TGO readers know that we’re very supportive of Perth’s WTV (why not click the link and become a member?) community TV channel and we’re especially avid watchers of the programs “Undercurrent” and “Shadow Boxing”.
So it was of strong interest to us when Kevin Morgan, Cottesloe Mayor and so-called “Independant” candidate for the State electorate of the same name was interviewed by Tibor Meszaros on ”Shadow Boxing” this week.
As always, Mr Meszaros’ questions seemed to reflect a kind-of bewilderment with aspects of our political system, but regardless, he managed to extract some interesting comments from the self-declared independent, including this hypothesis of the motives behind some of Premier Colin Barnett’s past activities:
Tibor Meszaros: “What motivates Colin Barnett?”Kevin Morgan: “Well, look, Colin Barnett was the architect of the splitting up of the old City of Perth. And…”Tibor Meszaros: “When was that?”Kevin Morgan: “Oh, that was in the early to mid 90’s and in the mid to late 80’s, Colin as the then worker for the business lobby group had put forward a proposal to split the city of Perth in order to ensure that the pro-Liberal candidates in the CBD were no longer outnumbered by their Labor Councillors in the suburbs. And he did this by basically making the CBD a Council in its own right as the City of Perth and his plan hived off the suburban parts of the old City of Perth into new Councils such as Victoria Park, Vincent, Cambridge etc.”
As well as apparently being very clear about the motives of the Premier, Mr Morgan – Local Government Mayor of seven years – seems to also flippantly acknowledge the presence of partisan politics in Local Government.
Let’s break this down:
- Mr Morgan is the Mayor of Cottesloe, a Local Government Authority that has had a number of high profile disagreements with the current State Government
- Mr Morgan, as Mayor of Cottesloe, has written to all Local Governments declaring the existence and promotion of a pseudo-lobby group known as “Councils for Democracy”
- The Mayor has declared the Town of Cottesloe to be the Secretariat of “Councils for Democracy” – using rate-payer funded staff and resources
- Mr Morgan is concurrently running as an “Independent” candidate for the March 2013 election, standing on a platform of “Giving voice to the interests of communities and to the health and well-being of their residents so as to temper the influence of election funding on public policy“
- Mr Morgan acknowledges that partisan politics play a significant role in the deliberations of Local Government
Hmm, the Fox thinks that Mr Morgan may soon learn the difficult lesson that unlike the local versions, State election campaigns get a lot more scrutiny from people who actively look for inconsistencies and potential conflicts in a Candidates’ public comments and activities, then happily join the dots for the voting public.
We will follow this post up with more information about party politics in Local Government over the coming days, post your thoughts, comments and feedback anonymously (or on the record) below.
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