While the world knows it is impossible to find two economists who can agree, I think everyone would agree that whether we use cash or a credit card, it is critical to ensure that what we purchase is useful and represents value for money.

While councillors can argue about the wisdom of borrowing money because it’s “cheap”, how many residents and ratepayers would think that a $7million civic centre would satisfy that criteria?

How many of those same residents and ratepayers would think that buying an asset like the Auswide building for $1.5million, but which will produce a zero return on investment, represents a sound financial decision?

And how many residents and ratepayers would think that spending $2million on the old Tura Beach Tavern and then letting it sit empty for three years represents responsible management?

And how many residents and ratepayers think that having $3.6million of their funds going out the door every year to pay for council’s irresponsible behaviour might be better spent on improving shire roads or its sewerage system?

In our view, none of them are worthy of re-election in September.

Recently I transferred ownership of a car I purchased.

To my astonishment I found that the stamp duty was assessed on the total price paid inclusive of GST – that is a state tax is imposed upon a Commonwealth tax. 

To my mind this amounts to outright extortion.

I, and no doubt many other car purchasers, would be most interested to hear a justification of this extraordinary practice from our local state representative. 

Perhaps his government is considering levying stamp duty on top of our council rates as well?

The UK Chilcot report is in, and rightly condemns one of the architects of the Iraq invasion, Tony Blair.

But where is the justice?

The Chief Prosecutor at the World War 2 Nuremburg trials, General Telford Taylor, later argued that if the principles used to condemn the Nazi defendants were also applied to the American architects of the Vietnam invasion, they would suffer the same fate as those on trial at Nuremburg.

But shouldn’t these principles logically also apply to the architects of the Iraq invasion – Bush, Blair and our own John Howard?

While perhaps as many children, mothers and fathers, grandfathers and grandmothers, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces were scarred, mutilated, crippled, terrorised, napalmed, orphaned, tortured and died in extreme pain in Indochina and Iraq as Jews who died in the Holocaust, the architects of the western invasions – Johnson, Nixon and Kissinger; and Bush, Blair and Howard – lead long, healthy and rich lives, surrounded by loving families. It’s some world.    

I do note that still complaints are being made about “our ABC”.

There is a petition going around and I ask all who see this petition to sign it and we will give it to our new member Mike Kelly to sort the ABC and get the funeral announcements back on air.

Don’t give up. After all, it is “our ABC”.