The association believes that claims made this week by the Minister for Local Government, Shelley Hancock, that the retention of a mechanism allowing for council meetings to be conducted electronically would encourage more women to stand for council are as nonsensical, sexist & offensive as claims made by her & the Minister for Mental Health, Regional Youth & Women, Bronnie Taylor, the previous week, when announcing a $100,000 publicly funded campaign to encourage more women to stand for election as councillors at the next Local Government Elections in September, 2021.
While the association is a proud supporter of equal opportunity for all Australians, it rejects entirely the notion that gender equality equates to equal opportunity.
With the advent of the Covid2019 pandemic, the state government authorised the introduction of virtual council meetings in an effort to minimise the spread of the virus amongst councillors, officials & members of the public attending council meetings.
In announcing an extension of the arrangements to March, 2021, Ms Hancock also stated that one of its aims was to help increase the diversity of people who run for local council & to attract more women.
"Many councils hold their meetings at night which can be difficult for people with family and carer responsibilities.” she said.
The association believes that the justification offered by Ms Hancock for the changes are superficial & simply do not stand up to scrutiny. To suggest that community members, in particular women, would find it easier to abandon their “family & carer responsibilities” if they could attend meetings electronically is fanciful & indeed offensive.
The association contends that having to attend a two-three hour council meeting every three weeks, whether in person or electronically, is hardly going to determine whether an individual will be willing to take-on what is essentially a full-time job for less than $9 an hour.
As to claims that the campaign for more women in councils is backed by the Member for Eden-Monaro, Kristy McBain, the association believes this throws up a potential conflict of interest for her as a councillor with council, which has no such policy, nor has it even debated the issue.
The association believes that many in the community are now confused about Cr McBain’s priorities & intentions.
In the view of the association, she contributed very little to the last council meeting, commenting briefly on only two issues, while abstaining from voting in the election for both the Mayor & Deputy Mayor.
While McBain has indicated that she will likely have to resign from council in order to meet her responsibilities as the new Member for Eden-Monaro, the association thinks that it is quite possible that she is considering staying-on, so as to protect the strongest part of her electoral base, while ensuring that control of the council remains in the hands of the legendary “sisterhood”.
While the association believes that money can hardly be a motive in McBain’s decision (a federal backbencher is paid more than $200K annually, before perks), an extra $20K for doing little if anything on council is not to be sneezed at.
Of course, if council meetings were to continue to be conducted electronically, McBain’s ability to co-ordinate her parliamentary commitments with such meetings would arguably be a whole lot easier & she might well be tempted to try & do just that.
Once upon a time, bureaucrats & politicians understood that their first priority was to respond to the needs of the electorate, rather than the other way around.
John Richardson
Secretary/Treasurer
Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association
Tel: 0264945669
Email: secretary@begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au
Website: http://www.begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au