THE UTAS CITY OF LAUNCESTON CON JOB

CON JOB?

Well, it has taken approximately six years for the real agenda of the proposed relocation of the UTAS campus from Newnham to Inveresk to be revealed and as part of that expose, one can only view the Launceston City Council as now having as much egg on its face as the survivors of an explosion in a hatchery.

Virtually nothing of the original, so called “plan” that was so easily “sold” to the LCC now exists. All the wonderful artists impressions, lovely brochures and talk of thousands of extra students swarming through the Launceston business district, spending their cash and re-invigorating the City was always just so much spin and has now been proven to be exactly that. Not only will there now be a trickle of students, there will also be a large number of ex UTAS employees who will also not be spending or staying in Launceston. Morale amongst academic staff at UTAS was extremely low prior to this latest act of bastardry.

The Council’s dumb complicity in handing over $5 million dollars of land now highlights the fact that they did not do any due diligence on the true viability of the scheme. And they weren’t alone with that failure because the Libs, Labor and the Greens all swallowed the same drivel without once raising any questions about any real need to move the campus, let alone siting it on a tidal flood zone which was perhaps the ultimate act of stupidity to emerge from amongst all the secretive meetings and verbal diarrhoea that supported the idea.

UTAS, the once cashed-up big spender (in Hobart at least), buying property and hotels like they were going out of style, is suddenly broke? 

Hard to believe unless you view it as a corporate act that focuses on dollars rather than humans and quality education. Ripping the guts out of both courses and staff numbers to bolster the bottom line should perhaps be viewed under a McKinsey model microscope to fully appreciate the ruthless style of this hatchet job.

The problems and non-viability of the relocation were raised time and again with Council and politicians however they simply, in their Dunning-Kruger states of mind, refused to listen or were too stupid or compromised to grasp the real issues. They continually acted (and still do) with supreme arrogance born out of their inability to properly question and investigate such important issues and have almost to a person become nothing more than a bunch of “nodding Zombies”.

So what “plan” do you have now our stunningly cunning council? 

Do you really believe that you can “work” with UTAS to develop courses suitable to Launceston’s needs? They must snigger at such a stupid idea from an entity that to date they have played like a worm on a hook. They may pretend that the LCC is included in their plans and discussions but the UTAS corporate entity in reality has little more need of input from the LCC than to be as compliant as they have been from the beginning of this cynical caper.

The announcement by UTAS to send both staff and courses to the abattoir must become the catalyst that finally forces the whole dodgy relocation agenda to be fully investigated and questioned to within an inch of its life, as it should have been from the start if those in positions of power had done the job they are supposed to do for the people of Tasmania. 

This whole Grimm’s Fairy Tale must stop whilst the opportunity presents itself. With the purported current economic stress being experienced by UTAS on top of the ever increasing fragility of our national economic situation, now is not the time to obscenely waste money on an unnecessary relocation project when the Newnham campus is both safe and totally viable.

The Watchdog.