This sort of thing is not peculiar to Rockhampton Joe. We are getting all sorts of over regulation issues cropping up here in Bundaberg.

It seems to have started just after this forced amalgamation of local councils into regional councils.

I noticed the council vehicle that came onto the beach on Saturday with "LOCAL LAW" in big letters on the side of it. I have also noticed a couple of council vehicles here with "LOCAL LAW" on them. This is something new that I suspect will be used to exert more control over the citizenry.

Try talking with your elected council divisional representative. These people are usually fairly normal citizens like the rest of us. The long term, non elected, but firmly entrenched bureaucrats, whose lifestyles are funded by you and I via the exorbitant council rates we are now forced to pay, are the ones to watch closely.

They are the permanent government and the elected councillors are only the temporary government. If you ever watched the TV series "Yes Minister", you will see how it all works. The bureaucrats treat the elected members like mushrooms, ie feed them on cow dung and keep them in the dark.

You will most likely find that your local council bureaucracy is rife with nepotism and cronyism. If you challenge one of them, they will close ranks and gang up on you. No offence to your faith Joe, but you will probably find they all go to the same church (some of ours are scientologists) which is where they get their "holier than thou" attitudes.

There is a bunch of them here who have labelled themselves as "Compliance Officers". One of our elected members has even said there is a rogue group within our council bureaucracy "that operates like the gestapo".

A couple of my friends and I have experienced this first hand when a couple of them barged their way into our rented properties without prior notice or permission and harassed our tenants by demanding to see passports and taking them individually into a room for private interrogations, two on one.

Talk about George Orwell's "1984". It's here, just a little belated. How many people will it affect? All of us Joe. Cheers Cisco