The Yes Vote and Local Councils: Watch Your Money! By James Reed
This one came from my younger brother who is in Adelaide, and in the Mitcham City Council district. My brother complains about the rates being higher than many other councils, as well as all sorts of other things reported here:
https://www.facebook.com/mitchamcouncilwatch/
Imagine his anger when he found out that this council had decided to spend $ 40,000 on the Yes voice campaign! That a council should commit money to a political cause is unacceptable, and public backlash caused the majority of councillors to back down, but three did not. My brother said that they need to be campaigned against at the next council elections. That’s democracy, yeah.
The lesson for us here in the eastern states is to watch what our local councils are doing with funds to the Yes campaign. Send an email to your ward councillor to get an answer.
“A suburban council that voted to spend thousands to support to the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament without consulting ratepayers has scrapped the plans following a public outcry.
Councillors from Adelaide's Mitcham Council voted recently to allocate $40,000 from the 2023-2024 budget to promote the Yes vote ahead of the national referendum in October.
Mayor Heather Holmes-Ross' motion was carried by a majority of her fellow councillors to use the one-off funding on 'facilitating a major public information event targeting undecided voters'.
The money would also go towards 'smaller community events' and grants to reconciliation groups.
But residents were furious when they found out council had made the decision without their input, and said the money should be spent cleaning up overgrown verges and maintaining footpaths instead.
The outrage spread as far as Canberra, where One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson slammed the move in parliament earlier this month.
The backlash prompted a special meeting to discuss overturning the original decision.
It was standing room only at the council chamber as councillors agreed to revoke the motion with a 7-3 majority vote.
The funds will be returned to the council budget.
Mitcham Council has been urged to return its focus to rates, roads and rubbish rather instead of becoming involved in the debate.
'If you're going to spend the money it's a good idea to ask the community,' retiree Neil Baron told the Advertiser before the meeting.
Other residents suggested their rates would be better spent on cleaning up the area and fixing footpaths.
'It needs to be maintained a lot better than this but that's what we put up with,' Pauline Archer added.
'Councils should be impartial and they’re there to look after the ratepayers.'
The backflip prompted Sky News commentator Caleb Bond to weigh in on the saga.
'They've made the right move, there's no doubt about that,' he said on Wednesday night
He mocked the councillors for making such a controversial decision in the first place without consulting ratepayers, which went unnoticed for almost two months before people power prevailed.
'Finally, someone picks up on it and it turns up in the paper and all of a sudden, majority of councillors don't support a decision to spend $40,000,' Bond said.
'I wonder why that might be? It just proves a point that these people will try to get away with anything they possibly can.'
'I know when it comes to council, we often don't get involved as residents.'
'But they get our money compulsory through council rates and when residents speak up like they did here, you can actually achieve a result.'
Daily Mail Australia contacted Mitcham Council about the backflip.
It comes after Sydney City Council came under fire over plans to give the team behind the Yes campaign $25,000 of free accommodation in the city's CBD.
The Yes23 team will be allocated prime CBD office space in the form of Town Hall House on Kent Street for three months under the agreement with the council.
Staffers will be able to work out of a 137.5m office at the building in the lead-up to the referendum.
The decision has sparked outrage from the No campaign, with Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price describing it as an 'insult' to ratepayers and a 'divisive' move.
Qantas also angered customers when the airline pledged its support for the Yes vote at an official launch held on Monday.”
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