Taskforce needs to walk the talk and fix this mess

FOR years now, local MPs have been incapable of doing anything about Townsville’s greatest problems. These include water, juvenile crime, CBD vagrancy and the cost of electricity, among others. Year in, year out, nothing is happening and enough is enough.

It is as if the difficult and most pressing problems we have are being indefinitely pushed off the government agenda by the nothingness of routine, wall to wall, political minutiae.

Different political parties, different politicians and different bureaucrats in three separate levels of government all seem to have to be involved in tricky projects like these. While this sort of over- government continues, it’s a fluke when they achieve anything at all.

The fact that they now need Brad Webb to facilitate the process of getting something done about water for Townsville speaks volumes. It suggests government can’t manage to do that by itself, i. e. can’t govern. It must also be a worry that the people on Brad Webb’s taskforce, apart from Brad himself, will reflect precisely who and what has been gumming up the works for so long.

I strongly recommend when the taskforce heavies do lob in for their first meeting with Brad, they should be locked down and prevented from leaving until they can get a solid result for Brad and Townsville.

There’s no reason why they can’t all come to their first meeting with a pure desire to get this thing sorted in one go.

There is no reason why they can’t all do all their required homework before showing up.

There’s no reason why they can’t get any new instructions they might need during the meeting ( from their bosses and handlers at home) without having to scuttle off with the job half done.

Brad Webb is a potential game changer here and that’s good. But there’s a bigger picture in all this that isn’t good at all. Political parties, politicians and bureaucrats need to take a good look at themselves. They need to wake up and start proving themselves capable of doing their jobs. R. MURRAY,

Cranbrook.