Menzies House

Anne Twomey on the (literally) secret conditions of local government funding

Chris Berg on Anne Twomey and local government funding.

Read More: http://freedomwatch.ipa.org.au/anne-twomey-on-the-literally-secret-conditions-of-local-government-funding/

US States Outlaw United Nations Agenda 21

Allan asks the question, “Ask your local Council the question and see what sort of response you receive.” From experience you will likely get a blank stare because Local Agenda 21 has become “embedded” in law. It happened more than 20-years-ago and people don’t remember how or why it all happened. But, happen it did! GC.Ed@L.

 There are some who read my previous three articles on Agenda 21, “Sustainable Development” and World Government and believe that it is nothing more than an alarmist conspiracy theory that should be sniggered at because it really doesn’t exist except in the minds of fools.  Those more astute readers take the time to do some research of their own and discover that Agenda 21, the United Nations “Sustainable Development” plan, does actually exist and is much more insidious than most would imagine.

State Legislatures in the United States are far more advanced in fighting this scourge than we in Australia.  In the latest move and following the lead of Alabama, Oklahoma’s House of Representatives recently voted unanimously to introduce legislation that will protect private property rights from the United Nations and to outlaw Agenda 21 because it poses an unacceptable threat to liberty, values and sovereignty.  It has been reported that to date some 158 government authorities in various countries have outlawed Agenda 21.

The Hon Ann Bressington MLC on Agenda 21

Last Sunday at the Lord Monckton launch held at the Adelaide Convention Centre, The Hon Ann Bressington MLC gave a 20-minute exposé on the UN's Agenda 21. This may be the first exposure of AG21 by a member of the Australian Parliament. Various names have been adopted to tone down its invasive nature, Local Agenda 21 is what local councils call it. Question your council member and get them to explain, after you have done some homework.

In the US many States are withdrawing and outlawing Agenda 21 as unconstitutional. GC.Ed.

In 1992, the United Nations released a ground-breaking action plan for sustainable development called Agenda 21. Agenda 21 is a blueprint that sets out actions we can all take to contribute to global sustainability in the 21st century. It recognises that most environmental challenges have their roots in local activities and therefore encourages Local Governments to promote local environmental, economic and social sustainability by translating the principles of sustainable development into strategies that are meaningful to local communities. This process is called Local Agenda 21 (LA21).

View Ann Bressington:http://www.infowars.com/ann-bressington-exposes-agenda-21-club-of-rome/

Local Government in Crisis?

Pat Kelly discusses just exactly what is wrong with local councils: 

We were informed the other week by Dick Gross that "Local government in NSW is notoriously hopeless. It has a bad name with the local community and a poorer name with interested observers in other states."

Well that certainly attracted my attention. I have my own views on the woes (and roles) of Local Government and was interested to learn what Mr Gross had to say on the subject. The writer urged us to "Let's look at the facts" and that seemed like a promising place to start.

We learn that "Local government struggles for money all over Australia. Local governments don't go broke. When a municipality is financially embarrassed it still pays its bills. It just does not repair assets." So far so good. I guess that applies to all organisations. Further it seems that "it [is] estimated that the deficiency in capital spending (infrastructure renewal gap) for all council purposes is between $400 million and $600 million a year. This represents an annual deficiency of between $2 million and $4 million per council or between $60 and $90 per head of resident population in NSW."

Mr Gross then joins "the Productivity Commision" in bemoaning the rate cap. A quick look at the bottom of the page reveals that Mr Gross is "a former Municipal Association of Victoria president and mayor of Port Phillip." Ho Hum.

So the problem isn't that councils don't seem to be able to restrict their activities to the things they can afford to do and to do the things that are expected as part of their core functions. The problem is that they don't get enough money to do all the things that they want to do.

A quick look at my local council website reveals the council promoting its involvement in the following activities.

Where is www.my.gov.au?

Councillor Nick Tyrrell argues that greater transparency in the spending of public funds at all levels of government is required to ensure accountability.

Rarely a day goes by that at either a local, state or national level there’s a funding announcement that, big or small, is paid for out of consolidated revenue.  I’ve witnessed with my own eyes and ears local Councillors allocate ratepayers’ money to pay for donations to community interest groups (with no strings attached), beautification of their own neighbourhood, and of course for the perks of office.  I was horrified by the idea of Kevin Rudd’s ETS money-go-round, and I was repulsed by NSW Labor’s payment of $25m to the operators of the Lane Cove Tunnel to delay the opening until after the last election.