A PLOT TO REMEMBER (York should RE-EVENT itself)

 Historic York-  ‘GATEWAY TO THE HEART OF WA’

Similar historic towns in Victoria, Daylesford, and South Australia, Hahndorf, have clinically and unashamedly vigorously promoted the ethnicity and old-world relationships of their pioneer past. Hahndorf is German, Daylesford is Swiss-Italian and both have successfully used this as an integral part of their tourism related, commercially attractive representative cultures and cuisines now being themed in local Events.

Daylesford has also successfully embraced the ‘Rainbow Trail’ tourist ethos, promoting the largest festival celebrating the lives of those of us who are Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and Transsexual- outside of Sydney’s ‘Gay Mardi-Gras’. ‘The Chill-Out Festival’ and other events held their claim to raise an estimated $129 million in overall tourist related revenue per annum.

Should York decide to follow a similar path and same-sex marriage be legalized, which is highly likely, than York could become a center for Rainbow weddings, a potentially lucrative market.

To put Daylesford’s (and its close surrounds) financial return from tourism into perspective, it is $120 million more than the Shire of York raises in rates and receives in government grants per Financial Year.

The city of York, Pennsylvania, USA, promotes itself as an ‘Architectural Museum’, the first capital of the United States and the ‘White Rose City’ in recognition and deference to the House of York, UK, the Tudors, King Henry V111, and Queen Elizabeth 1.

York, USA, a new- world town assuming the name and historic identity of an old-world one, was established just 90 years prior to York, Western Australia. It still promotes a strong allegiance and affinity to the City of York and Yorkshire, UK, naming its baseball team the ‘York White Roses’ and its football team engages in the annual ‘War of the Roses’. This refers directly to the war fought in Yorkshire from 1455 to 1487 between the Houses of York and Lancaster.

Our York, the entire town-site, is an ‘Architectural Museum’ registered as an ‘historic town’, with the National Estate of the Commonwealth of Australia. It is the first inland town in Western Australia and therefore can claim to be the Capital of the Wheatbelt, the Swan River Colony’s first granary and the colony’s initial food bowl, self-sufficiency saviour.

Our York’s old-world ancestry is Roman, Saxon, Viking, Norman and finally Northern English with its potpourri of representative cultures and cuisine. It has just as strong a recourse to use its colonial link with York (UK) and Yorkshire as any town so named. (It is the only town with the name in Australia.)

The Shire of York Council has already been advised of this fundamental historic and colonial identifiable relationship and what possible advantage it could be if promoted judiciously.

This could include the symbolic use of white and red roses as an emblematic promotional resource as the ‘York Shire Historic Rose Town’ directly relating to a 500-year-old historic event which led to England (and our antecedents) becoming the most powerful nation and empire on earth for another 400 years.

The Shire of York Council has been reminded that the City of York (UK) is aware of our community. Its’ Mayor and Aldermen were presented with, and gratefully accepted, an Indigenous painting by local artist, Merle Narkle during our 175^th Anniversary Celebrations in 2006 and this event was published in The Yorkshire Post, one of the largest circulation newspapers in the UK outside of Fleet Street’s London tabloids.

“Remember, remember, the 5^th of November

  gunpowder, treason and plot
  I see no reason that gunpowder treason
  should ever be forgot”

Up until the late 1970’s, these were the lyrics on every Australian child’s lips prior to ‘Bonfire Night’ or ‘ Guy Fawkes Night’ being celebrated. Guy Fawkes was a Yorkshireman who plotted to blow up the English Houses of Parliament in 1605. His un-fulfilled act of anarchy was celebrated throughout Australia for nearly 200 years.

The reasons for the banning of this extremely popular event were because of the risk of injury and fire damage, nothing more.

It should be remembered that modern lighting techniques can now be used to remove all risks as being a simulated pyrotechnics display and the stylized facemask of Guy Fawkes is recognized throughout the world as the international symbol and ‘anonymous face’ of those who are against many forms of government secrecy and political hypocrisy (a potential celebration in itself.)

Those from Yorkshire with direct links to Australia are Captain James Cook and Amy Johnson, the world famous aviatrix, who was the first woman to fly solo between England and Australia.

Ragnar Lothbrok and his son Ivor the Boneless, now immortalized in the epic, historic television series ‘Vikings’ are an integral part of the history of York (UK).

Yorkshires’ Bronte Sisters are the most celebrated female siblings in the history of English literature.

Under the right circumstances Events can be created from Legends and seized opportunities.

Therefore the Shire of York Council has been made aware that the WA Museum is closing for four years. Regional display sites are being used in Kalgoorlie, Albany and Geraldton, but apparently nowhere in the Wheatbelt for WA Museum exhibits.

The museum claims it will work with a range of partners on a number of projects to keep its exhibits open to the public.

The Wheabelt is just as historically important to West Australians’ as any other part of this state and any related WA Museum exhibits should be displayed in the first inland and Wheatbelt town, ‘York’ for the next four years. (It is also the home of Australia’s most historic inland racetrack.)

It has been suggested to Council that unused sections of the YRCC, in particular the convention center area, and possibly the Old convent School (after restoration), could be used to house the WA Museums’ Wheatbelt historic memorabilia displays concerning agriculture, culture (both European and Indigenous) early horse racing and any other relevant exhibits.

Public viewing of these displays would require the payment of an entry fee thereby raising revenue for the upkeep of these commercially non-viable Council assets.

There is an ominous feeling that hidden away amid the Annual Budget is the fact that the Shire of York is in an extremely difficult financial situation with, in real terms, a debt greater than it has faced in the last 145 years since it was established in 1871. This will require an enormous amount of community resilience and co-operative commitment needing a positive response from every member of the community to overcome.

Over the past six years, the Shire of York appears to have spent less than 1% of its annual revenue receipts on directly promoting York for anything-to-anyone.
At this stage it is unlikely that the Shire will be able to assist any project in any way other than by negotiation with relevant government agencies asking for support. This is not the fault of the current Council and CEO.

It is hoped that any financial crisis and any fear of failure does not outweigh York’s ability to proceed to succeed.

David Taylor.

YORK FUTURE SOCIO-ECONOMIC VIABILITY APPRAISAL (JULY 1, 2016-onwards)

There is at least Ten Commandments for commercial viability and sustainable growth for rural communities, like York. One in particular is location. Being in close proximity to a large population of 2.2 million (Perth) should be considered to be a potential commercial advantage. It is not based on rocket science and in the case of York these commandments for both successful peri-urban neighbourhood living and local rural community preservation are basic and as follows:-

1. A Shire of York Council able to deliver to its administrative arm forward planning ideas and proposals to assist in developing new commercially viable manufacturing, retail and tourism business, and population growth, prioritised through effective community consultation. (The Major Strategic Review 2016 should be the catalyst for overall socio-economic growth improvement.)

2. A Shire of York Administration with a senior management structure capable of undertaking such development through the provision of administration excellence, positive forward planning advice and any direct or indirect assistance for new business facilitation. (This management structure is yet to be put in place.)

3. A dynamic Shire of York Administration Chief Executive Officer with the ability to attract suitably credentialed and experienced applicants for a limited number of managerial positions deemed essential for all future socio-economic development and its Australia-wide and international  promotion. (These areas of required expertise, and the number of required managerial positions agreed to by the Shire of York Council, are yet to be advised.)

4. A Shire of York Council and Shire of York Administration dedicated to cohesive, clear, concise, capable and transparent governance acceptable to both the Department of Local Government, no matter which political party is in power, but more importantly to the York community and its ratepayers. (This is yet to be proven, but the means to this end should be encapsulated in The Comprehensive Policy Review 2016.)

5. A Shire of York Council and Shire of York Administration with the ability to attract and retain sufficient number of appropriately qualified, trained and dedicated Councillors and administration staff to provide continuing, stable good governance and community services- projected well into the future. (Councillors have four years to prove their value to the community, senior managerial administration staff should be on 3-year performance-based contracts with an annual KPI assessment.)

6. It should be recognized and understood that York’s aging population; currently the second-highest, per-capita, in Western Australia does not provide the ideal, future-growth dynamics for new investment based on current local community customer support only. Any new supplier of goods and services would require an additional external customer/client base.
York has a low, per capita, average annual income of $37,000 which is half that of Australia’s average annual, pre-tax income and close to the basic wage. The local housing market, both sales and rentals, is in serious decline. Therefore there are very few, if any, positive economic indicators suggesting easily achievable, rapid economic growth. (These are the problems that The Major Strategic Review 2016 must attempt to address.)

7. It should be recognized that unlike Northam and Toodyay, York does not have any form of relatively inexpensive public transport system to create a peri-urban/rural community with a commuter based population, either supplying a significant workforce to the metropolitan area or vice-versa. Its main access road, the Great Southern Highway is a ‘highway’ in name only. (This is a problem that may be difficult to address.)

8. It should be recognized and understood that York does not have the headworks and other commercial utility delivery capacity required to provide additional, inexpensive, power (electricity and gas) and water supply services to attract small to medium manufacturing industry in what is a highly competitive market- in a current slow growth sector. Nor does it have the skilled workforce to complement this form of new investment, or a known, supportive Council commercial rating regime to attract these investors. (The focus of future, restricted, Royalties for Regions funding will be on assisting viable business development and should be taken advantage of, were applicable, by the Shire of York Administration and the Shire of York Council.)

9. It should be of community concern that York does not appear have any co-ordinated economy support group such as a Chamber of Commerce, Local Businessman’s Association, Business Advisory Group or current York-based tourism committee to assist in advising and attracting new manufacturing, retail and tourism business to the town. (This is a serious matter that requires redressing by the whole-of-York community in providing local expertise as potential social capitalization.)

10. It should be recognized and understood  that the previous Shire of York Council and administration’s over investment in just one multi-million dollar, mainly public funded, community facility, The York Recreation and Convention Centre, has the ability to create serious municipal fund deficiencies in  the Shire of York Annual budget for the foreseeable future. This could see funding that should have been allocated to assist in areas such as promotion, marketing and commercial facilitation to attract new business and population growth continuously being diverted to keep the doors of the YRCC open.

The Guy Lehmann Report, supposedly commissioned to provide a remedial business plan, was not completed and there has yet to be released any information on how serious a problem the YRCC has in meeting the basic, everyday budgetary necessities and overall debt servicing requirements to remain solvent. This report was due to be released two years ago and the reluctance to release any financial information regarding the YRCC suggests there is a serious problem with credibility, accountability and public acceptance. (This is a matter for the Shire of York Council to publically address now.)

Statistics, which are adverse in York’s case, do not lie, but they can be improved. Unfortunately, overall, current statistics show an alarming rise in unemployment in Rural and Regional WA brought about by the severe downturn in the resources sector. Another factor is the failure of Royalties for Regions funding to be used for improvement and increases in basic infrastructure such as rural roads, rail and additional, high quality, cheap utility services. (These are all matters that should have been given due consideration in the development of The Major Strategic Review 2016.

The complex issues of rejuvenating rural community development (at this time) (and how to activate it) are mainly a Shire of York Council problem to be addressed immediately. One employee, the CEO, needed to facilitate and ensure positive development is in place, the rest must be found as soon as possible.  (Neither is a particularly easy task.)

Despite claims to the contrary, both on-line media publications dealing with controversial York community issues are well read by the public, politicians, their advisors and staff. The readership of both would be well in excess of 100,000 per annum which are easily confirmed by the number of visits automatically registered on the website address.

One courts public comment, allowing for robust community debate, the other does not because it makes statements and does not ask questions. One’s ownership is known, the other’s is not!

It is important, in the public interest, for both to exist until it is apparent that the performance of the Shire of York Council and the Shire of York Administration make them no longer necessary. (There should be an in-built, timely obsolescence.)

In deference to the obvious intellectualism of one owner, who uses famous literary quotes to illustrate his message, here is a famous Dickensian quote, revisited, that hopefully suggests York’s immediate future.

“It was the best of times, not the worst of times
it was the age of wisdom, not the age of foolishness
it was the epoch of belief, not the epoch of incredulity
it was the season of light, not the season of darkness
it was the Spring of hope- not another winter of despair.

David Taylor.

A TWIT FROM THE DEEP! (Mamamia waxes her surfboard and baits her breath)

Hi Wheat ‘Belt-Tighteners’.

As the Minister for Water (CO2) I should mention the word ‘Shark’. The oceans are full of CO2 and sharks. The opposition will tell you it is H2O, and sharks, but that’s just political scare mongering.

Now, as I’ve said before, I’m not responsible for anything to do with water, including oceans and its scary critters.

But sharks I do know, they scavenge around Parliament House a lot, looking for ministerial handouts. York had a big white pointer recently curtesy of Tony Simpson and Brad Jolly. He’s one of the Best there is, a pecuniary predator costing York both an arm and a leg.

The other ones really do have a purpose, also a porpoise, a dolphin, some mullet and anything else they can wrap their jaws around. The Editor of The West Australian, Brett McCarthy claims that they even want to graze on our kids (to try and sell his newspaper).

I’ll give you the drum, my line is to capture plenty of real big white pointers and convert York’s YRCC into a giant aquarium and cull two problems with one bait.

What an awesome idea. I can see the neon now. ‘Come see one of the world’s oldest living creatures in WA’s oldest inland town’. There will obviously be a massive memorabilia market, Tee-shirts- you name it. (The Shire of York Council should be thinking logos- “BITE ME- IN YORK”
springs to mind.)

You could have a once a month “Feeding Frenzy Day” and on public holidays, when you invite at least one former Shire President, CEO and Councillor to have a swim- covered in burley.

Some people in York feel they do not have a product to attract tourists. Moi has just solved the product problem.

Still talking tourism, our supreme leader, Colin (Bizarre) Barnett has come up with another bonza-bewdy tourism promotion ‘JUST ANOTHER DAY IN WA’ (with no tourists and an empty treasury.)

I’m not sure how he came up with this one but it lends itself to the critics going feral.

 ‘Just another day in WA’ (and it will get worse), ‘Just another day in WA’ (without 25,000 FIFO workers), ‘Just another day in WA’ (with 2,000 empty hotel rooms), ‘Just another day in WA’ (can someone please switch off the lights) and ‘Just another day in WA’ (the last bus leaves tomorrow).

Moving on you may have heard that I may be the new Nationals leader. No it’s not because I’m the only one that can flick her hair like ‘Miss Piggy’ and wear a decent lip gloss. That’s not nice!

I know all about CO2 and who the real sharks are, me and Liza Harvey are circling. (We call ourselves the ‘Awesome Jawsome’ even though her jaw is way bigger than mine.)

My intended leadership-spill victim is Terry Redman. He’s just come out of the closet and said he wants to use Royalties- for regions growth- not for rest and recreation. He actually wants to use my Glory Box to create jobs.

As I have pledged to you since 2013, I will not allow Royalties for Regions to create one PERMANENT JOB in my electorate and I’ll take this promise through to the next election. (Permanent jobs are only for senior bureaucrats who live in Perth.)

To get re-elected I need cash to splash to keep our public swimming pools from turning yellow and build a couple of skate parks for the Jenny Craig failures. How many times do I have to tell Terry that? Honestly- MEN!

Speaking of yellowish, I’m the Minister for Sport, not buildings erected for sports stuff. I take no responsibility for the windows at the Burswood Sports Arena being orange.

What we wanted was smoky-day-grey, to reflect the pall of carbon monoxide that hangs over Beijing. That’s one way to attract Chinese tourists and make them feel at home.

What we got was disaster orange, the colour that best suggests what an atomic bomb blast looks like after the event.

Of course this glass faux pas won’t cost the public anything. We’ll sack a couple of hundred nurses and divert finances from where it is needed most, so you’ll never know what this particular stuff-up really cost.

You see? It’s just like the YRCC. You’ll never know what anything cost because it’s commercially confidential- to us- and we ain’t telling no-one.

So my Central Wheatbelters listen carefully for the false hope I provided to you prior to the next election, which will become broken promises if I get re-elected.

Times are tough- and some of the tough may be forced to settle in Perth where they have some hope of finding a job.

Remember, to face the future with me, you’ll have to tighten your belts- at least a couple of notches!

DON’T’T BE SHY, YOU KNOW WHERE MAMAMIA HANGS OUT (SOMETIMES) AND HER CONTACT
NUMBERS. DROP ME A LINE!

SWINGS, ROUND-A-BOUTS, FITZ GERALD REPORTS & YORK’S NEW CEO

The local Nationals member for the Electorate of North West Central, Vince Catania, is trying to call in the cavalry on the Shire of Carnarvon where employee harassment and bullying is allegedly rife.

The cavalry is the Minister for Local Government, Tony Simpson who with his donkey, a Jenny not a Jack, but maybe a Jolly, will take ages in traversing the 900 kilometres to Carnarvon and will never wish to arrive in time.

Mr. Catania is the Secretary to the Minister for Water, Sport and Recreation and Forests, Mia Davies.

Mr Catania is being proactive in his electorate by intervening with a Minister, requiring a Minister to act on behalf of his (Catania’s) constituents. This is what good elected members’ do, no matter what the personal political consequences (including how much he has pissed Tony Simpson off.)

In 2014, Ms. Davies failed to intervene in serious issues facing the Shire of York involving the same Minister. She has also refused to intervene in a potentially catastrophic issue related to one of her own portfolios, Water.

Where York is concerned, Ms. Davies is not a good elected member, in fact she is a distinct liability.

The fact that she is being touted, by some, as the next Leader of the Nationals is quite incredible, is hardly based on the quality of her past performance and really means nothing if her party loses at the next State Election on March 11, 2017.

Someone who has arrived in Carnarvon is Mike Fitz Gerald (and his Fitz Gerald Strategies) who has been hired to investigate the Shire’s problem, but has not particularly impressed Mr. Catania.

What Mr. Catania is worried about is Fitz Gerald’s online metaphorical industrial relations incantation ‘Problem Employee - Problem solved’. This appears to be an extremely trite allegory covering complex industrial relations issues, especially when employees have threatened suicide.

Mr. Fitz Gerald seems to have a continuing problem of failing to impress, then disappearing into the woodwork to contemplate his navel and his inconsequential, monomorphic industrial relations stratagems.

His Fitz Gerald Report commissioned by the Shire of York Council could have been easily labelled the ‘Fizz-Gerald Report, expensive, with lots of froth and bubbles, but no champagne.

Certainly what was revealed (only to a privileged few) was a litany of adverse accusations including public harassment, abuse of power and monumental examples of power-hungry self-interest that has seen a number of people lose their public credibility- and deservedly so! (This reaction was not caused by the report itself but a synopsis of the report published in The West Australian Newspaper.

The tally has been two Shire Presidents, probably two Deputy Shire President and one Chief Executive Officer. The eventual score should include four (4) senior staff members of the Shire of York Administration. Nine in total!

Unfortunately, an extremely lazy Mr. Fitz Gerald never equated his investigatory findings to charges that could be laid under criminal or civil law, or government regulations. Thereby some have gone unpunished to the level they could, and should, have been.

Collateral damage was the eventual resignation of another Shire President, Matthew Reid, who inadvertently exposed that there are numerous potential charlatans in the peripheral support industries that leach off the failures of the Minister for Local Government, his Department and the Local Government Act, 1995.

The Fizz Gerald Report was totally ignored by both Simpson and his Department, yet at no stage did Fitz Gerald himself attempt to defend his reputation as an accredited, experienced industrial relations strategy specialist and/or the veracity of his findings in his report to the Shire of York Council about its quorums’ concerns. 

He took the money and ran. Now he is in Carnarvon peddling his wares- ‘same old,’  ‘same old’- ad nauseum.

The current Shire of York Council should have learned something from all this.

One major lesson is there should never be obsequious, myopic, small town reliance on the abilities of any single Public Service Officer, including the Chief-Executive-Officer, either by Council or ratepayers.

Given his past local government administration experience, Paul Martin appears to have all the qualities, credentials and acumen to move York forwards towards a far more self-reliant and productive future.

However it should be remembered that former Chief-Executive-Officer, Ray Hooper, and Commissioner, James Best, claimed such an ability to provide this positive end result, leaving York in a financial and emotional mess-with a community partially divided.

The current Council believes it has a man,’ very capable of moving York forward’. However this does not absolve Council of any duty-of-care. It is Councils’ responsibility to move York forward in the direction it was elected to do so, not rely on its employee, the CEO.

The Chief Executive Officer of a Shire Council is there to administrate and facilitate. The Council is elected to adjudicate on what the CEO has to do to achieve Council’s goals on behalf of its Local Government Area electorate.

In the tale of a dog, Council must be the dog and the administration is the tail. In the past the tail has often managed to wag the dog- which is totally unacceptable to the local community in general.


This Council has urgent issues that it must deal with much sooner than later. It knows what these are and must exorcise them prior to the next Local Government Election in October, 2017.

The Council wishes to make serious inroads into its dilemmas in the next six months and should be allowed to do this without unwarranted criticism.

One problem that no Regional, Rural and Remote Shire Council envisaged is the attitude of the Minister for Tourism, the Premier Colin Barnett.

Mr Barnett’s apparently intransigent stance is that Perth will be the centre and total focus of his tourism policy in an attempt to fill empty hotel rooms and expensive, weed-covered, sites where new hotels were supposed to be built.

This suggests empty hotel rooms and a collapsing tourist industry in most other towns in Western Australia at a time when it could be one of the saviours of the State’s economy.

Mr Barnett’s opinion is shared by very few- other than the major hotel chains, the Crown Perth casino complex and the quasi-government agency, Tourism WA, in its promotion ‘Experience Perth’.

If numerous members of the Liberal Party, both inside and outside Parliament, have their way, Mr. Barnett will neither be Premier or the Minister for Tourism after the Federal Election in July, or before the next State Election just nine months away.

Given Mr Barnett’s city-centric tourism philosophy, the sooner he is overthrown the better for the future economic health of Western Australia and in particular, York.

David Taylor.