Election results declared
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- Published: Thursday, 27 March 2014 00:00
Not like this
Nor this
But like this
2014 election provides new blood to the Committee of Management
The Electoral Commission of NSW has just announced the successful election of ten candidates for the ten vacant positions on the Committee of Management.
How good is this? Seven members of the current Committee stood for re-election and have been returned and will be joined by three fresh and enthusiastic new members. That’s a good balance.
Elections are held every two years and the Electoral Commission has declared Andrew Spooner elected as President, Jo Doheny and Jamie Loader as Vice Presidents and six members of the Committee of Management - three from the previous Committee, Jim Boyce, Joanne Dunkerley and Les Green and three new members, Vince Galletto, Rachael Jenner and Paul Reynolds.
And me, of course, for another four years. Four is ordinary, I said in my policy statement I’d have another 30.
The election provides a transfusion of blood into the Committee (maybe the Keith Richards analogy is more accurate than we think) and perfectly supplements the experience and long-standing of the current members. While none of those who’ve been around for a while believe we are waning in our enthusiasm or commitment, it’s good to have new people on asking fresh questions and wondering why, or why not.
It also continues our three women representatives which, with seven blokes, is a good reflection of the gender breakup of our membership.
Candidates for election are required under our rules to provide a policy statement of up to 200 words so that voters are informed about what people have to offer and can cast their votes accordingly. But, if there is no election, members don’t get to see the things that candidates believed important to present to the electorate.
You can use this link to see the policy statements of the ten candidates.
Andrew, Jamie, Jim and Les have all been trained as health and building surveyors. Andrew is the Sustainable City and Environment Manager at Campbelltown, Jamie is the Manager Building Certification Compliance and Health at Wyong, Jim is ex-Taree and Hurstville and looking and Les allegedly retired last year but now has a 12 months gig at Bankstown as their Swimming Pool Compliance Officer.
Jo is Senior Landuse Planner in Integrated Planning at Gosford and Joanne was trained as a health and building surveyor, qualified as a planner and is now Strategic Land use Planner at Great Lakes Council.
Of the three new members, Vince Galletto has a health and building background and is Team Leader - Building and Development Advisory Service at Ryde, Rachael and Paul both have health and building backgrounds, Rachael is an EHO at Ballina and Paul is Specialist Support EHO at Camden.
Vince Galletto
Rachael Jenner
Paul Reynolds
The members of the new Committee will take office from 1 May and the first meeting will be on 12 May.
Excited about April Fools’ Day?
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- Published: Thursday, 27 March 2014 00:00
Apart from breakfast radio, April Fools’ Day is really a bit old-fashioned these days. A pity really but in a modern workplace with anxieties about bullying and workplace safety, there isn’t much room for fun for fear of the ramifications of fellow workers taking “kick me” signs too literally or enthusiastically.
So, this is a friendly reminder about your health and safety responsibilities to workmates on Tuesday 1 April. In a sophisticated industry like local government, surely everyone is too mature for this sort of childish behaviour anyway.
Uh oh, they’re back …
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- Published: Tuesday, 25 February 2014 15:02
You’ve got to love Alan Moir. Apart from him giving us permission to publish this image in high resolution format (instead of pinching it from the web like we usually do, thanks Alan) his cartoons always hit the mark in the most painful way for the target and illustrate better than most the truism of a picture painting a thousand words.
The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday 21 February announced “Major review of industrial relations laws planned” on its front page. Well, what a shock.
We have a new Office Manager starting on Monday 3 March
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- Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 12:24
Union Picnic Day golf day cancelled this year
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- Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 12:22
Everyone is distressed. This is very, very sad news for our regulars.
Doing other work? What does your Council do about section 353?
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- Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 12:19
You don’t have to be a member, but what would you do if …
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- Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 12:17
Whether you decide to be a member of depa or other unions is entirely up to you. You can’t be made to join and unions make significant efforts to make membership attractive. A range of services, often journey claim insurance when governments antagonistic to protection of workers injured on their way to or from work remove protection, a free day off on union picnic day and access to advice and assistance when you need it.
Has the Government got what it takes to save local government?
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- Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 11:49
What’s happened to local government reform?
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- Published: Monday, 20 January 2014 13:51
When the end of the year rolled to a close we all knew where things stood with the NSW Government’s reviews of local government.
The compelling, well-researched and scholarly final report of the Independent Local Government Review Panel had been submitted to the Government in October 2013 and publicly distributed. We all knew what was being proposed and, after committing resources like this, surely the Government would have to do something.
Similarly, the Local Government Acts Taskforce submitted their proposals for a new Local Government Act and Review of the City of Sydney Act around the same time - on 16 October, to be exact.
Both reports and their comprehensive recommendations had followed an intensive period of consultation with local government organisations, unions and the community. It was clearly time to do something - even for a Government constrained by a policy prior to the last election opposed to compulsory amalgamations.
Well, it’s been three months, how have things progressed since October?
Like this?

Maximum speed a few centimetres a day
Or like this?

Maximum speed 0.3kph
Or even like this?

Maximum speed 1.9 kph
On 8 January 2014 Minister for Local Government Don Page announced to everyone that he was “pleased to advise that the final reports of the Independent Local Government Review Panel and the Local Government Acts Taskforce have been released.” This was reported by the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph (although the Telegraph was unable to find a reason to bag climate science, which was a bit of a surprise) and for those of us on holidays at the time and reading the paper, the reports sounded very familiar.
The reason they were familiar was that, as pleased as the Minister might be, what he had released were the reports we all had since October.
It’s hard to know exactly what’s happened in that three months but the Government has announced that the Division of Local Government will be receiving written submissions now until Friday 7 March. We thought everyone had had a go.
One of the problems about opposition parties winning government is that often they don’t really know how to govern. The embarrassing inaction of the O’Farrell Government in a climate where everyone wants something done about drunk blokes cowardly punching innocents, is one example of the malaise that can affect a government lacking the confidence to do something.
But the problem about being the government is that you have to do something.
Clearly if the NSW Government is going to do something about reforming local government, in a climate where everyone expects it and the overwhelming majority will welcome it, they should do it a bit quicker.
Unless, like a good chess player, they are playing 17 moves ahead. Give everyone a few more months, then a few more months of consideration and, before you know it, there will be an election in New South Wales and the Government can change its policy about compulsory amalgamations and get on with it.
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