24 February 2006

Gary Nairn and his stupid eyebrows run to mama - Prison obstruction

| johnboy
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Whether or not we should build a prison in the ACT is a fine subject of debate for the people of this fine Territory. The views of people in Queanbeyan about it, however, are of no matter whatsoever.

So the only reason I can think of for the Canberra Times to publish Eden-Monaro MP (Queanbeyan in particular) Gary Nairn’s plaintive bleatings on the issue is so they can cruelly print that picture of him.

He wants to Federales to decide to build something, anything, on the land so that the prison can be blocked by their appropriation. One assumes whatever they build won’t be too large or obtrusive, or we’re all back to square one.

It also looks to me like the very marginal member for Eden Monaro is using his new role as a parliamentary secretary Special Minister for State to get the Commonwealth Public Service to do his personal electoral dirty work.

The Comrade has put out a media release giving a well deserved, and very thorough, booting to the story and the man.

(Note to local Liberals: supporting Nairn on this will not be a good look.)

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midnitecalla6:27 pm 25 Feb 06

just build the bloody thing and let it rest.

we had a chance to approriate Cooma jail but the bleeding hearts said it was too far for theier cars, and the govt said it was too exy to put back in to action. well its back in action and the town ( cooma)is thankful for it. gary nairn had a golden opportunity but like most libs couldnt manage a barn dance let alone infrastructure. now we gotta build from scratch to the cheapest possible tenderers pumping the Government for all they can get away with.

Zed is rather clever clog.

well, at least he’s not Minister for Territories — *that* would produce some serious conflicts of interest.

Thanks Guru, how silly of me.

In my view that would actually make his actions even more serious.

As for the mogo charcoal thing, well canberrans who expressed a view should have been ignored. Just like we’ll ignore queanbeyan.

no inconsistency there.

Gazza, think of it this way: maybe having the prison at Hume will mean the people of Queanbeyan won’t have so far to travel to vist their family members in jail? 😉

johnboy, a quibble: Nairn’s not a parliamentary secretary, he’s now the Special Minister of State (the role previously occupied by Eric Abetz).

Kerces likes it both ways. A lot of the people involved in Mogo would not have been taxpayers – just ACT nimby’s. Also the people in jerra/qby help prop up the ACT economy and do pay taxes indirectly.

The difference in the charcoal factory case was that a lot of the people campaigning actually did own properties in the area and so paid rates to the local council and thus (as I see it) were entitled to have a say in what was going on (as well as vote in the council elections). The people in Jerrabomberra don’t pay rates/taxes to the ACT government because their properties aren’t in the Territory. Thus they don’t get a say in our politics either through lobbying or voting.

An interesting parallel, may not be alone the exact lines, but I remember a few years back when a lot of Canberrans (typical coastgoers) were part of a campaign to stop the NSW govt putting in a charcoal factory of some description down near Mogo.

Got the impression it would destroy the quality of life for the weekenders invading from Canberra. I know a gaol is different to a charcoal factory, but a lot of people from Canberra got involved and they didn’t live in the Eden-Monaro electorate.

It’s interesting to see what motivates people to act…

Did a Google on this issue and apparently there was Federal land available in Majura Valley but Stanhope (as usual) spat the dummy when it wasn’t made available immediately and decided to place the prison on the border near Queanbeyan.

What I found amusing and rather ironic was that a guy called Kel Watt who was the ALP candidate for Eden Monaro at the last election worked for Stanhope when this decision was made. He’s the one still jumping up and down at the moment. For the sake of his Queanbeyan constituents it’s a shame he didn’t do something when he was working for Stanhope.

Why doesn’t Nairn harass the Feds? It was their decision to block the prison elsewhere. Whine, whine, whine. He should retire from politics and become a pre-schooler.

I think the land stopped by the Feds was near Watson.

Wasn’t part of the whole reason it’s going near Jerra in the first place that the Feds weren’t forthcoming with land near the airport, or something along those lines?

(Someone refresh my memory, I might be getting this mixed up with the dragway).

Yep, I’m sure there’s a lot of upsides to living in a little bit of NSW right on the ACT’s doorstep, but one of the downsides is that you don’t get a direct say in what happens in the ACT! If you didn’t factor this in when buying in Jerra, cry me a river…

To think he wants something along the lines of the NSW AAT overruling the ACT? What a joke.

It’s not like we asked Jerra to be built 3kms from the ACT border. Yes they’ve said they don’t like it. You don’t hear the people in Chisholm/Fadden complaining – they’re the closest ACT suburbs (if memory serves).

Given that Quean-be-hole and upscale Qbyn (Jerra) are not in the ACT they have no say.

If they don’t like it, they can move.

He wasn’t made a minister just to use commonwealth resources to make a pest of himself in cross-border politics though.

I reckon that you get the representatives you deserve – but what the hell did the good folk of Eden-Monaro do to get Gary Nairn. I heard his little hissy-fit on the radio this morning. I don’t honestly know what he’s on about. The way he carried on you’d imagine that the ACT Government had done something illegal or corrupt in approving the prison development by way of the “call in” powers.

Honestly, if the good folk of Jerrabomberra are worried, they should move to the ACT where they’re entitled to have a say – otherwise they should simply shut up.

Easy – live in Canberra, vote in Canberra, have a say in Canberra. Live in Struggletown, expect to struggle – sorry Gary, work on gentrifying Queanbeyan before you complain about matters that are well out of your area of concern.

Err, call me naive but isn’t nairn just doing what his constituents elected him to do – represent them! he has been on about this issue since it first surfaced. I’m sure most people in Jerra will be happy with his actions.

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