SMART Town Mudgee

Yes, Approval has been Granted, after Community Engagement.

Oct 02, 2024

So there you have it.

It was a transparent process apparently, and the community agreed.

Smart Community Strategy

The Smart Community Strategy, prepared by Michele Mini, Manager Economic Development; and Alina Azar, Director Development; and Approved for Submission by Brad Cam, General Manager was presented to Mid-Western Regional Council July 17, 2024.

Click on this link below to see the 4 page recommendation to council, pages 92-95, item 8.6 of that council meeting.

https://www.midwestern.nsw.gov.au/files/assets/public/v/1/council-meetings/2024/7.-17-july-2024/report-council-meeting-17-july-8.6-smart-community-strategy.pdf

Mid-Western Regional Council Smart Community Strategy 2024-2027

You will find the Smart Community Strategy here, and I encourage everyone to download it, and review it in detail:

https://www.midwestern.nsw.gov.au/files/assets/public/v/1/council/plans-and-strategies/mwrc-smart-community-strategy-2024-2027-final.pdf

Community Engagement

Well, apparently!

It’s all news to me, of course - not even a mention in the Community News publications!

“55 percent of the community strongly support the Smart Community Strategy”!

Gauged, by, you probably won’t guess this - so I’ll tell you:

From page 4 of the above strategy document:

“To formulate the Smart Community Strategy, Council dedicated resources to engage with the community. The emphasis was on comprehending the needs, wants, and preferences of residents in the Mid-Western Region regarding smart technologies and determining the optimal ways to apply them for community benefit. Utilising the YourSay platform on the Mid-Western Regional Council website, (my bolding) an online feedback forum facilitated a widespread and inclusive engagement approach, ensuring diverse community segments had the opportunity to share their perspectives. This consultation process empowered individuals, businesses, and organisations to explore and contribute insights regarding the potential efficiencies and advantages of smart technologies. Importantly, this consultation process served to embed community needs and expectations at the core of the Smart Community Strategy.”

The online “YourSay” portal.

No, you really couldn’t make that up!

Anyway, I am making an effort to ‘keep myself nice’ here, because the other option wouldn’t be pretty.

So yes, please hang around all day waiting for council to put ridiculous stuff up on the internet, and they’ll give you how long (no idea)?, and when (no idea)? to put in your ONLINE commentary on possibly the MOST INVASIVE technologies that have ever been implemented in Australia, ever!

And yes, in some smallish country town, where many people have come for “the good life”. What a total joke.

Here’s the Link to “YourSay” - just so you can have a look - no issues are open for discussion at the moment: https://www.midwestern.nsw.gov.au/Your-Say

https://www.midwestern.nsw.gov.au/Your-Say/Towards-2040-Community-Plan

Council Members have Recently Changed

To avoid confusion with the present intake of councillors in the Mid-Western Regional Council, I will list here the councillors who were incumbent when these decisions were approved, for historical records (yes, this was an historical event), in alphabetic order:

Cr Paul Cavalier
Cr Katie Dicker
Cr Alex Karavas
Cr Des Kennedy
Cr Sam Paine
Cr Robbie Palmer
Cr Peter Shelley
Cr Phil Stoddart
Cr Percy Thompson

(I have not gone back through all council’s records to find genuine dissenting votes during this time, I will leave that to future investigations.)

There was NO MENTION of SMART COMMUNITY STRATEGY in any of Council’s Community News publications that I am aware of… I’m pretty sure I would have seen it. Smart Water, yes, ages ago, but not this major plan.

Back to business (and yes, I mean “business” - there’s money in data, heaps of it, and in control, heaps of that too).

If you don’t know the privacy implications of most SMART meters and their invasive data collection practices, you need to do more research… because the marketing pitch is a LOT different to the implementation and future plans.

Then there are the health risks of microwave technologies, and the surveillance exposures, I won’t go on… but there are MANY aspects of this decision which will have future implications.

I’m sure SOME MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY, maybe, might have something to say about the following items: APPROVED.

(Yes, I can see the ‘marketed benefits’, have you thought of other issues and exposures?)

And excuse my sarcasm… it is difficult to write some of these down with a straight face. But approved none-the-less!

Some of these items are already approved, some are “to investigate” - download the report to find out more detail. You need to.

“Drones for compliance” (page 10)
CCTV in CBD. Where and when did I give permission for this?
SMART waste bins. Hmmm.
SMART benches and seats. Where you can charge your phone, because, well, you won’t be able to function without your “device”. (No, they cannot tell what sex you are when you sit on them - not that kind of “smart”.)
Smart sensors for passive and active parks lighting.
Mt. Misery live weather conditions feed.
Electric vehicle charging stations (hmmm, they haven’t heard about electric vehicle downsides - really! And the children slaving in lithium mines).
Digital transformation tools, automated record keeping, “improved transparency” (transparency to who?)
Virtual reality (VR) marketing videos that can be accessed globally, “without the need for physical travel” (hmmm!)
VR showcasing key features including infrastructure. Does that include your “private property”?
Smart economic analysis tools: comprehensive insights into local spending patterns and trends - who has access to this data, and how is it collected?
LED street lighting - we already have this in Mudgee, do the community know what “SMART ready LED lights” might ACTUALLY mean?
SMART water meters - we already have. Yes, surveillance and other issues yet to be publicly disclosed.
“Automation and efficiency using AI”. Hmmm.
Drones for weeds monitoring. Hmmm, so getting away from it all might not be a thing after all. “Improved access to difficult properties”. What ARE the implications to rural property owners, if, for example they do NOT eradicate every weed that is deemed a problem by the authorities? What if they can’t afford to eradicate every “weed”? Isn’t this called ‘trespass”?
SMART warning systems. Like the recent tsunami warning for the east coast of Australia that was a total dud?
SMART digital town signage (page 16 - often includes surveillance)
Introduce electric vehicles to Council fleet (page 18). Yeah, right, I really want to pay for that.
Public WIFI in parks and CBDs. (Read constant tracking and tracing.)

And “to investigate”, examples:

Automated Vehicles - reduces the risk of accidents and enhances overall road safety
Smart Community Digital Platforms to enhance communication through data sharing in real time, and boosts community engagement (that’s my favourite today - as firstly YOU HAVE TO HEAR ABOUT COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT - unless of course you spend your life looking on the council website to HAVE YOUR SAY!
Smart real time parking sensors, reducing traffic congestion in busy areas.
Ride-share solutions.
Soil Moisture Live Reporting for Agriculture - leading to improved agricultural productivity and profitability.

“Totalitarian Government”

That’s the Term, and THIS is How it is Implemented

I Encourage Everyone to Download the Following:

The Overarching Statement of SMART Community Strategy can be found here:

https://www.midwestern.nsw.gov.au/Council/Policies-plans-and-reporting/Plans-and-strategies/Smart-Community-Strategy

And the downloadable documents, here:

AND it is also worthwhile to compare them as well.

What has SMART surveillance got to do with images of cute babies and increasing tourism? It is not immediately obvious, but definitely worth pondering. And “nothing” could be the right answer.

What has SMART surveillance got to do with DECREASED tourism?

Quite a bit if you know where this is all heading.

For Readers Who Live Under a Rock

Here are a couple of posts on the World Economic Forum’s website for the people who still think this is a conspiracy (hmmm… is there any hope?)

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/08/what-is-a-smart-city/

https://initiatives.weforum.org/ai-governance-alliance/home

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/05/prevent-future-pandemics/

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/09/un-summit-future-sdgs/

And of course, you can go back and revisit my previous posts, and reconsider the emerging totally frightening prospect of the amount of carbon in the atmosphere at 0.4 percent. Yes, less than one percent… see my previous post.

And it is not just the World Economic Forum (WEF), it is all the other globalist organizations too, and the NGOs and worldwide charities: the United Nations, the WHO, the FAO, the whole lot… they all need a very good review. They are all unelected bodies and organizations that have an agenda that is beyond what you and I have approved.

Our governments are largely and obviously answering to them now.

So yes, we are in a pickle.

Please Subscribe to my Recommended Reading Lists on Substack

There is amazing work being done by Kate Mason, and Warren Ross of The Katoomba Review - which brings us up to date on many Australian issues and pressure points - including local councils.

Do you know that many of our houses will be deemed “non compliant” to whatever climate change and globalist agendas? See Kate Mason’s information.

And there is much happening on home insurance. Today I learned that Honey insurance will reduce your premiums if you agree to have their SMART equipment in your home … where does this all end?

Also, internationally, please follow the experts who I have recommended to you, most have free subscriptions.

Nearly Half a Decade to Figure this One Out

Weird things started happening in early 2020 (even before). And even weirder stuff has happened since.

If you are still not thinking that some things don’t make sense, you are either NOT thinking, or incapable of seeing another point of view.

There comes a point where the people who cared, till they were black and blue in the face, have to give up and work on more uplifting projects for themselves.

Like the better future which we are already building.

Free will is a thing. I get it!

And my free will is vital. I value it greatly.

Which path in the woods are you going to travel?

Taking Time Out From the Mudgee Eye

This publication is approaching its second anniversary: believe it or not.

I’ve decided to take some time out to regroup and reconsider its value into the future. Often it feels like a soliloquy.

Thank you everyone, again, for your support through commentary, conversation, financial support and distribution help way back then.

(I have left a subscribe button above, so that you can follow me when/if I return, just chose the free subscription option.)