Thursday 3 January 2008

Thinking time of the year

Hi to all my blog buddies out there.

Been a bit quiet of late, so many people to catch up with at this time of year, places to go, things to see. You know the drill. I also have some friends across from New Zealand, and no it's not Flossy the Sheep.

I've been out and about, this time avoiding the mass of half built apartment construction sites that now litter our region in a devastating way and seeing our beautiful countryside, before Mayor Byrne get his paws on the Douglas Shire jewels.

I hope you all had a great New Year, no matter what you did, or who you did it with.

This time of year is kind of special where most are on holiday, spending time with those who are important to you. It's also a reflective time to look back, but more importantly, to look forward. That's what I've been doing. I'm looking forward. Actually, that's what CairnsBlog has been all about.

We as a community have been hanging out to debate issues, come up with alternative solutions and create a community that we are proud of. There is little forum to do that in Cairns.
By now most of us, no matter where you sit on the political fence, if you work for a building or tourism company, if you are a manager or wait tables, if you work for Council, you will know that this is not an open political landscape here in Cairns.

So many people comment to me that they feel restricted about what to say about the local elected leaders or mayor for fear of retribution. And they have good reason to believe that. They recount stories about malicious action taken against them for speaking out. Violent threatening letters and emails and letters from lawyers to tell them to shut up. I bet no local Council in Australia would have more CMC investigations against them than this Council. Yet are they reported?

No Council in Australia would have more contempt for it's local residents and their input to their community than Cairns City Council.

The current mayor, and the environment he's created, prohibits free speech and the ability freely discuss and debate important matters that concern us ratepayers.

I've noticed that the support base for this Blog has come from many people across the spectrum. In seeking financial support to fight the mayor's ludicrous defamation action, everyone from small business owners and people that have been attacked by Council staff, and even students that want to take a part in having their say, have contributed.

Even the Mayor's personal assistants have taken great delight in contributing to the online discussion here, and for that I'm delighted. It's been good to see that the quality of that discussion has changed over recent weeks from one of a schoolboy prankster to some more intelligent dialogue. I always wondered how long it would take for them to realise that actually contributing to the debate, no matter how different to the majority, is far more beneficial to the democratic process, than sending silly threats with personal insults, or threatening local businesses supposedly from CairnsBlog.

Anyway, back to the point of today's discussion.

There are a number of achievements we as a community need to look at during the next 12 months here in our community of Cairns and the surrounding region. We will all have different ideas of goals and paths of change for the year.

It is with this in mind that I launch a small challenge for everyone. Westminster political writer Iain Dale has put together his Eight for 2008 wish list, which gave me the idea to do something similar for Cairns.

So here's my Eight for 2008 in Cairns:

  1. A March Local body election with that reflects that residents want a sustainable local economy, ecology and environment for everyones future
  2. A State and Federal government that takes a serious focus on environmental issues and genuinely encourages people for taking local action in their home, and rewarding same.
  3. A global climate that takes a start at ceasing warfare as a means to resolving conflict, because it never does.
  4. The new Cairns Regional Council writes a charter for ethical and social management for all new Councillors
  5. Cairns Regional Council co-operate in creating large amount of land set aside for a regional natural wildlife enclosure, that is bequeathed to the people.
  6. An integrated cycle network encompassing the region, that matches that of Adelaide
  7. That there are no further "link roads" interconnected up the beaches to vehicular traffic.
  8. That the 4 lane Kuranda Range Road is not constructed
...and some some additonal ones for good measure...

  1. Peter Costello and John Howard together on Dancing with the (ex)Stars.
  2. Former Mayor Kevin Byrne moves into GlenCorp's 1 bedroom apartment in Woree, named "Bryne's Tower" in his honour for the legacy he will leave to this city.
  3. That some of my close friends give up smoking ... for their benefit (and mine!)
  4. A cyclone season accompanied by flooding to wake up those developers that really don't understand what Mother Nature can do.
  5. David Hicks to tell his full story
Well, can't help myself, that was more than eight, wasn't it!

We all have things we'd like to see change or occur during this new year, and this is a nice place to share them with others.

Now it's your turn.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

a diversion of substance is how i'd describe your blog, I have enjoyed visiting it very much. Keep up good work mr moore.

Anonymous said...

Is the mayor of Cairns Kevin Byrne STILL the leader northern Liberal party ?

And... are there any other financial supporters/companies that bank roll Kevin Byrne's 2008 city council election campaign?
There is currently advertising under way to encourage a boycott of the companies that give financial support to the KB Unity team.
T-shirts, posters, billboards, ad space & internet will announce simultaneously the supporting businesses that donate money & or services to make sure mayor Byrne gets re elected.
We will ask the concerned citizens of Cairns not to buy/use/promote/sell or support the companies that help the byrne greed team

Anonymous said...

That is a mighty find idea anonymous. Problem is, is that a lot of these companies are quite large, and important to the people of Cairns. I will support the boycott as far as I possibly can. Hopefully the rest of Cairns that want to see Byrnes out of here do the same thing.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't support any such boycott. It doesn't sound democratic to me, nor do I like personal attacks. There are enough serious issues to campaign on in the coming Council elections to mount a strong, credible, challenge to the current administration.

Anonymous said...

This idea is quite good, however I believe it would have more effect and be taken more seriously if the ads were to simply 'Get rid of Byrne!'. One or two good slogans that would resonate in people's minds if they see them over and over will have more influence on the voting public than a mish-mash of 'don't support Byrnes supporters'. The general public don't really know who they are. Prior to the 200 election there were ads in the Cairns post which read simply 'Don't Byrne Cairns' were quite effective. Something on those lines pumpd into peoples minds will hopefully counteract the massive developer funded ad campaign that we know will be bombarding us.

Anonymous said...

It would appear that there is a strong feeling out in the public domain that people will be pleased if Byrne is ousted fom his job.
At this stage of proceedings though,no one of substance has put their hand up to take on the job.
With due respect Val will stand little chance of topping Byrne,
Berwick still seems the logical choice,but apparently does not want to take the job on.Has anyone any suggestions on a quality candidate?

Anonymous said...

In the lead up to the last council election I noticed on the Mckenzie talkback show who was supporting unity, and I made a vow to myself never to shop at these businesses.
His show was organised pro unity and most of the callers were also. Anybody who was not for them was not accepted to talk, the majority who rang in my opinion were lined up each day to cram the switchboard, the majority were female which I reckon were the partners of the businessmen.
Val Schier could not get a hearing on his show until almost the day before the election, she challenged him about not being able to be heard on his show, typically he responded with denial and over spoke her and cut her off as quickly as possible, sound surprising.
The choreography and make up departments were in full swing, we had margaret gill with her knew coloured and wind swept hairdo on television claiming dirty tactics that her corflutes had been knocked over, we all know that the windy conditions of the time were to blame.
Due to these windy times cyclone pending, on saturday morning we had byrne performing one of his bravo acts talking to mckenzie (hands free mobile?)negotiating fallen trees in his toyota 4wd trying to get into the city from his house at redlynch.
Next on radio we had margaret cochrane driving around machans beach picking up her corflutes.
What a brave lot Mmmmm!
A few years ago we deciced to purchase a new vehicle, we went to the relevent dealer in cairns, received a price, nil stock, delivery 2-4 weeks.
I then inquired out of town, guess what, saved over $6,000, full waranty, registered, aircon, plus minor extras, delivered cairns in 7 days.
OH WHAT A FEELING!
Yes there are some businesses other than developers who put up large funds for the byrne regime that are not required to be made public.
Even dealers/franchises were a part of it.
I noticed that one recd an appointment in a ratepayer funded business group, there are ways to recoup your investment.