Consultation abuse

When we start relying on very strict conditions

2009-10-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

The Premier symbolises the great big hole that his team have dug by rejoicing in the fact that a very unpopular development in the Docklands will be controlled by "very, very strict conditions" .
His mate Mr Robinson is also happy to recommend the cul de sac that is planning Victoria 2009 - 40 more people will be employed as policeman - the growth area of modern planning .
The premiers legacy in planning will not be in giving more people the great job that is planning in the public interest . The tools of freedom of a simple yes or No. No robinson is offering the opportunity to run bigger and bigger compliance divisions. People who train in the School of Mere Description and qualify in the grand art of paperwork checklist checking .
This compliance led recovery to planning is not a solution and will go down in history as the biggest distraction and threat to , what was once our great, appeals system .
Its about as brilliant and sustainable as agreeing to a permit for multiple marriage partners because you've listed very , very strict conditions .
Sound leaders say NO and teach their staff how to do the same.
Young planners should be taught that if you have to write too restrictive conditions you prbably should say NO .
Maddens clearly not training his team very well .
The planning system needs MORE people who can say NO when they need to . You know the planning system is failing when it celebrates ( as the premier did today ) the very very strict conditions argument . Growing a a bigger compliance division is about as sustainable as employing nannies and bouncers to save you saying No in your own home .

The Premier seeks a high degree of consistency but doesn't see that there isn't one in the current way his government works . Infact good planning is anything but conformist -thats one big reason why our planning system is in disarray .

Planning should be largely about saying Yes or No and giving the hard pressed applicants the freedom that is associated with that .

Unable to say No ( esp at the right time) our leaders hide behind anything that looks like a decision ( incl policy frameworks).

Worse still, the grand vision of our forefathers that the planning system would provide advice grows increasingly dim under the weight of a whole lot of paper policies and the means they provide to avoid making actual decisions by a growing myriad of irresponsible authorities .

Mr Don quixote Cheeseman

2009-08-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

The labor party is riding high, and YES, it worries us .See the LOCAL NEWS

Mr Cheeseman is on a roll in Colac this week with another of his seminars on the future. ( invite only affairs) This week its windmills, and he's is there fighting.

Sir Humphrey (SirH) would not be pleased- if he was still employed . ( "we want new future orientated optimists " said the Emperor and his friends "not dinasuars, fixed in the past ")
The important thing to do with best intentions ( as their Fabian leader would remind them if they only slowed down to listen) is exactly what any sound SirH would do . Why leave the member/minister to discover that he's got the right destination ( more renewable energy )but has paid the wrong taxi- and paid big ! Trying to tell them is better than hoping the next one will be better.

You think this is a big call? Only hypocrisy, ignorance and immaturity ,or all three , can explain why government ministers STILL go around picking winners with our money when BOTH PARTIES claim to let the market make those calls .( and sometimes they are right to so do). They specialize in a Lot of hot air and wind talk, we know!
The government have just hastened the demise of the super sized plantation industry in our backyard , with such a predictably badly targeted incentive driven bubble. And they have the cheek to talk about sustainability being their aim . Here's sustainbility. Their "aim" we don't question.( the pun is indded a paradox) Its the big nature of the bombs and the indiscriminant killing and wastage they create by carelessly dropping them all over the place ! Copyright EA .

Only empty headed inspiration can explain the dummies STILL offering badly targeted "incentives " ( which distort the market - they think its " all good" which is much the same as saying "too much bread...? why it's never wasted when people are starving" ) when the technology is old hat , the timing is ( good investment is about timing) wrong and the focus is not clear ( which renewable when is the right design with problem question)

Still, Kevin Rudd lets his ministers get back on their favourie horses and ride out into the sunset -

I wonder for how long ?

Bushfire disaster hearings snowed by noise?

2009-08-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

The interim report of the Royal Commission into Victorias biggest disaster is unwilling to blow the trumpet clearly .
Its job is supposed to be ---to dig deep and cut hard, but it's deliberations generate words, but not the sort of punchy wisdom that will do it .

Is it an example of consultation gone wrong? If the commission can't say that "we have a problem because we are not allowed to say to people "you are living in an impossible risk situation" we will still have the problem.

We still have a problem. The children are in charge?

If the children are in charge -the noise dominates and wisdom is not heard

2009-02-11T18:31:00.000-08:00

Disasters will happen, but the size of them demonstrates just how effective governments are at doing the job they are supposed to do ( Its written on the floor ) The current Victorian government has no excuse - Fire after fire after fire. This week ----the greatest fire disaster ever.

Telling the truth or feeding a habit ?

2009-02-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Spending spree packages approx $1000 to everyone
The people who get the money Rudd is offering will be the ones closest to the drip feed . Those who are too busy trying to keep things working will not have time to spend at Centrelinks door .

Father Christmas Kevin is not a real father
At least Obama is game enough to say "its not all our problem" before he locks himself in to offering lollies and genuine stimulus to the crowd . He not letting the audince blame him like Rudd has - how dumb and wooosy can you get -

THE reason this blog started
Consultation was used by Dept heads and polys to manage their own self created crises in quick fix – the point being ” if you told them the answer” they wouldn’t normally be effective with it because they refused to link YOU using the competence of your further practical involvement ; They would offer the key mission to others without knowing the recipe. They were unaware of the loss rate by involving a chain of command that didn'y really know how to cook sustaiably and was now riddled with holes and empty spaces –
The grandest evidence of their incompetence is their complete failure to know when and who to give to- even without a crisis.

Happy to just go around “ naming the problem “ they asummed the job ws done . The throwing of money at all the problems pleased the drip feeders and startede any number of half baked new round implementation experiments. It was enough to make me throw up.

See quest frustration

2008-09-12T01:40:00.000-07:00

You want to know why soil sequestration won't work to put in the ET trading budget? Well, its simple:
You need to speak with a really capable and practical soils scientist. That is, if you can find one in the gallery of sycophants that hang around in the halls of Canberra these days !

THE 20 20 SUMMIT - more than a lot of loud noise?

2008-04-09T16:04:00.001-07:00

The very essence of good leadership is to know who to listen to.
----Not first yourself because in the big picture - you know nuttin
----Not second thems that scramble to chew your ear - they may sound impressive but that's their skill.
----Not third the noisy ones - they rely too much on hype and spin.
----Not those who are happy to tell you all that matters in 2 days - that would be to admit to incompetence . Really effective people take their time.

so what about the quiet ones - the quiet achievers -- will they be heard
Hard to imagine how they would be heard in such a fast moving context - real facilitation of ideas in the market place should put sites such as these out there -----and at them .

Howard was going deaf?

2007-12-05T16:50:00.000-08:00

It is of course not right to blame John Howard entirely for the deafness in the liberal party and their recent loss of power at elections . Any politician who doesn't really seek to know what concerned public citizens are saying ( an important reason why YOU should bookmark this site) is at risk of losing their place in our democracy . And few would not now recognise that the libs were not listening

Conservatives have got the deeper bath in which to splash,so were they swimming on top when the election came ?
A big problem on the party’s part seems to be complacency - a lack of awareness of their own failure to dig deep into the foundations - foundations that now drive both sides of politics to mine what was once the conservatives traditional territory .

Howards grand catchment plan

2007-02-21T13:15:00.000-08:00

Yes he's consulted everyone - what he has decided is that we all need a big picture approach to water and everything that is going wrong in the country .
It all makes sense to a simple person and to marginal voters who don't want problems but solutions - at least in print or in a 60 minutes of problem solving they like to indulge in each week .
Now its conservatives turn to apply some balm to the hurting world . City type hype about water and how we will solve those peasants problems . Trouble is not only the city hurts differently from its country neighbours , but it is so far away from them it dreams up simple solutions that don't work or the really experienced risk managers thought of years ago. RERM deal with drought all the b.... time

-as for trading in buckets Put one on your head dummies - its empty and the value of its contents is dependant on j curves too complex for you meddlers to even get the handle on and keep it ready for action when we need it .

Warning - Building capacity maybe quantity over quality

2006-02-13T14:34:00.000-08:00

In the information age , Never really get away from the high risk of the people ( and then the polys ) falling for the dumb and simple. CAse in point Building community capacity - Hegel would have had a field day with the kindergarten tretament of this subject. Don't aim for quality you will give the idea a bad name because it turns in smalz - icecream for children -
Objectivity ---Uganda ( new scientist this week) cannot control lake victorias outlet but at least it has a professional environmentalists assocaition - dume and dumber australia ? Write your piece

Another great test season of Cricket -Lessons in getting your turn to face

2006-01-01T23:15:00.000-08:00

Work NOW is less fun why? Partly because we refuse to accept the role of umpire and do not allow ourselves to agree to rules of the game .

Was your christmas filled with too much talk , breaking of your rules and not enough time for a balance of learning and listening (consultation abuse)- its hard to balance the two .
BUT thats where games can help . Games (even the top testing ones)are great relaxation for us because the boundaries of the conversation and response are clear. Games help us train for life in less demanding ways. So we can only truly have fun on the field and in families , if we live within boundaries .

Take time to listen - but make the time worthwhile by setting boundaries BEFORE someone even starts talking face to face .

Silence of the lambs

2005-07-21T04:29:00.000-07:00

Those of us in pain because the Politically Correct now reign in our competency area don't speak much. Others speak for us. Our silence can turn to depression when so called care is really about dealing quickly with the quiet awareness of our pain.

Double your voting power - get more choice

2004-08-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

Another side to imbalance in the flow of Info --- Media ignoring "the boring "( what they think it is anyway)

The examples A New party (Family First launched this week ) and middle ground demo in the great hall --------largely ignored in Vic

Missing a story because it looks to be more of the some same old stuff is very easy- too easy. When the status of marriage issue drew a wall to wall crowd at the Great Hall last week, it was largely ignored . The middle ground of Australia spoke, but the media weren’t listening .Is this common ? Is it possible that this unique symbol of solidarity in the very heart of Canberra will be the first sign of the great watershed issue of the 2004 election?. If its true ,somebody missed out on a scoop big time .

2 VOTES for ONE?
In a marginal seat in Australia , you actually get the chance to pick two people equally provided you do it in the right order . small one first !If you put major party second you do not risk your seat going to " the other major party"

who are FF? se website http;// www.familyfirst.org.au

The ultimate choice - to say nothing when you could say a lot

2004-06-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

Great idea for a site. Too many of us thinking people have been sucked in by powerful people consulting US , just so they can shine up the polish on an expensive soon to be ditched rust bucket - about to sink .
So why open your mouth ? The rust will be more obvious sooner and the taxpayer, and you, will lose less in the process. Timing?
A Shutup test ?- will they let you talk about the big picture?