Letter to Aldermen RE Agenda Item 8.6 Jan 22 2018

To All Aldermen, 

I wish to raise the issue of Agenda Item 8.6 on your next meeting Jan 22nd 2018. I am appalled that you have the arrogance to so brazenly attempt to further dismember proper and democratic communication with your rate payers by trying to further lock in your love of secrecy and drive for absolute power to the detriment of good governance.

You are all there to represent us, we are not mere pawns in your machinations and you show no respect for this fact. This agenda item is in my opinion, just another example of the quickly failing integrity and moral standing of this council and I remind you most strongly that we have an election coming up this year and attempts such as this to shut out and shut up the community, will be remembered most fervently.

If you have any integrity or strength of character left, if you can remember what your role is and should be, that is to both represent and include the community in caring for and progressing our city, particularly when it comes to such overriding changes as itemised in the despicable Agenda Item 8.6, then your only correct moral decision must be to vote it down. 

Thank you,

A Ratepayer

NB: Letter sent under separate cover to Aldermen

What does it take to bribe voters and get them thinking that you're OK?

Well some people are getting their cheques and given that some have SOLAR arrays it'll probably mean that they will not have to pay for a GRID power bill for their last quarter, the current one and probably not a lot of the next after that will be left to pay. 

Why isn't the ENERGY MINISTER failing to see and promote the benefits of renewable energy to government and low income earners?

But this a bribe and it doesn't change anyone's mind about the level of incompetence this dumb government exhibits. Nor will it change many pensioners minds about the level of dumbness this government, this minister and ‘governance generally' in Australia where there’re elections in the air  

Look at the matter, Minister Guy Barnett is quite simply a dud! Blaming a bank for his stuffup and the delays to pensioner’s “special energy bonus” is gutless, dumb and incompetent. 

Quite frankly there is nothing other than a copout that anyone could call this nonesense. 

It’s nothing short of a dumb Liberal pre-election bribe that has backfired. Indeed, it might even be illegal.

There were opportunities to do all that he attempted, smart and ethical opportunities, but they went sailing by without even a second glance. 

When a bank apologises for something a dumb politician did you just know that the bank, banks generally, are funding a political party on the understanding that certain things will or will not happen. 

This guy Minister Barnett is beyond belief! He is a serial failure. This dud has failed as a Liberal Senator. He has failed in forestry in Tasmania loosing $Zillions. Now he has failed to pull of an election bribe. 

The voters in Lyons need to step up to the plate and save Tasmania from this serial failure before it hurts way too much. 

FROM THE EXAMINER
Energy Minister Guy Barnett lashes Westpac for energy rebate cheque delay 

• Rob Inglis 

Energy Minister Guy Barnett says he is “extremely disappointed” that, despite repeated assurances from Westpac, the bank failed to mail out the state government’s one-off energy rebate cheques in the stipulated time-frame. Pensioner Concession Card and Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders were due to receive a $125 cheque in the mail to assist them with cost of living in time for Christmas. 

Tasmanian pensioners have expressed frustration over delays in the process, with some still not in receipt of the cheques. ....................... In a statement provided to the state government, a Westpac spokesperson said the “vast majority” of eligible Tasmanians “should” receive their cheques by the end of this week. “Westpac has worked overnight with its partners to ensure that all outstanding energy rebate cheques are with and being delivered by Australia Post,” the statement read. “Westpac apologises to Tasmanians who did not receive their cheques on time and are reviewing the procedures to ensure that this does not occur again.” ....................... On Thursday, Mr Barnett responded to criticisms over the government’s decision to make the payments via cheque rather than credit........................ “This was based on Aurora advice,” he said. “It would, of course, be very unfair on Pay As You Go customers for them to be exempt and for those pensioners to not receive the Special Energy Bonus. “The advice from Aurora made very clear this was the best way to get the funds … to the pensioners in the most efficient and effective way.” While the minister welcomed Westpac’s apology, he said it was “a very big concern” that it took this long to advise the government of its error. “We’ve received repeated assurances that the cheques were sent prior to Christmas,” Mr Barnett said. “That’s incorrect. ”[Westpac] have … advised, as of earlier today, that the cheques that will go to pensioners … have been sent or will be sent in the coming days.”....................... Greens leader Cassy O’Connor blasted the government for its handling of the matter. “Having been caught trying to bribe voters with a one-off payment, the Liberals are now trying to blame their bank for the failure to deliver on time,” Ms O’Connor said. “I'm sure they're now thinking it would have been easier and less embarrassing to credit pensioners' power bills with the payment........................ “It's become farcical and pensioners who were expecting the cheque to be in the mail before Christmas as promised will be rightfully cranky.”

Letter to Prof. Peter Rathjen

Dear Professor

 

I read that you have accepted the position of Vice Chancellor at University of Tasmania. Please find attached proof that UTAS is up to their eyeballs in major corruption. They are given hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer's money and are accountable to no one, protected by politicians and the media. I have come up with a more appropriate name for our state, Tasmafia and UTAS is the Godfather of Tasmafia, with an insatiable appetite for wasting taxpayer's money.  I have sent proof of the misappropriation of funds, to the highest levels of government to no avail. I sent emails to the mayor and aldermen of the LCC giving them proof that in Hobart, UTAS paid ten million dollars over market value for land, to their multimillionaire mates Ali Sultan and Robert Rockefeller. But it made no difference they went ahead a gifted UTAS 5 million dollars of ratepayer's land.

 

Premier Hodgman won't answer my emails, understandable I guess, his wife Nicky, is a Senior Executive for Integrity and Ethics at UTAS. Caroline Rockefeller in one of the directors of the University of Tasmania Foundation, she and hubby have certainly been helping themselves, what a disgraceful joke. Professor Rathjen helped himself and his wife to $50,000 travel expenses in less than six months, $1,100 per night at the Sofitel in New York, Christmas and New Year in Cancun, Mexico. The Godfather is answerable to no one, and they even have the audacity to teach law. Welcome to Tasmafia Professor but leave your ethics at home they are not wanted down here.

 

Regards

Elaine Anderson

 

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 The Government sold Mr Sultan the two properties he bought, as if the government didn't know UTas had earmarked the block for their new Menzies 1&2 development.

 

On 20/07/2003 Mr Ali Sultan bought No 55 Campbell St for $1,098,00 market value. On 21/12/05 UTAS paid Mr Sultan 3 million dollars.

 

On 9/5/2003 Mr Sultan bought No 12-16 Bathurst St for $410,000 again market value. On 22/07/2009 he sold this property to UTAS for 3.5 million dollars. 

 

No 8 Bathurst St was bought by G & L Management on 14/05/08 for $446.125 and sold to UTAS (taxpayers) on 17/12/08 for $1,550,000 . No 10 Bathurst St was also purchased by G & L Management on the same day for $203.500 and sold on 17/12/08 for $1,550,000. How to make 2.45 million in seven months.......easy get your mates at UTAS to give you taxpayers money. 

 

In 2003 the same year that Mr Sultan went on his buying spree another long time business associate of UTAS also bought two properties, again paying market value $980,000 for each property. The properties were No 9 and No 13 Liverpool St. In 2006 UTAS paid him $2,420,000 for each property. What a great year 2006 was for Robert Rockefeller, as the following article from Crikey points out.

This article is from Crikey Dec 2006.…..   Early this year, the University of Tasmania sold 42 houses in the expensive suburbs of Sandy Bay, Battery Point, Dynnyrne and 

South Hobart to a "private vendor" for a bargain basement price of $13.5 million. 

 

Crikey can reveal that the buyer was the Rockefellers

Bought over many years, the houses have been used as a below-market rent option for 200 students. While most of the buildings are run down, they are in prime locations, most of them in Sandy Bay, and all within walking distance of the university's Sandy Bay campus and the CBD.

 

Given the recent surge in Hobart property values – which continues against the trend in Melbourne and Sydney – the Rockefellers are expected to make a killing when the buildings are renovated or demolished and the sites redeveloped.
While plans are drawn up, the brothers have leased them to the Tasmania University Union for student housing in 2007.   

 

        

Below is an example of a few recent sales of commercial properties in the CBD

 

Office Works Sold for 7.8 million Oct 2014 3236 s/m 

 

Freedom , 80 Brisbane St. Sold for 5.350 million Jan. 2017 7893s/m 

 

Baby World 121 Argyle St. Sold for 1,468,500 Feb. 2016 544 s/m 

 

2-6 Collins St Sold for 5.5 May 2016 3009s/m 

 

112 Murray St Sold for 1.690 in Feb 2014 777s/m 

 

126 Bathurst St Sold for 1.220 million 7/7/16 463 s/m 

 

No 126 Bathurst and No 62-66 Bathurst St are just a few blocks apart. 

 

No 126 sells for market value $2,635 per s/m Surprise, surprise No 62-66 sells for $8,200 per s/m, taxpayers are such generous little souls. 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Below are another two properties bought by UTAS (taxpayers) from Mr Rockefeller

 

Corner of Bathurst & Argyle Sts, (62-66 Argyle St) Sold for 9.8 million Aug. 2015 1196s/m. Purchaser UTAS seller Calbourne Nominees Pty Ltd

 

Corner of Argyle & Melville Sts. Sold for 9.8 million in Aug. 2015. Purchaser UTAS 
seller Calbourne Nominees Pty Ltd….

 

CRAPPY DECISION MAKING AT LAUNCESTON COUNCIL

Jim Dickenson, architect, inveterate Examiner letter writer and father to Alderman Finlay has been on Launceston Council’s case for quite a while. Undoubtedly, he does know a thing or two civic planning. More to the point his opinions are informed which is much more than can be said for the aldermen. 

However, the aldermen, generally, are not afforded an ‘opinion’ under the Local Government Act given that the General Manager can do whatever she/he likes under Section 62. And that is after she/he has deemed that whatever advice they are offering is expert advice – and seemingly in the recent past expert advice beyond reproach. 

The installation of the Civic Square toilets has turned out to be an interesting example of the level of inexpertness that there for all to see in regard to decision making at Launceston’s Town Hall. 

Council is in the middle of spending $20Million that the good Aldermen have been conned into borrowing from the State Government and that Council is planning for on the run. The Civic Square toilets have all the characteristics of being an afterthought and consequently designed on the run. 

It seems pretty clear that the ‘planners’ at Town Hall hadn’t imagined that Civic Square was going to need a loo – with loo design not being particularly sexy project. But thank goodness for Jim Dickenson. Apparently, he’s shamed Council (The aldermen? The officers?) into reconsidering an appallingly inept decision. 

More concerning than the ineptitude of this ‘loo decision’ is the prevailing circumstances under which this bunch of aldermen make decisions or give decisions a tick and then there is their consequent disengagement with ratepayers. 

This bunch of aldermen show all the signs of being primarily concerned about the receipt of their allowances. That is except for Aldermen McKenzie and Finlay both of whom are posting on Facebook in their fatuous pre-election strategies for the position of Mayor – some are even speculating that they’ll even run for a State seat. 

Does a Council need to be shamed into reconsidering obviously shonky decisions via The Examiner? 

If their constituency is going to pin their hopes on that, The Examiner will need to lift its game but as for the Mayor and friends that’s quite a different thing. 

Jim Dickenson's Letters To The Editor

Civic Square Public Toilets JAN 1 2018 

IT BEGGARS belief that the City of Launceston council, rather than admit it has it wrong and maybe lose face, approved the proposed Civic Square toilets at its meeting on December 18. ................. The council debate was very flimsy with only one alderman speaking and his comments were disingenuous. A few points for brevity. ................. There is a substantial plane tree on the site and according to an arborist’s report, it has a lifespan of 10 to 20 years and is listed to remain. ................. However without qualification, the alderman glibbly said it had a life of one or two years and could be removed. ................. Comment was also made regarding the existing toilets in Macquarie House in that they do not meet current standards so should be demolished. Surely they could be renovated? ................. Council is not demolishing Civic Square and moving it to another site simply because it does not meet current standards. No. It is being renovated. ................. One could reasonably argue that, compared to the years of work and multi-millions of dollars already invested, the logical way forward would be to devote an hour or two of time, spend a dollar or two and rethink the project, to get the location right, to get the design right. ................. In the overall scheme of things, this re-assessment would have very little impact on the continuing roll-out of City Heart.................. Jim Dickenson, Launceston. 

Loo views DEC 18 2017 

IT’S BEEN kept so very quiet, so until the article “Loo Views To Be Heard” appeared (The Examiner, December 8) I bet no one knew that the City of Launceston is proposing to build a toilet block right on the doorstep of Launceston’s multi-million dollar Civic Square upgrade and right on the doorstep of the multi-million dollar upgrade to one our city’s more important heritage structures, Macquarie House. ................. I also bet there’s no other heritage city in the world that has a toilet block as the entry icon to its Civic Square. And what makes this one so appalling is the fact that, besides being absolutely in the wrong spot, the design is right in your face, garish and brazenly coloured. It also features a wrap-around blank wall of texture-coated blockwork, materials totally unrelated to the surroundings. ................. Surely there is within the Launceston City Council some aldermen with an understanding of civic planning, or just basic good design, and are able to encouragingly discuss these matters with their colleagues. ................. Our Civic Square, especially one in a city that is so universally acknowledged for its heritage values, should celebrate its entrance with some complimentary historic theme, in this case, relative to Macquarie House. A statue of Henry Reed would make a pretty obvious start, or one of the builder, John Sprunt. One hopes that now the project is being re-considered, a more appropriate location will be proposed. I would suggest the existing toilets in Macquarie House could be very effectively redeveloped. ................. Jim Dickenson, Launceston.