[Greens-Media] Sylvia Hale MLC: Greens welcome Shellharbour Council Inquiry but want elections

[Christopher Holley]

4 April 2008 For immediate Use
 
Greens welcome Shellharbour Council Inquiry 
but oppose it being used to justify postponing
September 2008 Council elections
 
Greens Local Government Spokesperson Sylvia Hale MLC today welcomed the
decision to hold a public inquiry into Shellharbour City Council.
 
“Shellharbour’s residents have long been seeking an inquiry into the
activities of the ALP-dominated Council and the far-reaching powers of
its General Manager,” Ms Hale said. 
 
“Many of its decisions have exhibited a blatant conflict of interest.
Council has, for example, approved development applications for the
Illawarra Airport, which it owns and operates, with little regard for
the subsequent impact on residents. 
The cost of its co-development with Australand of the Shell Cove Marina
has now blown out to $3 billion, and will have a disastrous impact on
the beach and wetlands. And then there is the extraordinary costs
incurred by its legal action against two independent councillors.”
 
“A public inquiry into the Council is both welcome and overdue. The
Inquiry must not, however, be used as a pretext for postponing Council
elections due on 13 September 2008.
 
“Everbody knows that the ALP is in such ill-odour in the Illawarra that
any candidates it runs, whether in Shellharbour or Wollongong, would be
slaughtered at the polls.
 
“Clearly, in the case of Wollongong, and probably in the case of
Shellharbour, Labor is trying to put off the day of reckoning in the
hope that everyone will have forgotten the stench in four years time.
 
“Any postponing of elections will disenfranchise the community. It will
be a case of punishing the community rather than those councillors and
officials who have persistently treated residents with disdain.
 
“The Commissioner conducting the Inquiry has five months in which to
bring down recommendations about how Council should conduct its
business. It should be up to the new Council to implement them.
 
“But, as we have seen elsewhere, the ALP has a history of appointing
unaccountable Labor mates as Administrators to do the State Government’s
bidding and dirty work,” Ms Hale said.
 
 
Further information: Chris Holley  (02) 9230 3030 / 0437 779 546
 
Chris Holley
Policy and Media Officer
Office of Sylvia Hale MLC
Parliament House 
Macquarie St,
Sydney NSW 2000

Ph: 02 9230 3030 Mob: 0437 779 546
Fax: 02 9230 2159

E-mail: Christopher.Holley at parliament.nsw.gov.au
Web:www.sylviahale.org.au