SOMETIMES, “words are just noise … don’t tell me, show me”, says Steve Maraboli, the US business and behavioural science expert.
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It is a quote Wagga councillors should take on board urgently in regard to two vital issues, the levee bank and supporting the PCYC project.
As The Daily Advertiser’s leading article last Saturday described the levee bank situation, “ … there had been plenty of talk and no action”; not a day has gone by in the six weeks since the column called for civic protests to council and the state government that the levee bank is not mentioned in daily discussions.
Residents want a calendar schedule (not stage developments) to start building immediately _ not meaningless talk (promises) and excuses; as a businessman said: “We are gambling with our own safety _ and the city’s future” each day the levee upgrade is delayed is a day closer to disaster, let alone increasing the cost of the upgrade.
If councillors cannot see or feel the tension within the community about the lack of expediency they have exhibited about this issue, especially (but not only) in relation to the Bomen industrial area and the new trotting complex in the event of a major flood, then perhaps it is time for them collectively to hand responsibility for the project to the Committee 4 Wagga which, pardon the pun, has its head well above water.
This is crunch time; time is the essence.
Urgent lateral thinking is required; the sort that led Premier Neville Wran to call the Army engineers in to build a new airport on Lord Howe Island, which they did in record time
The levee bank upgrade comes within the same scope.
With Kapooka Military Area’s historic engineers’ relationship with the city and the Fed’s already stomping up $10 million, federal MP, Michael McCormack, has a first class case to call the army in.
To the PCYC project; councillors’ procrastination about supporting it was condemned by 92 per cent of readers in a recent The Daily Advertiser poll; but, more significant was the comment by former federal MP, Kay Hull: “Wagga’s future is only as bright as the effort we put into the up-and-coming generation - the investment is critical; a potential council donation was small and overdue”.
Further, Mrs Hull said: “We have no right to sit back and complain about troubled youth if we are not willing to invest in their future”.
At least Cr Paul Funnell had the foresight to say the price ($3m) was “a small amount to pay for an investment in the lives of the future generation”.
It is, as Mrs Hull said, “time to bite the bullet”.
Time, too, councillors showed the way on both these issues.
They should ponder the words of US politician, Mitch Landrieu, after Cyclone Katrina caused 52 breaches of the New Orleans levees: “New Orleans showed America what it takes to rebuild … we are all going together and we are not leaving anybody”.
In other words, the provision of further sports amenities, arts, recreational and exhibition facilities must go to the back burner, for now at least; indeed, the wealth of national sports bodies demands they, particularly, should make substantial donations to both causes.
The levee upgrade and PCYC expansion are, as has been said many times in the debates, “no brainers”.
Show us now councillors, don’t tell us!