Bad news not fit for publication

It’s interesting to note that neither Campbelltown nor Liverpool Council’s websites have published anything about them having been found Not Fit for the Future by IPART. Usually any news, especially positive for the council, is splashed across their online pages but not this time. But let’s pop onto Camden Council’s website, and what do we have here: “Camden Council is one of 9 out of 38 Sydney Metropolitan Councils assessed as ‘Fit for the Future’ in a report released this week by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART),’’ says a big report on the home page. Not that anyone expects a council to shout about any bad news.

♦ All the huffing and puffing seems to have done nothing to stop local motor registries from being relocated to the Macarthur Service Centre in Gregory Hills  from Friday, November 13. Emails have started going out to senior citizens and other groups in the community alerting them to the impending change. “Your Macarthur Service Centre gives you access to more than 800 NSW Government transactions from Roads and Maritime Services, Fair Trading, Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Housing NSW, Family and Community Services, Office of State Revenue and more,’’ says the government PR spiel. For the record, the new centre is located in The Home Centre, Steer Road, Gregory Hills and will be open Monday to Friday 7am to 7pm and Saturday 8.30am to 3pm.

♦ Local MP Greg Warren, who was one of the people doing some of the huffing and puffing over the motor registry plans, is still trying to get the Baird Government to apologise to the family of Campbelltown’s Zac Stewart, who are apparently wondering why he had to wait three days in agony for a feeding tube to be inserted. Warren and the family may be waiting for a long time – if not for ever – if the response in parliament to his call is anything to go by. Warren asked the Health Minister Jillian Skinner what she had to say to Zac’s family, who were in the public gallery. Earlier this year, Zac, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was forced to wait three days for a 45-minute procedure at Campbelltown Hospital due to the required staff not being available on a weekend. But there was no apology forthcoming from the minister.

♦ When we bumped into Brendan Nelson, who was beaten to the Liberal Party leadership by PM Malcolm Turnbull a few years ago, we had to ask at least one question about his new role as boss of the Australian War Memorial: is it a lot easier than being in politics? He thought about it for a moment and replied: “It’s interesting.’’

♦ It had to happen – someone mentioned the O word in Liverpool. The O word being Oasis that’s closely linked to the sacking of Liverpool Council. Oasis included plans for a state of the art sport stadium and now Liverpool Council is of course once again pushing for a sport and entertainment venue in the same location, more or less, Woodward Park. In a notice of motion lodged for tonight’s council meeting (Wednesday, October 28) Councillor Ristevski says: “We can never forget the Oasis project which also involved the building of a stadium in Liverpool and left ratepayers with a massive debt and the sacking of the complete Council.’’

♦ On the corner of Ben Lomond Road and Eagle View Road, Minto, is a pomegranate orchard, which contains more than 700 trees of the fruit. Fascinated, we stopped to chat to the family who live there and the wife told us that they had moved from Liverpool a few years back. She said all of the trees had come from cuttings taken from a single pomegranate tree from their old property in Liverpool.