|
Friday, 15 January 2010 |
 Long-suffering Brimbank residents were gobsmacked to learn that those responsible for the Brimbank Council corruption scandal would go unpunished. A Local Government Inspectorate, quickly set up in 2009 to manage fallout from the Ombudsman's investigation into this rogue Council, has shown itself to be little more than a convenient tool of the state's political hierarchy.
SunRRA has said all along that the finding was never really in doubt. We predicted months ago in two front page stories that the worst of the offenders would be rewarded, rather than punished for their misdeeds. (See the articles Ombudsman cuts no ice and Ombudsman shown contempt, below). Once again we are proven right.
Claims by the Local Government Inspectorate that there was "insufficient evidence" of wrongdoing fly in the face of the public record. They are made even more ridiculous by a startling admission that it's chief inspector had not communicated with the Ombudsman during the investigation.
This is a scandalous admission not least because the Local Government Inspectorate's investigation was supposed to be based on matters that were raised in the Ombudsman's Report. SunRRA President Darlene Reilly responded "There's no way a Labor government is going to properly investigate Labor members. They were never going to conduct a proper inquiry" (Star 22.12.09).
Adding to the farce, we are being asked to believe that the Brimbank council was sacked and Victorian laws were changed for no reason at all. Or as Bernie Finn MLC put it, "If everyone was squeaky clean, why was the council sacked? (Star 22.12.09)
Why indeed? Even former mayor Sam David, notorious for diverting funds from a park upgrade to his local soccer club, expressed a view: "You don't have to be an Einstein to know it was a game, and the game is now over" (Brimbank Leader 15.12.09).
It is clear to all that the "investigation" is a miscarriage of justice, and this will most certainly result in more grief for Brimbank residents in the future. The Brumby government, already groaning under widespread accusations of corruption looks set to be drawn deeper into the mess. On the one hand the sacked councillors are reported to be mounting a Supreme Court challenge while on the other, local support for the ALP in this safe Labor area has dropped sharply.
There are other anomalies in this disturbing story. Amid the secrecy surrounding the so-called investigation, there were calls to publicly name those councillors who were being investigated. The response from the inspectorate was that no names could be made public until the investigations were complete. In a turn of events straight out of a Kafka novel, the councillors themselves did not know whether they were being investigated.
Yet when the investigations were complete, a spokeswoman from Local Government Victoria said the inspectorate would not release the names of individuals who had been investigated. These kinds of shenanigans continue to foster disbelief, and it should now be obvious why a prominent Melbourne QC has dubbed Brimbank "the most rotten borough in Victoria". It is because the corruption that was unearthed by the Ombudsman reaches to the very heart of the state Labor government, involving MPs Telmo Languiller, Justin Madden, Richard Wynne, George Seitz, Theo Theophanous, Marsha Thomson and a raft of others (- including Premier John Brumby himself!).
This insidious form of political corruption will continue to plague the lives of Brimbank residents for as long as they continue to vote on "auto pilot" at local and state elections. It is well past time for a hard look at what their blind support has actually delivered for them and their families. The root cause of the problem however will not be addressed until a broad-based, independent crime and corruption commission is established that can hold corrupt behaviour among our political classes to account. |
SunRRA Articles 
A failure of the local law
RSL Master Plan