In the media recently, Mr Peter O’Donohue, a new Armidale Dumaresq councillor, has tried to calm the furore over ratepayers having to buy iPads for our councillors.
He defends the purchases by saying:
1) The iPads are ‘a valuable adjunct’ for councillors wishing to speak with each other and to keep track of meetings and so on. So what happened to scribbled notes or inquiry by telephone the same or next day?
2) iPads will provide ‘a shift away from reliance on paper ‘. There’s a whiff of Green somewhere.
3) Mr O’Donohue is happy with his taxpayer-funded iPad because it will help ‘organise and compartmentalise’ activities relating to his work as a Greens councillor. Ah! The Green whiff: it’s cheaper to use electricity than recycled paper — even though electricity is used, first, to make the paper and secondly, to make recycled paper. In any case, how do ratepayers gain access to council’s minutes, discussions and deliberations unless they, too, possess $900 iPads?
Dr Paul Fidlon,
Armidale
