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- 25 May 2006
Warringah Council Rate Increase
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Page: 483
Mr ANDREW HUMPHERSON (Davidson) [5.50 p.m.]: I want to talk about Warringah Council's management and proposed major rate increase. The Labor-appointed administrator has proposed that each ratepayer will pay a major rate increase of not only 3 per cent across the board but an extra $60 under a levy that he proposes. This grab for cash may be for identified infrastructure needs, but it does not recognise the need for efficiency and effectiveness on the part of the council and its management. They seem to regard ratepayers as a soft touch. Warringah Council compares poorly with comparable councils of a similar size and rating base. The proposed rates would put Warringah's rates well above those of Sutherland, for example, one of the higher charging councils, but with vastly better resources and infrastructure than Warringah. Our residential rate is about $110 above the comparable group average.
As it is typical of a Labor government to hike up taxes and charges in New South Wales, the same approach seems to be occurring in Warringah under a Labor bureaucrat. The council should be reducing waste such as the ill-fated studies to ascertain whether Nolans Reserve was suitable for netball, artists impressions and investigation into the Civic Centre relocation to Dee Why after offering it to the State Labor Government as the site for a new hospital. It should place priority on providing evening and weekend services at Belrose Library, which were cut by the administrator, so that students can have a fair deal. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been wasted on flights of fancy.
The electorate needs infrastructure improvements but the administrator needs to get his own house in order. His manner is typical of Labor. It is little wonder that the residents of Belrose and the Forest voted in huge numbers at a recent meeting for him to go and new elections to be held in Warringah. After almost three years of Labor's imposed dictator it is time that this corruption of democracy ended. Corruption it is. There is no longer any valid reason to stall on elections. It is a corruption of process to deny Warringah residents a vote to elect their representatives. It is a corruption of process to leave Mr Persson, a Labor mate, hated by Liberals and most Liberal voters, in his position to pay him off as a Labor mate. When 400 residents voted for him to go, he failed to acknowledge their views and wishes. His only response was to claim that the Liberals were upset at the loss of influence.
It was more arrogance and a case of him showing his true colours—an anti-Liberal bias. The message is that people who are Liberal or have Liberal connections will be ignored. Many people may form the view that this means that if they are Labor friends or donors his door is open. The Liberal Party discloses its financial circumstances publicly, but not so the administrator. How much does it cost for his flights of fancy? How much for his car and other expenses such as his mobile phone, meals and political statements in the ratepayer-funded column in the Manly Daily? I call on him to disclose those things, along with the pay he receives from ratepayers, taxpayers and the few hours he puts in for his work. He is simply a lapdog for Labor.
He has offered up the Civic Centre for a hospital and he has been silent on major issues of public concern that elected councillors would speak out on. He has made no criticism on the silly plan to widen The Spit Bridge or outrageous development projects such as the one in Oxford Falls or the first proposal by Stocklands for gross expansion of Glenrose Shopping Centre. He has made no comment about the appalling level of bus services, which the State Government oversights on the northern beaches, in particular, constraints on Forest Coach Lines, which wishes to expand and improve services but is unable to because of State Government contracts. Mr Persson is not prepared to bite the hand that feeds him. As a Labor bureaucrat and a person close to the Premier, as a former head of one of the public works departments, he will not say a word about the State Government's contempt of the northern beaches and ongoing mismanagement.
Mr Milton Orkopoulos: Point of order: The discredited member is impugning highly improper motives against a senior Crown employee, who is not a member of the Labor Party, the governing party of the day. That he is continuously traducing a senior public servant on issues that are not within the purview of his responsibility is appalling.
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr John Mills): Order! I uphold the point of order. I draw the attention of the honourable member for Davidson to the considered statement by the Speaker about attacks on members of the public during private members' statements.
Mr ANDREW HUMPHERSON: There are rumours that the council plans to locate a crematorium in Belrose adjacent to Frenchs Forest Cemetery. I hope this has no substance and will not be similar to the plan to extend trading hours at the President Hotel, which council and the administrator kept secret from the community. What else are we not told about what he plans or knows? This corruption of democracy in Warringah has to end. Warringah residents needed time out with a council that would not function, but now we need elections. With the election of a Liberal Government, elections will be held and Mr Persson can return home to the eastern suburbs. [Time expired.]
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