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MARGARET’S WEB: NO INDEPENDENCE

Oct 11, 2020
2 min

MARGARET’S WEB: NO INDEPENDENCE

After four years as Bendigo Bunch chief betrayer, Mayor Margaret O’Rourke has had the temerity to proclaim on her facebook page that there are candidates standing against her who are not good enough to be on council. She’s been challenged to name them but in typical council fashion, just like questions on dud GovHub, she had replied with silence. A wall of silence. A brick wall as thick as. Well kind off. Self-promoting pedestal Margaret has been so busy liking lots of candid

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SHAME BENDIGO COUNCIL SHAME

May 20, 2020
2 min

SHAME BENDIGO COUNCIL SHAME

Today, Mayor Margaret O’Rourke, CEO Niemann and councillors of the City of Greater Bendigo were all challenged to confirm or deny the rent council will pay in 2022 if they were to shift into a State Government GovHub. Is it is more than $2.5 million a year, they were asked? Just for rent and not taking into account any outgoings. Mayor O’Rourke acknowledged our email prior to tonight's council meeting that decided to go from landowner to tenant on the Lyttleton Terrace site.

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AVOID TRAIN WRECK – VOTE TO NO GOVHUB

May 19, 2020
2 min

AVOID TRAIN WRECK – VOTE TO NO GOVHUB

The Bendigo Alliance is disappointed that misguided commentary has been provided to respected media outlets ahead of City of Greater Bendigo’s decision tomorrow night on GovHub Don Erskine today on regional radio claimed that council’s Lyttleton Terrace site will remain in “public ownership”. WRONG: The State Government has already announced it intends to sell any Bendigo GovHub building to private investors and rake in a profit of up to 25 per cent. There will be a lot of ne

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Councillors! Stand against officer recommendation

May 18, 2020
5 min

Councillors! Stand against officer recommendation

City of Greater Bendigo councillors have now received not one but two independent financial reports on the cost of paying a conservative $80 million rent in a GovHub building that will cost $90 million to build if they vote for the scheme. The reports were sent to councillors this morning by the Bendigo Alliance in time for their confidential briefing today ahead of Wednesday evening's council vote on the officer's recommendation to have Bendigo go from landlord to tenant. Co

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What the Mayor really meant to say

May 10, 2020
2 min

What the Mayor really meant to say

Extravagant, wasteful and doing whatever they want, that’s City of Greater Bendigo with a CBD plan that dishes up projects like a dud GovHub that has not been approved or finally adopted by the council. Are they trying to change to rules first, without consultation and endorsement from the residents of Bendigo? It is looking a bit that way. Rather than stating things as they really are, Mayor Margaret O’Rourke borrows from the State Government’s dwindling stock of sugar-coate

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Bendigo Bunch plays hide and seek with community

May 6, 2020
2 min

Bendigo Bunch plays hide and seek with community

For 14 long months, City of Greater Bendigo has shut the people out of knowing what councillors think and say about their extravagant infatuation with the dud GovHub. Ever since they ignored community opinion and disregarded the need for genuine and fulsome consultation in February 2019 with an in-principle decision to strip the CBD of assets, not one public council meeting has had a GovHub agenda item. Council documents reveal that the only mention of GovHub has been dot poi

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Is virus the cold shoulder for hot desk model?

May 6, 2020
2 min

Is virus the cold shoulder for hot desk model?

The GovHub model council and State Government want to impose on Bendigo may now be in complete tatters after advice yesterday by Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy. The good doctor who has been assisting Prime Minister Morrison and the Federal Government guide Australia through the coronavirus pandemic yesterday made it clear there will be changes in the workplace, including how hot desking is managed. Now hot desking is one of these so-called modern approaches

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Residents dumbfounded: where's the logic?

May 4, 2020
2 min

Residents dumbfounded: where's the logic?

In their rush to keep the Melbourne-centric State Government happy and back the extravagance of comfy chairs and desks in a dud GovHub, City of Greater Bendigo is heading for another disaster. They are shunning local best interests and certainly not explaining their bad decisions to residents. Here are what Bendigo people are saying about GovHub: I believe the Bendigo Council should NOT sell our land and buildings, but feel they will unless the people Bendigo start to get ser

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FINALLY … BE PART OF GOVHUB CONSULTATION

Apr 10, 2020
2 min

FINALLY … BE PART OF GOVHUB CONSULTATION

Unfortunately this survey was removed shortly after publication of this article. Perhaps it was a false alarm on consultation? We have become aware that Bendigo Bunch is finally looking for some input as part of belated consultation on the dud GovHub. They have launched a GovHub transportation survey and we are happy to assist council in spreading the word. You can have a say at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/P8GDTVP While primarily aimed towards more than 400 council staff a

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You’re out! Council ejects staff for dud GovHub

Apr 4, 2020
2 min

You’re out! Council ejects staff for dud GovHub

Bendigo council staff were given just three days to remove personal items from the Lyttleton Terrace offices before the building is decommissioned and demolished despite no final decision on the controversial sell-out to the State Government. The cavalier memo to staff on Tuesday comes as the community still demands consultation on the GovHub debacle and jumps the gun on council’s legislative requirement to advertise any intention to sell for public comment. Staff are told th

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SPOT THE DIFFERENCE! YOU BE THE JUDGE?

Mar 18, 2020
2 min

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE! YOU BE THE JUDGE?

Golden Square swimming pool and the dud GovHub deal – what’s the difference? Compare this report by the Bendigo Advertiser from tonight’s City of Greater Bendigo council meeting with what has happened and been said by councillors on the dud GovHub 7.14pm: Golden Square Swimming Pool item is up now. Cr Emond is reading it out. A deferral is not something council does take lightly, Cr Emond said, describing it as an extraordinary circumstance. "I don't think I've read an email

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Ian knows it's hot air from MPs

Feb 15, 2020
1 min

Ian knows it's hot air from MPs

There're good at ignoring the people of Bendigo and as good as putting up a smokescreen to bad deals for Bendigo, including the dud GovHub. This is what people are saying in response to the misguided utterances of current members of Parliament who should be standing up for Bendigo. Ian Sayer All their hot air never mentioned the loss of ratepayer's assets and exorbitant rent , amounting to forty million dollars. Also no mention of total lack of consultation and transparency.

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This is ridiculous, says Kathy

Feb 15, 2020
1 min

This is ridiculous, says Kathy

The people of Bendigo can see it, the people of Australia are hearing it but for some reason Bendigo council and the State Government are oblivious to the costly reality of their disasters. Here's an update on what people are saying in the Bendigo Advertiser and online Kathy White Bendigo GovHub needs review: Thank goodness someone is going to look into this. Nearly $1 million a year for rent for the next 40 years! The whole thing is ridiculous. Luckily the ratepayers can man

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Speaking up ... nation listens

Feb 13, 2020
2 min

Speaking up ... nation listens

In Federal Parliament on Tuesday night, Senator Sarah Henderson, rose in the Senate to tell the nation what is happening in Bendigo on GovHub. She said: "In recent days I have also been very pleased to speak up as the patron senator for Bendigo on what appears to be another very shady Labor deal, this time between the City of Greater Bendigo and the state government, led all the way by Minister Jacinta Allan. The proposal to sell the council offices, situated on prime land i

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Voices of reason

Feb 9, 2020
2 min

Voices of reason

Elected representatives – whether local council or state and federal Parliaments – carry huge responsibilities to make decisions in the best interests of people today and tomorrow. They are charged with getting it right. If they don’t the wrath of residents, ratepayers and taxpayers is unleashed and those elected representatives cannot cry foul in the face of justified outrage and anger. The processes to date of the City of Greater Bendigo (aka the Bendigo Bunch) and the Stat

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Mayor O'Rourke betrays with silence

Feb 6, 2020
1 min

Mayor O'Rourke betrays with silence

More three weeks ago we wrote to every councillor for the City of Greater Bendigo … individually, alone, on their own, one at a time. We posed very serious concerns and questions to these nine councillors, our elected representatives, and request that they provide a reply … individually, one their own, alone, one at a time. Now heard there was one of those behind-closed-doors meetings, the same type CEO Craig Niemann attached with State Government types a few years back when

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THEY’RE ACTING LIKE A BELIGERENT BULLDOZER DRIVER

Jan 20, 2020
2 min

THEY’RE ACTING LIKE A BELIGERENT BULLDOZER DRIVER

City of Greater Bendigo and the Andrews State Government have just confirmed that are drivers of a belligerent and out of control bulldozer blinded by their fixation on a dud GovHub for Bendigo. This week it was announced on the State Government website www.tenders.vic.gov.au that expressions of interest for the construction of the second-class crumb of a scheme for Bendigo will open on 28 January. This is despite the Bendigo Bunch still to make a decision confirming it will

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Big blackhole - Jacinta's dud GovHub unfunded

Jan 13, 2020
3 min

Big blackhole - Jacinta's dud GovHub unfunded

So now we have it … the State Government cannot say how Jacinta Allan’s $100 million dud GovHub will be funded. A letter under the signature of none other than Chief Executive of Regional Development Victoria, Beth Jones, just received by www.bendigogovhub.com.au makes the startling admission. Almost 12 months after the gullible and hoodwinked majority of City of Greater Bendigo councillors made the foolhardy in-principle decision to gift our land and buildings in Lyttleton T

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Bendigo’s big New Year sale! Why are our buildings losing value?

Jan 13, 2020
3 min

Bendigo’s big New Year sale! Why are our buildings losing value?

It’s pretty sad these days to walk through the Hargreaves Mall and along Mitchell Street – our once bustling retail precinct dotted with empty shops and remnants of the closing down sale signs fading in the summer sun. The decadent state of the Mall and environs is on display every day, evidence of appalling policy and wasteful, ruinous spending by City of Greater Bendigo council now so intoxicated with disaster, the New Year hangover clings to the Bunch even more than those

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Niemann’s way or the highway

Jan 6, 2020
5 min

Niemann’s way or the highway

The process leading to the in-principle approval of the Bendigo GovHub proposal begun back in 2013 and appears to contain major flaws from its conception – a process that has continued to hide information from the residents of our city and certainly not treated us with engaging respect. Council, CEO Craig Niemann and the State Government have ignored fact, reality and practical necessities as they push on with the dud GovHub that betrays Bendigo, cheered from the sidelines by

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