Mitcham Council has reversed its decision to splash $40,000 promoting the ‘Yes’ campaign after angry ratepayers stormed a council meeting yesterday.
Showing up actually makes a difference! Who knew?
Irate locals crammed into the council chambers and two overflow rooms to hear their local members revisit a decision - made without consultation in June - to fund the ‘Yes’ campaign.
Back in June, without anyone in the public gallery, the councillors of Mitcham voted to divert council funds away from regulation tasks like maintaining roads and parks to a more, well, niche project - promoting the Indigenous Voice.
When the decision became public, councillor Darren Kruse defended the decision and the lack of community consultation.
“We don’t consult on every decision we make,” he said.
The arrogance.
He added that spending $40,000 of ratepayers’ money to push a pet project was not “an unreasonable or excessive” amount. Not compared to total council budget of more than $77m, he said.
Sure. But it turns out taxpayers see things a little differently. Maybe because it’s their money.
So a bunch of local residents turned up at Tuesday night’s council meeting and, what do you know, there were more backflips than an Olympic diving event.
Mitcham Counsellors voted seven to three in favour of not spending local government money on the federal government’s referendum.
There’s a lesson here. Local government representatives get away with all manner of rubbish because they can. Typically few people take any interest in council meetings and so there is little, if any, scrutiny of council decisions.
But I am reliably informed that when even a few people turn up in the public gallery, local council members are immediately curious.
Who are you? Why are you here?
When a dozen or more angry ratepayers show up and demand accountability, it’s amazing how quickly these trumped up pot hole fillers and park curators fall back into line.
Local government is one part of the country that can be taken back with minimal effort if a handful of people are prepared to simply turn up and make known their displeasure.
Before you go, if you’ve not yet registered for this weekend’s CPAC conference …
click here for all the information.
Use code “Macpherson23” for 10% off your registration.
Be sure to come up and say hi if you’re there.
Have you seen the video of how well a battery powered angle grinder works in the UK fight?
He cuts down the whole light pole wearing a mask so they can't ID him.
It took less than a minute.
Kids used to use rocks against the old lamps, but not sure if they work against 5G LED Smart lamps.
Mitcham Council have little hope in changing things. This article was from 2019. Along with many friends we wrote and people attended the LGA meeting,
“Mitcham council has back-flipped on a decision to scrap its annual Christmas Carols by The Creek event, following public outcry.”