Day 8, 5 February
CANDIDATE ROAST
As Week 2 began, the rather grim sniping of the first week gave way to a somewhat frivolous, festive atmosphere, exemplified by notices which began appearing in all the usual dark alleyways of social media, but also in some unexpected places, promoting a “Sunday Roast” meet the candidates community meeting to be held at Tewantin State School on Sunday 25 February.
At first glance this may have been mistaken for one of the authorised candidate forums being hosted by Cooroy Chamber of Commerce (Cooroy Memorial Hall 22 February), Tourism Noosa (Noosa Boathouse 27 February) and Noosa Chamber of Commerce (The J 28 February – hurry while seats last) and previously promoted by this masthead.
Closer examination reveals that this “friendly roast” is more likely to be a public baking of any candidate naïve enough to show up, since one of the organisers, or supporting organisations appears to be Noosa People’s Council (noosapeoplescouncil.org) whose longwinded manifesto includes overthrowing the concept of an elected council and replacing it with a group of chosen followers.
The group’s website explains the necessity of such meetings, the “roast” being the second of a planned series, as being “due to visible tactics by the corporate council that stifles public discussion and prevents transparency and accountability by the ‘elected’ Mayor and Councillors. These tactics do not represent a democratic process…”.
The agenda for the Sunday Roast includes a pledge (NPC and like outfits are big on pledges) followed by a “Pillars of Concern Speed Roasting”. There are far too many pillars to mention them all here, but suffice to say they include corruption by all current and former councillors, the vaccination mandate, 5G, fluoridation, the World Bank, Davos, the use of anything but cash etc etc. The poster concludes, “Has Noosa Council lost it’s [sic] way?” Well, someone has, but apparently this is also the name of a social media group with close associations with NPC. Its membership list includes only one council candidate so far – Leigh McCready.
Day 10, 7 February
REMEMBER COUNCIL DIVISIONS?
Speaking of whom, Candidate McCready this week posted about her “Regional Policies” which hark back to the good old days when in this shire and in most others, councilors were elected by and represented a smaller section of the shire known as a “division”. If you’re old enough to remember them (Noosa farewelled them in 2014 upon de-amalgamation) you’ll no doubt remember that while being able to tackle your local bloke about the pothole at the end of the street was by and large a good thing, the system was known to frequently to get bogged down in petty disputes.
Ms McCready, perhaps wisely, doesn’t call her thingies divisions, and since divisions no longer exist, the photos illustrating how local policies will differ from shire-wide policies if she is elected, seem to suggest that she herself will be the local bloke in each of her five local areas, pulling out weeds, chatting over the fence and visiting cultural landmarks such as the Butter Factory.
Day 12, 9 February
IT’S GETTING WEIRDER
Another day, another very strange post. This one, conjuring up the Sgt Pepper’s album cover (or was it Magical Mystery Tour?), is possibly the handiwork of the person or persons suffering acute apostrophe disease who are behind the aforementioned Facebook group “Has Noosa Council Lost It’s [sic] Way?” In something of a clue to its identity, the post is proudly presented by “Noosa’s Gate Keeper’s [sic]. And in some much shared versions, that group’s name appears as an overlay, which may be coincidental.
Surrounded by circus-themed graphics, the post goes on to reveal all about the “Council Election Social Media Circus”, the stars of which are Residents For Noosa Facebook page and Noosa Matters, both ideas forums which do a good job of highlighting resident concerns and bursting the odd pompous bubble. (Noosa Today wasn’t mentioned, possibly because the author couldn’t spell it.)
The social media circus post claims that its targets trade in in “candidate smear, lies, fear and loathing … dirty politics … toxic innuendo … and perverted priveledge [sic]”.
The most peculiar of many peculiar points about this post is that it keeps appearing and disappearing, but none of the typos get fixed! Has Noosa’s Gate Keepers lost it’s [sic] way too?
BUS STOP REPRIEVE
This week Noosa Council chief executive officer Larry Sengstock stayed an enforcement action to shut down the hugely popular Bus Stop Espresso mobile café outside Cooroy, until complaint against council has been resolved. Campaign Diary hears that this might take a while.
Last November Cr Tom Wegener argued his butt off in council to have the action stayed pending further investigation. He lost the vote 6:1. Which goes to show that if a week in politics is a long time, a whole summer is even longer. But if you’re a West Cooroy caffeine addict, you’ll be mighty relieved.
FOOTNOTE: Last week’s diary failed to credit clever local artist Judy Barrass for her Vote 1 Mickey Mouse artwork. Apologies Judy.
