HOMELESSNESS & 5 IN THE FRAME FOR THE ABANDONED NURSES'S HOME

 

Since the ABC has given Launceston's Councillors a serve in regard to the contempt that have for people in HOUSINGstress it is timely to reawaken the effort to get a commitment from 'governance' on the future use of the LGH's Abandoned Nurses Home. SEE https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1643368356437306&set=a.986876722086476

The dust has settled after the election and the Liberals have not come out of looking all that shinny! Before the election they had shut down meaningful community consultation. In fact they had turned obfuscation, DUCKshoving and BUREAUCRATICcircumvention into an ARTform! They'll all turn up for a RIBBONcutting, a PHOTOopportunity, or the opening of an envelope in the middle of the road, BUT engage meaningfully with their constituency, well that was (is??) a bridge too far!

While this group of historic buildings have been deemed to "surplus to requirement" and beyond repair there are community members with expertise who are willing to independently assess that questionable bureaucratic 'deeming'. The signs are that these building are eminently restorable and they ideas about how that might be achieved. Quite simply that needs to be tested!

Speculatively, these buildings are seen as being "ripe'" for a developer and given what has happened in the city in recent years the speculation seems to have legs. On the other hand, Launceston has been persuaded to FLOGoff York Park and the community is fed all kinds of BS. Who benefits? It's unlikely to be all the Launcestonians who have underwritten extraordinary capital expenditure.

All the BS here is fundamentally aimed at 'management' having its status quoism and 'power' protected. The icing on the cake for management is that they have the 'elected representatives' eating out of their hands as they laugh all the way to the bank with their bloated salary packages. And the hapless ratepayers pick up the bill for all manner dystopia because management see ratepayers as a money source who "do not need to make a profit". it is no joke but here are some unkind jokes exchanged around the water cooler at Councillors' and ratepayers' expense at Town Hall.

When people suffering housing stress are treated with scant regard and with social and cultural consequences being what they are, ratepayers and taxpayers are sold short on a daily basis. No wonder that those in governance in Tasmania are disinclined to expose themselves to accountability given what they have invested in the status quo.

Accountability breeds response-ability and that's the rub. If it is too hot in the kitchen, then go get a real job where accountability is a fundamental requirement – say in a medical facility.

At some time, our representatives need to step up to the plate and represent the interests of those who they represent and who pay them handsomely to do what they seem so, so disinclined to do.