THE COMMUNITY MOUSE THAT ROARED

Last year the citizens of York came out swinging, punching well above their weight and proving to be formidable scrappers. It was in response to the whole community being maligned by the Minister for Local Government, Tony Simpson, and later, his Commissioner, James, ‘don’t call me Jimmy’ Best, who decided, York, was awash with self- interested extremists.

Much of the roaring came in the form of the on-line content of the shireofyork6302.blog with an initial focus being on the leaking of the clandestine Fitz Gerald Report.

The lengths that the ‘Powers that Be’ finally went to, to keep this document a secret, could be described as herculean, an abject failure- and extremely disturbing in a modern, open society sense.

It is pretty hard to control the whereabouts of the 25 copies held by the Shire of York, the single copy’s held by the Department of Local Government (and Communities), the Minister, Tony Simpson, the WA Corruption & Crime Commission( CCC) and last but not least, the naughty person we will call “Brian”. (Why so many copies were created, originally, is a mysterious abrogation of responsibility for any form of confidentiality in itself.)

You could probably add some photocopies printed out at the offices of Michael Fitz Gerald Strategies office and from the other 28 copies floating around the traps. But especially the 25 copies held at the Shire of York offices which is no Fort Knox.

There were certainly enough self-interested, sycophantic worshippers of former CEO, Ray Hooper, to ensure a copy was hand-delivered to his private eerie in Alexander Heights before the ink had dried.

Yet a super-sleuth from the CCC was adamant that it was “Brian” who had given a copy to be published in The West Australian Newspaper and used it for other nefarious purposes such as broadcast by social media.

Did “Brian” have a copy of the Fitz Gerald Report at that time? No he did not! Did” Brian” give a copy of the Fitz Gerald Report to The West Australian Newspaper to scour through? How could he, he did not have one!

Members of the Perth Press think that the CCC is ‘insidious and sinister’ and a recent external investigation found there was ‘systemic misconduct” within its ranks, including theft. In the life of “Brian” you can add false allegations to the CCC’s impressive list of negative achievements.

So what did some usual suspects in the Shire of York set about doing with that beastly Fitz Gerald Report and a disgusting social media site?

In August last year there was a flurry of high priority ‘panic room’ emails sent between F……….r, Commercial Lawyers and International Attorney’s and the Shire of York regarding the Fitz Gerald Report and http://shireofyork6302.com.au .

Little verbatim cliché’s like ‘ this is going from bad to worse, ‘the Shire needs to get an injunction’ and ‘we need to discuss this urgently’ were bandied about. (At a substantial fee of course).

Then came advice like ‘time though is of the essence’, I have rung two IT forensic experts I hold in high regard. Both reverted (probably means referred) to me’.

Mr…………..’ is looking at what can be found to assist your objectives of identifying the blog and taking steps to take it down’.

‘The other is Professor………………. (This Professor is an Adjunct/ Assistant Professor at the Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Western Australia. (Why an academic would soil his hands with such a low rent activity as removing a Vox Populi, blogsite escapes me.)

It goes on-and-on.

“Try and make a call on who might have done this (the blog) and target them directly’ was one friendly sentence of expensive advice.

Then ‘The relief might lie in what is known as the as an Anton Pillar (it is actually Piller) Order which is an ex parte order allowing the ceasing (I am assume this should be seizing) of computers for limited specified purposes’. This is a polite way of putting- let’s kick a few doors in and confiscate a lap top or two- with several spelling mistakes thrown in for free.

Next came ‘ Go after Google to get the site taken down; go after the likely suspect who put the site up………..neither option is cheap’.

The way that the Shire of York went about the business of burying the Fitz Gerald Report, cheap was never an option. Why such an attempt was made to pervert a cause for justice, should make those responsible hang their heads in abject shame.

Everyone should remember what was and is the Fitz Gerald Report. It was a substantial, substantive record of interview describing the ill treatment meted out by some councillors and some staff of the Shire of York to nineteen (19) members of the community. It suggests malice, the possible use  of municipal funds for personal rather than definable, appropriate council matters and certainly suggests inappropriate actions that do not  come close to satisfying the new buzz-phrase ‘reasonable community expectations’.

Maintain the rage and never stop roaring. It is your personal right to do so.