Letter to Hon. Colin Barnett MLA
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Dated 28 January, 2015
Hon. Colin Barnett MLA
Premier of Western Australia
1 Parliament Place
WEST PERTH, 6005
Dear Premier
Your Ref: SHIRE OF YORK BLOG AUSTRALIA DAY SPEECH- YORK
I am sure that you have a whole of government, whole of state perspective, which precludes you from having a complete overview of what goes on within your government.
I believe, in the past, advisors acting on your behalf have made the comment that small brush strokes paint the bigger picture. That certainly is a truism.
However if the small brush strokes are made up of political embarrassments, then the big picture struggles to get an appreciative audience.
In his speech to the York community on Australia Day, Commissioner James Best, appointed by your Minister Simpson, made a blatant reference to negative comments on local (York) events being broadcast on social media. The only credible inference is that he was referring to the content of the Shire of York Blog 6302.
Mr Best could best be described as an ignorant, Public Service, quasi- sociopath to raise such an issue at such an inappropriate time and place. His role as Commissioner should be not to make any form of negative public comment whatsoever.
Are all the public protocols and decorum, let’s call them punctilios politesse, being ignored by Minister Simpson and his motley crew?
Mr Best has intimated to members of the York community that Minister Simpson (and others), is “aggrieved” by some disparaging comments contained on this Blog. That is their prerogative and there is always the Defamation Act 2005 (WA) should they feel they have been seriously impugned in any manner.
I am sure the ABC journalist, who was referred to as a “sanctimonious moll” by your former Chief of Government Media, Dixie Marshall, must have contemplated seeking punitive legal action.
However she probably read the Premiers Office contact details website which state ‘Please note that we will not respond to any feedback which contains vulgar or profane language or offensive comments” , had a laugh and thought ‘this is the pot calling the kettle black’.
It is well known in media circles that Ms. Marshall has a penchant for a bit of profanity, directed at the “Fourth Estate”.
By far the most disturbing allegation is that, Mr. Best, has made it known to stood-down Shire of York Councillors that “ for the Minister (Simpson)to restore rule by our (York’s) elected council would depend on the blog being closed down”.
If this allegation is correct, how can you as Premier of this state condone such a coercive threat and retain this person as a Minister of the Crown? It is a disgusting attack on civil liberties.
I know the degrading lengths that some politicians go to, but this one pretty much “takes the cake” “the chocolates” and “the cigars”
Monitoring has confirmed that there has been excess of 50,000 hits on this website and none of its content is favourable to your Minister.
Yours sincerely
David Taylor
YORK RATEPAYER.
It is now going a month since the Minister for the Interior, acting on advice from the Kremlin, removed a democratically elected local government as the "council could not prove why it should not be suspended", an interesting example of a reverse standard of proof.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that the Ministers media release also states "nothing submitted by the Shire CHANGED HIS MIND of the need for suspension". Which underlines the fact that the Minister had already made up his mind to suspend the council, a clear breach of natural justice.
Two strikes against fair play and proper process.
So based on the secret reports of the secretive special KGB agents, the Kremlin advised the Minister to ignore all the Shire evidence and suspend a democratically elected government.
The group photo shown previously on this blog that includes Col Pot rubbing shoulders with the previous elite then becomes far more relevant in explaining why the York community is being punished by the State government.
But the current interesting point is that the Minister for the Interior required the suspended councillors to undertake retraining in leadership, governance and meeting procedure as a condition of the suspension being lifted. In other words to become reprogrammed clones suitable to the Kremlin and carry out the Minister's wishes and not the communities.
So where are the details of this retraining program. Is it to be held in North Korea? Who will provide the training? The councillors are suspended - are they forced to attend, will they be paid to attend, and if not how can the Minister expect them to participate? They are suspended and presumably not answerable or responsible for anything apart from their personal affairs. They have been found guilty by a biased unfair process and now expected to freely cooperate with the Kremlin and turn against the community which elected them. What if they do not participate or do not satisfactorily convince the Kremlin that they are 'retrained" to the required standard? Does that mean that the York community may be without a democratically elected government for years to come? How does the York community know what is happening in regards to its return of its elected Council? It seems very much that it is the community that is being punished, which brings me back to that group photo and what its implications are for the powers that be running this State.
So democratic representative government has been removed on fatally flawed grounds, and the conditions of its eventual return are based on some very vague secret Gulag retraining camp, or the whim of the Minister.
Now we see signs of apparent secret attempts (including by the Minister's appointed best man) to muzzle the York community by shutting down this blog, and even linking the blog to the lifting of the suspension.
It is only a week or so ago where the free world turned out to support the concept of free speech, a principle written in blood, not only then but also by our own servicemen and women.
So perhaps Col Pot, the Minister and his appointed best man, the Kremlin and the KGB need to think very deeply about what they have done to democracy and free speech and be aware that they are responsible and have created the need for this blog.
We are all Charlies.
What I want to know is: - Will York Councillors be required to pass an exam to prove they are sufficiently 'reprogrammed' to be permitted back into Council?
ReplyDeleteOr
Will it be left up to the 'DLG Watchdogs' to decide the outcome and advise Minister Simpson?
We have at least three who are very intelligent, so we could finish up with the first three Dux's of the DLG new reprogramming programme.
Unless every single Local Government Councillor in Western Australia is ordered to do the exact same training, then our current York Councillors are being DISCRIMINATED against!
What's really incredible about the whole retraining thing is that Cr Matthew Reid is 3/4 the way through his Bachelor in Local Government training anyway.Now that to me is someone who is dedicated to the position.
DeleteSpeaking of dedication, it was previously mentioned on the blog about Ray Hooper's dedication to the betterment of York with examples like the purchasing of library books. Perhaps Cr Reid can borrow one of Ray's books to read during the LG training sessions because I can only assume he will be bored out of his brain. I hope they send a good trainer otherwise it may be a case of train the trainer.
Take notes Cr Reid and document the waste of taxpayers money spent delivering this so called retraining session/s.
Then at the next elections you can canvas each candidate and ask them what they know about the Act. After all that is obviously going to be a requirement for anyone wishing to enter LG. If not why would it be acceptable to send you to training. They can't have it both ways.
Whilst we are on the subject, take heed any of you future wannabe's thinking of standing for election as a Councillor in York. If you do not have the skills required to represent your community...don't bother to waste votes! Skills requires, LG Act knowledge, quasi judicial experience, financial accounting experience, honesty, impartially, empathy, customer focus and plain old fashioned common sense. Now that's narrowed it don a bit......good luck to both of you!
DeleteChinese whispers
ReplyDeleteIf several ratepayers have proof that certain records have been doctored, then could I suggest you don't pre-warn head office by commenting on the matter.
A shrewd course of action would be to collate the evidence and publish it, maybe hear on the blog, or a newspaper perhaps.
Puts a whole new twist on the "Simpson Medal" - for reprogrammed councillors.
ReplyDeleteThis whole sick saga just goes to show the sheer lack of policy and strategic thinking in the Kremlin.
Problem at York getting out of hand - probity audit - cooked up charges - lets suspend them and fix this problem - ok, need to try and show some sort of proper process - show cause notice - ignore response - suspend them - send in Best - what next - oh, ok, come up with a training program - that will give us time and excuse for removing the suspension - all fixed.
Hang on - what about the community - oh don't worry about them - but what about this training - ok, form a working group - mumble mumble someone should have thought this through first.
Sir Jenny Applebee is alive and well in the Department of Local Government and - wait for it - Community (except York). I suppose we can be grateful that all of us are not being consigned to a re-education camp somewhere (ooops one of them will put forward that as the final solution to York)
Perhaps if 300 York Ratepayers protested against the Minister stripping away our democratic rights the Premier would pay attention. I can just see it now marching through Hay St Mall up to the steps of Parliament House. Or perhaps that is just a bit to "extremist?"
ReplyDelete