You read it here first. The Danksta is telling you now that Gong-Gate could well be the future fate of local government on the Sunshine Coast

Gong-Gate? Never heard of it! Is Gong-Gate some kind of musical outdoor furniture? Is Gong-Gate a humiliating form of talent quest?

No, Gong-Gate is named after the New South Wales city of Wollongong and the infamous 1970s Watergate scandal which toppled US president Richard Nixon and much of his administration.

Talking of downunder, as in underhanded, Danksta has delved into the steaming, scorching and more than stimulating saga of Gong-Gate.

Danksta has just enough breath left to divulge that Gong-Gate is a racy R-rated page-turner of a corruption scandal. So much so that Gong-Gate is currently being investigated by NSW's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and the inquiry has exposed both Wollongong City Council and the NSW Labor Government of Morris Iemma.

Right now there's much more heat being applied to Wollongong councillors and planning staff, developers and NSW ALP politicians and government staff with Wollongong backgrounds and connections than anything emanating from the BHP blast furnaces at Port Kembla!

To quote one Sydney media source: "The transcripts emerging each day from the (ICAC) inquiry read like a Jackie Collins novel. There are sexual favours in return for quick and allegedly corrupt development approvals; there are affairs between council town planners and developers, between developers and numerous women; and claims of sexual harassment. The convoluted story also includes secret meetings in isolated coffee shops, lovers' trysts at hotels and scout camps, and death threats from shady characters."

As 1970s reporter and little Aussie bleeder Norman Gunston used to ask: "What's On In Wollongong?" Well, all kinds of funny business, Norman.

So why is the Gong-Gate scandal at all relevant to the Sunshine Coast? Are there any parallels between the Gong and our place?

Well, Wollongong City Council is among the largest local governments in NSW, and the new Sunshine Coast Super Council is about to become one of the largest local governments in Queensland in less than a month's time.

Wollongong City Council was created in 1947 because the NSW Labor government forcibly amalgamated four local councils – Wollongong, Bulli Shire, North Illawarra and Central Illawarra.

Does that sound familiar up this way, with the Sunshine Coast Super Council to be created in 2008 because the Queensland Labor government decided to forcibly amalgamate three local councils.

Are you with the Danksta so far? Is this what the people of the Sunshine Coast have to look forward to?

A licentious, laviscous and lewd local government that is only too willing to be debauched, deflowered and degraded by developers, all in the name of gaining approval (and a lot more that can't really be elaborated on here without a censor's stamp)?

Because the Danksta suspects that the wild and wanton escapades sweeping the Illawarra coast and inundating Sydney's ALP HQ of Sussex Street might already be more than familiar – if not downright already in flagrante delicto* – to a certain coast, political party and state government much, much closer to home.

Is Gong-Gate the way larger local governments really carry on? (Carry On Up The Council Chambers?)

The Danksta asks council candidates and voters this question: Is Gong-Gate a coming attraction to the Sunshine Coast and if so, when and where will it be playing? Because it sure sounds more entertaining, exciting and (don't go there) than what we've got to go for on March 15!

* in flagrante delicto (Latin) – no, you look it up yourselves and yes, it sounds like what it really means!

Hamish has two MySpace websites. On one he writes about poetry, writing, music and other interests such as performing, reading, history and archaeology link to site, while the other focuses on amalgamation and other local issues link to site.