Suzette Meade, Convenor of North Parramatta Residents Action Group (NPRAG) had an excellent interview with Robbie Buck on ABC Radio 702 yesterday, 7-dec-2016 at about 06:35, as part of her campaign to save Parramatta Swimming Pool from the developer’s bulldozers.
To maintain balance Robbie Buck then interviewed Amanda Chadwick, who was appointed earlier this year as the Administrator of the new, enlarged City of Parramatta Council. Her tap dancing is world-class when Robbie Buck asked if, when and how Parramatta residents are going to new pool to replace the one that is about to be demolished for the new Parramatta Stadium development.
This situation at Parramatta illustrates the challenges that local residents face when their existing Council is dismissed and replaced with a politically appointed Administrator. Amanda Chadwick is the daughter of the late Virginia Chadwick, who was a former NSW Liberal Minister. So it is not unreasonable to imagine that Amanda Chadwick was a very comfortable choice as Parramatta’s new Administrator for the political clique and “kitchen cabinet” around Bulldozer Baird.
Residents of Mosman, North Sydney, Willoughby and Hunters Hill Council could see the same sort thing of political appointees doing the bidding of the Baird Government in their suburb if Bulldozer Baird is able to force the mergers of their existing local councils. Very few of the council administrators appointed in 2016 have a history of being at the left end of the political spectrum. Their appointments are a gift of Premier Baird. So how many of them will have the courage to rock the boat, do you think?
This is why Councillors and Mayors should be elected, so that politically appointed Administrators can not give an impression that they are attending to the Premier’s interests, before the interests of the local residents. And residents are very angry when Minister for Local Government Paul Toole is now threatening to delay some council elections until 2020. Talk about disenfranchising the noisy chattering classes who are getting in the way of Baird’s extreme planning and privatisation agenda!
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John Young
8-dec-2010
Crown Land Our Land 