A little while back I did a post called Why The Charles Sturt Council Suck, about the pig headed Charles Sturt council who are obstinately pursuing a course that is contrary to a majority of rate payers who voted them in.
Surprisingly enough, they are not the only council who seem to have an agenda. Enter the Burnside council lead by Mayor Wendy Greiner who’s agenda is to sell the Chelsea Theatre, again against the wishes of the people who put them in.
The fight to sell the Chelsea had been going on for months, a lot longer than the Charles Sturt council’s effort in trying to swap contaminated land so that they can redevelop the St Clair Reserve.
What has people up in arms about the Chelsea is that they see at an icon, one that has to be preserved and not sold of to developers that may tear it down or destroy it’s heritage value. Built in 1925 and refurbished in 1941 in the present art deco style, it was purchased by the then Burnside council in 1968 to save it from demolition. Too bad that the current council members are hell bent on it’s destruction.
What I find distasteful is that the building is actually owned by the people and not the council. The council are virtual landlords working on behalf of the people and should therefore get permission to sell it before going ahead with the sale. I would say by the uproar in the media that it is safe to say the council does not have that permission, and yet they have buried their heads in the sand doing all they can to go ahead with the sale.
One must wonder as to why this is so. Is there a hidden agenda?
According to the council this is not the case. I get the impression that the only reason for selling it is because the cost of maintenance is too high. According to an ABC Stateline report it needs some ‘$46,000 worth of maintenance required to the roof and to the bathrooms.’ After lobbying the government by Grace Portolesi they agreed to come to the party to the tune of $25000, reducing the bill to only $21000. Surely the rent from Wallis, who are currently running the cinema would cover the rest?
Further down the article I find that Wallis are actually paying the Burnside Council $50,000 a year in rent. Shock horror. That alone would cover the cost of the maintenance bill.
The problem is that Wallis is also losing money and have only persisted with Chelsea because they understood they would be able to redevelop it into a multi cinema complex which would once again make it profitable. Rather than disfigure the cinema itself they would extend it next door allowing for more screens.
It seems the council will have none of it though and the arguments continue.
Starting 12/11/2009 the ‘Conficker’ worm began infecting Microsoft customers unusually rapidly. Microsoft has been advised by your Internet provider that your network is infected.
To counteract further spread we advise removing the infection using an antispyware program. We are supplying all effected Windows Users with a free system scan in order to clean any files infected by the virus.
Please install attached file to start the scan. The process takes under a minute and will prevent your files from being compromised. We appreciate your prompt cooperation.
Regards,
Microsoft Windows Agent #2 (Hollis)
Microsoft Windows Computer Safety Division
Yeah, well ignore it because I seriously doubt it’s from Microsoft and if anything it’s more likely to infect your computer than clean it.
Please do not install the file attached to this email.
I must admit that this email I received yesterday had me a little worried. Now don’t get me wrong, I get a lot of spam emails from wankers claiming to be from PayPal but they are so obviously spam that I don’t worry about them. They’re not even good enough to make them a worthwhile post on this blog. B
On Oct. 12, 2009, Advantus Media, Inc. sent you a payment for $52.15 USD.
The funds have been returned to Advantus Media, Inc.’s account.
This payment was returned for the following reason(s):
You did not sign up for a PayPal account or did not complete the registration process.
Please contact Advantus Media, Inc. (paypal@advantusmedia.com) to arrange an alternate payment method.
If you have any further questions, please log in to your PayPal account and go to the History subtab. Locate this transaction and click the word “Cancelled” in the Details column.
Sincerely,
PayPal
What this email did was create doubt, and once you have that flicker of doubt you can make mistakes, like clicking on a link or something silly. That is of course their intention.
This particular email actually referred to Advantus Media, Inc, and affiliate that I often promote. The first thing I did was log into my PayPal account and check the history. There was no record of that amount. Someone else may have panicked thinking that it was deleted and not showing up, and they may actually click on the link in the email.
Not me. I Wrote to PayPal direct and forwarded them a copy of the email and then waited patiently for their reply. This arrived in less than 24 hours.
Dear Peter P.,
Thank you for contacting PayPal.
We appreciate you bringing this suspicious email to our attention. We can confirm that the email you received was not sent to you by PayPal. The website linked to this email is not a registered URL authorised or used by PayPal. We are currently investigating this incident fully. Please do not enter any personal or financial information into this website.
If you have surrendered any personal or financial information to this fraudulent website, you should immediately log in to your PayPal account and change your password and secret question and answer information. Any compromised financial information should be reported to the appropriate parties.
If you notice any unauthorised activity associated with your PayPal transaction history, please immediately report this to PayPal by following the instructions below:
1. Log in to your account at https://www.paypal.com/au by entering your email address and password into the Member Log In box
2. Click on the Security Centre at the bottom of the page
3. Click on the ‘Unauthorised Transaction’ link under the Report a Problem column
4. Please follow the instructions in order to access the appropriate form
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.
PayPal and its representatives will NEVER ask you to reveal your password. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this policy. If anyone claiming to work for PayPal asks for your password under any circumstances, by email or by phone, please refuse and immediately contact us via webform at https://www.paypal.com/au/wf/f=sa_pass.
***********************************************************************
I’ve posted the full email so that others can be made aware of the correct procedures to follow when they come up against this sort of situation.
Normally I don’t worry too much about other council areas because they don’t affect me. This was true of the Charles Sturt Council who have been in the news lately over their plan to redevelop the St Clair Reserve which is located in Woodville. Apparently they only did minimal consultation with the residents and then decided to go their merry way, even after many months of protestation from their constituents.
The council feel there isn’t an issue because they are going to swap the pristine park-lands for land which was once occupied by the former Actil site. Land which residents claim that its contamination makes it highly inappropriate for recreational use.
What they forget is that they are supposed to work for the people who vote them in, and not against them. I reckon that the next council election will see a whole bunch of new council members.
But that isn’t what prompted this post. About a month ago I got an infringement notice for overstaying my welcome whilst shopping at West Lakes. Not a problem, I did the crime and so I have to pay my dues. It wasn’t until I tried to pay the fine, albeit 4 days late, that I found they had added a late payment fee. OK, I thought to myself, a $21 fine could possibly incur a late payment fee of at least $10, not the $30 they charged me. Man, that is a whole pile of bullshit.
Imagine having to pay more than the original fine itself. I wish I could charge my customers a $30 late fee, I’d be bloody rich by now. Well, let that be a lesson to me, don’t frequent any of the stores in the Charles Sturt Council area. While I feel sorry for the resident shop keepers, perhaps they should consider giving those wankers the heave ho at the next council elections.
One of the jobs of the Australian Government is to protect theAustralian people, and that includes restricting the importing of goods that may harm the populace. Knowing this one must wonder why our government are even considering the easing of meat restrictions that will allow companies to import meat from countries with mad cow disease.
This in itself isn’t all that bad, except that coupled with our current labeling laws, you could be eating a meat pie containing 100% imported meat and it will can be labeled as an Australian Meat Pie! This is bullshit! I want to know what I am eating, especially if there is a chance that it contains meat from a country that has the mad cow disease.
This is because under current labeling laws as long as some of the pies, pastry and gravy is made locally, products can carry the green and gold “Australian Made” logo. I’m sorry but that just isn’t good enough. As Australians we have the right to know what we are purchasing. This is essential if we want to support our local producers and so we can buy Aussie products over cheap imports.
Luckily there are some honest politicians who see the dilemma and are trying to do something about it. These federal politicians include independent Nick Xenophon, Nationals’ Barnaby Joyce, and Greens’ Bob Brown. Of the three I would have to say that Nick Xenophon is SA’s night in shining armor. He is our voice in Canberra and is willing to shout them all down if he believes it’s in our interest.
The problem is whether or not the current Labor Government has the balls to stand up to those who want all this shit to happen. I hope that they do, but I seriously doubt it. I hope they prove me wrong.
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