Motion carried for former Prime Minister, Jacinta Price to pay for council party

8
2316

2529 Turnbull, Price OK
Last updated 10.03pm, 27 August 2018.
 
KIERAN FINNANE reports: The motion by Cr Marli Banks to charge, presumably the former Prime Minister, Senator Nigel Scullion and Cr Jacinta Price as organisers of the event,  for use of the council facilities for a reception of the Prime Minister was carried a short while ago at tonight’s Town Council meeting.
 
This came after councillors were told that a ‘concerned ratepayer’ had paid in full the cost of council’s reception for the Prime Minister.
 
CEO Rex Mooney said he had accepted this donation late this afternoon.
 
It had been made because the  ‘concerned ratepayer’, who insisted on remaining anonymous, felt the reception had been beneficial for the town, especially for young people.
 
Mayor Damien Ryan said he saw, therefore, no reason to continue.
 
Councillor Eli Melky, as seconder of the motion,  didn’t agree: as  a matter of process, the motion should be moved and debated.
 
Cr Jamie de Brenni and Jacinta Price, the latter attending the meeting by phone, withdrew due to their conflict of interest in the matter.
 
Without them, the motion passed. That means the council does not accept that the reception was a Mayoral or Civic reception. It was rather, as Cr Banks, Melky and Jimmy Cocking argued, a political campaign event for Cr Price as the CLP candidate for Lingiari.
 
MORE LATER
 
 
 

8 COMMENTS

  1. Mayor Damien Ryan, a Labor man to his bootstraps, showed his integrity and his political goodwill when he saw no reason to continue the motion.
    Mayor Ryan was saying OK, the incorrect thing was done here but let’s not continue the animosity.
    It is not to the credit of those councillors who insisted on pursuing this motion. The point had been made. The private citizen’s payment should have ended the matter.
    But no, petty point scoring was insisted upon.
    Mayor Damo, you showed your mettle. Councillors, you have not covered yourselves in glory.

  2. Anything to avoid actually doing their job as councillors.
    Whats next? Fracking? Flag debate? Finger pointing and political grandstanding?
    That’s right, we already have had all of those.

  3. A “concerned ratepayer” had paid in full the cost of council’s reception for the Prime Minister. How generous, but he/she, who insisted on remaining anonymous, used the same words that Cr Matt Paterson did.
    Quote: The reception had been beneficial for the town, especially for young people. It was fantastic that he was invited, it was a privilege to meet the PM, it was fantastic to see 12 school kids there as well, the captains of the senior schools, and students from Yirara and Clontarf: I’m sure you can go and ask them if they received any benefit. End of quote

  4. John you know Neville Chamberlain’s “Peace in our time” speech about Hitler? That’s how wrong you are and I can only assume you’re a CLP member trying to put your own spin on this.
    So let’s face some facts here. The PM came to town to promote a Liberal candidate for the up and coming election and for NO other real purpose.
    The reception and launch was paid for on the backs of local rate payers and was masqueraded as a public event despite all the invites being done by Minister Scullions office, all the media being scrutinised by the PM’s office and the town council having diddly squat say over their own event, what was discussed or who attended.
    The Mayor is a long time CLP sympathiser and has a son in law running for the senate on the CLP ticket. The Deputy Mayor is the Deputy President of the CLP and Cr Price is the bloody candidate for the CLP. All of these people have massive conflicts of interest, end of friggin story.
    But because none of these people wanted egg on their faces despite all doing something they would have known they shouldn’t be doing, and now it has turned to a sh@#storm.
    The funny thing is though is that all that would have been required to neutralise this in the first place would have been to show some decency and responsibility for what happened, take it on the nose, apologise and just pay the bloody bill.
    This would have all gone away at this point. A bit embarrassing but done in any case.
    But yet again, to probably save face, now this “anonymous concerned donator” comes into the fold to pay on the same day before the motion was even carried.
    For people with fantasies of power, it seems their political skill level will take them to just that, deluded fantasies.

  5. Jacinta: Totally agree with what you are trying to do! Keep on doing it Girl! And I am a white guy.
    Don’t let those brothers and sisters who hate you change your course! For they are liars. You should run for Parliament, Girl.
    That way you can sort out those who hate you.
    Go for it. I will support you!
    Regards
    B S London
    Batemans Bay, NSW.

  6. @ Whatacrock. It is difficult to keep a straight face and enter into serious discussion with an unidentifiable Whatacrock comment writer who can draw comparisons between Alice Council naughty types and the world changing actions of British WW 2 leaders / appeasers.
    Then again, we always did tend to think the world revolved around us Alicians when we were younger. Guess things never change.

  7. Oh John you flatter me. Although I do long for younger years again even if I wouldn’t do it differently.
    But to get straight to the point. The feelings of humour are equally reciprocated regarding your assertion that despite an obvious conflict of interest and a sudden random anonymous donation to make it all go away popping up just before the motion, that it wouldn’t somehow be in the public’s interest to know what really happened. Especially when their money was used for extremely questionable political purpose.
    That’s suspicious by any measure.
    And for the sake of the record I wasn’t drawing conclusions about the Alice Springs town council leadership and the leaders of WW2. To be candid, I’m a touch baffled as to how you managed to delineated that from my comment but it’s besides the point.
    The point is, elected local officials should not be using public money for Federal political aspirations and they shouldn’t be covering things up when they get caught. End of story.

  8. @ Whatacrock. Must admit, your comment on Chamberlain and appeasement of Hitler was drawing a rather obvious reference to council members trying to appease “make it all go away”.
    Otherwise, why make the reference at all?
    Another unfortunate comment relating to WW2 was made recently by a Member of Federal Parliament. Not necessary at all.
    Now that this motion about political interference in council affairs has been passed, I imagine all future political involvement in council affairs will be a no-go zone. So Peace, bro.
    This whole issue has been thrashed to death, don’t you think?.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here