Is anyone else becoming confused and concerned about what appears to be an attempt to reduce to writing the qualities of what constitutes “the right candidate” for Port Macquarie-Hastings Council? Just where is the non-elected and appointed “Independent Council Governance Panel” taking us with its recent comments and survey and what is next?
No one doubts that the Panel is well intentioned but its activities hint at an exercise in guided democracy where the electors are being handled.
The simple (and comforting) reality is that on a Saturday some 16 weeks away, 53,000 local electors will go to the polls and elect a new Mayor and eight Councillors who will lead our Council until September 2016. The good news is that those electors will make up their minds based on many varied factors. That is democracy at work and it seems a condescending view that the electorate can’t be trusted to make the “right” decision without appropriate guidance.
What is important is getting candidates to stand to give the electors a real and varied choice. That is the essence of participatory local democracy.
A well intentioned but misguided and flawed program aimed at coming up with a settled profile or model of a candidate with “the right stuff” is simply wrong. That is the people’s choice! Candidates can stand for whatever platform, issue, group or party they choose. The separating of the wheat from the chaff is the privilege of the electors.
Is it proposed that a “charter” or “pledge” or “covenant” be settled by the Panel to which all candidates will be asked to swear fidelity? What if such a document goes beyond the legal obligations imposed on candidates and Councillors by the existing law such as the Local Government Act 1993 and its Code of Conduct? What happens to a candidate who, for whatever reason, decides not to so swear?
Maybe the road to Hell really is paved with good intentions.
I think that it is important for us all to take stock and understand that what is being sought at the end of the day is not a fete committee or a social club or a debating society or a choral group that performs a rousing rendition of “kumbaya”, but an effective Council.
This will be a Council charged under the Act to exercise its functions, control an organisation with assets approaching $1.9 billion and an annual income exceeding $150 million, effectively carry out its numerous administrative and regulatory roles including consent authority under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, stay focussed on its fundamental role of service-provision, act for the benefit of all residents of the Port Macquarie-Hastings Local Government Area, ensure the area remains a great place to live and raise a family, be both business friendly and a good environmental citizen and provide a roadmap for sustainable economic development both now and into the future. All of this will need to be done in a climate where money (whether it be provided by the Federal or State Government or through general economic activity) will be very skinny indeed.
Let’s leave it to the electors.
Justin Levido
Port Macquarie
