By Kevin Hillier
A fortnight ago, I called for Wyndham councillors to throw the keys on the table and be replaced by administrators. As I wrote, guilt by association may cull a few good ones that don’t deserve to be tarred with the same brush as others, but politics is a dirty business.
Reader feedback was very supportive of the suggestion, while acknowledging that not all councillors were at fault.
That there will not be enough councillors available to reach quorum for the mayoral election next month is a total disgrace. The latest to be unavailable is Cr Intaj Khan, who is going overseas on a family holiday, making six of our elected representatives unavailable for the vote on November 21.
When asked about his trip and its ramifications, Cr Khan told Star Weekly: “That’s the reason why we were saying before – let’s postpone the date. Moving it will not cause any issues at all. It’s better to have all the councillors democratically exercising their rights to elect the right people for the City of Wyndham. This will be absolutely a much more better outcome for every ratepayer in Wyndham.”
That is laughable.
Like Christmas Day and Melbourne Cup Day, the date for the mayoral election is designated at the start of the year – it is not a surprise announcement. The attitude shown here is unacceptable, disrespectful and unprofessional.
The possibility exists that three of those missing councillors won’t be returning at all if they are successful in the state election. But if they are beaten, they will return to represent those very patient ratepayers they have turned their backs on.
Let’s just throw the names in a hard hat and be done with it. Maybe whoever arrives first for council meetings gets the robes. The prestige of the position is diminishing by the hour.
It probably was unfair to ask for all councillors to resign a fortnight ago, but I would be happy if the Sabbatical Six made that move.
