20.11.08
DOCKLANDS - LET'S WORK TOGETHER

I hope John So enjoyed his thank-you reception at Treasury Place tonight - a nice touch from John Brumby, a well-deserved honour for one who has given so much of what is rightfully ours to the Victorian government.

But John So is not yet done. His parting gift to us is the field of his disciples desperate to continue the Council’s torrid romance with Spring Street.

You know them well:

·       The big spender Peter McMullin. Carpetbagger from Corio, the Duke of Direct mail. Endorsed by So and Brumby. Wants a freeze to lock in rates at the current egregious levels.

·        Then there’s John So’s deputy Gary Singer, who also touts the rates freeze fraud. He says he will make street parking more efficient. Well, he’s done a good job so far.

·       Next up, is the part-time part-timer Catherine Ng. A committed John So coat-tailer whose boasts and promises just don’t match her voting record. It was she who moved successfully to disband the Council’s Docklands Transition and Major Projects committee.

·       Then Susan Riley, a former So deputy and so councillor Carl Jetter on Robert Doyle’s ticket;

So there they are, Team So. Throw in David Wilson who is running with Will Fowles. 

Now - if you believe that Melbourne is a stronger, safer, more liveable place than it was four years ago, vote for one of the above, as all of them will deliver more of the same.

However, what about:

• a real leader, not a cheerleader;
• a party-political free Town Hall
• local representation;
• someone who will stand up to Spring Street
• reduced Budget waste
• more police and more cameras on our streets;
• a revitalized Swanston Street;
• a roads and traffic audit to get Melbourne moving and
• a new deal for Docklands.

If those things do interest you, please cast your vote for the Passion for Melbourne team, Sue Calwell, Fiona Snedden, your own Keith Rankin, and me, Nick Columb.

This month, for the first time, Docklands has a say about the makeup of Town Hall.

Docklands is an example of town planning gone mad. We can’t blame the So administration for the original design. But where are the footpaths? Where are the public toilets, the carparking and other amenities?

Where’s the Council? Has the John So ever been here other than to do a publicity shot with Livinia Nixon?

I know that you are committed to the future of the Docklands. I am too. I know that you are concerned about the lack of open space and the mix of businesses - I am too.

Docklands is unlike the other precincts. It has growing pains and we need to mollify the mistakes of Vic Urban and its crazy developers.

Support me, and I will establish a high level advisory board to work with you so that Council gets the full picture on Docklands priorities.

Docklands, promised as a modern community, is still some way off the pace. Let’s get working together. Thank you.

20.11.08
MELBOURNE PRESS CLUB SPEECH

Ignoring advice to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's, the Lord Mayor and his obedient Council have for years rendered to Spring Street much of that which is Melbourne’s.

And tonight, John So takes the long limousine ride from Town Hall to his Treasury Place reception hosted by his grateful puppet-master John Brumby.

So will soon be a ward of the state, but his apostles are spread across the track racing for his robes:

• Gary Singer, who has proposed a fraudulent freeze to lock the rates burden at an all-time high;
• Peter McMullin, anointed by Brumby and So, the big-spending, carpet-bagger from Corio, who has proposed the same;
• Catherine Ng, the part-time part-timer who has made an artform of professing support for community priorities that she has consistently voted against;

Then there’s   

• Robert Doyle, Brumby’s fallback, running with the So acolyte Susan Riley, both attempting to revive stalled political careers.

Melbourne needs a leader, not a cheerleader, to restore balance to the city-state relationship. The other candidates simply lack the desire, the ability or both to change Town Hall.  Melbourne must win back the respect, and then earn the authority to better guide its own future, as any prime political, social, business and sporting capital should.

Town Hall has at once, been mesmerised by both Spring Street and its own entrenched bureaucracy. Community priorities have long been shelved in favour of whim and fancy. There is no local representation, no budget accountability; It is riven with petty fiefdoms fighting over ratepayers money.

To reverse this requires patience, ability and a fierce independence from politics-as-usual. It requires a passion for Melbourne, born of living and working here, not of political opportunity. It requires one without political baggage who owes no political favours. I am that man.

16.11.08
CARLTON - Nick's Speech to the Carlton Meet the Candidates Forum

Forgive my sneezing, but it’s those horrid plane trees. We shouldn’t blame the trees, rather, those who put them there, namely John So’s first council team. And we should also point the finger at those who have haven’t begun  their replacement – that would be John So’s second term council team.

Now we have two So people running for mayor, two for Deputy Lord Mayor and others for council. The So Apostles  are spread across the Doyle, McMullin, Ng, Fowles and Singer tickets.

I’m Nick Columb and I’m running for Lord Mayor. I’m not a John So acolyte, nor am I beholden to the powers that be on Spring Street. I’m an independent and I will fight for Carlton’s interests, not buckle to John Brumby.
Carlton gets a raw deal from Town Hall and from Spring Street.

It has problems with parking, with lighting and with footpaths, all within the aegis of Town Hall to fix. The Council did consider replacing the asphalt footpaths in Lygon Street, but guess who voted against it – Councillors So, Singer, Ng, Wilson and Jetter. Defeated.

Has the Council delivered on promises of under-lighting of verandahs and the car park under Argyle Square. No.

Has the Council fought for the extension of the underground rail loop to Carlton. NO.

I’m running for Lord Mayor because these guilty parties didn’t run away as they should have. I have the experience, energy and willpower not only to chase them out, but to give all neighbourhoods in Melbourne a voice.

Does Carlton have a real voice? Or more particularly, do these So councillors have ears?

Carlton has at least two iconic features known Australia wide:
First, the ever-expanding Melbourne University, which has adversely affected significant parts of Carlton’s heritage through badly designed academic, housing and car-parking structures.

The University is no friend of, Carlton Residents or Traders. Now it proposes developing the newly-vacated site of the Women’s Hospital. I say NO to that.

I say YES to a community centre in the Kathleen Symes centre and yes to other businesses that want to come to the hospital site.

The City and its ratepayers already shoulder a rate burden that is too high and to expand the University’s rate-free status even further does not serve anyone.

The other well-known icon is Lygon Street, which by the way, does not even rate a mention in the So brilliant Melbourne marketing plan.

However, Town Hall did contribute $70,000 to the Festa held in Lygon Street on the weekend, closing it to traffic and costing businesses thousands of dollars in trade. With many giant posters of Catherine Ng beaming across the street at traders and residents, it was a timely reminder to them of who is to blame for this debacle. In fact, we need a complete overhaul of Melbourne Events and a complete revision of the city’s grants process.

My Passion for Melbourne team offers a fresh approach. Sue Calwell, Fiona Snedden and I will:

• establish a culture among councillors and bureaucrats where listening replaces preaching
• restore the local representation we need;
• stand up to Spring Street when the interests of Melbourne or any of its neighbourhoods are threatened;
• cutting waste and funding projects on the basis of need and not whim;
• make Melbourne safer by getting more police and more cameras on our streets
• revitalize Swanston Street by opening it during the week
• conduct a thorough roads and traffic audit of the city to get Melbourne moving again; and
• deliver on the promises made to Carlton and on the real priorities of Carlton businesses and residents so that this vital neighbourhood can move ahead.

I ask for your support so we can fight this together.

Thank you.

 

17.11.08
MAKING MELBOURNE SAFER.
Independent candidate for Lord Mayor of Melbourne Nick Columb today promised further action to curb the unacceptable level of crime in the city.
These actions include:

• funding for the establishment of a Melbourne chapter of the Guardian Angels;
• a crime audit of the city to identify the major trouble spots;
• a greater police presence in the CBD to prevent rather than respond to crime;
• more CCTV cameras in streets, in buildings and businesses;
• an “instant response” from the city to vandalism and graffiti;
• instituting a “my brother’s keeper” approach among nearby licensed premises

 “I have previously called for a greater police presence in the CBD and for more cameras. The Victoria Police are under-resourced because the Brumby government has chosen to fund less important priorities. Victoria Police is the only state police force that has a waiting list. If Brumby won’t fund more police, we’ll help the police overcome their workload.

“Under my administration, we will support our police with the establishment of a Melbourne chapter of the Guardian Angels, a specially-trained and unarmed volunteer force that will patrol and safeguard our streets in the night hours. This will be an Australian first.

“Many Melburnians will claim that they know where the city’s trouble spots are, and the Guardian Angels will assist us and the police in their identification. The Guardian Angels have done great work in many cities in the USA and in twelve other nations including New Zealand.
“The city will also institute an instant response to vandalism of property. We will repair the damage within 24 hours. This will include graffiti.

“I also believe that businesses, particularly licensed premises, should adopt a position of responsibility with regard to their nearby competitors. I want to see the closure of premises where drugs are peddled and alcohol openly abused. While it is up to police operational command to decide tactics on this, in other cities they close down the whole block. I want to see the responsible nightspots drive out the irresponsible and criminal,” said Mr Columb.

“Melbourne must send the message to all that is a safe place to live, to do business and to visit,” said Mr Columb.

Media contact: Nick Columb 0411 868 534 www.passion4melbourne.com

For more information on the Guardian Angels, see http://www.guardianangels.org/index.php

14.11.08
HEY, BIG SPENDER!
CORIO’s CARPETBAGGING COUNCILLOR-IN-CHIEF CLEARS CASHBOX 

Independent candidate for Lord Mayor of Melbourne Nick Columb today slammed the profligate campaign spending of ALP mayoral candidate Peter McMullin.

“As a racing man, I know that the best guide to future performance is past form, and this bloke has form. Voters of Melbourne should be very afraid of his spending habits. He’s splashing campaign money around now, but he could have his hands on Melbourne’s cashbox in a short few weeks,” Mr Columb said.

“My mailbox and those of others has been choked with personally addressed letters from the endorsed candidate of the ALP. Just yesterday, he sent out another 98,000 pieces alerting voters to the poor committee attendance record of Catherine Ng.

“The Mayor of Geelong, Peter McMullin, is John Brumby’s and John So’s marionette. He has spent so much money on this campaign it is frightening.

"The heir to the Spotless fortune is out there spending, spending, spending. He’s got the full weight of the ALP and Labor’s public relations firm CPR doing his bidding. One wonders what his motivation is. I believe he is merely a rich kid searching for relevance in a city that he pretends is his own.

“If McMullin is elected, he’ll owe a lot of people a lot of favours, and you can guess who’s going to pay for them.

“I hope the ratepayers and residents of Melbourne understand well that should they elect the carpetbagger from Corio, it is they who will eventually wear the cost of a big spending administration. If he wins, McMullin’s furious excesses won’t cease when the votes are counted. He won’t ever be Parsimonious Pete, that’s for sure,” said Mr Columb. 

Media contact: Nick Columb 0411 868 534 www.passion4melbourne.com

12.11.08

Remarks by Nick Columb
at the
All Precincts Dinner
Shark Fin Restaurant
Melbourne
12.11.08

 

Good evening everyone,

My name is Nick Columb and I’m running for Lord Mayor.

Melbourne encompasses many different neighbourhoods, issues, interests and priorities - and your attendance tonight is testimony to that.

So how are we doing? Well, for starters  . . .

Rates have gone up, and services that you want have diminished, slowed down or disappeared.

Is Melbourne a better, safer place than it was four years ago?

As someone who lives and breathes Melbourne 24/7, I say NO, and that is because the voices of the local neighbourhoods have been ignored for the nonsensical and utopian dreams of Town Hall bureaucrats and a compliant Council.

John So, elected so overwhelmingly four years ago, with his deputy and three councillors, has presided over an administration of waste and wasted opportunity. They all stand condemned.

Instead of dealing with the many issues facing Melbourne and its ratepayers and residents, the Lord Mayor has curried favour with a state government that would rather sack the Council again than have someone stand up to it - would rather keep its hands in the city’s pockets than grant it the authority to pursue its destiny.

Melbourne needs a leader, not a cheerleader. The CBD needs police, the Docklands needs footpaths, Carlton needs better transport links, East Melbourne and Kensington need a stronger voice and more importantly, a sympathetic ear.

Yet here we are, as the ballot papers go out in the mail, with every one of John So’s team seeking another go-around, scattered on the various So Council tickets, with two of his team running for Lord Mayor. After their performance these past four years, all should have run alright – RUN AWAY!

My deputy Sue Calwell and I will deliver real change to the Town Hall. Passion for Melbourne will:

• establish a culture among councillors and bureaucrats where listening replaces preaching and restore the local representation we need;
• put accountability and transparency back into the Budget process, cutting waste and funding projects on the basis of need and not whim;
• make Melbourne safer by getting more police and more cameras on our streets, and persuading businesses to do more to help drive out the vandals and the violent;
• revitalise Swanston Street by opening it during the week;
• conduct a thorough roads and traffic audit of the city and act to get Melbourne moving, by tram, bus, bicycle and car.

This city needs a fresh coat of paint. My team has the energy, enthusiasm and experience to do the job. We run because we are passionate about Melbourne, not because we want to revive stalled political careers.

We run because we want to serve, not because we would suffer separation pains if dragged away from the petty Town Hall politics that have cheated Melbourne for years.

I ask for your support.

Thank you.

COPS AND CAMERAS KEYS TO A SAFE AND PROSPEROUS CITY

Candidate for Lord Mayor of Melbourne Nick Columb today called for a radical overhaul of the way Melbourne’s CBD is policed.

“Melbourne used to be the world’s most liveable city – now it is one of the world’s most dangerous liveable cities,” Mr Columb said.

“I live and work in the CBD and I know that our streets are not safe, particularly after dark.

 “Melbourne is too important to us all to allow troublemakers to set the ground rules. We need to say NO to the drugs, the violence, and the vandals. Otherwise, businesses, residents and tourists will be saying NO to Melbourne.

“In short, we need a separate police unit dedicated to the safety of the CBD and a blanket of security cameras covering the city.

“I want a CBD squad, up to 300 per shift, to provide a major police presence on our streets. Working two shifts from 4:00pm until 8:00am, they would make our streets safer from threats to person and property.

 “According to recent figures, police patrols have declined by around twenty per cent in five years. The CBD squad, trained by and recruited from the ranks of the Victoria Police, would make an enormous difference.

 “As Lord Mayor, I would leave the operational aspects to the unit’s command, but their brief would naturally include a strong presence where there has traditionally been trouble.

“While the CBD police squad is critical to the city’s safety at night, I would also expect businesses, apartment blocks and hotels to bolster their own security measures by installing more CCTV cameras. Certainly, the City will lead the way with more cameras.

 “Melbourne’s CBD is Victoria’s business and social heart, but is developing an unwanted reputation for its mean streets. Cities larger than Melbourne have cleaned up their act. Why can’t we?

 “Residents, businesses and visitors will all benefit from city streets that are safer,” Mr Columb said.

Media contact: Nick Columb 0411 868 534 www.passion4melbourne.com

NOT BRUMBY: NOT SO!

Candidate for Lord Mayor of Melbourne Nick Columb today called on voters to elect a Lord Mayor and Council free of party-political and business-as-usual ties.

“Voters in Melbourne will this week be presented with some important choices. Their decisions will have a direct bearing on our city’s future. We have candidates that have been glowingly endorsed by the Premier. We have candidates that are tied to John So. I have a vision for Melbourne that means more than kowtowing to these powerbrokers.

“Premier Brumby, who heads a government that regards Melbourne as its cash cow, has been glowing about Robert Doyle. This week, the Premier endorsed the Labor Party Mayor of Geelong Peter McMullin to take the reins at Town Hall.”

“Then there are the unmistakable fingerprints of John So all over many of the tickets. Catherine Ng and Gary Singer won on the John So slate. So’s Chief of Staff Kevin Louey is running on the McMullin Council ticket. Robert Doyle has Susan Riley, a former So deputy, and Carl Jetter on his ticket. Will Fowles, another ALP candidate who will swap preferences with the ALP’s McMullin, has David Wilson as his deputy.”

“Town Hall should not become a marionette show with John Brumby and John So pulling the strings. Melbourne deserves a strong leader who will go into battle for the ratepayers and residents, and this is their chance to elect one.

“The people of Melbourne should say an emphatic NO to recycled party politicians and NO to machine politicians. Otherwise, Town Hall will soon become Tammany Hall,” Mr Columb said.

Media contact: Nick Columb 0411 868 534

 

NO WARDS = NO VOICE = NO ACCOUNTABILITY + LOUSY ADMIN

Candidate for Lord Mayor of Melbourne Nick Columb today called for a return to a city administration comprised of councillors elected from the neighbourhoods.
“The City of Melbourne is diverse. Each individual neighbourhood has its own character and its own needs and the makeup on Council should reflect that.” Mr Columb said.

“Without truly local representation, ratepayers and residents are finding it difficult to find a sympathetic ear. No councillor has been responsible for a particular neighbourhood, thus problems and complaints do not get the rapid response they should.

“A return to local representation will mean that residents and ratepayers will know their local councillor and they will be able to hold them to account.
“Without local councillors, the voices of the neighbourhoods are not heard. Under a Columb administration, local people will decide the local priorities. The days of centralised bureaucrats deciding what is best for Kensington or Docklands are numbered.

“Melbourne does not have enough councillors. The City has the right to ask for an electoral review and that it has not done so demonstrates that the So administration was less interested in making the Council work as it should than it was furthering their own political ambitions.

“In the interim, until neighbourhoods have a Melbourne City Councillor to truly and directly represent them, I will ask councillors to represent them. Carlton will know who is supposed to be its conduit to Town Hall. So too will Southbank, South Yarra, the CBD and all of our neighbourhoods.

“We must put an end to an unaccountable Town Hall. Policies should be driven by the priorities of residents and ratepayers in the city’s disparate neighbourhoods and not driven by Town Hall and the agendas of councillors and bureaucrats who really answer to no-one,” Mr Columb said.

Media contact: Nick Columb 0411 868 534 www.passion4melbourne.com

Authorised by Michael Fitzgerald, 190 Albert Street, East Melbourne VIC 3002