Examples of stupidity of government at all levels

[mullokintyre]

Given the recent discussions about the efficiecny or lack thereof within the Public service at federal state and local level, I thought I would start a thread about some of the examples that come up.
So yesterday, I was at a family Christmas Function and was talking to one of my nephews who is a plumber.
He was asked to quote on doing plumbing for a six unit development, which he did, and was given the contract to start the job.
Between the time he had gone on site to do the quote, the local council had come along and planted trees, one right in the middle of the crossover to the property, which because of the deep culverts beside the ride, prevented any truck or large vehicle access to the property.
So he contacted the local council, and asked why they had planted a tree right in the middle of a gutter crossover, and asked if he could remove it.
Under no circumstances could he remove it was their reply, it will need to be done by someone from council under direction of the council arborist.
Unfortunately, the council arborist was on leave and would look at it when he got back.
It has now been three weeks since he was supposed to start, and seeing as they will be closing this week for Christmas, he sees no chance of this project even starting before the middle of January.
It means of course that all the other jobs scheduled on this project will not start before thrn either, which thows numerous tradie groups off schedule.
It beggars belief thatthis sort of intransigence and stupidity would be occurring in this day and age, but this story then brought a flood of similar levels of stupidity from others who were there about the gross mismanagement at local council level.
Mick

 

[sptrawler]

What makes the wife and I laugh, is our local council goes on about conservation and then plant non native street trees that our endangered bird life can't eat e.g the Black Cockatoo.
Our suburb 40 years ago had huge flocks of Black Cockatoo's, now they arrive in groups of half a dozen, meanwhile the council plant London Plain Trees that are non native and block up the road drains in Autumn.
Pure genius.

 

[Knobby22]

I work a lot with councils. Most of them try hard to do a good job and usually succeed.

Sometimes they get infiltrated by incompetent managers with connections and/or corruption. Then it goes to sht reasonably quickly.

Generally though, they are very conscientious, probably more so than the upper tiers of government.

Sorry probably classify that post as thread drift, however now it is done we can bag them with a clear conscience.

 

[Smurf1976]

I work a lot with councils. Most of them try hard to do a good job and usually succeed.

Sometimes they get infiltrated by incompetent managers with connections and/or corruption. Then it goes to sht reasonably quickly.

Let me guess.....

The sort of manager who has formal qualifications in management, no experience at all with the actual work being performed, and who's obsessed with risk.

They come in, treat the workforce like absolute crap, micromanage everything and their "solution" to risk involves just not doing anything without their approval, which means very little gets done.

Then they move on and do the same thing somewhere else, leaving behind a trail of destruction with a huge backlog of work, works botched up by some random contractor who they engaged, and a workforce that's totally demoralised and which has most likely seen ts best people move on.

One of the state governments did that a decade or so ago, not relating to the energy industry I'll clarify, and the people are still suffering the consequences today. Ended up purging pretty much all the technical knowledge out of the entire department and they've never recovered. The workforce has either retired early, gone into unrelated work or moved interstate / overseas so there's no easy way back now.

The actual workers in the PS are generally not the problem. Some dead wood but overall they're decent people doing their best under difficult circumstances imposed from above.

Am I right or at least pretty close?

 

[Knobby22]

Let me guess.....

The sort of manager who has formal qualifications in management, no experience at all with the actual work being performed, and who's obsessed with risk.

They come in, treat the workforce like absolute crap, micromanage everything and their "solution" to risk involves just not doing anything without their approval, which means very little gets done.

Then they move on and do the same thing somewhere else, leaving behind a trail of destruction with a huge backlog of work, works botched up by some random contractor who they engaged, and a workforce that's totally demoralised and which has most likely seen ts best people move on.

One of the state governments did that a decade or so ago, not relating to the energy industry I'll clarify, and the people are still suffering the consequences today. Ended up purging pretty much all the technical knowledge out of the entire department and they've never recovered. The workforce has either retired early, gone into unrelated work or moved interstate / overseas so there's no easy way back now.

The actual workers in the PS are generally not the problem. Some dead wood but overall they're decent people doing their best under difficult circumstances imposed from above.

Am I right or at least pretty close?

Yes. And they often have little self awareness.

 

[farmerge]

Let me guess.....

The sort of manager who has formal qualifications in management, no experience at all with the actual work being performed, and who's obsessed with risk.

They come in, treat the workforce like absolute crap, micromanage everything and their "solution" to risk involves just not doing anything without their approval, which means very little gets done.

Then they move on and do the same thing somewhere else, leaving behind a trail of destruction with a huge backlog of work, works botched up by some random contractor who they engaged, and a workforce that's totally demoralised and which has most likely seen ts best people move on.

One of the state governments did that a decade or so ago, not relating to the energy industry I'll clarify, and the people are still suffering the consequences today. Ended up purging pretty much all the technical knowledge out of the entire department and they've never recovered. The workforce has either retired early, gone into unrelated work or moved interstate / overseas so there's no easy way back now.

The actual workers in the PS are generally not the problem. Some dead wood but overall they're decent people doing their best under difficult circumstances imposed from above.

Am I right or at least pretty close?

Mr Smurf I would say spot on.
Eldest son works in the north-west for a miming giant. He is currently in commissining and maintenance planning. Had years of experience as a heavy fitter. His overseer in this current position is a former female school teacher.
Has she the knowledge or qualifications. I don't know.
What he told me was she didn't know what a digger was, what were the various classes of loaders, a shovel etc.
He is getting close to pulling the plug, because he is tired of doing his work and then having to fix her stuff ups.

 

[frugal.rock]

miming giant

 

[farmerge]

View attachment 167436

OOPHS mining giant
You can put the finger away now Eldest son also pulled me up on the error.

 

[Sean K]

I think I'm going to try and get on this council and sort it out. Just need to turn into a Green Marxist somehow.

Yarra Council spent nearly $200,000 on artwork and less than $40,000 on play equipment during a park upgrade which created “Melbourne’s saddest playground”.

Collingwood parents were shocked at the unveiling of the $2 million “upgrade” to Cambridge Street Reserve in October.

A full children’s playground which included a climbing frame, seesaw and slides had been replaced by a single swing and some exercise bars.

The reserve now contains open green space, some picnic tables and artwork — including sculptures of two flying jumpers – and came at a hefty price.

 

[macca]

About 10 years ago the Dept of Education moved a school and then put the old school site up for auction.

The site went to auction and was sold with no restrictions placed on it by the local council.

The purchaser applied for a DA to refurbish internally as offices, the Council says Nope, that is zoned educational, he says the Govt don't want it, the school is now at your new approved site.

Council still says No, then over the next decade the council rezones the farm next door and opposite to fast food, petrol stations and big ticket retail.

The guy applies to go to any of these zonings, tell me what you will allow and I will renovate accordingly says he.

The council says Nope, that is educational...............................

10 years and counting

 

[farmerge]

I think I'm going to try and get on this council and sort it out. Just need to turn into a Green Marxist somehow.

View attachment 167469

Yarra Council spent nearly $200,000 on artwork and less than $40,000 on play equipment during a park upgrade which created “Melbourne’s saddest playground”.

Collingwood parents were shocked at the unveiling of the $2 million “upgrade” to Cambridge Street Reserve in October.

A full children’s playground which included a climbing frame, seesaw and slides had been replaced by a single swing and some exercise bars.

The reserve now contains open green space, some picnic tables and artwork — including sculptures of two flying jumpers – and came at a hefty price.

View attachment 167471

Obviously got their pirorities right here. Forget the kids enjoyment and look after the sculpter or whatever. Should be a serious inquiry into this and the chronic waste of ratepayers money also.

 

[Sean K]

Obviously got their pirorities right here. Forget the kids enjoyment and look after the sculpter or whatever. Should be a serious inquiry into this and the chronic waste of ratepayers money also.

The City of Yarra had a State 'monitor' due to it's incompetence. Not sure what happened to that. We are deeply in debt and spending taxpayer funds on art instead of roads and rubbish. It's a farce. To give you some understanding of my suburb, Thorpe's office is about 200m away and Bandt's is 300m away.

 

[wayneL]

About 10 years ago the Dept of Education moved a school and then put the old school site up for auction.

The site went to auction and was sold with no restrictions placed on it by the local council.

The purchaser applied for a DA to refurbish internally as offices, the Council says Nope, that is zoned educational, he says the Govt don't want it, the school is now at your new approved site.

Council still says No, then over the next decade the council rezones the farm next door and opposite to fast food, petrol stations and big ticket retail.

The guy applies to go to any of these zonings, tell me what you will allow and I will renovate accordingly says he.

The council says Nope, that is educational...............................

10 years and counting

Well, I guess you could say the experience was "educational"

 

[macca]

Well, I guess you could say the experience was "educational"

The Council recently held a job summit (just woke, virtue signalling rubbish), a few business people stood up and said " if you guys would make timely decisions we would not have enough workers to complete the buildings waiting in the queue at the DA dept.

I know of another bloke who applied to build one house on over 10 acres about 18 months ago, he is still buried under the reports and surveys required, ridiculous waste of the landholders money.

He has offered to plant 1000 trees of their choice if he can clear the shortest path to the most suitable building site, (about 50 trees, leaving about 300 trees standing). This is on a block that is surrounded by roads and houses

Yet, 2 klm down the same road 5 acres of prime koala habitat was stripped to bare sand to be turned into a retirement village, hundreds of trees gone from the middle of about 100 acres of forest.

 

[IFocus]

About 10 years ago the Dept of Education moved a school and then put the old school site up for auction.

The site went to auction and was sold with no restrictions placed on it by the local council.

The purchaser applied for a DA to refurbish internally as offices, the Council says Nope, that is zoned educational, he says the Govt don't want it, the school is now at your new approved site.

Council still says No, then over the next decade the council rezones the farm next door and opposite to fast food, petrol stations and big ticket retail.

The guy applies to go to any of these zonings, tell me what you will allow and I will renovate accordingly says he.

The council says Nope, that is educational...............................

10 years and counting

In WA the Minister would overrule is that not the case there?

 

[farmerge]

About 10 years ago the Dept of Education moved a school and then put the old school site up for auction.

The site went to auction and was sold with no restrictions placed on it by the local council.

The purchaser applied for a DA to refurbish internally as offices, the Council says Nope, that is zoned educational, he says the Govt don't want it, the school is now at your new approved site.

Council still says No, then over the next decade the council rezones the farm next door and opposite to fast food, petrol stations and big ticket retail.

The guy applies to go to any of these zonings, tell me what you will allow and I will renovate accordingly says he.

The council says Nope, that is educational...............................

10 years and counting

Classic case ofLocal Govt b...shyt. I wonder if the farm next door was a mate who was in council ?????

 

[farmerge]

The Council recently held a job summit (just woke, virtue signalling rubbish), a few business people stood up and said " if you guys would make timely decisions we would not have enough workers to complete the buildings waiting in the queue at the DA dept.

I know of another bloke who applied to build one house on over 10 acres about 18 months ago, he is still buried under the reports and surveys required, ridiculous waste of the landholders money.

He has offered to plant 1000 trees of their choice if he can clear the shortest path to the most suitable building site, (about 50 trees, leaving about 300 trees standing). This is on a block that is surrounded by roads and houses

Yet, 2 klm down the same road 5 acres of prime koala habitat was stripped to bare sand to be turned into a retirement village, hundreds of trees gone from the middle of about 100 acres of forest.

Well that makes sense, well only to the bumpolishers in that particular council.
Would need, I think, a very big broom to push all the dead wood and chaff out onto the road, so the road sweeper machine could pick it up.

 

[farmerge]

In WA the Minister would overrule is that not the case there?

Hmm wondering if the brown paper bag did not have sufficient revenue inside of it !!!!!!!

 

[farmerge]

In WA the Minister would overrule is that not the case there?

Big difference between the Govts over there to here, I feel @IFocus

 

[IFocus]

Big difference between the Govts over there to here, I feel @IFocus

It's been the case in WA for decades my parent applied to subdivide some land off their block early 70s blocked by Mundaring Shire so appealed to the Minister and was approved.

Still very much standard practice today from what I hear.