13 April 2007

Civil War?

| johnboy
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A few weeks ago word reached us that the Chief Minister’s department had been instructed to keep a much beadier eye on the doings of Simon Corbell, make of that scuttlebutt what you will.

In the wake of some public acclaim for standing up against pay parking at the hospital Simon Corbell has now taken another two swings at the Chief Minister in the same day.

Firstly announcing to the Canberra Times that he’s not convinced pumping recycled water back uphill and into our water catchments is a brilliant idea.

Then he launched an attack on the Chief Minister’s plans to release land “englobo” (undeveloped) leaving the builders free to leave out such amenities as verges, navigable streets, or parks.

To round it all out Jack Waterford muses circuitously about what Simon could possibly be up to with a couple of pointed barbs Mr. Stanhope might well have passed onto him.

UPDATED: The CT reports John Hargreaves has thrown a tanny about Simon’s disloyalty.

“The Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Mr Hargreaves, said if Mr Corbell could not hold to the party line he should do “the honourable thing” and resign from cabinet. “His expression of disloyalty to the Chief Minister in recent times is unforgivable,” Mr Hargreaves said. “I am seriously disappointed that the hitherto strong cabinet solidarity … has been abused. I will not stand by and be silent when the integrity and leadership of Jon Stanhope is in question.”

Mr Hargreaves warned Mr Corbell any leadership aspirations he had were now crushed.

“As long as the right wing [of the ALP] draws breath and I’m in the Parliament he will not be in the leadership or deputy leadership,” he said.

Mr Hargreaves rejected rumours of an ALP split over Mr Corbell’s comments. “The notion of the party being split or divided is absolute nonsense .. [Mr Corbell] is a loner.”

It’s going to be tough to play happy families once all this has blown over.

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Apologies widdershins, I originally intended to end after 2 sentences.

Travelling overseas to look at what other countries do is called a junket. Tell them to set up a webcamera if they need to see it personally.

They are predicting that rain will start happening again though – if that does occur, will they persist with the recycled water, just cos they spent the money setting it up, or will they just give it up again.

Jon says they are travelling OS looking at what other countries do.

The water expert has pointed out that they have to recycle water, as it has already been used elsewhere. Is there anywhere else on earth that takes a pristine water source and adds recycled water to it?

The idea behind having another dam is that when we get rain again it fills up, to get us thru the dry spells. Pumping water from our small full dam to the bigger emptier one is one of ACTEW/act govt’s smarter ideas. They have had plans for another dam in readiness for ages, just keep putting back the timetable for actually doing it.

If Simon Corbell thinks recycled water is a bad idea then it must be a really bad idea!

And has Jon really removed all possibility of community consultation on this (as the CT implies)?

Thanks for the info – I hadn’t thought of it that way before.

You’re right, it has nothing to do with this thread at all. But I think the attacking comments are unnecessary.

Work it out yourself dunderhead.

Lets just say it involved the recycled water professionals drinking poo flavoured water.

Ahh what the hell, I’ve gone this far already.

Search back a couple of months and you’ll see a comment from me saying how long it would be before the first accident happened involving the leaking of effluent into the human consumption stream. I don’t even think that month ticked over before the first incident occured.

Lets stop presuming any level of competence here that our forefathers might have busted their asses to ensure that nobody ever came in contact with the matter, these days its left to some contractor who doesn’t care one way or another what happens as soon as his cheque clears for the cheapest and nastiest job possible.

Google Melbourne Water Eastern Treatment Plant for confirmation.

It’s these same ‘Experts’ who are meant to be protecting us from being exposed to fecal matter that can’t even safely deliver it to their own offices yet. Do I trust them to provide it to me ? – no.

So regardless of your calculations, I’d seriously reconsider your ‘minute chance’ to be more of a ‘regularly occuring nature’ given the current nature of our economy.

The effect, who knows. What it’s got to do with this thread ? – you tell me.

That’s 5 words.

Do tell. What happened in Melbourne?

I should say that I’d prefer not to have recycled water, in an ideal world, but if there’s no rain, there’s not a lot of options left.

No, I don’t know how to use links – sorry if it caused problems.

Widdershins, I have one word to say to you: Melbourne Water Eastern Treatment Plant.

Read this, from ACTEW:
[you’d think such a genius would know how to use a link]

ACTEW wants to increase the size of the current dam significantly in order to hold the recycled water – it’s not a ‘small amount’ of extra water, it’s mountains of the stuff.

There is no point building a new dam without recycled water to fill it. There IS NO RAIN to fill it.

‘Experts’ coming out against is one guy, so far, and his comments need to be considered thusly: yes, there is a very very small risk of contamination (some would say basically NO risk, however, given how good water purification is when recycling). There is, however, an imminent, obvious and quite SERIOUS risk of having no water at all. Balance the two – no water at all? or the minute chance of contamination (which they would fix quick smart, if it occured).

“outstanding” in front of the firing squad…

I wouldn’t think seven-storey-simon would go close to having the numbers either, but I guess it’s possible he’s starting to believe that the current disgust at the government might make his colleagues a little less confident in their current leader heading into the next election.

Who is the next Labor leader when the Comrade decides to retire/avoid the judgement of the people? Katy Gallagher? Simon Corbell? Enough to make you want to vote Liberal.

“Outstanding” VP? Depends what he is being compared with.

The ACT deserves much better; someone with some good economic credentials preferably and they seem to be pretty short on the ground.

This is a pity. Stanhope is an outstanding local pollie (probably the only one who could survive outside the creche that is the ACT Legislative Assembly), but he needs Simon Corbell to keep him looking good (at least comparatively). I was hoping to use the next ACT election to suggest a “put Simon last” campaign. (Nothing else, just annoyed about parking). If he blows up and out, the opportunity is gone.

So maybe I’ll have to to try it in the Fed election where Gary Humphries is apparently a decent bloke but one who does zip for the ACT or its workforce. If enough people put him last, in favour of the ALP. Greens, indies, the other Lib, whatever, it would send a message that the voters expect representation. Gee, it’d be good to be marginal or to be represented by the senator who can be a balance of power.

barking toad10:41 am 12 Apr 07

A changing of the guard in the wind?

I’m tipping the mayor will pull the pin before long to channel his social engineering skills in some other sphere. Hopefully far away from the ACT.

Sadly, because we have a weak opposition and no strong independents, the change in government we crave will be limited to a change at the head of the existing council. Sad simon for sonic.

One dunderhead for another.

So the factions come out!

He’s not even close to having the numbers unless he wants to get jiggy with the Liberals on the floor of the Assembly.

And I reckon he’d get his legs broken for that.

et tu brutus?

Leadership challenge?

la mente torbida9:58 am 12 Apr 07

Seepi,
Where do you want to put the dam?
A new dam seems pointless when the main issue has been the lack of rainfall in the catchment areas.
A new dam would surely just be a big hole in the ground.
Unless, of course, we could build the dam in an area of high rainfall (Papua & New Guinea perhaps) and then pump it to Canberra.

This govt does seem to rush into things – like the water recycling which experts are coming out against.
Prof Colignon pointed out that we have quite pure disease free water in Canberra, and it seems a bit pointless to possibly contaminate it, for the sake of a fairly small amount of extra water.
I don’t want recycled water – time for a new dam.

Back to Simon vs Jon – I always thought Simon was a bit dippy and Jon fairly sensible – maybe I’ve had them the wrong way around!

Not quite. The last two links are still the same.

My two cents – Corbell is a Knob!

johnboy

I think the links are a bit messed up

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