Weekly column from Council Courier e-newsletter by CEO Greg Hallam, Friday 11 March 2016.
With just over a week to go until the 2016 council elections (with the exception of the Lockyer Valley which goes to the polls on April 16) the craziness occurring in other levels of government continues.
The LGAQ has continued to publicly defend elected members and council staff from attacks. On Wednesday President Margaret and I met with the Premier and Deputy Premier to explain our desire for the parliament to censure the actions of the Member for Cairns and the Member for Lockyer in seeking to damage councils and councillors.
Another course of action the LGAQ is exploring is to seek a citizen’s right of reply before the Bar of the Parliament and/or to have discussions with the Speaker of Parliament on these matters in an effort to protect councils’ reputations from vexatious attacks.
I went through these in an interview on ABC Radio in Brisbane yesterday and you can listen to my views here.
Be very clear: the LGAQ will always defend our members from these type of attacks, irrespective of which side of politics makes them.
We exist to protect and promote local government’s interests. That is not to say we will ever condone or defend obvious cases of corruption or misconduct.
Your Association has a first class record over recent decades in championing and supporting accountability and transparency reforms. We also work closely and in cooperation with all the council watch dogs and interest groups to ensure the highest practices and standards in our sphere of government.
Whilst we have said it before, I want to thank Deputy Premier and Local Government Minister Jackie Trad for her steadfast support of councils in the media and parliament to date. The LGAQ has no quarrel with her. Our frustration is with the political and parliamentary processes that enable the continuance of bucket tipping on councils. Whether Rob Pyne’s resignation from the ALP changes anything is yet to be seen.
The whispers are he will line up for an elections-eve dump on councils under privilege in parliament next week. Journalists need to take these unsubstantiated claims for what they are. His batting average attempting to unearth corruption and misconduct in the many councils he has sprayed under parliamentary privilege is zero - duck after duck after duck.
In light of the tsunami of attacks on councils, councillors and staff over the past month, the LGAQ is considering establishing and funding of an independent Electoral Monitor to oversee truthfulness in future council elections. These bodies exist overseas and have been proven effective. They have no judicial powers but rather monitor all forms of media and make it clear when a person or group is clearly overstepping the mark with wild unfounded claims.
Such a body will not comment on respective policy offerings or inject themselves in the ordinary course of political debate. The Electoral Monitor would have to be an eminent person whose reputation is beyond reproach. Where we go with this idea will be up to the council bodies elected on 19 March and the new Policy Executive which will take up office on 30 June.
It is certainly an idea worthy of consideration.