In a blatantly political move, the Tweed Chamber of Commerce is flogging an online petition calling for the appointment of an administrator to replace the Tweed Shire Council on the confected charge of delays in processing development applications. They conveniently overlook the fact that DA recommendations are prepared and processed by departmental staff, not the councillors. And the priceless irony is that Chamber president, Warren Polglase, was Mayor of the Council sacked in 2005 after the Daly Inquiry found the election of the majority faction of so-called Independents had been corrupted by developer-backed financing.
The fact that the petition is able to be signed anonymously indicates the Chamber is aware that many of the intended signatories haven’t the guts to go public, and further proves the document not worth the cyberspace it’s floating in.
The ploy is to rid the current Tweed Council of majority Independents and replace them with developer-friendly neo-cons of the ilk ousted 17 years ago by Commissioner Daly. If the Chamber was serious it would call not for an administrator to replace the councillors, but for an inquiry into the Planning Department, which continues to drag its heels on halting future residential development of floodplain land, in addition to delayed DA approvals.
But to misquote Paul Keating; never let the facts stand between a business chamber and a bucket of money.
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. 
