Lotterywest must have run out of good causes. The charities which care for the sick, the homeless the poor and the disadvantaged must all have full coffers.
The local paper reports the Bridgetown-Greenbushes Shire has accepted a $16,900 grant to install wireless audio equipment in the Shire chamber so that those in the public gallery (especially the hearing impared) may be better able to hear the Standing Committee and Council meetings.
Please note there is already a speaker system in place in the chamber which amplifies the sound.
The problem is, nobody is listening. In the past six months there has been eleven meetings held where the public gallery was open. At seven of those meetings, not a single person turned up to the public gallery. At three, there was one person in attendance. At one meeting, a bumper crowd of nine turned up.
And you can understand why. Who would bother attending when most meetings are over in less than an hour and there is no debate, just a group of people getting paid to rubber-stamp every item put forward by the staff.
The new audio equipment will ensure that if anyone does drift in out of idle curiosity, they will not miss a word of the monotonous repetition; "Those in favour?..... those against?... the motion is carried, unanimously."
With this sort of waste and indulgence, it's no wonder there are calls to amalgamate Councils.
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