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Bega council plays politics with Woolworths

By Richard Stanton - posted Monday, 4 February 2013


What was perplexing about the fact that the elected councillors went against the recommendation of their council executive in agreeing to defer the application, was that they had not done some of the most elementary research necessary to see if the plan fitted the space for which it was proposed.

As if it were revelatory, mayor Bill Taylor said councillors needed to go to Bermagui to visit the actual site of the development, speak with residents, get more feedback and conduct a 'thorough analysis of the proposal'.

Unless this was political rhetoric for the sake of political rhetoric one must ask what in the name of reason were the pages of information about the application attached to the council business paper?

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And, given the strong differences of opinion being cast about for more than a year why did the elected representatives not undertake the most basic research much earlier: an elementary observation of the village and the site?

There were a number of ironies attached to the issue not least of which was that Bega Council was heavily weighted to the southern end of the shire around Merimbula and Bega. Bermagui has not had a representative on council for some years. The councillor nearby is Tony Allen in Cobargo, 15 kilometres west of Bermagui.

Mayor Taylor said issues increased in intensity when it got closer to decision time. In other words, when more people find out about an application more people get involved if they don't like it.

This has not been the case in Bermagui. It has been clear for more than a year that there was roughly equal support and opposition.

The issue points to the basic problem for local governance when major infrastructure and commercial developments are involved.

Full time council executives make recommendations to their elected representatives based on available technical, economic, and legal information. They attempt to include the relevance of social impact.

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Councillors, however, when confronted by even the most passive activism, as was the case in the Bega council chamber last week, get politically edgy.

The communication gap between residents, council executive and elected representative is enormous. The problem is deep-seated and goes to the part-time nature of local governance.

It is the polar opposite of the corporate governance model in which the executive makes decisions for its board to ratify. In this model shareholders usually accept decisions because they are intent on maximising profit.

The injection of resident action into the council model is the difference between democracy and corporatism but it is an unfortunate situation when elected representatives fail to grasp the difference until it is almost too late.

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About the Author

Richard Stanton is a political communication writer and media critic. His most recent book is Do What They Like: The Media In The Australian Election Campaign 2010.

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All articles by Richard Stanton

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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