Some suggestions have been
aired regarding the abilities of the two contenders for the mayors
position in the City of Charles Sturt Council elections. From what
I've been able to work out at Council meetings over the last term,
the present mayor Kisten Alexander has had a difficult time of it,
lacking the support of the AtkinsonALP majority on Council. Being a
member of the majority grouping is a plus for Alexander's opponent,
Angela Keneally – if the past balance of groupings is maintained in
this election. Keneally would make a competent mayor, but one point
worries me about her, and that is her testimony to the Ombudsman
Investigation. As an aid for curious voters, I've reproduced the
relevant section from the Report below:
Meeting at Parliament
House for ALP councillors after the 2006 elections
(extract
from the Ombudsmans final report, 2011,with the names of those
interviewed inserted)
232. It was suggested to my
investigation by two councillors who were not
members of the ALP,
Councillors Pinto and Ghent, that the ALP councillors would
generally vote as ‘a block’,
particularly when it came to voting for presidingmemberships of
council committees.
233. Towards the conclusion of my
investigation’s interviews, my investigation
received evidence from
Councillor Wallis and Councillor Fitzpatrick that after the 2006
elections in November 2006,
the Member for Croydon held a celebratory
barbecue at Parliament House
for the ALP councillors and their families.
Based on information submitted
by Councillor Wasylenko in response to my provisional
report, I understand that the
date of the meeting was Thursday 16 November
2006. Councillor Wallis
alleged that the majority of the ALP councillors attended
the barbecue; and after, they
gathered in what appeared to be the Kingston
room of Old Parliament House
to discuss who would be presiding members of
the council’s committees,
members of the council’s DAP, and the council’s
four deputy mayors.
234. Because of the timing of this
allegation, my investigation did not test this
evidence with all of the ALP
councillors whom I was told attended the
barbecue. Those whom my
investigation did question, however, generally
appeared to have difficulty in
recalling who attended the event and what was
discussed at the gathering.
235. Councillor Wallis appeared to
recall events quite clearly; and I am inclined to
accept the truth of the
councillor’s version of events. To a lesser extent,
Councillor Fitzpatrick also
appeared to recall the occasion. However, in responding to
my provisional report,
Councillor Fitzpatrick did not recall specific details of the event,
and disagreed with my
provisional assessment that they recalled the occasion
clearly.114
236. Councillor Wallis was
a new member of the council, as was Councillor Keneally. Although Councillor Keneally had not formally joined the ALP at that stage, I
understand that Councillor Keneally was familiar with the Member for
Croydon and sought his views about entering local government and
joining the ALP.
237. Councillor Keneally
could not recall who was at the barbecue, nor what discussions
took place — even
though Councillor Wallis said that they sat together in the room
and jointly
discussed their confusion about the purpose of the meeting.115Councillor
Ferrao told my investigation that Councillor Keneally ‘... had no
idea what were the protocols, conventions’;116 and that
Councillor Keneally had said in a telephone call with the councillor
that there had been a barbecue at which committee chairmanships were
discussed. Councillor Ferrao said:
In fact,
[Councillor Keneally] would not have known ... you know, at the end
of the
meeting
no-one would have briefed [Councillor Keneally] and said ‘... if
anyone asks you, we didn’t really have a meeting, this didn’t
occur, we shouldn’t be having
such meeting’ and
it was possibly because of the complacency of the members
by that time.’117
238. Councillor Wasylenko
denied being at the barbecue at all, and reiterated that position inresponse
to my provisional report. However, other councillors assertedotherwise.
Councillor Wallis said that Councillor Wasylenko, along with
Councillor Fitzpatrick, were the ‘main
leaders’ of discussions at the meeting.118
Councillor
Fitzpatrick and Councillor Sykes also suggested that Councillor
Wasylenko was at the barbecue.119 When my
investigation suggested to Councillor Wasylenko that it appeared
that the ALP councillors had met to decide about committee presiding
memberships outside a formal council meeting, Councillor Wasylenko
commented: ‘I wouldn’t be in that’.120 In the
event, I decided not to further investigate whether Councillor
Wasylenko was present, as in my view nothing turns on it.
239. Councillor Massey
recalled being at the barbecue, but not going into a room to
discuss committee
positions with other councillors.
240. Councillor Wallis
told my investigation of a new councillor’s perspective about the
discussions:
I
had no idea. At the point of walking into that room, I had no idea
what was
going
on. I was the new kid on the block, same as [Councillor Keneally]
was, and we were under the pretext of being invited to a
congratulatory barbecue with Mick Atkinson. You know, it was - to
me it was a social event to congratulate us all and to say, you
know, it's great that we're all involved. And then we all got
invited into this room, and at that point, [Councillor Keneally]
and I, who sat next to each other, for no particular reason, and
started talking about what was going on, and realised that what was
going on was that we were being earmarked to be on particular
committees and it wasn't what we expected.121
241. Councillor Sykes told
my investigation that council positions were discussed at the
gathering, but
they did not ‘caucus’:
we
did get together; yes, we did have a chat about what wanted to do
what,
but
I didn't leave thinking that we had pre-selected a group of people
for
something
in a binding manner.122
242. Councillor
Fitzpatrick agreed that it was correct to assume that the gathering
at the
barbecue was to
decide who was going to hold particular positions on the
council.
Councillor Fitzpatrick said it was a ‘fairly ingrained kind of
habit’ and ‘it’s ... part of politics’.123
243. In his evidence, the
Member for Croydon confirmed that several of the ALP
councillors came
to the barbecue at his invitation, stating that he held it
because he ‘just
wanted them to get to know one another.’124 He stated
that
he did the cooking
and washing up while the councillors ‘talked among
hemselves’.125
244. The Member for
Croydon said he did not know if they had talked about the
council’s
presiding memberships, but said ‘it's quite possible they talked
among themselves’.
126 He did not recall the councillors moving into the
Kingston room or
another room.127
245. Those ALP councillors
who said discussions about council positions took
place, varied in
their evidence about the Member for Croydon’s involvement.
Two said the
Member for Croydon came in to the room at the end of the
meeting. One said:
Q.
When did he come in?
A.
At the end he said something like, ‘oh, I hope you've had a nice
chat.’128
246. However, Councillor
Fitzpatrick told my investigation that they thought that the
Member for Croydon
was in sitting at the table129 in the meeting and was
‘part
of the
discussion’.130
247. Councillor
Fitzpatrick agreed in evidence that the discussions were to
effectively
decide
who would have which leadership positions on the new council:
Q.
And the discussions that took place, we've been informed, were to
effectively
obtain a decision of council, ie, who was going to be presiding
members
of the committees, who was going to be on the committees,
who
was going to be deputy mayor; would you agree with that?
A.
Yeah, I would agree with that, yeah.131
248. Councillor Wallis
described how what transpired in the meeting was achieved in
the later formal vote in
the chamber (on 27 November 2006):
Q.
You would have had the numbers for all the people who went to
Parliament
House, so whatever was put up, you'd have the numbers --
A.
Yeah.
Q. So
everyone got what they wanted, all the presiding officer-ships?
A. Yes.
Q. And
the membership on the DAP?
A. Yeah.
Q. What
about the deputy mayor? How was the deputy mayor worked out?
A. Basically
a similar conversation. It was - it was - there was a discussion
about
who should be deputy mayor. It wasn't so much put your hand up.
It
was you'll be for this year and you'll be for this year and you'll be
for that year and you'll be for that year.
Q. Who
organised that?
A. I'm
- I'm not entirely sure. I wasn't actually involved in that
conversation
so
much because it was completely out of my league. I felt that
[Councillor
Fitzpatrick and Councillor Agius] were the main sort of pushers in
that nomination process, but I wasn't really involved in that
conversation, so
I'm
not entirely sure.
Q. But
four were picked?
A. Yeah.
Q. And
who were they?
A. [Councillor
Agius, Councillor Rau, Councillor Luscri, Councillor Wasylenko]
Q. And
were they the ones that got voted in --
A. Yeah.
132
Q. in
the chamber?
A. Yeah.
249.
In response to my provisional report, Councillor Agius could not
recall partaking in
any
meeting, or having any discussions about nominations.133
250.
Councillor Fitzpatrick also said:
Q.
And all the positions were filled with the people who had been
suggested
at
that meeting; is that correct?
A.
I would say yes.
Q.
But you were confident that everyone who was at that meeting at
Parliament
House would stick to their vote and stick to the understanding
as
to who wanted to be what and vote accordingly.
A.
I would believe that, yes.134
251. In the opinion of
Councillor Ghent, the formal vote in the chamber ‘went like
clockwork’:
A.
They had it all very well organised, the ALP-aligned members there,
and
the
first meeting it was all [sic] went like clock work. They clearly had
a
meeting
somewhere else away from the chamber and it was all sorted out,
and
persons like me, ... you know, [sic] couldn't really get on the sort
of ones
that
the committee should probably like to have got on and nominated. You
just
don't stand a chance because the way the numbers are stacked up to
give
exclusion.135
252. In response to my
provisional report, Councillor Agius advised of being an apology
for the relevant
meeting, being overseas on holiday at the time. Councillor Agius
noted also being
nominated for a position by a councillor who was not a
member of the ALP.136
253. Councillor Agius told
my investigation of the frustration in seeking but never
succeeding in
obtaining leadership positions on the council:
A.
I don't know. In my view, it looked a bit political, if you like,
because the ones that were elected, they were basically of a
group. They mention here it's suggested 11 out of whatever, out
of 16, were of that group, and probably that's my truthful
thinking about it, they were voted in because of that.
Q.
Which group are you referring to?
A.
I'm referring to the Labor Party group, because I know most of the
members,
... lots of the members, even my co-councillor, they either work or
are associated, whatever, with the Labor Party.137
254. One ALP councillor
told my investigation that it was ‘commonplace’ for the
ALP group of councillors to
decide presiding memberships before the formal
vote.
The full report can be
downloaded from the Ombudsmans Office web site.
If Angela Keneally was
unable to remember, as a witness to a formal inquiry carrying the
full authority of an Act of Parliament, the names of those attending
the Kingston room caucus, or the discussions which took place there -
about the divvying up of council positions - what value can we put on
claims that she would be open and transparent as Mayor? I would
suggest, very little value.
