It's that time of the year again and here we go again with the same old, same old, as if the "post COVID snap back'" is real. The reality is that world has changed and fundamentally. The reality is that the Local Government Act 1995 in Tasmania is way past its use-by-date. And, it's election time too in Tasmania and it is shaping up for a federal election, so the air reeks of political bull dust.
The situation at Launceston's Town Hall is not quite as Acting Mayor Danny Gibson presents it. Because interests rates are at an all time low, presumably this is seen as an opportunity to boost spending and increase economic activity. Who benefits? The developers and The Councils' operational management of course. Who pays? Everybody else of course and for the most part ratepayers.
Yes, yes, infrastructure needs to be maintained and upgraded. However, by way of example, if there was ever a time that the cessation of Landfill Waste Disposal – dumping unutilised resources in the environment – needed to be implemented, it is right now. This council has been ducking that issue for way too long and here we committing $6Million to burying resources in one financial year. Who benefits? Not a community looking for 21st C sustainability. Imagine for a moment how else that money could be invested and the dividends it might deliver.
Curiously, if you quiz a councillor or an operative they'll tell you that this or that is going on BUT, they'll say, we must keep on consigning 'waste', otherwise imaginable as a resource, to landfill. Why? When does it stop?
With a tokenistic Climate Emergency Policy it must seem plausible to keep on trotting out this inconceivably stupid nonsense, otherwise why do it? One day the first step needs to be made and NOW seems as good a time to do it as was the times passed over. However, this is just a tiny bit of the fiscal ineptitude on display. Stop landfill now!
Year upon year this council fails to deliver projects on time and on budget and apart for a faint apology here and there, the prospect for fiscal accountability and transparency is way, way over the horizon.
Acting Mayor Cr Gibson – or should we say aspirant mayor – projects returning to fiscal sanity by 2025-26. That does not look like a prospect UNLESS this council can get away with hitting up the ratepayers to cover the operational excess and budget overruns. That is what typically happens but it is time for a serious rethink. None of this fiscal failure can be put down to COVID-19, not a skerrick.
It is concerning that council is in already debt, and:
- Apparently that is in the order of $12 Million; and
- Apparently that is expected to grow to $32 Million; and
- The city's current budget is $7.5 Million in deficit; and
- Apparently that is to grow exponentially in 2021-22 – funded by borrowings fee and rate increases no doubt.
On face value both the elected representatives and council operatives are not only exhibiting all the signs of having lost the plot, it is increasingly clear that, collectively, they were never in possession of a real world strategy that was fiscally sound and plausible.
It needs to be said that, in its entirety, and in a 21st C context, the City of Launceston's Council is failing its citizenry big time. One Councillor is calling out the city's unsustainable rate demands compared to elsewhere, but not a squeak out of the other Councillors or management, not a squeak in defence.
In the business world this lot would be summarily dismissed and deservedly so. In Tasmanian Local Government council's have increasingly become less and less accountable and dismissal that is, in Launceston, is never on the agenda. You have to wonder what dastardly deed would bring about such an outcome. What actually separates this council from say Glenorchy and Huon Councils?
In the short term residents, ratepayers and businesses need to be making their aspirations and concerns well known and loudly. In the longer term, Tasmanians need to be demanding fundamental and meaningful change. No longer can Tasmanians waste time talking about accountability and transparency as too much is at risk for future generations. Those who will paying today's debt tomorrow no matter how large.
Those who generated the debt will have superannuated and insulated themselves far, far away from any consequences. They will have moved on and some may well be in their final repose.
The current system allows elected representatives to be sidelined and senior management to use their positions to asset strip budgets for their own purposes – sometimes perverse purposes.
Rather than play the compliance game set down by the powers that be at Town Hall ratepayers and citizens should:
- Send their comments and expectations of the budget to each and every Councillor or specific Councillors;
- Phone each and every Councillor or specific Councillors and tell them what they expect;
- Go to https://www.facebook.com/CityOfLauncestonOfficial/ and share your concerns there and on other othe social media
- Send your concerns to the press via email; and
- Copy them to the GM/CEO and Mayor, his Deputy and then the Minister for Local Govt – whoever that turns out to be.
IN SHORT give'm heaps!
Tandra Vale
City of Launceston council to
release 2021-22 budget
Dana Anderson
QVMAG programs to be supported in proposed 2021-22 budget.
- Recreational facilities,
- roads and traffic maintenance, and
- waste
City of Launceston acting mayor Danny Gibson said the proposed expenditure of $130 million for the 2021-22 financial year included
- $24.19 million on recreational facilities,
- $12 million on roads and traffic, and
- $5.9 million for extension capping at the Launceston Waste Centre.
- The council also proposes to invest in the ongoing implementation of the My Place My Future plan,
- Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery program and
- Smart City initiatives.
- $3.2 million for major road reconstruction,
- $1 million for urban road resealing,
- $750,000 for Reimaging the Gorge,
- $450,000 for footpath work, and
- $460,000 for the redevelopment of parking at Churchill Park.
Submissions to the budget can be made by email to
in writing addressed to the
- Chief Executive Officer, City of Launceston,
- PO Box 396, Launceston 7250,
- until 5pm on May 7.
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