Corporatisation ‘out of control’ with CWA decision (?)
4 February, 2012
Dear CI
The decision by the Mount Alexander Shire Council to slug the CWA with hall hire fees in excess of $2,500 per annum is the most stunning evidence to date of corporatisation that is out of control.
This revered rural women’s association has been in existence for many years and countless generations of women have contributed through it to the benefit of the community. It represents values of service that are very precious in this largely consumerist world.
A priority role of local government is to nurture those community organisations which foster engagement and opportunity in our shire. This mean and unconscionable impost comes from an alien corporate culture which seeks to enforce user pays even when the real user is the community itself.
Having just seen the response from the mayor on this issue in the Bendigo Advertiser today, I must confess that I am deeply shocked. I did not think that this council could do much worse than it has over the last four to six weeks. The fact that the agreement to provide the CWA with rent-free accommodation in return for losing their club rooms in 1996 is public knowledge means it is no myth as Cr Cropley would have it.
My manager at my job in Eaglehawk, who is a long-standing resident of Castlemaine told me about it and remembers it very well. It will of course be documented but this mayor does not want to look. If I am elected I will move quickly to right this wrong. If I am not or I don’t get support from three other councillors I will offer to chair a committee to raise the funds necessary for a legal challenge. There is no court in the land that will allow the council to avoid the obligations of “a previous council and a previous administration”. I am reluctantly coming to the view that if asked, this community would be prepared to support a motion of no confidence in this mayor if it were moved.
Yours etc
Hans Paas
Castlemaine. 3450
Posted in Featured slide, Health, Letters, Live in Castlemaine, Local Government, Local news, Social Justice, Top Stories
February 4th, 2012 at 8:39 pm
Wrong again Hans, nothing to do with corporatisation. It’s the silly idiotic decisions of a Labor-Green dominated council that can;’t manage its own affairs and has no respect of the value of community groups and the views of the community.
February 5th, 2012 at 8:28 am
How so Greg?Can you back up this claim? Can you name the Green and Labor members who made the decision? Were you there when the decision was made? What we do know is that this council is now more focussed on generating revenue than providing services to the residents- that is a basic principle underpinning the corporate model of local government introduced as part of the Kennett imposed amalgamations- no greens or Labor domination there.
February 5th, 2012 at 11:26 am
Hans, there is a lot more to this decision and to this group than a surface evaluation allows. Be very careful on this front. The Ray Bradfield room is a valuable community resource which must be accessible to a wide sector of the community, not to 2 or 3 people alone.
February 5th, 2012 at 4:06 pm
Thanks Juliet, since this controversy arose I have been contacted by a number of people directly involved and been given a lot more information about this issue than has been made public. I do not believe the CWA represents two or three people as you suggest. I am not quite sure why, when there is a scandalous decision like this made that I am warned to be careful. As one who has ‘used’ the Ray Bradfield Room myself,I cannot think of any justification for an annual fee in excess of $2500 (more than $50 per time) for any group in this shire, let alone a service group like the CWA. These are facilities provided by the ratepayers for precisely this purpose and apart from covering energy and cleaning costs, there is no justification for charging any more. Council is a level of government not a business.
February 5th, 2012 at 4:32 pm
Juliet, allowing the CWA to meet in their own clubroom (as the plaque on the wall clearly says) on average once a week and for a few special events a year isn’t too complicated.
I’ll agree however that the room “must be accessible to a wide sector of the community”, and the new hire charges are doing the opposite. Another community group I’m involved with can’t afford the new charges of $16.50 an hour ($50 each meeting) and is being forced to look for another meeting place.
At this rate, there will only be 2 or 3 people left who can afford it.
February 5th, 2012 at 4:45 pm
PS: Clearly I have been better briefed on this issue than the mayor and I have not lost track of any important documents.
February 5th, 2012 at 6:11 pm
Perhaps we all need to brace ourselves for this sort of situation because if the pool proposal goes ahead there’s a significant shortfall that council must find each year…. ad infinitum.
Perhaps the CWA is one of the first casualties in what has to be a massive search for cash cows.
February 5th, 2012 at 9:13 pm
Debbie – The West End Hall is $15 per meeting I think
ring George 5472 1506
February 5th, 2012 at 10:22 pm
I have to agree with Hans Paas about the Corporatisation of the Council, just look at the endless flow on documention issuing from the Town Hall. Its all couched in Corporate speak, unintelligible to the average ratepayer. While I don’t wish to drag politics into it, read the strategic plan and you might get the impression you’re part of a social engineering experiment.
February 7th, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Social Engineering Indeed, but whose driving it? There is no way forward when the communitys’ voice is not heard and heeded.Yes, we are all free to speak at Council meetings but that is mere tokenism..Have your say and move on..next!
Call it Corporatisation.. Call it Beauracracy..
Call it Empire building…
But please Do not call it Democracy…If local councils are the breeding grounds for aspiring politicians lets make sure that at the next council elections we choose people who are worthy and respectful of the trust we put in them to represent us truthfully, only then can we aspire to real and meangingful representational leadership…You may say that i’m a dreamer..but i’m not the only one…!
February 8th, 2012 at 5:03 pm
Thanks for that about the West End Hall Chris. I’ve passed your helpful information on.
Regarding the CWA, there has been a lot of publicity now including Andrew Bolt buying into the discussion both in the Herald Sun newspaper and on 3AW radio. Unfortunately Bolt included his own agenda – knocking Castlemaine for our ‘greenies’ and for ‘Northcote assylum seekers’ moving here. He blames them for the problem the CWA currently has. What’s the connection? Who knows, but at least the CWA got some publicity I suppose.
The unnecessary bad publicity for our shire even includes bloggers claiming they will leave Castlemaine out of their planned trips because of ‘our’ treatment of the CWA. Ouch.
I believe the CWA will meet with the mayor and CEO in a few days. Let’s hope a fair and decent arrangement will be reached, in keeping with community expectations about how the CWA should be treated. And let’s hope that this time (if council is right about nothing being found in writing about the last arrangement) that the arrangement is in writing, public and permanent.
February 8th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
Why does it have to be in writing, the story of how the CWA ended up using the Ray Bradfield Rooms has been well covered and there are numerous people still around that time who remember the circumstances (possibly even some one near and dear to our Mayor).
I think people are missing the point the reason the CWA haven’t been paying rent till now is because they weren’t required to by the pre-existing arrangement. Mayor Cropley while originally denying any documentation has now said they have found some.
We’ll see what comes out of all this.
February 9th, 2012 at 2:24 pm
I can’t understand how the council can justify increasing the costs for small, but vital local organisations. Yet these bureaucrats are prepared to put ratepayers into enormous debt for many years in order to attain a swimming complex which won’t be of the correct length for professional training, and which will cause local traders to go out of business.