Hervey Bay Gossip

By now, if you’re a resident of Hervey Bay or the area covered by the new Fraser Coast Regional Council, you will know that The Chronicle’s favourite man Mick Kruger will be the Mayor for the next few years.

What may not be quite so apparent is that Mick really does not have much of a mandate from the people. It seems that poor Mick couldn’t even get close to getting 50% of the vote - a point that’s not lost on yet another local blog - the Fraser Coast Free Clarion.

It’s a local news blog that certainly is worth reading.

The opening of Big W in Hervey Bay on Monday was certainly a big event and drew lots of happy shoppers to snap up the bargains but not everyone was happy.

It seems that many of those happy shoppers took up car parking spaces that belong to the RSL and the RSL suffered quite a drop in patronage.

I wonder how many times that’s going to happen throughout the year and I wonder if the number of car parking spaces that the developers were required to provide was reduced by Council. It’s not the first time that the number of parking spots required in that general area has been reduced to keep a developer happy.

Sometimes it’s a wise thing not to crow too loudly when you score a victory - especially when you confuse winning a single battle with winning the entire war. The Chronicle certainly made a lot of noise on Saturday about the demise of Strewth but perhaps all that noise might have been just a little premature.

Strewth may have gone but in it’s place there are now two more and a well-established blog from Maryborough has also taken up the cudgels in the fight for a little transparency in local government in Hervey Bay and the Fraser Coast.

Not only do we have Strewth Reloaded as was mentioned here on Saturday but we also have Bring Back Strewth and Perspective so Nancy (and your mates) if you can’t beat ‘em why not be bold … be brave … even be a just a little fair dinkum and join in the conversation. Start adding your comments to those blogs and be prepared to defend what you seem to consider to be your god-given right to develop Hervey Bay any way you see fit!

Now that shouldn’t be too hard should it Nancy? After all you are a professional journalist so you should be able to run rings round the riff-raff who post on those blogs that you dislike with such intensity.

Sadly, if the blaring headlines on today’s Fraser Coast Chronicle is anything to go by Strewth definitely has gone … but perhaps not quite as far as the Chronicle would have you believe.

You see nothing goes away for ever on the Internet and someone has take the time to resurrect much of Strewth from the various pages of Strewth that Google cached and you can find it at Strewth Reloaded according to an anonymous email we received overnight.

It was interesting to watch the impact that Strewth had on various aspects of life here in Hervey Bay. Those who were opposed to it were very careful to rubbish it without actually pointing people to it and some of those suggested that Strewth was nothing for them to worry about at all.

However if Strewth was so insignificant then why is the front page of today’s Chronicle emblazoned with the message that Strewth has gone for good? I’ve seen smaller headlines announcing a war that what the Chronicle used to announce the demise of Strewth.

Strewth might be gone but I doubt that that’s the last we’ll see of real citizen journalism here in Hervey Bay and on the Fraser Coast.

Blogs have been around the Internet for several years now and some are very well-known around the world and have a considerable impact on the people who read them and the subjects that they deal with. But blogs that deal with life at a local level are perhaps less well-known and certainly don’t have the same impact.

For sometime now Strewth has been seeking to have an impact on life here in Hervey Bay by exposing what its author and supporters consider to be the poor management of local resouces by our elected representatives on Hervey Bay City Council. But how effective has that impact been?

Well there’s no doubt that Strewth has certainly ruffled some feathers and our current Mayor and the local paper have had something to say about it … but at the same time they’ve been careful not to refer to it by name. Perhaps they thought that they needed to attack the credibility of Strewth without adding to its impact by actually naming it so people who didn’t know about it couldn’t find it.

Despite that the reach and impact of Strewth has been growing and now even people who might not otherwise read a local blog are reading Strewth. I was talking to a candidate for the upcoming Fraser Coast Regional Council elections last night and he mentioned that he is now reading Strewth so that he can see what the important issues for electors are going to be at those elections. He also wants to see both sides of the various issues that he will be confronted with if elected.

When you think about it that goes to show you just how important Strewth is becoming to Hervey Bay. With only word-of-mouth marketing Strewth has become required reading for people who would never have thought of reading a blog before.

I’m not sure that there are many - if any - other local issue blogs that could claim to have such an impact on their communities in the way that Strewth is having an impact on Hervey Bay.

Last week our local member - Andrew McNamara - blamed our soon-to-be-gone-mayor Ted Sorenson for the delays in the water park that was supposed to have been under construction here in Hervey Bay.

Of course in local politics no one likes to put their hand up and admit that they’re at fault so it wasn’t long before we had a riposte from Ted. Sadly the degree of political debate is not as entertaining as it could be and the best that Ted could manage was - according to the Fraser Coast Chronicle -  to tell our local member to “keep his snotty nose out of council business”.

Come on Ted, we pay you lots of money to be far more eloquent and entertaining than that. Even the guy who owns the yellow house in Hervey Bay is doing a better job at getting his message across than you are Ted … at least he does have a message.

For some time now Hervey Bay has been promised a water park but we’re yet to see it. So what has held up the construction process?

Well according to the local member - Andrew McNamara - the Mayor has “deliberately obstructed” the construction of the water park for the past 16 months.

With the changes in local government that are going to happen in March it’s unlikely that we’ll see any work on the water park for some time to come.

Ted Sorenson announced today that he would not be seeking re-election at the local government elections due in March. Instead it seems that the current Mayor of Hervey Bay has turned his gaze towards Brisbane and hopes to represent Hervey Bay at the state level.

I’m sure that announcement has caught a few people by surprise.

Hervey Bay should soon be shifting into election mode as the local government elections draw ever closer. Just who is actually standing for election is a little bit of a mystery just yet although we know that the present Mayor here in Hervey Bay intends running for the same position in the new Council.

As for the rest … well I guess we’ll find out who they might be closer to the election. However Strewth! … that blog that our current Mayor so dislikes … is prepared to hear from potential candidates. Of course if a candidate does post a message on Strewth! they can be sure that there will be plenty of robust discussion about whatever they might choose to say.

Despite the possibility of having to answer some hard questions posting on Strewth! might be a wise move for potential candidates because it will show that they’re not afraid to open themselves up to the scrutiny that each candidate should undergo before the election date rolls around.

On March 15 the people in Hervey Bay will be voting to elect the first council for the new local government area that we will be part of. It’s a very important election and there are only two weeks left to enrol to vote.

Local Government Minister Warren Pitt encouraged all Queenslanders to make sure they were enrolled to vote as the polling day marked a major milestone in the State Government’s reform process.

“The election rolls close on January 31 and it is absolutely vital that the community has a say about who will be governing their local government areas,” Mr Pitt said.

“Every vote counts towards the outcome, so I urge people to make sure they are enrolled to vote.

“Enrolling is easy - people just need to contact the Queensland Electoral Commission or the Australian Electoral Commission, and the enrolment forms are available on their websites and at all post offices.

“Voting is compulsory, and will be conducted through either a postal ballot or traditional ballot on the day.

“If you voted in the recent federal election you do not need to re-enrol unless you have moved house, in which case, you will need to complete a new enrolment form.”

Queenslanders will vote in 73 local government areas. Of these, 38 are existing councils, 31 are new councils, and four are existing councils with changed boundaries.

“People will be voting to elect 73 mayors and 480 councillors who will represent them and take their councils forward into the future,” Mr Pitt said.

“This government is building a new, stronger system of local government and getting the best possible outcomes for local communities.”

Mr Pitt said the reform process was changing the face of local government in Queensland.

“March 15 will be the first day of the newly merged councils and every effort is being made to ensure a smooth transition,” he said.

“Following the elections, we will see better reporting and transparent performance monitoring to ensure ratepayers have a good understanding of how their rates are being spent.”

The Queensland Electoral Commission will be releasing information regarding how the elections will be run in each local government area.