Rose Wanchap’s defection to the development extremist camp is of course a gross breach of the public trust and a betrayal of democracy. The Greens now need to look closely at their membership policies and their seeming determination to field unsuitable candidates just to make up a ticket. Worthy community activists missed out on election because the Greens were asleep at the wheel.
That said, the tactics of Sol Ibrahim at the last election, though quite conventional, constitute a similar cynical breach of trust, all the more so because a lot of planning obviously went into it. No-one had heard of him until he suddenly featured in slick but vacuous ads all over the shire. We don’t know who financed that little episode because local media were asleep at the wheel when the electoral finance statements were published 18 months ago – just as I expected.
So we currently have a crew that at best represents one-third of the local population (and shrinking) but which now, thanks to Rose, effectively runs the show. In this they are aided by the permanent staff. Once again my side of politics has stuffed up nicely.
I can’t let the opportunity pass to have a go at Simon Richardson who, by abolishing Public Questions, has scored the worst own goal I’ve seen in 30 years of local politics. That absurdity, however, pales into insignificance beside the fact that the GM has unilaterally removed all mention of court cases from the council agenda – meaning that we now have no idea who is being prosecuted for what and for what reasons. And no idea which Land & Environment Court appeals are being defended and which settled on what terms. Even the councillors are content to be informed only at the GM’s whim.
Meanwhile Simon smiles as though everything’s going swimmingly as long as people are being polite to each other!
Meanwhile too the tide of camphor laurels is steadily taking over the shire.
Fast Buck$, Coorabell
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
