Posts filed under 'Canberra Stories'
The RiotACT brings word that the Gungahlin Drive Extension’s 2nd stage bridge, which is currently under construction, has collapsed on to the Barton Highway.
Thankfully nobody has been seriously hurt. One person was trapped and had to be freed with up to ten people being taken to hospital. (Update: In one breath the Emergency Services Agency says that there were no serious injuries, and in the next says that “The injuries range from limb to suspected spinal”. That sounds pretty serious to me.)
I’m sorry, but I can’t mince words here. Regardless of what may or may not have happened on-site, I have no doubts that the people ultimately to blame for this ar e the loopy greenies and socialists from Save The Ridge, the very people who caused delays and massive budget blowouts in the original GDE construction, which effectively prevented the second lane each way from being built at the time. If it weren’t for these people, the bridge in question would have been built at least a couple years ago, and would therefore have not collapsed during construction today.
“But it could have collapsed back then!” you say? Well, no, I don’t agree. Data from Darren Giles’ Gungahlin Weather Centre (which is closer to the bridge collapse than the Bureau’s airport measuring devices) shows that over the last few years we have had:
2006: 366.8 mm of rain
2007: 499.0 mm of rain
2008: 503.2 mm of rain
2009: 390.2 mm of rain
2010: 328.8 mm of rain to the end of yesterday (225 days of the year, which once extrapolated to a full year gives us 533.39 mm.
This makes this year our wettest of the years in which construction has been undertaken on the GDE. Rain can severely affect the integrity of setting concrete, and it is reasonable to say that, had the bridge been built in a previous year, it would have had less chance of being adversely affected by rain. Therefore, the delays caused by Save The Ridge are to blame for this bridge collapse.
Just another reason why we can’t let people like this be in charge of important infrastructure projects.
Samuel
August 14th, 2010 at 04:49pm
Some days some ads bewilder me:
(click image to enlarge)
Sure, it’s probably a good strategy to name your business after the place in which it is located…this probably cuts down on confusion, but in terms of the location itself, I don’t really see what is so great about an industrial area which enjoys traffic jams every morning and night of every weekday, much more so than any other industrial area in Canberra.
If it was a military installation like HMAS Harman, remotely located on Canberra Avenue between Canberra and Queanbeyan, then I might understand why it would be considered a “strategic location”…but in this case, I think it’s just false advertising.
Samuel
August 13th, 2010 at 06:39pm
The “do as we say, not as we do” gore-bull warming enthusiasts strike again….this time in the form of Greens Senate candidate for the ACT, Lin Hatfield Dodds.
Senate candidate Lin Hatfield Dodds says she’s not environmentally irresponsible for owning a V8 Toyota Landcruiser.
[..]
Ms Hatfield Dodds told The Canberra Times that poor public transport options forced her family to buy a second car about two years ago. The other family car was a Toyota Echo. The 4WD was chosen to take the family on monthly camping trips.
”I’m not at all worried about driving a four-wheel drive I’ve always said I don’t fit the mould of what people often perceive a green to be,” she said.
Well Lin, that’s just because most Canberrans don’t realise that the Greens’ socialist utopia inevitably involves the almighty administrators living a much more luxurious life than the rest of the population. It’s sold as “being nice to the environment” and “equality”…but you and I both know that this is not the case.
Back to the point though…monthly camping trips? Really? Aren’t those campfires bad for the environment or causing global warming or something? And if the rest of us are supposed to give up our large vehicles, how come you can’t lead by example. There are plenty of places to camp which do not require a four wheel drive in order to access them.
This is exactly the sort of “do as I say, not as I do” mentality that led to the delays and blowouts in cost of the Gungahlin Drive Extension. Admittedly the Stanhope government shares the blame for this by ineptly not simply overruling the cuckoo activists when they had the chance…however the Save The Ridge mob, supported by the Greens and the Socialists were the main cause of the delays in construction, the resulting blowout in costs, and the necessity to increase overall costs further by making the second lane a “we’ll just have to do that at some later stage” proposition for the ACT government. How is this a “do as I say, not as I do” issue? Because the Save The Ridge nuts use the GDE.
We can’t allow these people to take control of our government. We can’t risk having proponents of large central government in power when they pretend to be interested in “fairness”, but really just want to increase their own personal power and thrust some delusional socialist doctrine upon us. If they can cause a GDE fiasco at a local level, imagine what chaos they could cause at a national level. If you thought the Building the Education Revolution disaster was bad…you ain’t seen nothin’ (to borrow a quaint phrase) until you’ve seen Bob Brown as Dear Leader.
By the way, I love how The Canberra Times (aka The Fyshwick Guardian) not only tries to justify Lin’s hypocritical use of a V8 4WD with details of her carbon offset program (memo Lin: offsetting is not the same as reducing) but also seems to think that the only members of the Legislative Assembly are Greens:
Of Canberra’s four MLAs, three drive a Toyota Prius and the fourth has a Smart Car
I’m sure life would be much more in-line with the ideological standpoint of The Fyshwick Guardian if this were the case…but unless I missed something, the Hare-Clark proportional voting system hasn’t extended itself to removing all but the representatives of the party with the fewest elected members. Do the journos know something about the plans of the Greens that we don’t?
(with thanks to Jeremy Hanson MLA for the link to the article…seeing as I’ve mentioned Jeremy’s name, I should probably point out that my views do not necessarily reflect his)
Samuel
August 12th, 2010 at 11:38pm
With the Australian Electoral Commission having today announced the candidates for the seats of Fraser and Canberra in the federal election, and the candidates for the ACT’s two senate seats, it’s time for me to publish a preliminary how-to-vote card. This is all subject to change, and a finalised version will be published either on election day, or once I have cast my vote if I decide to put in a pre-poll vote.
There are a few objectives in the how-to-vote card. Firstly, I acknowledge that for the House of Representatives at least, it’s a safe Labor seat, so whilst it’s important to try and replace Labor, it’s also important to try and reduce the margin and make it less safe for Labor if they do retain the seats. In the Senate, the main objective is to maintain at least one Liberal seat…the other objective is to keep crazy people like the Greens out of the Senate. The idea of a returned Gillard government with a Greens balance of power in the senate is downright scary.
Fraser
1. MILLIGAN, James Keith (Liberal Party) — obviously he must come first
2. HEDGES-PHILLIPS, Quintin (Secular Party of Australia) — I find a bunch of their policies to be quite scary, especially ones about climate change, mining taxes and illegal immigrants etc, but they have minimal chance of gaining enough seats in parliament to do much of anything, so I’d rather have them than the Labor party. He also has a job which I can respect (Television Presentation Co-ordinator…and he’s not an ABC person!) and isn’t a career politician, which is more than I can say for many people from the other parties.
3. LEIGH, Andrew (Australian Labor Party) — this is tough, do I put an economist with the poor sense to join Labor ahead of the business owner with the poor sense to join the Greens? In any place other than Canberra, the answer would probably be no, but I can’t risk giving the Greens enough votes to take the seat of Fraser. Without an incumbent, this is a real possibility, so as hard as it is, a Labor economist (hopefully one with more brains than Wayne “traffic jams cause inflation” Swan gets third spot.
4. ESGUERRA, Indra (The Greens) — she might be a business owner, but she’s a Green, and I can’t support the socialists and their global warming alarmism.
Canberra
1. JONES, Giulia (Liberal Party) — “Giulia with a G” would have been a great addition to the Legislative Assembly, so hopefully we can get her in to the federal parliament.
2. BRODTMANN, Gai (Labor Party) — Another case of “I’ll put Labor ahead of the Greens just to keep the Greens out”.
3. ELLERMAN, Sue (The Greens) — No comment required here.
Senate
The senate is tougher to work out because the field is, at first impression, quite poor. There’s a couple good people in there, but they’re the minority. I’m tempted to simply vote above the line for the Liberals here, because they’re the only ones who are worth a vote, but this exercise wouldn’t be much fun if I didn’t try to work out the order in which the remaining rabble should receive preferences.
1. HUMPHRIES, Gary (Liberal Party) — I like Gary personally, although I find him to be less conservative than I would like…this has probably saved him in the strangely left-wing ACT though. That said, he has been a good Senator and will be receiving my vote again. I was tempted to give him second preference and give the other Liberal candidate the first preference, as this tactic helped me to get both Jeremy Hanson and Zed Seselja over the line in the ACT election, but given the nature of the ACT, I can’t risk Gary missing out on his quota, and he must therefore get my first preference, with the other Liberal candidate receiving my runoff.
2. WATTS, Matthew (Liberal Party) — See above
3. GLYNN, John (Independent) — From here on, the field devolves significantly. I know almost nothing about Mr. Glynn, however if, like much of the ACT, he is relatively left-wing, at least he will be an independent left-winger rather than part of a socialist party machine, like all of the following candidates.
4. LUNDY, Kate Alexandra (Labor Party) — I chuck most of her pamphlets in the bin after spending a minute staring at them in bewilderment…but I’d rather have her stay in her seat, than see her displaced by a Democrat or a Green
5. CHURCHILL, Darren Mark (Democrat) — This is where I start getting desperate, trying to work out which socialist is less dangerous than the next socialist. Darren is a casual relief teacher…if I can keep him away from indoctrinating teaching children, well that’ll be something. I also think the Democrats are less dangerous than the Greens.
6. DAVID, Anthony John (Democrat) — If he can keep a Green out, that’s wonderful.
7. PARRIS, Hannah (Green Party) — Of the two Greens running in this race, Hannah has made less scary press statements.
8. MATHEWS, David (Labor) — David disqualified himself from getting a higher ranking in the preferences by dishonestly appearing in a photo of supportive locals in one of Mike Kelly’s (incumbent candidate for Eden-Monaro) pamphlets, and then tried to defend his position on WIN News last night by claiming that, as he supports Mike Kelly, he is entitled to be in the photo. David, you’re not a local unless you live in the electorate. The only reason you’re not coming last in the preferences is because of the scary woman who follows.
9. HATFIELD DODDS, Lin (Green Party) — I can’t believe that the Greens have found a local who is scarier than Kerrie Tucker. Kudos to them for doing so. Now can they please hide this person away in an office where we never have to hear from them ever again?
As I say, the order may change a tad between now and the election, but this is how I see it for now, and how I would vote if the election were to be held today.
Now that we have a finalised list of candidates, I’ll send some interview requests to the candidates who interest me. This will not be all of them…in fact it will probably not be most of them. I may expand my scope a tad and seek interviews with some interesting candidates from outside the ACT as well. Stay tuned!
Samuel
July 31st, 2010 at 04:18pm
Dear persons,
That wet stuff falling from above makes your car harder to stop. Please slow down a tad. I know that you want to protect your car from the rain…but you should be more concerned about protecting it from a crash.
Regards,
Samuel
July 6th, 2010 at 09:30am
Over the next two weeks on Canberra’s roads you can expect a temporary increase in random breath testing, most likely in the form of large roadblock-style breath testing operations. “Why?” I hear you ask…well that’s simple, the police have new recruits and for whatever reason, all new recruits get stuck on traffic duty for two weeks.
Twenty-one new ACT Policing officers were officially sworn in as Constables of Police at the Australian Federal Police (AFP) College in Barton today.
[..]
The new officers will be deployed to stations within ACT Policing after completing a two week rotation with Traffic Operations.
As I understand it, the way this generally works is that a Sergeant will get stuck with supervising them all in one large group (the official wording for this might be that “the new recruits are assigned to an experienced senior officer”) and will be told to take them out on the road for some practical experience in dealing with people who probably don’t want to encounter the police, such as drink-drivers and people in stolen cars. Presumably they do it in this manner so that the recruits can handle a few angry people in a large enough group to contain trouble if it erupts…so that their first real experience of restraining an angry, violent drunk is not when there’s only two of them out on the beat.
I suppose it also helps with their confidence in asserting their authority over civilians by requesting licences and samples of breath etc.
Regardless, they’re out there, and you’ll probably find yourself in a car near them at some stage in the next two weeks here in Canberra.
Samuel
July 3rd, 2010 at 10:56am
The regular four-year cycle of ACTION staff rostering has made a full revolution a few months ahead of schedule. On Friday, ACTION’s drivers will be on strike all day. Funnily enough, the reasons for this strike are pretty much the same as the reasons for the last strike. The biggest difference that I can see though is that this time around, the strike is being conducted with a few days notice rather than a few hours…otherwise we seem to be going around in ever-repeating circles.
As I said to 2CC’s Mark Parton a few weeks ago, this ongoing pattern seems to be mostly due to ACTION being a government department which, like all other government department, shuffles all of its decision makers around as often as possible so as to prevent anybody maintaining any corporate knowledge, and therefore causing the new bosses to make the same old mistakes all over again each and every time the pay negotiations come around.
Case in point, the big boss at the time of the last strike, Mike Zissler, has long since escaped the public service and the man now at the top, James Roncon, was the general manager of Cowra Shire Council as recently as last year (scroll down linked page about three quarters to see the article). In other words, today’s boss wasn’t even in the ACT to see the news articles, let alone receive an in-depth inside understanding of the issues at play when we last went through this circus. To make matters worse (and exemplify my point) James didn’t even start off in Canberra at ACTION…last year he worked for the Land Development Agency (page 11).
Unlike the last strike, I won’t be working when this one occurs as I have Friday off, however I will admit that things like this did then, and do now, make me thankful to have access to a car. The fact that I often finish work after midnight makes me even more thankful for this. I do, at the very least, hope that the advance warning of this strike will allow people to plan ahead more than they were able to do last time.
And on that note, I leave you with The ACTION Song, to the tune of Herman’s Hermit’s No Milk Today.
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
The busses are just fine, but there’s a picket line
No ACTION today, the drivers are on strike
But people at the stop, don’t know the reason why
How could they know that there is a strike
There’s no signs around, media just catching up
How could they know that there is a strike
They’re all stuck there, at the bus stop
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
the shifts on offer are, very very poor
But all that’s left is a bus stop filled with people
looking very con-fu-used
They’ll all need to arrange other transport
Like a taxi
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
The drivers might be fined, but they don’t really mind
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
Services could be halved, but the drivers won’t take part
Stanhope’s regime has caused this
massive budget cuts, and lots less busses
How will people get from A to B
If there’s no bus, in the middle of the day
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
The drivers are on strike, fighting the good fight
All they want’s a decent roster
without split shifts and poor service
They want people to use the busses
And keep them in a job
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
Things are looking up, the talks have resumed
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
The split shifts are gone, the union is pleased
Who knows what might be next
What tricks are left, and who will win
Will we have another strike
Only time will tell, we shall wait and see
No ACTION today, they took my bus away
We play the waiting game, and let the talks go on
Who knows what might be next
Will services be intact, and who will win
Who knows what might be next
Will services be intact, and who will win
Who knows what might be next
Will services be intact, and who will win
Samuel
June 21st, 2010 at 04:09pm
There is currently a fire at the Bega Flats in Reid. The Fire Brigade have used a crane to evacuate residents from the block. Cooyong Street is currently blocked in both directions between Boolee Street and Akuna Street while the Fire Brigade work on extinguishing the fire, which appears to be contained to the inside of one unit at this time.
I have some dodgy photos from my phone, and am about to head back with a real camera. More details and photos shortly.
Update: The fire is out and nobody was hurt. The fire appears to have been in a unit on the lowest of the three floors and appears to have been unoccupied. The block of units is cordoned off while the fire brigade check each unit, and Cooyong Street remains blocked at this time, with diversions in place at the Akuna Street and Boolee Street intersections.
Somewhat amusingly, the press corp arrived just as I was leaving. They missed out on all the excitement.
Photos to follow in a few minutes. My phone needs a quick charge before it will be up to the task of handing over photos.
End Update
Update: The security guard may have led me astray. It turns out from a more credible witness that the police tackled and arrested somebody before I got there the first time. I can’t work out whether it was one person or multiple people. I also don’t know if the arrested person(s) is/are the occupant of the unit. End Update
Update: Photos. Unfortunately the photos taken on my phone were the only photos from when something interesting was happening, and unfortunately those photos are awful. The photos from my real camera are fine, but not much of interest happened in those photos.
Starting from the top, and the first shot is of the scene from the carpark entrance between Akuna Street and Ainslie Avenue. The floodlight on the Fire Brigade truck was not helpful.
Some onlookers, most from nearby blocks, standing on Cooyong Street.
A pretty bad shot, partially due to smoke. A fireman on a ladder getting somebody out of one of the units above the fire.
The overview of the scene from Glebe Park. There are more fire brigade and police vehicles behind the wall, and along Cooyong Street out of shot. Around this time, a fireman came over and connected a hose to a ground-level fire hydrant on the Glebe Park block.
The crane is lifted.
It was at this point in time, with my phone battery dying and an inability to get a decent photo, that I rushed back home with Nattie, collected my real camera and drove back to the scene. Unfortunately by then, the excitement was over, however I was able to get some more decipherable photos.
The scene looking down the Bega Flats carpark from the Boolee Street entrance.
Cooyong Street from near the Boolee Street intersection.
The crane.
The crane and a conference of firemen..
As far as I can tell, the fire was in the unit at the lower right of the this picture.
The scene from a bit beyond the Akuna Street intersection.
The scene from the Ainslie Avenue end of the carpark.
The best I could do to get a shot of the building from this side without the floodlight getting in the way. Yes, that is the head of a police officer behind the wall.
It’s hard to tell without a better overview of the entire block of apartments, but I think the crane is pointed directly at the unit which contained the fire.
Another shot from the Boolee Street end of the Cooyong Street median strip.
The scene from the other side of the building. The lower-left unit is the one which I believe the fire was in. On the stairs, some firemen can be seen going to one of the other units to inspect it.
Firemen leave the building and discuss things with their colleagues.
They’re not the best shots in the world, but there wasn’t much to photograph. As usual, fair use applies to these photos. You may use them for whatever purpose you see fit, provided you attribute the photos to me, Samuel Gordon-Stewart. If using them online, a link back to this blog would be appreciated, but is not mandatory. If you wish to use these photos without attribution, please contact me and I might be willing to provide permission.
End Update
Update: From the Emergency Services Agency website:
8:00pm Monday 3 May 2010 – Update two on fire in Reid The ACT Ambulance Service has taken a middle aged female and a young male to Calvary Hospital in a stable condition with minor smoke inhalation.
The cause of the fire is to be investigated.
7:20pm Monday 3 May 2010 – Update on fire at Reid Fire in a first floor apartment extinguished with extensive damage to the unit and smoke damage to the surrounds.
A total of 18 apartments were evacuated with firefighters using ladders and the Bronto for some occupants.
ACT Ambulance Service Intensive Care Paramedics assessing a number of people for smoke inhalation.
6:45pm Monday 3 May 2010 – Fire in apartment complex in Reid The ACT Fire Brigade is on scene at a fire in the Bega Flats complex in Kogarah Lane Reid tonight.
Firefighters have evacuated residents from the building.
Update to follow.
It will be interesting to hear what the cause of the blaze was. For now though I’m just glad that everyone is (relatively speaking) OK.
End Update
Samuel
May 3rd, 2010 at 06:48pm
I thought I was dreaming this morning when I heard on the radio that Chief Turnip Jon Stanhope intends on removing bicycles from Northbourne Avenue and moving them back to their rightful place on off-road cycle paths. He even, apparently, wants to move the buses our of the already over-congested left lane of Northbourne Avenue.
It was the (lack of sane) planning of the Stanhope government which gave us on-road cycle lanes on busy roads, many of which are 80km/h zones. Northbourne doesn’t fit in to the 80km/h category, but it fits an even more dangerous category for combining cars and bicycles, it’s a super-busy road with buses which have to stop in the bicycle lanes constantly.
I’m pleased to see this policy backflip. It’s good news for cyclists and motorists alike, but it must surely put the fragile partnership between ACT Labor and the ACT Greens under further strain. The Greens have already been shafted by Labor on many occasions, and now it looks like one of the Greens key policies is the exact opposite of Labor’s policy.
The Greens believe in having more bicycles on the road and less cars on the road. Labor apparently believes in the opposite now. How they’ll work this one out when the Greens are in favour of making it difficult to even own a car in the suburbs, let alone use one on a main road, is beyond me.
With any luck, now that Labor has adopted the sensible policy of removing bicycles from our roads and placing them back on the cycle paths, the Labor/Greens partnership is dead, and we won’t have to have any more pandering to the peculiar ideas of the enviro-socialists.
Samuel
April 23rd, 2010 at 11:26am
Update Thursday afternoon: Apparently I didn’t make it clear enough at the other end of this post. It’s over. All wrapped up around midnight…that’s when they all left. End Update
Police are currently surrounding the unit of a “Simon” not far from my place in Reid. A police negotiator named Carly is attempting to coax him out of the property.
Police were monitoring the property from an unmarked van for about half an hour before they decided to move in. It seems that Simon is wanted in connection with an incident this afternoon. So far, he has refused to leave the property, yelling “go away” at one point.
More as it develops.
Update 11:55pm: I can’t see it from here, but after some hiding in his cupboard (which Carly could see through the window) it sounds like Simon has been convinced to come out, much to the relief of his sister who was waiting outside. According to Carly’s announcements, whomever else was involved in Simon’s incident this afternoon, is OK. This seemed to help convince Simon that it was safe to come out and that the police would not hurt him.
It’s over, after about half an hour of standoff between Simon and the police. The armed police and surveillance vans are packing up. A good outcome. End Update
Samuel
April 14th, 2010 at 11:45pm
This year’s first radio ratings have been released and are as follows:
1st: FM 104.7 20.2% (up from 18.3%)
2nd: 666 ABC Canberra 18.5% (up from 16.1%)
3rd: Mix 106.3 16.9% (down from 18.0%)
4th: JJJ 8.0% (down from 13.5%)
5th: ABC Classic FM 7.6% up from 7.4%
6th: 2CA 6.8% (up from 4.1%)
7th: Combined unlisted 6.6% (up from 5.4%)
8th: 2CC 6.3% (no change)
9th: ABC Radio National 6.0% (down from 7.5%)
10th: ABC NewsRadio 3.1% (down from 3.4%)
I don’t really have time to do any analysis of this at this very moment, however I intend on doing so this evening. Stay tuned!
Samuel
April 8th, 2010 at 12:06pm
The first radio ratings for the year for Canberra have been released to radio stations, with the public release expected tomorrow.
Jock’s Journal have received some figures which I’m unable to confirm at this stage. They have published the following figures:
FM 104.7: 20.2% (up from 18.3%)
666 ABC Canberra: 18.5% (up from 16.1%)
Mix 106.3: 16.9% (down from 18%)
JJJ: 8% (down from 13.5%)
ABC Classic FM: 7.6% (up from 7.4%)
2CA: 6.8% (up from 4.1%)
2CC: 6.3% (no change)
This doesn’t cover every station in the market, so I can only be sure that the top four are indeed the top four. It’s also interesting to note that with the exception of 2CC, most of the stations have jumped back to their approximate ratings share in last year’s first survey.
I’ll publish a more comprehensive summary tomorrow when the official figures are released.
Samuel
April 7th, 2010 at 07:03pm
In the middle of last month, the ACT Government introduced some new road rules which, for the most part, seem to be designed to make it harder to find a spot to park.
The changes to the rules surrounding parking in parking bays are enough to do your head in, especially the bit which tries to differentiate a carpark from a driveway:
This rule also applies in car parks which have internal access driveways that have the appearance of a street or road. If there is no street or road sign, the area is considered to be part of the car park and, as such, parking is allowed in parking bays only.
I’m sorry, but how would you legally define “internal access driveways that have the appearance of a street or road”? Does the driveway have to be a certain length, meaning that I have to get out my tape measure before parking there, and that I could find myself dealing with the even more complicated world of working out what constitutes a “length of road”?
For the purpose of this rule, a “length of road” is considered to be any part of the road between two neighbouring intersections or between an intersection and the end of the length of road.
Ummm, right. A circular reference in a definition. A “length of road” is everything between an intersection and the end of the thing which we haven’t defined yet. Uh huh, I see…good luck to the poor sod that the government send to court to try and defend that one when it gets challenged.
I’m also amused by the fact that it seems that anything I paint on to the surface of the road can be considered a “traffic island”. I would imagine that there is a law against me painting the road, but that doesn’t appear to invalidate whatever I paint, for as long as it remains painted.
A motorist may not stop or park a vehicle on an area that has stripes or chevrons (coloured markings) painted on the ground, or surrounded by a line or lines (whether or not broken). This only applies if the stripes or chevrons are in any colour that contrasts with the road or car park surface. Part of the surround may be kerb or structure.
Of course it is nice to know that if I take up horse riding, I can be immune to the traffic island rules as long as I don’t give the horse a motor. But seriously, who writes this drivel? How much do they get paid? And how do I get in on the act?
Samuel
April 3rd, 2010 at 07:41am
It might surprise a lot of people to know that Mix 106.3 are a relay station for Triple M Sydney’s Monday night NRL coverage. In fact, looking at their website, you’d never know that they did such a thing. Even right now as they’re broadcasting the match, their “Now Playing” ticker simply says “Canberra – Feel Good!”.
They promote the coverage on-air, but why oh why is there no mention of it on their website? Considering that 2CC and the ABC are the home of NRL coverage in Canberra, you’d think that they’d want to publicise the fact that they hold the rights to Monday night football, especially seeing as 2CC aren’t allowed to broadcast Monday night Raiders matches and Mix are able to, as they showed last week.
Odd, but that’s Canberra radio I suppose. Promoting yourself doesn’t seem to be particularly high on the agenda of any Canberra station.
Samuel
March 29th, 2010 at 08:23pm
Remember the ACT Government’s “No Waste by 2010″ strategy aimed at, as the name implies, ensuring that Canberra stops producing waste by this year? Well if ever you needed proof that the chances of reducing waste with this government were between Buckley’s and none, here it is.
This flyer arrived in my post box today:
The fact that it talks about waste collection isn’t the point (although it does show that we’re still producing waste)…the point is that it is advising me about a change to rubbish collection dates over Easter and reminds me that I should put my bins out on a different day.
The problem? I live in an apartment complex with communal bins. I don’t have to “put the bins out” as the big Rubbish Truck Monster comes in and roars at the communal bins every now and then. This flyer would have gone out to every suburb which has rubbish and/or recycling collected on Fridays. Reid and Braddon are both on this list and both have a large number of apartment complexes with communal bins, which means that in these two suburbs alone, many hundreds of these flyers have been printed and distributed unnecessarily at taxpayer’s expense…this is what we call government waste.
In fact, according to the ACT Government’s waste collection calendar, the following suburbs have their rubbish and/or recycling collected on Fridays and it would therefore be reasonable to assume, have received this flyer:
Acton
Ainslie
Barton
Braddon
Campbell
City
Deakin
Dickson
Downer
Duntroon
Forrest
Garran
Griffith
Hackett
Harman
Hughes
Isaacs
Kingston
Lyneham
Narrabundah
Oaks Estate
O’Connor
O’Malley
Phillip
Pialligo
Red Hill
Reid
Swinger Hill
Turner
Yarralumla
Watson
That’s 31 suburbs. If hundreds, maybe a thousand or so residences have received this notice in Braddon and Reid, imagine how many thousands of these flyers have been printed unnecessarily across those 31 suburbs. And as if that isn’t enough…these aren’t simple paper flyers; these are nice shiny glossy slightly heavy flyers. Waste by volume and waste per item.
No Waste by 2010? No Chief Turnip Stanhope, it’s More Waste by 2010, and it’s us that are paying for it.
Samuel
March 27th, 2010 at 06:35pm
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