A Wyndham resident has accused the council of going on an interstate “junket” on ratepayers’ money.
Last week, councillors Bob Fairclough, Heather Marcus and Glenn Goodfellow attended the annual Australia Local Government Association (ALGA) conference in Canberra. With them was Wyndham chief executive Kerry Thompson. The group was in Canberra from Sunday, June 15, to Wednesday, June 18.
The Wyndham group was involved in 10 meetings with MPs at the conference, which was attended by about 900 people from councils around Australia.
Ms Thompson told Star Weekly the council had paid $9539 on airfares, accommodation and conference costs for the four-day trip.
Werribee resident Lori McLean said the council needed to be able to justify spending so much money on such a short trip.
“It’s bloody ridiculous, it’s a junket,” Ms McLean said.
“This council wastes too much money and spends too much on unnecessary things. They need to be able to prove that it had some benefit for Wyndham. I doubt any of these ministers they met would even know where Wyndham is.”
Cr Marcus, who also represented the National Growth Areas Alliance, said the group met representatives from both sides of politics.
“As far as I’m concerned, it was a very worthwhile trip because it gave us access to many ministers and their advisers, as well as opposition shadow ministers,” Ms Marcus said.
“I think the trip offered value for money … it was extremely beneficial for our city. “
