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ALL OF THE NEWS from around the Shire on One Page below for your convenience
The Beagle
- Jun 28, 2019
Editorial June 28th 2019
Welcome to this week’s editorial,
Bullying, ranting, name calling, denigration, shaming, naming. We see posts made that edge on racisim, homophobia, political extremism. We see cruelty that is either physical or psychological being handed out in and once it begins we see others follow suit.
But who is real in Social Media—it is easy to hide behind fictitious accounts and profiles that are set up to establish anonymity so when it begins to get harmful on social media in ca
The Beagle
- Jun 22, 2019
Ingsoc or Eurosoc : the public will now be Unseen and Unheard - welcome to the New Order
Big Brother is a fictional character and symbol in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is ostensibly the leader of Oceania, a totalitarian state wherein the ruling party Ingsoc wields total power "for its own sake" over the inhabitants.
What we are now witnessing in the Eurobodalla is a Council that more and more appears to wield total power "for its own sake" over the inhabitants being us, the residents and ratepayers.
Next Tuesday will have speakers presenti
The Beagle
- Jun 21, 2019
Editorial June 21st 2019
Next Tuesday Eurobodalla Councillors will be voting on whether they should grant themselves a 2.5% increase.
This decision will be made on the same day they put out the latest Fees and Charges for use of Council facilities from pools to playing fields and halls, water use, sewer use and tip fees that have all taken a hike skyward.
The vote for a Councillor and Mayor fee increase is also to be delivered in the same report that says the annual Ordinary Rates for 2019-20 are
The Beagle
- Jun 15, 2019
The tide is turning
There has been much said over the past week around Eurobodalla Council's decision to remove video recording of members of the public presenting to Council
In essence the justification by Eurobodalla's Mayor was that the community can not be trusted when presenting and they might use the occasion to defame, grandstand or reveal something that breaches the Privacy Act such as dropping the name of a neighbour who is a co-complainant in a dog barking complaint. Whatever the 'ju
The Beagle
- Jun 14, 2019
Editorial June 14th 2019
Welcome to this week’s editorial,
Well that was an interesting week in local politics.
Tuesday’s Council meeting saw councillors vote seven against two to remove the live streaming of Public Forum as the Mayor said it presented a risk to Council that someone might randomly say something defamatory, refer to somebody or reveal information about someone and as the community were not to be trusted it was justification enough to remove the live streaming of community present
The Beagle
- Jun 10, 2019
Long live Public Forum Version 2.0
Beagle Readers,
Tomorrow Councillors will vote on a Council staff recommendation to remove the video recording and webcasting of Public Forum sessions and instead conduct Public Forum for gallery observers only.
Council has advised that it will not record the sessions nor will they minute the sessions however they have said they will publish a transcript of the presentation on their website.
What won't be published however will be the questions asked of the speaker b
The Beagle
- Jun 8, 2019
Let's Upgrade your 50m pool to a 25m - you want fries with that?
When Council adopted the new Eurobodalla Shire Aquatic Strategy it commissioned Otium to write what it was endorsing was the grand plan to rid Batemans Bay of its Olympic pool without any consultation what so ever.
The objectives of the Eurobodalla Aquatic Strategy as set out in Council’s brief was to:
Develop an Aquatic Strategy for the Eurobodalla which will better inform the potential development of the Batemans Bay Mackay Park Precinct (primarily an update of the pr
The Beagle
- Jun 7, 2019
Editorial June 7th 2019
Welcome to this week’s editorial,
Little by little our access to information is being whittled away and any information we do encounter is generally diluted into sound bites, tweets or 100 words or less.
We now generally inform ourselves via hourly radio news headlines, nightly TV news and an infill of updates from our social media feeds. Some might extend their reach for news by adding programs such as the 7:30 Report, 4 Corners, The Panel, The Drum or follow ViceLand an
The Beagle
- May 24, 2019
Editorial May 24th 2019
Welcome to this week’s editorial,
You can measure the richness of a community by the passion that its people hold for place.
Thursday afternoon under a stunning Autumn sky the 2019 Eurobodalla Local Hero award was announced from 31 nominees.
In the handbook given out each of the nominees was given a precis of their accomplishments and contributions, usually a paragraph or two and to the casual observer unfamiliar with those nominated they might draw the wrong conclusio
The Beagle
- May 17, 2019
Editorial May 17th 2019
Welcome to this week’s editorial,
The Federal election is upon us finally. Observed from near and afar this has to be the dirtiest election I have ever witnessed. To watch on, via the international press, as Australians tore each other apart in the media with their factionalism, their rolling campaigns of claims and counter claims trying as best as able to discredit each others parties. It really was quite disappointing , especially watching on from across the Ditch where N
The Beagle
- May 13, 2019
Despicable, Draconian, Darstardly, Deceptive and Deleterious: Is this a new low for Eurobodalla Coun
In a move by Eurobodalla Council's General Manager, Catherine Dale, Councillors are being swayed to voting for the removal of the hard won video and audio capturing and archiving of Public Forum sessions and the complete removal of Public Access sessions.
At present the community can make a five minute representation to councillors presenting either their support or opposition to an item to be determined in a Council meeting. The live streaming, video recording and archivi
The Beagle
- Apr 26, 2019
Editorial April 26th 2019
Welcome to this week’s editorial,
The 100th edition of the Beagle Weekender. !!!!
One hundred weeks ago I made the commitment to publish a Friday edition of the Beagle Weekender as a mailout free to subscribers that offered an overview of what was happening around the Shire over the weekend from general community stories to cinema, arts and music.
In time the Beagle Gig Guide grew and is now the go to Gig Guide for the shire promoting all of our venues, local bands and
The Beagle
- Apr 23, 2019
#$%&* the whining Public Forum. Shut them down now : Council proposes to remove video streaming
Days are numbered now for community presentations to councillors and you can kiss good by to live streaming of Public Forum.
It has been revealed that councillors have been engaged in long discussions with senior staff and all but convinced that having the public come along and present to them on issues is simply an unnecessary pain in the arse.
Staff remind the councillors that there is more than ample opportunity for the community to engage with council and that the com
The Beagle
- Apr 19, 2019
saved by the magic IF ...
The Mayor has responded to a Code of Conduct complaint lodged against the General Manager for failing to comply with the Code of Meeting Practice of recording of PROCEEDINGS in the minutes of a Council meeting with the following:
"regarding the minutes and webcasting of the Ordinary Council meeting of 26 March 2019.
"The following explanations will assist with your enquiry. The minutes of the of the Ordinary Council meeting of 26 March 2019 are correct for the following
The Beagle
- Apr 18, 2019
Editorial April 18th 2019
Welcome to this week’s editorial,
Hopefully by 8pm tonight all the 18 year olds and Gen Zed peers in the country have registered to vote.
Now is their time to vote about mounting university debts, a lack of job security, an unaffordable housing market and a planet going to hell in a handbasket.
Gen Z’s and Millennial’s are waving good bye to the dream of owning their own home due to the rising wealth of baby boomers who are now on their third and forth investment proper
The Beagle
- Apr 12, 2019
Editorial Apr 12th 2019
Welcome to this week’s editorial,
Elections are upon us yet again. This time at a Federal level so we now need to focus on what we need from a federal Government.
Now come the big things such as electricity, climate, education, health and financial security.
Over the next five weeks we are going to be inundated with gifts, promises and probably some fibs as well. What will be required is to take it all in and measure each against the Truth Meter using grains of salt as
The Beagle
- Apr 8, 2019
The worm squirms
At tomorrow's Council meeting an Elephant in the Room will be the adoption of the minutes of the previous week's meeting that fails to accurately reflect what happened during a Public Forum presentation by Mr Peter Bernard.
Mr Bernard spoke for a total of seventeen minutes in Public Forum however at the five minute mark he said something that bought a Point of Order. At that point the rest of the presentation was edited out by Council under legal advice. So to was the Motio
The Beagle
- Apr 6, 2019
Oh what a tangled web
As the General Manager of Euorbodalla Council, Catherine Dale, moves ahead with her intention to remove future recording of Public Forum from the pubic record we have witnessed firsthand the results of such a move by the example of the overt censorship of last week's (March 26th, 2019) Council meeting video archive and the, as yet to be adopted, minutes of the meeting.
Last week Council chose to censor more than twelve minutes of a Public Forum presentation from its public
The Beagle
- Apr 2, 2019
Council meeting videos: when does a one word edit become overt censorship
Last Tuesday's Council meeting was once again less than ordinary.
During the Public Forum session Mr Peter Bernard of Dalmeny addressed the councillors and said a naughty word that can't be repeated here for legal reasons.
On hearing the word the usual attendees in the Council Gallery watching on those watching via Live Streaming reached for Google or a dictionary to look up how this bad word was spelt and what it meant. So did the councillors and the staff in the chamber.
The Beagle
- Mar 31, 2019
The challenge to Council by Mr Bernard
I note with interest that the webcast of last Tuesday's Council meeting is not up yet.
I can only assume that this is because they don't know how to deal with the presentation by Peter Bernard and his use of the word Malfeasance that saw Rob Pollock demand an apology and retraction and the Mayor rising to his immediate demand requesting same even though she had not heard what was said and later indicated a lack of understanding of what the word malfeasance meant relying on
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