Ditch dead wood
IT’S only a week or so before our next council is locked in and ready to go.
Democracy returns to the City after what can only be called a lacklustre period under administrators.
I received my voting form for the Kardinia Ward last week. My portion of the 53 candidates throughout the CoGG area standing is 11 hopeful souls.
I worked out my suggested order of CoGG voting a couple of days ago complete with reasons but I’ll give you the quick version now and my justification for doing so.
I should perhaps remind readers that I’m on record as not agreeing with the original sacking of the council. I am also on record as saying that, the decision having been made, then the State Government should have gone further and required all the councillors who were sacked to have been stood down from participating in the next election.
Bearing in mind the damning conclusions reached with bullying and an endemic toxic environment featuring highly on the previous council’s list of undesirable features we cannot elect anyone who served at that time.
Whether or not they as individuals were blameless in their actions — which I’m sure they were — I can only assume then they must have been clueless. After all in Bruce Harwood’s case he was mayor and deputy mayor twice, yet had no idea what was going on during his long tenure.
So in my order Harwood 11 and Ron Nelson 10 because we need a new and fresh start unencumbered by pre-existing experiences and behaviour patterns.
So what we are left with is a couple of tickets from the Animal Justice Party Peter Oseckas and Elliot Taylor, a couple of Greens in Norman Kennedy and Lois Newman, a few randoms, some alleged independents and one declared Labor Party member.
On Doug Mann’s Facebook page he offers this ticket indicating his preferences: “1 Doug Mann, 2 Mary Walker, 3 Brent Lyons-Lee — then 9 Darren Hauenstein, 10 Bruce Harwood, 11 Ron Nelson. The last two are former councillors with form and Darren is probably there to scoop up votes for Harwood (though he may not know it). Both Harwood and Nelson are spending phenomenal amounts on their campaigns and the source of their funds will not be declared until a month after the election. Boo hiss!”
I have no doubt many of the other candidates have agreed on preferences but I couldn’t find them.
Of interest to me is the fact that Pat Murnane on his Facebook page states “I am not directing any preferences because I would like residents to read the information on all the candidates and select who you think are the best people for our council. Remember to put a number in every box to make sure YOUR VOTE COUNTS!”
I do know Pat on a very casual and minor social basis and at all times I have found him to be communicative and thoughtful. By dismissing any preference deals he gets my vote as my number 1 choice by a country mile.
Now comes the hard part, how to decide between the other eight candidates.
You will have your own parameters for liking or not liking their offerings but I’m happy to tell you how my thought patterns work.
My problem is choosing between the Greens and the Animal Justice Party hopefuls.
The Greens object to almost everything yet appear to have answers to almost nothing. In Kennedy and Newman’s case they also want to put changing the date of Australia Day on the agenda, which completely and utterly eliminates them from my thoughts. Greens stick to what you can change please for future reference. The Animal Justice Party candidates comprising of Oseckas and Taylor are no doubt worthy and honest in their beliefs but what else do they have to offer the ratepayers who are struggling with larger and greater issues than the welfare of small fluffy animals. The rest? Well to be honest, just toss a coin in the air although I admire Doug Mann for openly publishing his preferences and so I’m going to pop him in at No.2. As the only gesture towards my political allegiances that leaves me with Brent Lyons-Lee to slot in at No. 3; a Baptist minister and a member of the Labor Party who actually has some sensible and achievable objectives unlike most of the other candidates. Good luck to them all for putting their hands up because it is a big challenge, often thankless and yet when they get it right we all benefit from the efforts of these few courageous but often hopelessly naive people.