The petition is back online

http://www.gopetition.com.au/petitions/sack-brimbank-council.html

Interesting to read the preamble that was written in July 2008 - Prophetic?

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/letters/not-what-they-say-its-what-they-do-20090508-axyb.html

Not what they say, it's what they do

Letters
May 9, 2009


IT IS no use for senior politicians in my political party to throw up their hands in shock and say: "We did not know this was going on." Of course they knew, because many of them became parliamentarians through the well-established system of branch-stacking.

Innocent members of Lebanese, Greek, Italian, Turkish, South American and Vietnamese communities are turned out at preselection times to vote the right way and those in power get the people they want for safe Labor Party seats.

While the philosophy of the ALP espouses decency and democracy in decision-making for rank and file members, the real people who control the party and make the decisions are the factional warlords.

There have been two recent internal inquiries into branch stacking but the final reports from both have not stopped the rorts. Over the years many letters of protest have been sent to head office or senior party officials. These seldom get a reply, or if there is a reply, it only says, "We have noted your comments."

There is a cancer eating the heart out of a once great political party and I think there should be federal intervention to clean up the Victorian branch of the ALP!

Paddy Garritty, Williamstown, ALP life member, 52 years

Story of alienation

THE story of nepotism and ethnic branch stacking is not isolated to the sorry municipality of Brimbank; it is a disease of ALP strongholds across Victoria.

The conveyor belt of factional lackey, councillor, electorate office, politician and property developer adviser is best exemplified in the machinations of (former Cain/Kirner government minister) David White and his massaging of contentious development plans.

In Moreland, our city's future is now determined in the Minister of Planning's office, while our ALP-dominated council concentrates on the ambitions of the professional political class who represent no one but themselves or their ethnic cabals.

Brimbank is the first public revelation of what most attuned political observers have known for years; the ALP is a private club alienated from its grass-root members and the people who vote for its representatives.

Peter Robertson, Coburg

Tip of the iceberg

THE Ombudsman's report into Brimbank Council is scathing, but no surprise to residents and ratepayers. The Government has been told what has been going on for six years but has chosen to ignore our many letters, submissions, and our plight. The Government must put aside the fact that we live in Labor's heartland and sack the council immediately.

Don't think for a minute that anything has changed. We have a new lot of ALP puppets but the same set of puppet-masters, the same lousy governance and worsening disadvantage. The report is the tip of the iceberg and the problems go higher up. Much higher up.

Sean Spencer, Sunshine

Only one way out

ROB Hulls' confected outrage at the "bloody disgraceful" behaviour of old Labor hands Theo Theophanous and George Seitz is worthy of an Oscar. This, from an Attorney-General and former planning minister who has systematically gutted the planning powers of local councils and marginalised resident groups who dare to speak up about the sort of development they want for their communities.

The Attorney-General is also deputy to a Premier who obstinately denies the need for an independent corruption commission in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Seems a change of government is the only way out, as we're not going to get a change of attitude.

Ian Angus, Middle Park

Find out whats going on in your community. http://SackBrimbankCouncil.com

You know, we've all been so pleased at the candid revelations in the Ombudsman's report. We have all felt so vindicated after years of knowing what was happening but unable to breach those political stonewalls that I think we might have overlooked something very obvious.

I suspect, although I have absolutely no evidence for it, that the government may have got at the Ombudsman, not in the content of the report, we can see that is well crafted, well investigated and those investigators found proof of everything we expected they would find. I believe the O was got at' to offer a more lenient recommendation about the 'watching brief' on Brimbank.

I rather expected from the tone, seriousness and implications of the report that the recommendation should have been SACK BRIMBANK COUNCIL IMMEDIATELY.

I really could not understand why, instead, the lenient recommendation was so very gentle and soooooooooo politically expedient for a State government facing an election next year that will require funding from Brimbank coffers for loyal ALP supporters to do the hack work.

What exactly has changed in Brimbank since November 2008?

A quarter of Councillors survived to continue in the only way they know how, Brimbank Style! (But possibly more circumspectly) 7 new councillors are ALL affiliated in some way with sitting ALP parliamentarians offices AND being new Councillors are looking to their 'experienced' factional colleagues as mentors.

Oh, and a Green pursuing a vigourous Green agenda and some good stuff for the suburb.

Therefore, 10 Councillors will govern in the time honoured Brimbank Style. Sack them now, before we go through the cycle again.

Got at? wrote:
I believe the O was got at' to offer a more lenient recommendation about the 'watching brief' on Brimbank

That is a pretty big accusation to be making with no evidence to back it up.

Got at? wrote:
I believe the O was got at' to offer a more lenient recommendation about the 'watching brief' on Brimbank

I too thought it was funny that the report was delayed, and then every labor party hack in the state knew when it would actually be released.

How come I was told Tuesday - by a Councillor - and confirmed by State MP's that the report would be tabled in Parliament Thursday 7th May 2009?

I was told by the Ombudsmans office after an enquiry to find out if the report was due soon, some time in March, that the report would be tabled in Parliament and no one would have prior knowledge to the date and time.

I was told the report would be printed and presented and that it does not go to any department before hand nor is any department alerted or informed about its release.

The fact we all knew the date and time it was to be released means the Ombudsman office has serious leaks and or State government does play a hand in the game.

so what was left out of the O's report?

That is the key.

Talk to each other find out what each other submitted and what the Ombudsman put in and lets work out what was left out.

That is the key to whether there was Labor State Government intervention or not?

I'm making calls as I write!

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!
Thanks Dyson.

well ah wrote I too thought it was funny that the report was delayed, and then every labor party hack in the state knew when it would actually be released. Not so funndy really. The O's process involves going back to the each party affected by a recommendation and seeing what they will do voluntarily. You'll note Brimbank had already strengthened it's computer and phone policy to audit Councillor's private usage and publish the information. And Local Government Victoria had already commenced staffing a Council complaints investigation unit and tightening its processes around resident complaints. Therefore, every significant recommendation was discussed with the affected person or legal entity. While the people discussing the issues were bound by non-disclosure laws, chances are the actions initiated from the discussion occurred anyway.

I take Just Not Cricket's point, about making accusations without evidence, but this is my personal opinion and I really do have a major concern about the 'weakness' of the response to this issue.

I can just imagine the discussion around the possibility of sacking Brimbank immediately. 'We (the ALP) have fixed it', 'give the new councillors a fair go,' 'it was just a few really bad apples and they're gone,' 'why waste money sacking them now'.

Curiously, in my opinion, the Premier, amidst his expressions of disgust, announced only one concrete change - electorate officers would no longer be eligible to be Councillors.

I believe this is the tradeoff. Perhaps 'got at' is too strong a descriptor but, certainly, the negotiations must have been vigourous.

The gov't retains the cashcow of Brimbank Council for the ALP for now, leaving all ALP power networks intact and operational but for a few 'bad eggs' being demonised.

Electorate officers can't be councillors, a good long term outcome - if, if and only if, the ALP (or any other polical party) does not abuse even this concession.

The way I see that happening is if someone serves a few years as an electorate officer, the next step on the political career path is to put in an elastic resignation (withdraw the resignation if unsuccessful at the election and go back to being an electorate officer.) Serve as a Councillor where the Councillor allowance is high enough to live on. Move on to State or Federal politics, or State or Federal administrative roles.

Let's face it, Brimbank would need an administrator for a solid 10 years for the old guard to fade away and the internal structure to learn to function on logical, evidence-based decision making processes, and become accountable both financially and in community outcomes.

So who decides if Brimbank's being a bad little Council? You got it. The government. No independent review.

And who gets to pay? And keep paying? Well, you and me and anyone else who pays rates or taxes in Victoria.

Looks like the only power the people of Brimbank are being given by the ALP in this sorry saga is the democratic power to vote the ALP out of business.

By not doing so they will simply be provided with more of the same - branch stacking, corruption, nepotism ....and the list goes on.


http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/letters/democracy-use-it-or-lose-it-20090510-az70.html?page=-1



Democracy: use it or lose it

* May 11, 2009

THE article "Factions, feuds and furore" (The Age, 9/5) exposes a glaring example of the political disease that has become a pandemic, although it is usually more cleverly disguised than in Brimbank.

"Branch stacking", prevalent on both sides of politics, has been identified as the immediate cause but the problem is more deeply rooted. Accepting the excuse that "politics is a dirty business, best ignored", we ordinary citizens have become cynical or careless or lazy, and left the way open to the manipulators.

Labor and Liberal party conferences once dealt in detail with policy proposals that grew from the grass roots of local branch meetings. Now, vigorous public debates have been replaced by decision-making and deals made by factional chiefs behind closed doors.

And the media must help in this fight. Scandals are publicised in detail — and appropriately so — but little probing and reporting about continuing factional activity is published until a scandal makes a headline.

We should all accept some responsibility. Like physical fitness, democracy needs to be valued. "Use it or lose it!"

Robert Corcoran, Edithvale



Endorsement the solution

THE Victorian ALP's plan to fix the nepotism in Brimbank Council by suspending its endorsement of local government candidates ("Labor plan: no more Brimbanks", The Age, 9/5) is like invading Switzerland to solve the problems in Pakistan. In last year's local government elections, the ALP did not officially endorse any candidates in Brimbank, and instead ran multiple stooge candidates to filter preferences. Voters had no idea who was a real candidate, and who was a "dummy".

In fact, The Age has previously called for candidates to follow the Greens' practice of running openly under Liberal or Labor banners to prevent dummy candidates skewing election results. Rather than pretending to take action by suspending endorsement of local government candidates, Labor should ensure all its affiliated candidates are publicly endorsed across the state.

Only then will local government elections, and in turn the elected councils, have any chance of being open and transparent.

Jess Hodder, former Greens campaigns co-ordinator, North Fitzroy


Victorians deserve better

I AM old enough to remember the scandalous behaviour of the Richmond Council in the 1960s, the Sunshine Council in the 1970s and the Keilor Council in the 1980s. Now we have evidence that the Brimbank Council is at least as bad. What links all of those councils is their control by the Labor Party. The other is the refusal by the Labor Party, whether in government or not, to acknowledge that the behaviour that has been exposed deserves the sacking of the councillors and the appointment of an administrator to run the municipalities.

The State Government needs to realise that councils are there to serve the ratepayers and residents of the municipality and are not simply another level of influence, patronage, pork barrelling and worse for their party colleagues.

The people who live in the Brimbank municipality deserve better, and all Victorians deserve a government that has the guts to step in quickly and deal effectively with those who so badly abuse the positions they have been entrusted with by electors. With their refusal to take such action in the case of this Brimbank Council disgrace, it appears that we currently do not have such a government in Victoria.

Robin Cooper, former councillor and state Liberal MP, Mt Eliza
Absurd claims

IT IS downright absurd for Victorian ALP leaders and powerbrokers to claim they knew nothing about the goings-on in Brimbank. The ALP has a huge problem on its hands and for its sake and the sake of Victoria, decent people in the ALP are now needed, more than ever, to stand up and say that enough is enough! Anything less and the once-proud ALP will be forever disgraced.

Peter D. Surkitt, Hawthorn

Shades of ooh ooh pants on fire in tonight's ABC news with that beaudiful SunRRA logo prominent on letters proving the govt knew a long, long time ago and did, you know, NOTHING.
(except, maybe, protect their own!)

Only then can the Victorian ALP be so bold to even talk about its flagship social policy A Fairer Victoria.

The Ombudsman's Report on Brimbank Council has lain bare any previous credibility the Brumby government may have had on social justice matters.

To mistreat a disadvantaged community in the ways described in the Ombudsman's report for so long without acting is a crime against a community.

Continually encouraging a Factionally led Council to allocate resources for political benefit rather than meeting community needs is so unethical and unprincipled it deserves to be treated with anger contempt by the local community.

Sack the Brimbank Council

Sack the weak and gutless CEO Nick Foa

Sack Hakki

Sack Madden who knew Hakki's tricks many moons ago

Sack Candy Broad and Dick Wynne who as Local govt ministers turned a blind eye to the factional warlords and let them do what they wanted despite ongoing community complaints

Sack Shorten who has been in the background interfering and stirring the pot

Appoint an independent Administrator for 10 years

Appoint a Victorian ICAC and truly create A Fairer Victoria

Dick Gross wrote this article about Brimbank Council in the Age: http://tiny.cc/f8SgJ


Dick Gross is a former mayor and councillor in the City of Port Phillip and former President of the Municipal Association of Victoria.

Can you believe this guy? He is basically saying there is nothing wrong with branch stacking. It is a disgraceful article as it downplays the seriousness of some of the branch stacking that has been going on in our community. The Latino he is talking about is obviously Telmo.

Somebody suggested we form a class action to sue the Labor party. I am gradually coming round to that idea. Labor is a legal entity, it's members standing for and elected to Council could be perceived as its agents. Therefore, the ALP has a responsibility to ensure rules are followed. They can't say they weren't told. The ALP government was also told, repeatedly, and did nothing, so it too may be liable.

After all, every ratepayer in Brimbank is probably paying about, at a guess, $25 a head just to finance the Labor ruling faction's porkbarrelling. Then, because the Council is so unstable, we have to pay above the market to attract and retain staff (just check the turnover of senior staff and you'll know what I mean). Clearly an unstable and demoralised council staff costs a lot more to run.

I'd say, look at workers comp payments and couselling costs incurred by Council as a result of the irrational ruling faction edicts and personal vendettas.

Then, there's the rent foregone or not paid on 'rent free' premises to groups that don't actually use it but make it available for ALP meetings.

This financial 'damage' to each and every Brimbank ratepayer is quantifiable. Then there's the bit that's a bit harder - opportunities lost, the health risk to people trying to expose the corruption, the fear of physical retribution, and suburbs in decay.

Unlike the Catholic Church which hides from lawsuits by claiming no corporate body exists, the ALP is a legal entity. And the ballot box simply does not keep them honest, perhaps the loss of those precious 'contributions' funds would bring them back to lawful and principled operation.

Yep, let's check this option out as well.

I agree make them accountable they have known this for years and have made mugs of us all in the west. They simply must be outted at the next opportunity.

...

Going by this week's Advocate story, neither Natalie nor any of the goons have any remorse.

why would they have remorse.....for that you have to have morals, and a conscience and they sure as s*** don't have either ...............and they have got away with it for years so they believe they are untouchable and they probably are!!!!!!!!!!!