, Mr Ayres has been dismissive of the idea.

Speaking to Fairfax Media in February, Mr Ayres said Allianz Stadium "performs incredibly badly".

"The structure and shape of the stadium just no longer functions to anywhere near a modern standard."

Labor's spokeswoman on sport, Lynda Voltz, said of the emergence of the Allianz upgrade video: "You can't have a plan two years ago and now say that doesn't work.

"That defies logic," she said.

The dispute over whether more stadium funds are spent at Moore Park or in Olympic Park comes amid continuing uncertainty over where any new stadium would be built at Moore Park.

For instance the Australian Rugby Union and the Waratahs have both backed a new stadium at Moore Park, but said they would prefer Allianz Stadium to remain standing while the new stadium was built.

That could only occur if the new stadium was built on land managed by the neighbouring Centennial and Moore Park Trust.

Doing so would be contrary to the government's own policy of requiring a new stadium to be built on SCG Trust land. And a change of policy would create a sure-fire political brouhaha, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull among a number of prominent locals who have previously resisted land grabs by the SCG Trust.

Ms Volz said: "The SCG Trust is still trying to get access to Centennial Park Trust land, otherwise they would stick to the plan they had, which is to refurbish the existing stadium."


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/the-allianz-stadium-option-the-scg-trust-and-stuart-ayres-dont-want-you-to-see-20160406-go0av6.html#ixzz458pedxQE 
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Another plan to waste cash and time plus the destruction of a park and of a neighbourhood by the nazi Baird government... More brawn than brains... 

baird the tree of knowledge vandal...

Arborists started cutting down a beloved Moreton Bay fig tree in Randwick, known locally as the "Tree of Knowledge", for construction of Sydney's eastern suburbs light rail line on Sunday night.

Around 40 people gathered at the intersection of Wansey Road and High Street where the tree, believed to be about 150 years old, had been enclosed by 2-metre-high fencing earlier in the afternoon.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/outraged-as-randwicks-tree-of-knowledge-fig-gets-surprise-chop-20160710-gq2pme.html#ixzz4E3cDVp00
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dumb liberal (CONservative) lucy, wife of turdball....

 

The chief commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission, responsible for drawing up plans to shape the city, was unaware of the large-scale destruction of houses for the WestConnex motorway in the heritage suburb of Haberfield.

Lucy Turnbull, whose job involves co-ordinating district plans for the city's neighbourhoods, has come under fire after telling ABC Radio she did not know homes were acquired for the motorway through Haberfield.

 

 

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/lucy-turnbull-not-aware-of-destruction-of-heritage-haberfield-homes-for-westconnex-20160816-gqtnrg.html

 

Read from top... Dumb Liberal (CONservative) Lucy, wife of PM Turdball, is a friend of Mike Baird-the-Demolisher...