Clarification
I wish to comment on the article posted on the Gannawarra Times Facebook page on June 21 in relation to the Hon Peter Walsh MP’s address in parliament.
The general statement issued by Gannawarra Shire Council in this article states, “His concerns have been formally addressed by the Local Government Inspectorate, Worksafe and the Local Government Minister. These matters have been dealt with appropriately and required no further action by council”.
I would like to clarify this statement following my conversation with the Manager of Operations at the Local Government Inspectorate last week. The Inspectorate do not deal with bullying – it is not in their charter. Worksafe investigate policies.
The policies were in place for staff at Gannawarra shire.
They did not investigate individual bullying claims made by any councillor.
Workcover investigated and approved a claim made by a councillor on the basis that harm was caused in their role as a councillor.
The now sacked Local Government Minister wrote to the mayor asking her to work with all councillors to address the bullying and poor governance. This did not occur.
I also provided evidence to the Inspectorate on the mayor lying to ratepayers in public meetings and a “council spokesperson” not being truthful in media statements.
Although the Local Government Act states that a councillor must act with integrity (76Ba) and must act honestly and avoid statements (oral or in writing) or actions that are likely to mislead or deceive a person (76b) NO penalties apply.
I was told that it is up to other councillors to address this.
I had shown him evidence that they were not willing to take action against the mayor, to which he responded, “There is nothing a member of the public can do about being lied to by their councillors. It is a political environment and politicians are known to be free with their speech. I suggest you go to the media”. Gannawarra deserves better.
Please choose your councillors carefully at the October elections.
We need honesty and transparency from our elected representative going forward.
Sonia Wright,
Cohuna
Just who is ‘The
Gannawarra Voice?’
I NOTICED on Facebook that the suggestion was posted there to stage a protest against the elected mayor and shire councillors and also sack the CEO.
Just who in hell do you think you are?
We do have (legally elected) by the majority a group of men and women who are doing their best to make this a good place to live in.
I believe I speak with the authority and experience of one who has served on this team for two terms representing Avoca Ward.
I did not seek a further term as at that time we were considering a relocation away from the ward I represented.
In my mind, mayor Learmonth is doing a great job under difficult circumstances, having seen the resignation of two councillors for ‘bullying’!
What is bullying?
For goodness’ sake if you have differences of opinion within a council don’t call it ‘bullying’, as that is something I felt was left behind in primary school playgrounds.
Just who of you out there is the stir behind trying to get CEO Tom O’Reilly dismissed. And WHY?
Wake up you lot, he is a good man, trying to do his best to run an efficient operation, and certainly does not need to be walking around with knives in his back!
We all have been under a great strain the last few months with the COVID-19 lockdowns.
It is going to have a significant (and I believe lasting) effect on many businesses and indeed our lives, but, for goodness sake don’t try to take out your frustration on the mayor, the councillors or any staff.
We are all in this time together.
Neil Gannon,
Kerang
Take action on MDBA
JOIN us by flying the Eureka flag in our stand against the injustice that is the Murray Darling Basin Authority.
The National Party give lip service to fixing the MDBA, as confirmed by Richard Anderson of the VFF after the recent Minco [ministerial council] meeting.
They are nothing more than a lapdog for the Liberal Party and a shill for the cotton and coal lobby group donors.
There have been over 100 inquiries, which all found room for improvement, and the response to the recommendations have been more investigations.
Most recently they spent $14 million on the Mick Keelty report that waffled on about nothing substantial and better education of our younger generation to perpetuate the inequities, all the while ignoring the most educated elders – true environmentalist food farmers who have volunteered extensive papers pointing out the problems, providing environmentally sound solutions with far greater environmentally and economically beneficial use of taxpayers’ money.
Some of the triple bottom line solutions are: lock zero, reallocation of conveyance water to the consumptive pool, respecting river capacity constraints, managing intra-valley trade, publishing environmental benefit report cards, rebalancing critical water use over environmental use, taxing water traders and rebating food and fibre productive use, actually monitoring floodplains harvesting, and throwing unelected bureaucrats under the bus.
It’s time to take action, ask the National Party when they are going to take action on these aspects, and join us in flying the Eureka flag, call for a federal Royal Commission on just terms, with the power to rescind the Water Act of 2007, expose the backroom deals that have been done, prosecute those responsible and sack the bureaucrats’ proponents, who perpetuate the injustice.
The National Party are dead in the water if there is no federal Royal Commission before the next election.
Doug Fehring,
Cohuna
Stop shooting and promote wetlands
REGIONAL Victoria needs to view its natural assets with fresh eyes to unlock the potential of eco-tourism.
Kate Bossence, a bird-loving “import” from the big smoke, revels in the delights of native birds at McDonald Swamp and Kerang’s world-famous Ramsar wetlands (‘Wetlands tourism potential’, Gannawarra Times, June 19).
But when I visited Kerang last year, I could not find anything promoting these Ramsar wetlands.
I did see signs saying waterbirds would be shot at certain (unspecified) times of the year – quite off-putting unless you’re a duck shooter.
With COVID-19 restrictions, Australians are holidaying in their own country.
Tidy up the wetlands, get some boardwalks, photos and signage.
But you might have to stop shooting the birds if you want to convince tourists your wildlife is worth a visit.
Mary O’Keefe,
Mont Albert
