Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Local government elections were held in Tasmania last October. In the city of Glenorchy, which covers about half of the Denison electorate, Kristie Johnston was re-elected alderman with a staggering four quotas, and mayor with almost 60 per cent of the primary vote.

By any measure, Kristie's result was a staggering personal achievement but, more importantly, it was dramatic evidence of the broad community disgust with the years of Glenorchy City Council maladministration and the overwhelming public endorsement of Kristie's commitment to clean it up.

In the circumstances, you would think that all aldermen would have had the good sense to respect the outcome, and pitch in and help Kristie sort things out. But did they? Some did not. Instead, they decided to embark on a guerrilla campaign of destabilisation and deceit born of blind hatred. Just in the last week, we had the ludicrous situation where aldermen had not been provided with an important report on council restructuring and were expected to endorse it without having ever seen it. The mayor properly suspended the meeting convened to endorse the report, only to find that aldermen ignored the suspension and voted for the changes anyway. No wonder the matter is now in the hands of the Tasmanian Director of Local Government.

This puerile behaviour would be laughable if it were not so serious. Juvenile it certainly is, that some Glenorchy aldermen think it is okay to ignore the mayor's entirely proper instructions, to rubber-stamp council decisions and to sack staff without proper consideration or process. No wonder many of the public hate politics and hate politicians so much these days, when the members of their own community—the aldermen in their own council—are so shamelessly contemptuous of our democratic institutions and of the result of a properly convened election. Of course, these dunderheads think they are clever by trying to create an impression of chaos under the new mayor. The problem for them, though, is that the community is wise to their juvenile antics and sees them for what they are—sore losers with no care for the public interest. These are the same people who oversaw rate increases of more than 35 per cent over five years.

Mark my words: Mayor Kristie Johnston is fighting the good fight to clean up Glenorchy and she will win. She should not have to do it alone, because, in my experience, Alderman Harry Quick, David Pearce, Jan Dunsby and Matt Stevenson are all people of good heart. They, with the community overwhelmingly behind them, will provide the foundation to rebuild Glenorchy, and they can count on my support if they work together to do so.