CULTURAL ALERT: City of Launceston seeks residents' cultural stories for strategy

Caitlin Jarvis

Launceston's famous, or infamous, blockie route is one of those classic city stories - it's woven into the fabric of the city's tales.

The blockie route was born because of changes to Launceston's CBD streets, when the introduction of one-way streets created a unique block for car enthusiasts to travel and be social.

The route's significance to Launceston's cultural and social fabric is an example of how culture can be everywhere, not just in arts or theatre, City of Launceston creative arts and cultural services general manager Tracy Puklowski said.

And it's those types of stories, the grassroots cultural stories that the City of Launceston council is seeking to inform its new cultural strategy.

The cultural strategy has been on the cards at the council for a few months, however community consultation had to be put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The draft cultural strategy lays out five proposed strategic aims for the council:

• to respect Aboriginal culture;
• to realise the potential of our cultural places and assets;
• to foster creative practices;
• reveal our cultural stories; and
• build and extend partnerships.

WHAT DO YOU THINK:Join the conversation on Facebook

However, Ms Puklowski said now was the time to reengage in that conversation, and said the council was conscious of how the pandemic had impacted the cultural and arts scenes.

"Culture is inclusive, it can be found anywhere," she said.

The City of Launceston draft cultural strategy can be found online, but Launceston residents are being encouraged to give their feedback via an online survey to help shape the final draft.

She said a lot of hard work had gone into the draft strategy and the council was seeking to identify what parts of Launceston's culture was important to the community.

"There is culture in everything, it's in our car culture, our art, our theatre, but it's also in our food and sport," she said.

"It is emerging through the identities of the people who live here, which is diverse." in Launceston's cultural lexicon, featuring in a recent web comedy series and even advertisements for National Pies.

"It's certainly become a part of that much broader identity of who we are as a city," Councillor Gibson said.

"Over the years the blockie route has caused the occasional problems with hooning behaviour, but it has also been a positive social outlet for many people growing up in the city."

Mayor Albert van Zetten said the blockie route had been identified as a cultural icon of Launceston, but said there were no plans yet to remove the route through traffic management.

Launceston's traffic management has been envisioned through the Invermay Traffic Master Plan and the recent Greater Launceston Traffic Vision plans.

Councillor van Zetten said no plans had been made yet on whether to remove Launceston's one-way streets, but that was part of the second stage of the council's City Heart program.

"We want to have a good understanding of what Launceston's cultural strengths are, which is why feedback from the community is important to us," Cr van Zetten said.

"That will allow us to begin work on the second phase of this project, which will be aimed at developing actions arising from the feedback we've received."

• The survey is available at www.yourvoiceyourlaunceston.com.au and closes on August 28.

Are you an algerythm, a bunch of numbers, 

a pointless statistic or are you a person with 

beliefs, questions and aspirations?

COMMENT: This 'cultural strategy' has had more manifestations than the script for the movie, 'The Tale That Never Was'. Well yes there was COVID-19 but that shouldn't have drawn community consultation to a halt nor the research that lends substance to this kind of thing.

Here we cannot blame the journalist as clearly the problem is deeply embedded in the 'media release and briefing notes' 'that came out of the Orchestrator General’s Office at Town Hall. The task at hand it seems is make it all look "FANTASTIC" and "POSITIVE" irrespective of the city's, the region's, the place's, layered and and quite often larder of  somewhat 'Gothic stories'. 

Singling out 'LONNY'S blockies' as a signal for 'truth telling' is more than a little bit spurious in that it has a lot to say about the slanted and rather shonky process Town Hall is aiming to sell to what it imagines as an uncritical, compliant and sycophantic 'audience’. The aim it seems is to impose this process upon the community and make them pay for it. Rather than engage with 'the people', the people who know things, go find the ones who will not rock the boat and give them some money.

In the past Cr Gibson said that this 'cultural strategy' is something the city can be proud of and it, the city, could be a leader in this space in the state, and potentially in Australia. But the process he congratulates is at a standstill and he is/was dreaming.

Back then he said that "most importantly it's [the process is]  about recognising this is a lens that we now look through that makes Launceston one of the best places in the world to live," but he might say that wouldn't he – he yearns to be mayor.

Cr McKenzie claims that the process has taken so long because it is such a "huge strategy" to transform the city. But that's not what this should be about and Cr McKenzie's arrogance here is palpable as this stuff just isn't his role.

And as for Cr Finlay saying that the way culture had been "defined in the strategy" is really important. Well it is not Local Govt's role to DEFINE culture it is Local Govt's role to reflect upon it and respond to it – certainly not define it. Plus, what is being imagined as 'culture' is so far off beam it is laughable.

Asking a bureaucrat in any manifestation of governance, what ‘culture’ is, nowadays and it will earn you looks of bewilderment most likely. It’s the kind of thing everyone knows the answer to but when push comes to shove nobody, it seems, has a ready answer for you – at least not one that fits some convenient bureaucratic paradigm. 

So they'll shape it to their imagining, but especially if you are a historian anthropologist, cultural producer, geographer, geologist, natural scientist, whatever, you'll hardly be able to contain yourself.

Culture is the central concept, the corner stone, upon which the study of anthropology is founded. Anthropology encompasses that range of phenomena that are transmitted through social interaction in human societies. So, in this process where the hell are they? 

The bureaucrats are evident as is the odd politician who thinks that maybe having something to say might get a vote or two when their credibility is looking a bit shaky.

This council and its predecessors have been at this for a long, long, while, trying to put something in place that congratulates the status quo, the one that suits them, and importantly does not challenges anyone at Town Hall's world view. 

There has been a long line of 'experts from somewhere else' commissioned to tell Launcestonians who and what they are, all of whom have got it so, so very wrong, bureaucratically and politically. 

And, here we are at it again with yet another set of experts from somewhere else. Enough, enough, stop this rubbish right now and put someone in charge who has real professional credibility and who has some idea about what side up is.

Launceston Town Hall and the service imperative

From lifesaving to sanity saving, good customer service works
Emma Brown ... This is advertiser content for Pennytel.[NOT THE CITY OF LAUNCESTON]]\

Nobody ever forgets good customer service - or bad for that matter, but today we're focusing on the positive. [INCREASINGLY IN LAUNCESTON QUESTIONABLE CUSTOMER SERVICE CAN BE BE RELIED UPON AT TOWN HALL]

Happy customers spread the word to friends, family and acquaintances with genuine enthusiasm, making great customer service a very cost-effective way to market your business. [WITH $ZILLION DEDICATED TO LAUNCESTON'S TOWN HALL'S MARKETING WE NEED TO WONDER IF RATEPAYERS/CUSTOMERS/CLENTS ARE HAVING GOOD EXPERIENCES]

These days it's even more imperative that you manage customer service well, as customers now widely share opinions of businesses through online reviews and social media. [POINT WELL MADE!]

This means bad service can spread like wildfire and damage reputations. [IT HAS, IT HAS AND IT CONTINUES TO DO SO]

But good news stories are also shared and repeated often, especially when a business is seen to go above and beyond for a customer. [THIS IS NOT ACTUALLY REQUIRED AT TOWN HALL BECAUSE CUSTOMERS/RATEPAYERS/CLINTS HAVE NO CHOICE AND MUST PAYUP OR GET SOLD UP]

Good customer service can even save lives such as in this case of a Domino's Pizza store in the US which resulted in a happy ending and many loyal customers. [NO APPARENT IMPERATIVE FOR THIS AT TOWN HALL]

Employee Tracey Hamblen had noticed one of their regular customers, Kirk Alexander, hadn't ordered for two weeks after doing so at least every other day for years. [HMMMMMM WOULD TOWN HALL NOTICE OR LOOK THAT'S THE QUESTION]

The restaurant manager asked a delivery driver to visit Alexander at his home to make sure he was okay. When the lights were on at his house but he didn't answer the door the driver called emergency services. [HHMMMMMMMMM ONE WONDERS]

 The police found Alexander in his home in need of immediate medical attention. He recovered at the hospital, but it's unlikely that he would have survived without that Domino's branch checking up on him. This may be an exceptional situation, but it shows how superb customer service can even save a life. Exceptional service, however, need not be limited to the out of the ordinary. It can be infused into every fibre of a business and every mundane daily interaction with customers. [SOMEONE NEEDS TO ALERT SOMEBODY TO SOMETHING HERE SO THAT RATEPAYERS AND OTHERDS CAN GET A BIGGER BENEFIT FOM THEIR MARKETING INVESTMENT IN $BIG]

Customer service plays a larger role than we realise in our everyday life. When done right, a positive customer service experience leaves a warm feeling and can even subconsciously bond people to a brand, product or service.

At its core, quality customer service is about making sure your customers feel they are valued, treated fairly, and appreciated by your business. [SOMEONE NEEDS TO ALERT SOMEBODY TO SOMETHING HERE]

This can especially be true with telcos, [LOCAL GOVT TOO] where getting through to a support line or the right person, if there is a real human at all, is often harder than necessary. [SOMEONE NEEDS TO ALERT SOMEBODY TO SOMETHING HERE]

 It can feel like your issue will never be resolved, especially when told they will call you back after passing you around departments. [SOMEONE NEEDS TO ALERT SOMEBODY TO SOMETHING HERE]

There are exceptions to this, such as telco Pennytel, who focus heavily on giving the best customer service experience possible. [HHHMMMMMMM] 

Surveying their customers regularly after an interaction with the telco, Pennytel have discovered a whopping 85 per cent of them would recommend their services to others. [RUN SUCH A SURVEY INDEPENDENTLY IN LONNIE AND SEE WHAT YOU GET]

 The reason for this can be illustrated by satisfied customer Lyn who reviewed Pennytel on ProductReview.com.au; "I could not be happier with my Pennytel service. Great coverage, no dropouts, good download speed, excellent customer service. It is so good to actually speak to a person reasonably quickly and have problems resolved with a minimum fuss. Well done Pennytel."  [HHHMMMMMMM]

When you call Pennytel there's little waiting. You'll also speak to a friendly, understanding customer service staff who will, in 94 per cent of instances, resolve your query on the first call. [SOMEONE NEEDS TO DO THIS TEST AT TOWN HALL]

With this exceptional service why would you bother looking anywhere else! 

For more information call Pennytel on 1300 262 146 or go to Pennytel.com.au . [SOMEONE SHOULD CALL TOWN HALL ON 03 6323 3000 SEEKING THIS CLASS OF INFORMATION]

This is advertiser content for Pennytel. 

This story From lifesaving to sanity saving, good customer service works first appeared on Newcastle Herald.

SEE https://www.examiner.com.au/story/6827440/from-lifesaving-to-sanity-saving-good-customer-service-works/?cs=10252&mvt=i&mvn=f7df87c31e584dddba1d06c2b8b2e853&mvp=NA-TIMESITE-11239159&mvl=Size-6x1%20%5BHome%20Page%20left%20rail%20Position%205%5D

Councillors [attempt to] wipe hands clean of drought funding

Councillors wipe hands clean of drought funding

JULY 24 2020 - 6:30AM

[BUT CAN THEY?]

Isobel Cootes 

The community continue to seek clarification on the City of Launceston council's acceptance of $10 million in grant funding meant for drought affected communities. [AND IT IS FED BOVIN DUST BY THE SHOVEL FULL JUST LIKE MUSHROOMS]

The $10 million Building Better Regions grant was given to the council for its Creative Precinct development. To be eligible it had to prove the project would be delivered in a drought-affected location. [AND LAUNCESTON WAS NOT IN DROUGHT AND HAS NOT EXPERIENCED DROUGHT BUT IT SEEMS WHAT’S NOT A DROUGHT ANYWHERE ELSE IS A DROUGHT IN THE BASS ELECTORATE ... IS THIS A LICENCE TO TELL PORKIES ON YOUR TAX RETURN???]

The development will transform the Paterson Street car park into a bus exchange and the old Birchalls building will host a creative industries education precinct. [COULD THERE BE ANY KIND OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST HERE???]

However, elected members wiped their hands clean [not really, they are just looking the other way] of the debacle as mayor Albert van Zetten repeatedly stated grant applications were "operational matters", during Thursday's council meeting. [REALLY, REALLY IS THIS WHAT ELECTED MEMBERS DO?    IF SO, WHY DO RATEPAYERS BOTHER WITH ELECTIONS???]

"The submission of grant applications are operational matters [WHY WOULD THAT BE AND UPON WHOSE DESK DOES THE BUCK ACTUALLY LAND???] which are not reported to council. [AND WHY NOT????] Council makes many grant applications each year and where they are successful, councillors are advised of the opportunity to accept the funding," he said. [SO, IN GOOD CONCIENCE HOW CAN THIS MONEY BE ACCEPTED IF IT CAN BE CHARACTORISED AS BUREAUCRATIC THEFT ... AND ANYWAY, WHERE WOULD THIS PASS A PUB TEST]

"The full details of the grant application are yet to be publicly announced however, I can confirm that it was not appropriate that there be discussions with the Paterson Street central car park owner in respect to the applications."[NOT IF YOU HAVE BEEN CAUGHT OUT TELLING PORKIES]

A key criteria for the grant was to be included in the Commonwealth's Drought Communities Programme. [ YES THAT IS RIGHT AND LAUNCESTON DID NOT EXPERIENCE DROUGHT] The Tasmanian councils included in that program were Devonport, Break O'Day and Glamorgan Spring Bay. [ AND DID THESE COUNCILS APPLY FOR THIS MONEY?]

One member of the public asked if the council would return the grant funding as it was "unethically and immorally benefiting" despite not experiencing drought. [AND WHERE IS THE ARGUMENT THAT IT WAS MORAL AND ETHICAL TO APPLY???]

Cr van Zetten said the application was made in good faith. [REALLY, REALLY AND YOU WOULD BUY A USED CAR FROM ANYONE WHO TOLD YOU THIS ???]

He said the Australian Bureau of Meteorology data showed, in the 20 months before the council's application in December, a 'severe deficiency' in rainfall for the region. [BUT AS IN ALL THINGS “deficiency'’ IS RELATIVE ... BUT NEVERTHELESS THE BUREAU DID NOT DECLARE A DROUGHT IN BASS BUT, POLITICALLY SPEAKING, A 'severe deficiency'COULD BE A DROUGHT IN BASS]

"According to the bureau, both the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 year figures show that the kanamaluka river was well below average in terms of flow and were equivalent levels to those recorded during the height of the millennial drought in Tasmania," he said. [NONETHELESS, DID THE BUREAU DECLARE THE REGION AS BEING IN DROUGHT ... THE EVIDENCE SUGGESTS PROBABLY NOT]

QUESTIONS TO CITY OF LAUNCESTON COUNCIL

QUESTION 1

In the light of increasing reports that at Council’s Waste Management Centre that compostable cellulose materials, masonry and metals plus other recyclable and upscaleable material is going to landfill on a regular and uncontrolled basis, some say hourly basis, that is material arriving at the centre as unsorted rubbish and carelessly mixed, thus causing it to go inappropriately to landfill and as a consequence mitigating against this material’s recoverability as a resource and seriously impacting upon council’s ability to recover and utilise these resources and diverting them to appropriate resource recovery regimes towards the benefit of ratepayers and 21^st Century resource recovery strategies with win-win benefits going to not only ratepayers but also mitigating against sustainable ‘environmental management strategies’ and towards achieving ‘zero waste strategies’ :

• will council now, and expeditiously, initiate appropriate regulations resulting in both substantial fines for inappropriate resource disposal behaviours and a rewards system for exemplary resource recovery outcomes as well as revisiting past refusals to re-contextualise the “Waste Management Centre” as a RESOURCE RECOVERY CENTRE and employ appropriately qualified staff to oversee and implement the strategic change?

QUESTION 2

In the light of increasing concerns regarding the city’s dismal fiscal performance and the reported, projected, and planned10% plus operating deficit for 2020/2021, plus the reported serial past budget ‘over runs’ of extraordinary proportions in the order of 30 plus average Launceston mid-range housing properties, and a similar number of senior salaries in council’s management structure, plus the city’s mounting debt level, not to mention the extraordinary unsustainable and development proposal for a transit exchange, touted by the GM/CEO as viable on the grounds that Local Government is not required to make a profit given that all costs can be passed on to ratepayers who must pay for all unanticipated costs, all of which has all the hallmarks of a ‘fiscal folly writ large’ at ratepayers expense both in the short and longer term, against the disruptive background of the COVID-19 Crisis and the escalating unemployment figures and the increasing numbers of small business failures:

• will council take immediate steps to appoint an independent forensic auditor to identify the root causes of the city’s apparent fiscal ineptitudes and tasked to report expeditiously to ratepayers and residents in a staged manner over nine months in order that the fiscal failures and weaknesses can be addressed and allow council to reset its rate demands and fees regime to fit the now clear economic circumstances of ratepayers, residents and regional business now struggling to survive?

QUESTION 3

Given the growing community disquiet and disgust in regard to council taking money from a dedicated drought relief funding grants program designed to alleviate the impact of Australia’s unprecedented and prolonged drought that has been compounded by unprecedented bush fires and further compounded upon by the COVID-19 Crisis and given council’s behaviours that are deservedly being charactorised as unconscionable, and arguably as unethical and immoral behaviours in the light of all this, all of which is ultimately diminishing to ordinary citizens trying to find a positive way forward but are being blighted by council’s predisposition to take the money and run and to hell with the consequences while apparently being unconcerned at the plight of communities elsewhere who are suffering profoundly while Launceston essentially misrepresents it ‘drought status’ relative to those communities suffering very real distress in multiple ways:

• will council confess to its misdeeds, return the money, the entire $10 plus million, to the fund it now so very clear that Launceston is unethically and immorally benefiting from in the face of the published evidence in the press, and citizen’s real-world experiences, that is that Launceston DID NOT and has not experienced ‘drought at any level’ albeit that the city and region may have experienced some but limited rainfall deficits, and consistent with this attempt to negotiate a fiscal way forward that is defendable, moral and ethical?

Ray Norman

Launceston

OPINION: Launceston Building Better Regions a great outcome

 FUTURE: The City of Launceston received a $10 million grant from the Building Better Regions fund for the Creative Precinct development.

The power of positivity is a valuable thing.[YES, JUST SO LONG AS IT IS NOT BASED UPON ASSERTED FACTS]

It's what inspires us to apply for that new job, to hit the gym, or to try learning a new skill.[YES, AS ABOVE]

It's vital, especially in challenging times like these, to remain hopeful about what the future can bring if we just take a single step towards our goal. Launceston relies on the positivity of our enormous volunteer community, for example, who make so many of our wonderful events possible. [YES, BUT IT IS ALSO THE CASE THAT THE CITY EXPLOITS VOLUNTEERS AND PAYS THEM MINIMUM RESPECT]

We rely on the positivity of our CBD cleansing crews, who are known by retailers across the city for their professionalism and friendliness, even in the early hours of the morning. As a council, we rely on positivity from our community when trying new initiatives, launching new projects or applying for new funding streams. [YES, MANY STAFF DO AN INCREDIBLY GOOD ALBEIT COMMISSIONED TOO OFTEN CARRY OUT ILL CONCEIVED POLICIES]

By and large, Launceston is filled with positive people, and I believe we also have a positive council, one which proactively works to achieve better outcomes for our city. The organisation has developed the Greater Launceston Plan, completed the reconstruction of the city's flood Levee defence system, constructed Riverbend Park and the Seaport pedestrian bridge, redeveloped Macquarie House, and overhauled some of our tired public spaces. [ALL THESE PROJECTS WERE CARRIED OUT WITHIN ELASTIC BUDGETS AND HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO ACCUMULATED DEBT THAT WILL ULTIMATELY HAVE TO BE PAID FOR BY RATEPAYERS] [YES, MANY RATEPAYERS ARE POSITIVE PEOPLE BUT COUNCIL GENERALLY REGARDS THEM WITH DISTAIN IN POLICY DEVELOPMENT]

We've successfully lobbied for the continuation of the Hawthorn agreement, undertaken a complex review of the structure of our organisation, and we've approved major development proposals - including the Verge Hotel and Fragrance Hotel. [YES, IT IS JUST A PITY THAT PLANNING PROCESSES ALL TOO OFTEN DISREGARD COMMUNITY ASPIRATIONS AND  EXPECTATIONS]

All of these projects began as mere seeds of ideas, requiring an enormous amount of positivity to see through from start to completion. A lot of the day-to-day work [IS DRIVEN BY IN-HOUSE IMPERATIVES WHATEVER THEY HAPPEN NTO BE] we undertake involves discussions with private businesses, property developers, community groups, industry bodies and different tiers of government.[REALLY, THIS IS AN ASSERTION THAT DOES NOT STACK UP AND IN THE END IT IS JUST SO MUCH HORSE MANURE]

Again, this is work we carry out with a positive frame of mind, with hope for the future: encouraging new businesses to set up in Launceston, guiding developers through the assessment and approvals process, or lobbying for funds for important community projects. Another example is the filing of grant applications and funding requests to other levels of government. This is a routine task for the City of Launceston, and one we do to the best of our ability [???] on behalf of our community, with a positive view of what might be possible in the future.[YES, JUST SO LONG AS THE RATEPAYERS PAY AND OTHER ASPIRANTS BENEFIT] ... [A QUESTIONABLE ASSERTION FOUNDED UPON CONCEPTUAL BIAS] 

Despite the power of positivity, we're often unsuccessful [YES]in this regard -- there are many worthy projects around Australia, and there are limited funds to go around.

But occasionally, the power of positivity pays off and we see funding commitments for fantastic [THAT MAYOR WORD IN TROUBLED TIMES], project proposals like the Northern suburbs community hub, upgrades for the Albert Hall, the River Health Action Plan, and the Launceston City Heart Project. We've seen another example in recent weeks, with the City of Launceston receiving a grant from Round 4 of the federal government's Building Better Regions Fund to support some exciting new proposals in our CBD. This was a funding stream open to communities across Australia for infrastructure projects. It aimed to create jobs, drive economic growth, and build stronger regional communities. It was open to regional communities for infrastructure projects providing economic and social benefits, and these projects did not have to be directly associated with drought relief. [WELL THEN, WHY CALL IT "DROUGHT RELIEF FUNDING' AND WHY CLAIM THAT THE CITY HAD BEEN IMPACTED UPON NBY DROUGHT???]  ... 

Among a range of eligibility criteria, applicants were required to use the official Bureau of Meteorology rainfall data to demonstrate an extended period in their region with a significant decline in rainfall.[BOVINE DUST ... THE FACTS DO NOT SUPPORT THIS ASSERTION BASED ONN CONCEPTUAL BIAS]

Bureau data shows large areas within the Launceston municipality and across Northern Tasmania were rated as severely rainfall deficient over 20 months to December last year when the application was submitted. [BOVINE DUST AGAIN ... LAUNCESTON WAS NOT IN DROUGHT AND COULD NOT ETHICALLY OR MORALLY CLAIM THAT IT WAS IN COMPARISON REGIONS THAT WERE ... ASSERTED TRUTHS ARE NOT THE TRUTH]

In addition, data from both the 2017/18 and 2018/19 years showed water flow in the kanamaluka/Tamar Estuary catchment was well below average; flows were similar to those recorded during the worst of the millennial drought.  [BOVINE DUST AGAIN ... LAUNCESTON WAS NOT IN DROUGHT AND COULD NOT ETHICALLY OR MORALLY CLAIM THAT IT WAS IN COMPARISON TO REGIONS THAT WERE ... ASSERTED TRUTHS ARE NOT THE TRUTH]

Finally, before beginning work on a submission, the council and the Co-ordinator General's Office checked with the federal government that Launceston was eligible to apply and were answered in the affirmative.  [AS MAYBE, BUT IT DOES NOT SANITISE THE CLAIM THAT THE CLIMATIC FACTS WERE OTHERWISE AS THE RECORDS SHOW]

The outcome is that $10m in funding has been made available to Launceston and it comes at a time when Launceston is crying out for job-creating projects to weather the storm created by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 [AGAIN AS MAYBE, BUT IT DOES NOT SANITISE THE CLAIM THAT THE CLIMATIC FACTS WERE OTHERWISE AS THE RECORDS SHOW EVEN IF  AS ,GEOBBLES IMAGINED THAT A LIE REPEATED OFTEN ENOUGH BECAME THE TRUTH ]

The outcome is that $10m in funding has been made available to Launceston and it comes at a time when Launceston is crying out for job-creating projects to weather the storm created by the COVID-19 pandemic.  [AGAIN AS MAYBE, BUT IT DOES NOT SANITISE THE CLAIM THAT THE CLIMATIC FACTS WERE OTHERWISE AS THE RECORDS SHOW EVEN IF  AS ,GEOBBLES IMAGINED THAT A LIE REPEATED OFTEN ENOUGH BECAME THE TRUTH ]

It will help create jobs, keep people in work, and build new infrastructure - something we can all be positive about.  [AGAIN AS MAYBE, BUT AT WHAT MORAL EXPENSE? ]

• Albert van Zetten, Launceston mayor ... [STILL ON THE HOOK]

PERHAPS LAUNCESTON'S MAYOR AND CEO SHOULD READ THIS IN THE SUNDAY EXAMINER AND RECONSIDER COUNCIL'S POSITION

Putting things together and in context...In the context that the City of Launceston’s Mayor and CEO see no problem in taking Federal GRANT MONEY designed and devised specifically to assist regions deal with the outcomes of ‘drought’, the drought that Tasmania did no go through, the drought that did not impact upon Launceston, the Mayor, Councillor A M van Zetten responded to a question to do with WASTE MANAGEMENT at a recent Council meeting, by saying that no, at this stage we do not have anything that fits the criteria of this program. The City of Launceston do participate in and host the Northern Tasmanian Regional Waste Management group which is focused on improvements in waste management and diversion from landfill. Diversion initiatives at the Launceston Waste Centre include:

• Introduction of a FOGO kerbside collection and organics processing facility at LWC to divert organics from waste stream. This has been highly successful with FOGO registrations now over 10,000 properties, and the facility is processing FOGO collected from a number of other municipalities.

• Waste transfer station for collection of recyclable material and drop off of re-usable items for resale at the Uptipity store.

• Waste disposal by members of the public is captured and sorted at the Walking Floor where re-usable items are also separated for resale. ... https://www.launceston.tas.gov.au/Agendas-Minutes?dlv_OC%20CL%20Public%20Meetings=(pageindex=1)

SO, MAYBE it is time that Council put on their collective thinking caps to find a way that they can better understand and deal with the resources that find their way to Launceston’s WASTE MANAGEMENT CENTRE. Especially so as reports of recyclable and upcyclable resources continue to go to landfill against all logic and due to a demonstrated lack of awareness of, indeed interest in, the issue of resource recovery from the civic waste stream.... SO, MAYBE it is time that Council put on their collective thinking caps to find a way that they can better understand and deal with the resources that find their way to Launceston’s WASTE MANAGEMENT CENTRE. Especially so as reports of recyclable and upcyclable resources continue to go to landfill against all logic and due to a demonstrated lack of awareness of, indeed interest in, the issue of resource recovery from the civic waste stream. ALWAYS REMEMBERING that LAUNCESTON not long ago puffed itself up and declared a CLIMATE ENERGENCY and a ban on SINGLE USE PLACTICS in public places... Over to the press perhaps?

IF LAUNCESTON DOES NOT SEE THE CITY AS BEING A PART OF THE SOLUTION IT ALONG WITH ALL RECALISTRANT LOCAL GOVERNMENTS LIKE IT

ARE THE PROBLEM!

Australia's great waste challenge

• 

Katie Burgess

A beachfront in Bali covered with rubbish. Picture: Getty Images

I spot it. A shadow in the ocean in front of me. A manta ray gliding through the deep blue water. I'm off the coast of Nusa Pendida, a tiny island south-east of Bali, at a time when coronavirus seemed a distant and unlikely threat. We'd come here to swim with manta rays, a memorable way to mark my partner's 30^th birthday.

But that's not a ray I've seen. Upon closer inspection, it's a plastic bag undulating with the tide. I'm snorkelling in a floating trash pile.The coral reef is strewn with a kaleidoscope of plastic straws. A tropical fish darts after a lid. I surface to see ocean belching plastic onto the shoreline. Plastic bottles bob in the waves around me. An orphaned thong drifts by. It's the saddest and most revolting sight I've ever seen. I felt helpless watching it, like one of those discarded bottles powerless against the tide. I went back to that moment when Environment Minister Sussan Ley said this week mixed plastic from the Hume materials recycling facility was exported to Indonesia. Were my Canberra Milk cartons contributing to the floating trash piles I'd been swimming in?

According to Garth Lamb from Re.Group - the company which runs the Hume recycling centre - no. Around 95 per cent of recyclable material that goes to Hume stays in Australia, including the milk bottles.

Around 50 per cent of recycling in the average Canberrans' yellow bin is paper and cardboard, which is sent from Hume to the paper mill at Tumut for processing. Another 30 per cent is glass, which is crushed into sand at Hume and used in local civil construction works. Another 10 to 15 per cent is non-recyclable waste which should not have been in the yellow bin in the first place and is sent to landfill, while the remaining 5 to 10 per cent is various grades of plastic as well as metals. The Hume centre pulls out the PET - those plastic drink bottles - and HDPE - your humble milk bottle - and sells it to domestic recyclers in NSW. The tiny fraction remaining then goes to markets like Indonesia.

"The recyclable materials that are exported include the lower-value mixed plastic, which is only about 2 per cent of input, and metals that are also about 2 per cent of input," Lamb says.

"The whole purpose of recycling is to get materials back into the productive economy, being used again instead of digging up new virgin resources. Because a lot of the lower-grade plastic materials in our waste stream are made overseas, the demand for those type of raw materials is overseas.

"China is the world's biggest manufacturer, so it has the world's biggest demand for raw materials, and that's why it was the world's biggest buyer of recycled materials. And that's why the global recycling sector was so heavily impacted when China decided to stop importing a lot of the recycled materials it used to buy."

The $21 million upgrade of the recycling centre the minister was announcing when she made the Indonesia comment (and sent me on a mental spiral) will help Re.Group better separate and process recycling streams, including around 23,000 tonnes of paper and mixed cardboard, 1800 tonnes of mixed plastics and 14,000 tonnes of glass.

Environment Minister Sussan Ley at this week's announcement in Hume. Picture: AAP

The money for Canberra was the first grant to come from a $190 million Recycling Modernisation Fund revealed by the federal government last week. The fund is tipped to drive a billion-dollar transformation of Australia's waste and recycling capability, diverting more than 10 million tonnes of waste from landfill.

The fact there is finally action at a federal level on waste is noteworthy in itself and a reflection of the seismic shift in the way Australians think about their rubbish and recycling in recent years.

"For a long time, it was an 'out of sight out of mind' issue where most people didn't think twice about what happens after they wheeled out a yellow bin on collection night," Lamb says.

"Then we saw impacts such as the collapse of a major recycler in Melbourne, and all of a sudden people realised some of the huge challenges the recycling sector has been facing.

"I think the Australian community was really disappointed to learn that a lot of the material they thought was being recycled and reused locally was actually being exported to countries that didn't have the same environmental and worker protections that we take for granted in Australia. And to their great credit, our Australian government has responded to this with very real and very important steps to build our domestic recycling capacity and keep more value onshore."

From July 1 next year, Australia will ban the export of unprocessed glass. Mixed plastics that are not of a single resin or polymer type will be banned from export from July 1 2021. By 2024 all waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres will be banned from export. However there are fears the ban could lead to more waste ending up in landfill.

"In nearly all cases, Australia is a net importer of manufactured goods. Consequently, it is extremely difficult to consume all, or even the majority, of many recycled materials within Australia because there simply isn't sufficient demand for this material," Waste Contractors and Recyclers Association NSW executive Tony Khoury told a parliamentary inquiry earlier this year.

"We support the intent of COAG's decision however it will be impossible to recycle and reuse more of this material onshore unless governments assist in establishing policy settings, supporting new infrastructure and creating demand for recycled products.

"Without this, the most likely outcome is that this material, that was previously predominantly recycled overseas, may end up in landfill in Australia. This has the potential to destroy the faith and reputation the community has had in the recycling industry," he said.

Lamb says the fundamental challenge facing Australia's recycling industry is that there are not enough Australian markets for all the recycled materials we can recover.

"A lot of the material that used to be exported in the past is now trying to find its way into local markets, which is why we're seeing a focus on building domestic capacity," he says.

Making mixed plastics recycling happen here in Australia will require more investments like the one at Hume, Lamb says.

"We need new facilities, such as are part of the funding announcement for the Hume MRF, where plastics are further sorted and value-added," he says.

"Instead of making bales of mixed material that get sent overseas for someone else to sort through and recover each type of plastic, we want to sort that material here. We want to shred it and wash it, so the end product is ready for user who need it as a raw material to make new products.

"And because we're doing that in Australia, we can be assured of the highest environmental standards when it comes to things like cleaning up and recycling the water used in the washing process, and responsibly disposing of any contaminated materials rather than letting them build up in the natural environment."