Email comment

The following two comments were emailed to the Free Clarion by a reader who was catching up on the news and responded to the Yag'ubi postponed story and Wide Bay Water's PR machine continues apace story.

The hard questions need to be asked

I disagree slightly with Bec T, the editor of the Clarion, on a couple of minor points. I don't believe the big issues are percentages of Return on Capital/Council Investment etc, etc, are all that important. Yes they must be calculated but bureaucrats, accountants and lawyers will have a field day with those percentages for years with the residents and councillors none the wiser. The simple questions that should be asked are things like how much NET profit is being made from the external business activities, with all costs counted, including a share of the corporate costs?

And other questions I have read elsewhere about keeping down the costs of running the business. How many expenses do WBW have that normal council departments don't? Why should WBW staff be on different pay rates for equivalent jobs compared with the rest of council? Does it cost more to have a CEO of WBW than the CEO of the Council itself? If so, why? Do WBW staff and partners get all expenses paid Christmas parties (lavish dinner) when standard council workers paid $10 a head for a sausage sizzle in the park, no partners allowed? Is there a lavish expensive Chinese garden attached to the CEO WBW's office for his own personal use? How much did it cost? Who paid for it? Why pay for a board of directors with all their associated expenses? Why have duplication of staff, finance, IT, HR etc, etc, when that expertise is already available in Council? There are potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars of savings of ratepayers' money involved in these questions.

To the best of my knowledge no councillor, other than Sue Brooks, have ever asked any questions like these. It is time they did. 

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Two multicultural festivals madness

Bec T is right. We cannot have two multicultural festivals on the Fraser Coast. It is madness.

Yagubi was a wonderful event in the early years. It has been dying for some time now. This implies no disrespect to the committee who work very hard all year round and we can all debate at length the possible reasons for the fading popularity. 

There is probably more to the story as to why the FCMF refused to combine but that is all water under the bridge. The reality is that festivals nearly always make a loss (there are a few notable exceptions) and only survive/show a profit due to sponsorship and council/govt grants. Yes there are often a small number of businesses that profit but not the general community/ratepayers as a rule. 

Perhaps the Yagubi committee should consider winding the organisation up by resolution at the AGM and as most constitutions say, gift all profits and assets to a like organisation. I am sure the FCMF committee would not refuse that offer. I am also sure that any of the hard working committee members of Yagubi would be welcomed onto the FCMF committee. A rather drastic suggestion I know, and I am sure there will be showers of criticism for suggesting it, but it is realistic.

The Watcher