Our Chief Minister Adam Giles is moving about the community letting it be known in no uncertain terms that the days of socialist government, where government is expected to provide everything, where a new project is never started before applying for and receiving funding, are gone.
The welfare handout mentality must go and if we are to get the town of Alice Springs moving again then it’s up to us, the people of Alice to do it, because Government can’t and won’t do it for us.
Given that a large portion of our building capacity has been for many years almost totally dependent on government contracts, this is a huge ask: Work has pretty well run out and moving into a new regime, where we design and fund our own projects, takes time.
It’s very difficult to finance new projects while your turnover is minimal. Can it be done? The answer to that is “yes I think it can”, but it is going to take a huge change in the attitude of bureaucracy to make it happen.
We have to free up the constraints of socialist government before free enterprise can thrive. It has to become possible to put a development concept through the many government agencies in just a few months.
Complacent bureaucrats, sitting on overweight backsides throwing obstacles into the path of developers out of sheer bloody mindedness and their “I’m alright Jack” mentality, will need to be booted out of their complacency or out of their jobs, all within a very short time frame.
Community expectations will have to lowered. Not every project can or will be the Taj Mahal, not every little interest group can be placated, and not every tree can be preserved!
The community will need to undergo a change of attitude, get used to viewing developers and new projects as their saviours not as the enemy. The very timely review into the Sacred Sites Act should be viewed as an opportunity to facilitate this kind change.
Will all of this be good for Alice? Yes I believe in the long run it will be the making of Alice, forcing us to take up and make something of the enormous opportunities that surround us.
We have land in boundless quantities, with all the required services. We are blessed with a magnificent and marketable landscape. Our transport facilities are second to none. We are a small town but sport a magnificent airport just 10 minutes’ scenic drive from town.
Yes the opportunities are there alright, now we need the guts vision and determination to do something with them! The question to contemplate over the break: Do we get off our backsides in the New Year and give it a go, or do we sit on our hands and allow our town to become a rather sad welfare dependent backwater?
It’s all up to us the Chief Minister is saying, while stating that his government will do its damdest to facilitate. Let’s get working on putting this claim to the test very early in the New Year.
Friday, April 19, 2024
The freedom of the press still furnishes that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide – Chicago Tribune.
I find it intersting that Cr Brown and his ilk continue to refer to ‘socialist’ government initiatives in reference to the previous NT government.
At least, with the BDR, they attempted to cut the socialist hand-out that the CLP maintains to the alcohol industry.
The CLP maintains a heavy welfare stimulus towards sustaining and creating a state of alcoholism, guaranteeing that taxpayers will keep them in business.
The “suite of measures” that Mr Giles is building into his government’s alcohol policy are all on the demand side, not the supply side.
As I note in Alcohol Watch #4, the alcohol industry loves governments like the NTG because they will be forever expanding into new product line without losing their core culture customer base.
Cr Brown, like the Local Government Association of the NT who are listed as supporters of the National Alliance for Action on Alcohol (NAAA), appear to be duped into believing that socialism is only a tool of Labor governments.
Good post Cr Brown, it is the sort of attitude The Alice needs, so long as it is not just rhetoric. Bring some of these ideas to fruition and Alice will move forward.
Get real, “Terry.” We’ve had Cr Brown’s Port Augusta solution funded by ratepayers with no demonstrable outcome and his latest community pep talk is focused on making “a huge change in the attitude of bureaucracy”, moving Alice forward, “forcing us to take up and make something of the enormous opportunities that surround us”.
The annual multi-million dollar taxpayer funding of the alcohol industry has ruined Alice, yet Cr Brown waxes on with “land in boundless quantities, with all the required services. We are blessed with a magnificent and marketable landscape. Our transport facilities are second to none. We are a small town but sport a magnificent airport just 10 minutes’ scenic drive from town.”
His focus on the tourist industry and getting an airline to service it requires more than a pep talk, but we’ve been over this ground before.
There’s more, “Yes the opportunities are there alright, now we need the guts vision and determination to do something with them! The question to contemplate over the break: Do we get off our backsides in the New Year and give it a go, or do we sit on our hands and allow our town to become a rather sad welfare dependent backwater?”
Cr Brown is one who has been sitting on his hands allowing the welfare dependent backwater to fester with 40 years of take-away alcohol licenses, culminating in a seven day per week regime, while championing the Chief Minister’s efforts to spend our taxes rehabilitating the revolving door of alcohol-industry sponsored inmates, who have the “opportunity” of a lifetime to get “off the grog.”
Sorry, but I’m not jumping on the Brown Grogmobile. It’s a lemon, while it turns its back on its own backyard.
Steve’s Sting … more like a Puppet on a String.
In reference to ‘Steve’s Sting’, Cr Brown may be interested in reading the thoughts of long-time Byron Bay local, Rusty Miller writing on the changes he’s seen to the iconic town (Rusty’s Byron Guide. Dec. 2014).
Miller notes: “A comprehensive household survey process of 12,441 people showed 96.7% were opposed to CSG mining.
“Another movement has been the Last Drinks at 12 group formed in 2013 in response to the high level of night time alcohol-related violence in Byron Bay.
“While this may not be the only answer it is typical of our community than when an issue arises, a group forms to engage directly with it.
“Byron works hard on its issues and we are proud of our reputation of taking responsibility for how we are governed and dealt with as a community. A strong, healthy democracy requires constant vigilance and investment of time and energy. While many Byron Shire residents concern themselves with issues, they are also masters of making it fun by creatively celebrating along the way: this is a core community development principle.
“An essential key to our long-term success of achieving strong social, environmental and economic horsepower is to keep the currency flowing locally. According to Screenworks in the 2012/13 financial year, $31m. was spent here in film production. The wedding industry has yet to be calculated collectively in monetary terms or employment of local people: photographers, florists, make-up artists, venue hire, caterers, etc. The farming / food industry with its value-adding is on the increase creating new employment. We should be hailing our local farmers, calling them celebrity growers along with the chefs.
“Businesses such as these keep the money in the community as opposed to mining operations, which tend to be large corporations whose profits go out of the region into the hands of shareholders.
“Such local growth in these few mentioned and other similar industries not only brings more jobs into existence but, also importantly, enables empowerment and self determination to the whole community of residents and visitors.
“Byron is a convergence zone: for birds, ocean currents and wildlife species, including people. It is a convergence zone for a new economy that believes in gross local happiness. Here visitors and locals are the shareholders. And here the value stays near to heart in the form of community.”
Byron Bay has many similarities to Alice and is keeping a closer watch on alcohol issues because, as Miller notes, the entire community relies on building a new economy from its local base. The Alice Springs community has been over-taken by the alcohol industry and this has had a deleterious effect on tourism.
Re: Russell Guy Posted December 28, 2013 at 8:54 am
Worth looking further at lastdrinksat12.org.au
Perhaps ask them add a page to list groups with similar goals from other communities and special interest groups which support this approach.