April depaNews

Late last year the Minister for Local Government announced an Independent Review of the framework for dealing with councillor misconduct in NSW. It’s a fiasco, and sometimes it’s worse than a fiasco.

The Minister’s appointment of Gary Kellar PSM (who had done a similar exercise in Queensland) coincided with depa pursuing OLG through NCAT after finding that OLG refused to review a decision and order made by the former CEO, Tim Hurst, which we were able to demonstrate was factually incorrect.

So our submission, starts like this:

On 5 February 2021 Tim Hurst, CEO of the Office of Local Government, made a mistake.

That mistake, the circumstances of making that mistake and the way in which OLG responded to the immediate reaction in the industry to that error, reveals everything that’s wrong with the current framework for dealing with councillor misconduct.

The first part of our submission deals with the mistake made on 5 February 2021 and demonstrates the contemptuous and arrogant dismissal by OLG of facts establishing that it had been a mistake - which provided a lesser penalty to a serial offender. That OLG could stonewall, based on legal protections of their processes that are essentially unexaminable, is part of the problem, and you can read our submission, and our responses to the 28 Considerations in the Consultation Paper here.

There has been some disagreement with LGNSW about whether or not the Splinter Award, which currently expires on 8 April, needs to be renewed for another twelve months. In terms of controlling the pandemic, or managing it as best we can, we all need to be vaccinated and keep our vaccinations up to date. The most important provision in the Splinter Award is requiring employers to provide reasonable time for employees to be vaccinated.

If it’s not one variant, it’s another, and now we are dealing with sub-variants. This week in NSW we’re still looking at a seven day average of around 20,000 new cases, so it’s important for employers to be providing the reasonable time for employees to continue with their boosters. It’s in everyone’s interest, our workmates, our families and our friends.

We’re all at the stage of our first booster and for those above 65 (yes, there are some of us still working) they will be lining up for a second booster four months after their first.

Unions and LGNSW have now reached agreement to roll over the existing Splinter Award in its entirety. While the Industrial Relations Commission won’t have made the Award by 8 April, it will be made to operate retrospectively from that date.

Keep protected, get vaccinated.

The NSW Electoral Commission has declared the 2022 election for the Committee to operate from 1 May 2022.  The existing members of the Committee who sought nomination were all re-elected and we welcome Bryce Weedon as a new member, our delegate and a Senior Planner from Hilltops, who can provide some new enthusiasm and drive.

The results declared are:

You can see the declaration from the Electoral Commission and the individual Policy Statements of the seven candidates here so you have some idea of the sort of things that are important to members of the Committee and their passions.

Narrabri GM Stewart Todd resigned from the Council on 22 March. In an email to all staff he noted “I walk away with my integrity intact - a number gone before me have not!”