DEAR BLOG READERS
Dated December 28, 2014
Hon Tony Simpson
Minister for Local government
8th Floor Dumas House
2 Havelock Street
WEST PERTH, 6005
CC Hon Colin Barnett
Premier of Western Australia
Dear Minister
Dated December 28, 2014
Hon Tony Simpson
Minister for Local government
8th Floor Dumas House
2 Havelock Street
WEST PERTH, 6005
CC Hon Colin Barnett
Premier of Western Australia
Dear Minister
Your Ref: Shire of York Blog 6032
I am sure you are aware of this community concerns- based, Internet Blog Site, recording your performance, the performance of your department, past Shire of York Councils and its employees- for posterity.
It certainly is no ringing endorsement of your treatment of the current Shire of York Council and, in particular, its’ President. Not only does its content suggest you should hang your head in shame, it infers you should take rapid remedial steps to reposition yourself to where you actually support the community- not a handful of potentially tainted individuals.
It appears by the accusations you have broadcast against the current Shire President, you and your Department could have come perilously close to being in breach of the Defamations Act, 2005. This is an indefensible action, particularly when it involves what could be defined as a personal attack by a Minister of the Crown on a public spirited citizen, trying to better his community.
You may be interested to know that the Blog-Site has had in excess of 35,000
hits with any comments universally negative towards your performance, your department’s, a minority group of individuals and, in some cases, the overall state of Local Government in Western Australia.
It is perceived that your actions and those of your department are bringing the third tier of the democratic process, the Local Government Councils and their administration into disrepute. That is - your demand for what you conceive to be adequate Code of Conduct performance and other required compliance by most council’s, their councillors and employees only exists when a problem, created by your department’s deficiencies, explodes in your face.
Your knee jerk reaction after monitoring York Council meetings only occurred when deleterious misinformation was relayed to you by one of your incompetent officers in collusion with several Councillors with an axe to grind.
The fact that any lack of adequate administrative performance and compliance goes back decades still seems to escape you, although you have the relevant documents to prove it. One in particular, dated 2004, is prominently displayed on the Blog Site.
Thirty-five thousand hits on the York Blog is a lot of bad publicity and if you add on the ubiquitous ‘Dunbar’s Number’ there may be a very large force of disgruntled ratepayers waiting for the next State Election. They could also be lining up the Local Member, Mia Davies, who appears to feel York is not part of her electorate, especially its’ Shire Council and proposed rubbish tip.
So what is your real agenda? Are you using the Shire of York Council as a whipping boy for a deeper, more sinister purpose? Is it an opening for a surreptitious attack on Rural, Regional and Remote Local Government that your Government can now ill-afford to assist?
Everyone knows the wheels have fallen off the State’s iron ore gravy train,
it has lost its AAA credit rating and the current budget is in deep shtook.
Statistics are the basis of reality. Politicians tend to use this basic equation only when it suits them and usually for politically devious reasons.
Statistical reality is that this State has had a severe budget blow-out.
Another statistical reality is your former home state of Victoria has 79 Local Government Areas (LGA’s) providing local government services to 5.841 million people.
In Western Australia there are currently 138 LGA’s representing 2.55 million.
(In Queensland there are 74 and the same in South Australia.)
Where reality bites hard in WA is that 109 of these LGA’s serve a permanent Rural, Regional and Remote Area population of just 354,000, while thirty-four of them have an average population of just 576, and that is residents not ratepayers.
Overall there are 30 more LGA’s outside of Perth than there are in the whole of Victoria, including Melbourne.
So is your real agenda that, by pillaring the Shire of York Council, it may give you an excuse to reduce the number of Rural, Regional and Remote LGA’s by up-to 50 to bring WA into line with most other states?
If so, I would think again!
Yours sincerely
David Taylor
YORK RATEPAYER.
Well Said David. I had hoped when Minister Simpson took over the LG portfolio from Castrillii we would finally have someone who would listen to the people of York.
ReplyDeleteIt is about time the DLG and the Minister realised they have been lied to by RH and several Councillors and no doubt some of the Senior Administration Staff.
I have lost total faith in our current State Government and I would never vote for Mia Davies again.....locals refer to her as MIA = Missing In Action. She is not the slightest bit interested in York.
Well put. If the minister thinks suspending the council will resolve his problem he will be sadly mistaken as that will just pour fuel on the fire. The incompetent and biased DLG need to be exposed.
ReplyDeleteI think the Minister underestimated the people of York just like Ray Hooper did and look what happened to Ray.
ReplyDeleteThe Minister would do well by cleaning up his own Department. The DLG is full of incompetent Public Servants who have forgotten they have a duty of care to serve the people of this state.
Congratulations, David. You may have hit the nail on the head, so far as the number of LGAs in WA is concerned.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I incline to the view that this amateurish performance on the part of DLG has more to do with the WA government's tacit support for SITA's landfill proposal. The plan may be to take the Shire off the chessboard and create the conditions for the proposal to succeed without further legal complications. I raised this possibility at the last electors' meeting; Cr Reid described it as 'a conspiracy theory', but with all due respect to Cr Reid, and that is a good deal, I disagree with him.
The government is desperate about disposing of Perth's rubbish away from the coastal plain. It wants a landfill in York, or anywhere else within striking distance of the city, and has probably convinced itself by some process of twisted logic that such a development would benefit the Shire even though the Shire overwhelmingly doesn't want it and for very good reasons.
Like Cr Reid, I don't much care for conspiracy theories, but experience and observation over many years have taught me that people in power, whoever they are and whatever their political allegiance, are capable of obfuscation and outright dishonesty to disguise their aims and Machiavellian manoeuvering to achieve them. Two quotations spring to mind: from the Bible, 'Do not put your trust in princes', and from Shakespeare, 'A man may smile, and smile, and be a villain'. You don't get wisdom like that from Christmas crackers!
Is it possible, by the way, that SITA is a generous donor to both major political parties?
Yes it is more than possible the Government has seised the FitzGerald report to destabilise our Council in an attempt to slip through the Landfill application.
ReplyDeleteCorruption, pollution, $$$$ and Politicians are all under the same umbrella.
I have always hoped I would experience honest Politicians. I have not got long to go, so I guess that wish will be one that stays in my bucket for this life!