At its February meeting, Newcastle Council drove the final
nail into the coffin of election commitments aimed at making the council more democratic,
open, transparent and accountable.
Regular readers of this column may recall that democracy and
open government was a key issue in the two council by-election campaigns in
late 2014 and early 2015, which stripped the former McCloyal conservative bloc
of its council majority.
During those campaigns, Labor and The Greens agreed to
mutual preference recommendations on the basis of a 10 point “Open GovernmentReform Package”, with a list of structural and procedural changes “intended to
restore community confidence in the council and the office of Lord Mayor, and
to establish systems that ensure the highest level of transparency,
accountability and probity in our City’s governance”.
At the end of last year – more than a year after the reforms
were pledged - the achievement score on the 10 point list was zilch. 0/10.
At the council’s February meeting, Labor councillors joined
Liberal and Independent councillors to defeat measures proposed by The Greens
that would have given some substance to those commitments.
Problems experienced under the disgraced McCloyal council
bloc were a primary stimulus for the reform proposals, so it’s hardly
surprising that the McCloyal die-hards (Liberal and Independent councillors)
didn’t support these measures – they never have.
But for the Labor councillors, this was an epic (though not
entirely unexpected) backflip.
Despite election promises in the Open Government Reform
Agreement*:
- Councillors and council staff still meet regularly in secret sessions (called “workshops”) closed to the public and the media, but not always to developers and other vested interests,
- The Lord Mayor has not kept a public diary outlining to whom she’s been talking,
- No changes have been made to get rid of unreasonable administrative restrictions that impede councillors from properly representing the voters who elect them,
- No effort has been made to establish a network of council-supported, community-based groups or committees who represent the interests of residents in the local communities
- No internal council ombudsman role has been created to independently investigate and respond to complaints about council administration
- Community members and groups still have the same (limited) opportunities to address the elected council, administered by council officers who strictly vet and control this system
- No attempt has been made to revitalise and expand Council’s ailing and depleted committee system
- The elected council still meets on a monthly cycle, rather than a fortnightly cycle
- Significant community assets (including significant trees) are still removed with no or little consultation with residents
- The council’s website is now harder to navigate, and less accessible, especially archival material, such as past council meetings.
[* The listed points here correspond to the 10 points in the Open Government Reform Agreement]
A number of reforms were proposed by The Greens
(Councillors Therese Doyle and Michael Osborne) at the February council
meeting, but were voted down by Labor and conservative councillors.
The sad fact is that, despite the change in the council’s
political complexion, and despite the political promises, very little has
actually changed in the way Newcastle Council operates since the days of the
McCloyal bloc ascendency.
If anything, some aspects (e.g., the website) are even
worse.
One positive change evident at the February council meeting
was a new audio system, which at least made it easier to hear how councillors
were rationalising these backflips.
Little wonder that – unlike their Port Stephens neighbour –
Newcastle Council has been unable to rouse many in its community to care enough
to stand up and defend them against the state government’s ill-conceived,
ideologically driven council amalgamation agenda.
That agenda looks as though it will push the next council
election from September this year into March next year - another full year of
the current council.
It will be a disappointing thing indeed for Newcastle if the
key legacy of the current council’s tenure is the scandal of the Jeff McCloy regime,
and the broken promises of the Nuatali Nelmes period.
