The Block, Married at First Sight, The Voice, and now … Geelong council meetings.
Yes, screen-addicts will be thrilled to know that councillors this week agreed to spend around $80,000 on streaming their meetings.
And that’s just the cost of the equipment, let alone the green room and makeup! And don’t even start on the expense of a Logies nomination!
But hang the expense. Anyone who’s attended a council meeting knows this will be must-watch programming.
Budgets, road discontinuations, communications policies, the blackout on in-camera business – yes, yes, give us more!
And since council meetings begin at 7pm, the giants of Australian prime-time will be scrambling to counter the launch of Channel COGG if the steaming’s live.
So they should. After all, think of the cast: in the lead role is former detective Bruce Harwood as mayor, with support from stars including ex-BHP Billiton executive Stephanie Asher and static-cycling record holder Eddie Kontelj.
How will they deliver their 30-year vision? Who’s ready to step up for the Geelong Region Employment Precinct? What about the rates cap?
Stay tuned!
Seriously though, the councillors had at least some justification for investing public money in potentially the least-watched show since Yasmin’s Getting Married.
Streaming would offer “greater accessibility” to residents and ratepayers unable to attend meetings in person, City Hall explained adding that the cameras would also go some way to improving the transparency of council’s decision-making.
Still, the councillors seemed perhaps understandably reluctant to take all the credit for the streaming initiative.
“The idea was recommended to us by the Citizen’s Jury,” pointed our Cr Harwood, referring to the group of citizens appointed by previous council administrators to help devise City Hall’s 30-year vision.
At least we’ll know who to blame if Channel COGG unexpectedly flops in the ratings!
Animal activists might have got off the wrong flight when they turned up to protest outside Geelong’s CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory this week.
While the lab works on beating some of the world’s deadliest animal diseases, which for obvious reasons requires some testing on animals, the 60 or so protesters missed possibly a bigger issue interstate.
Smoking mice. That’s right, smoking mice.
In fact, not just smoking mice, but mice forced to smoke.
Yes, around 1000 kilometres away researchers at the University of Newcastle have allegedly been putting rodents on the gaspers to discover the impact of ciggie smoke on fertility and Crohn’s disease
Humane Research Australia was outraged about Mickey getting on the Whinny Blues, slamming the studies as “inhumane”.
Fine, but hopefully Humane Research Australia eventually gets off the mice and stands up for commentators at the darts.
