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The end ink was barely dry and the paper was not long over the fence on Saturday June 12 when that network of concerned ‘citizens and ratepayers’ spotted the prospect of yet another massive rates grab by Town Hall being reported – and on the quiet. All around town they were choking on their toast, cornflakes, muesli or whatever they break their fast with while reading the weekend papers.
This cash grab is to compensate for past incompetence and mismanagement and it is so transparent. The ‘decision’ has already been made in camera at one of those shonky workshops well away from the glare of public scrutiny.
Quite frankly, it is clear to see that 'the die has been cast' and that this decision is irrevocable and only needs the formal tick of approval in open council on Thursday. It's a done deal!
Just wait and see, Cr. Soward will move his motion and someone innocuous will enthusiastically support it and bingo without further debate or discussion the decision is ratified and the city’s ratepayers are in even more peril than last week.
This council takes the biscuit and as likely as not everyone around the table will see themselves as taking the prize – and bugger the ratepayers. Irrevocable as all this is, and only needing the formal tick of approval in open council on Thursday there is smugness all round. So, where is the accountability and transparency Premier Gutwein once touted as Minister for Local Govt.?
Basil Fitch was very quickly working the phones as it took nano seconds for him to see through this fiscal stunt. Ex-Alderman Fitch knows where the bodies are buried and he has been around the block more than once. Even from his supposed ‘retirement’ on the hill overlooking Launceston he takes more than a passing interest in what goes on at Town Hall.
Mostly, he is not amused and he is often bemused as are many others. Town Hall typically dismisses his dissension as “oh dear it is just Basil again” inferring that he has past his use-by-date. If there is any doubt oh about whether or not Basil has ‘lost it’ or not see his Facebook journal!
To be sure, Ex-Alderman Fitch has forgotten more than the likes of Cr. Soward ever knew even if it seems that Cr. Soward is suffering from the symptoms of the creeping irrelevance complex while pondering a tilt at the mayoral throne next year.
Cutting to the chase, just what does Basil see here? He says that basically:
1. Council is seeking to shift the CBD’s landlords’ CityProm load away from them and right onto all ratepayers to help the landlords out. No hint of what benefits the ratepayers generally will have, or in fact have ever had, from the existence of CityProm. Will the Brisbane St. barons pass on their savings to their tenants? For more see Basil’s Facebook journal!
2. It is not for nothing that Town Hall is doing this now given that the incumbents have got themselves, and the city, so heavily in debt. At the last count it looked like $32.5Million mostly generated by budget overruns and ‘fix ups’ as the councillors one and all looked away and they pretty much 'stay stum'. Also, there is the 'Helicopter Money', in the Millions, flown in from the State Govt. to save Town Hall from itself innrecent years.
3. Ratepayers are being regarded as ‘milch cows’ well and able to pay for whenever mistake has been made. No thought whatsoever for the increasing number of home owners facing ‘mortgage stress’ with Tasmania front and centre of this crisis. In Launceston, that level of stress is experienced by 52% of homeowners – ratepayers each and every one.
4. Basil is adamant that now is the time for this council to be sacked and for a commissioner to be appointed to save ratepayers from the looming fiscal disaster. If Launceston is allowed to fail financially, all Tasmania’s taxpayers will need to foot the bill as the debt will be far too large for ratepayers to cope with it alone. Importantly, the 'elected councillors' have abdicated and basically they have handed all power to the city manager (AKA the CEO/GM) – who by the way is paid more than the Premier. This cannot go on!
Over the top of this ratepayers are going to be slugged with a 4.5%/5% rate rise with every prospect of that being escalated by a further 5% beyond that further compounding ratepayers' fiscal distress. And, then there is the prospect of rates being increased as a consequence of rising, or is that escalating, property prices in the city. Council is handing its hexed ratepayers 'a bit of a raw deal'.
Then there is the ratepayers' association cum network, members of which, also choked on their 'freakin cornflakes' while reading the paper – see their first quick response here. What this network is saying is that Council should hold a plebiscite on the issue at the next local government elections or, if ‘accountability‘ is an issue, more immediately, and strategically, put the wheels in motion for a Citizen's Assembly/Jury to be empanelled.
Any notion that an 'independent expert consultant' can be found for $20K is fanciful nonsense. The word is that their 'fees' generally start at about at $50/60K – so put that fiscal folly to one side.
Ex-Alderman Ian Routley, a Launceston businessman and a founding father of CityProm, points out that when it was formed, well before he was elected to council, it was not intended to do what it now does – or be like it is now. Like so many others he finds the council’s intentions quite, quite inappropriate.
Against this background there is a very good case for disbanding CityProm. If it is serving any functional purpose at all it should be the city’s traders who fund it so as that it is accountable to them directly – not the council or by extension ratepayers. The Launceston Chamber of Commerce is an obvious mechanism via which this could be achieved – not the council, it’s actually not their business.
Even if it is a much softer approach than Basil Fitch would take, a plebiscite or Citizen's Jury is not the kind of thing Mayor van Zetten is likely to endorse. He has repeatedly rejected any such thing in open council when pressed on such things.
Nonetheless, looking around, if the State Govt. were to sack this council there would be no tears and a huge sigh of relief throughout the municipality – save for perhaps a few who rely upon the largesse of the incumbents. Basically, the status quo is toxic and its persistence is too terrible to contemplate.
SECTION 20 of the current Local Government Act 1993 (LGA 1993) is rarely thought about around the council table. This component of the Act describes the role and purpose of councils:
• Firstly, to provide for the health, safety and welfare of the community; and then
• To represent the interests of the community; and then
• To provide for the peace, order and good government of the municipal area.
By any measure, there are strong arguments to suggest that this council in Launceston in 2021 is not compliant with the Act.
Cultural researcher Ray Norman says that this situation is a “cultural matter” that is pretty much a hangover from the city’s reluctance to throw off its colonial legacy. He says that as a ‘blow in’ with 30 years plus as a 'Lonnie ratepayer', “looking on from the inside the community all kinds of schisms seem to be at work”. And he also says that “the city’s governance is in essence antithetic to the expectations and aspirations of a great many residents and especially those from elsewhere”.
Ray Norman came to Launceston to lecture at the TSIT School of Art – now UTas – and since1995 he has been an independent cultural producer and researcher. A large part of his research has been focused upon the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) and especially its governance. He says that “given that this institution is owned and operated by the City of Launceston council it turns out that it is a fraction that represents the whole”. He goes further to say “over the past decade and increasingly in recent years the QVMAG has been poorly served by the council which has by and large abdicated its stewardship of the institution leaving important decision making and its strategic development to management” ... and thus " walking into this place now is like entering the ruins of a defiled cathedral of ideas".
In regard to this current move by the council, Ray Norman says that “while it not a surprise that the council would be doing this, or want to, doing it now and under current circumstances must be considered as very concerning”.
Entrepreneur Elon Musk, one of the world's richest people and innovator extraordinaire, has observed that "some people don't like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster". Quite probably Launceston's hapless ratepayers are witnessing dysfunctional local governance and as the clock ticks they are hiding under the doona just waiting for the bang.
The status quo is no longer an option and as Ronald Regan once observed "the status quo is quite simply Latin for the mess we are in". Interestingly, this was at about the time he was in Berlin imploring Mikhail Gorbachev "to tear down this wall" – a turning point in world history and somewhat serendipitously that was June 12, 1987.
Sub-editor & Content Manger for kTF
PLEASE NOTE: Council's meeting on Thursday June 17
is on the eve of worldSILLYweek 2021
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