Coordination is the key !

A sad case is emerging to illustrate how good ideas fail to achieve their objective when they are under government control.   The ratepayers of Shellharbour are stuck with a bill because of a lack of coordination in putting timing in the correct order.

Across Australia the amount of electronic equipment going to landfills was causing concern.  This was filling up valuable space and at the same time, recoverable amounts of copper, lead, zinc, rare earths and even gold were going to waste.   Planners expected this to surge when the change from analogue television to digital got under way.    Old analogue TV's could be converted to digital by using a set top box, but it was anticipated  that many people would use the change to upgrade to the new big screen sets because the surging Australian dollar made them much cheaper.

A scheme was put in place, paid for by the electronics industry and regulated by the Federal government. Unwanted television sets and computers would be collected and pass through a recovery process to reclaim valuable components.

The obvious time to have this in place was just prior to the shutting down of the analogue system and it's replacement by digital.   On the assumption that this would be so, Shellharbour council waived it's tip fee to receive electronics - and now finds itself saddled with 4,100 old television sets, presenting it with a $ 300,000 disposal fee.

The promised collection point to be established at it's landfill site - simply did not happen.  It is still in the planning pipeline, and it will probably emerge some weeks - or maybe months - in the future, when the surge of unwanted electronics has passed and the present backlog has gone to landfill.

The timetable for the introduction of digital replacing analogue has been known for years and it was the subject of an intense government advertising campaign prior to it's implementation in the Illawarra.  It is being rolled out across Australia in a coordinated manner, hence there is no excuse for collection points not being ready to receive as priority indicates.

This disgraceful lack of coordination lends credence to those wags who disparage government services by suggesting that government administrators couldn't " successfully raffle a duck ! "

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