Stirring speech in favour of democracy

The referendum on councillor numbers was based on a “decrepit, sick and dying ideology” more extensively described as a “disgusting theology of Reaganomics, and neo-liberalism and the now discredited way of Margaret Thatcher”.

These are the words of Labor councillor Kyle MacGregor who gave the speech of the night at the first meeting of the new councillors on October 8.

“The referendum was simply the last act of the administrator to destroy local democracy as much as he could,” Cr MacGregor said in a debate about the referendum held on September 14 along with the council elections.

“We will become the least represented Council in NSW, the third least in the nation,” Cr MacGregor said.

“The only other three councils which will have similar ratio to population are in Queensland and they have full-time councillors with staff on over $100,000 a year and (here on the Coast) you’re going to have nine people on $32,000 a year to look after a region of 350,000-plus people.”

He called the outcome, a yes vote that will see the Coast’s council reduce to nine councillors in 2028, a “centralisation of power”. 

“It is a disgraceful act which makes it harder for ordinary people to engage with democracy, to engage with this Council,” Cr MacGregor said.

“We were consistently told by the administrator that the ratepayers of the Central Coast are the custodians of this Council that the people are effectively the shareholders of the Council.  

“You’ll have less of an ability for people to get genuine representation.

“If you have an idea, if you have a community group or an organisation that needs to be supported or wants to empower yourselves to work with Council you’ll have less ability to do that. 

“All it really was, was just a smash and grab to centralise power, to make sure that ordinary people would have less of a say. 

“The other thing which is really important to note with this referendum is the role that it’s going to play in the major parties. 

“We were told that there was going to be a surge of Independents and it was important to have a multiplicity of different points of view, of background experiences, when it came to the kind of Council.

“All this is going to do, is to centralise power for the major parties.

“I am a representative of major party, being a Labor representative, but I see it’s important that we have true genuine Independents in here.”

He said people went to vote with no idea on what they were voting for. 

The advertising for this was on bus stops,” he said. 

“If we’re going be asking people to make fundamental changes to the structure about government for our region for the future – potentially in perpetuity – they should be informed.”

He said there was no evidence for the need for a reduction in councillors.

“It was a stupid idea put forward in a disingenuous way which is going to limit our engagement, it is going to limit ordinary people having a voice and representation in the Chamber and simply will give more power to unelected bureaucrats.

“Furthermore it makes it more likely that a Council is going to go to into administration. 

“There is less eyes on the finances. 

“There is less scrutiny and there are less people in this building accountable to you in the gallery because of this decision.

“I understand that there are some people who think that smaller government is more appropriate and this was not even really an argument about this. 

“This was simply a takeover by stealth. 

“People did not know what they were voting for and even if they did, a minority view based in that disgusting theology of Reaganomics, and neo-liberalsim and the now discredited way of Margaret Thatcher has been put forward as if it’s a majoritarian view and we’ve had 50 years of societal failure because of that and this referendum was endemic of that decrepit sick and dying ideology and it has no place for the future of our society.”

The gallery, severely depleted by this time of the night as many had left after the mayor was elected, clapped as he sat down.

It was the most passionate speech of the night and contrasted with Cr MacGregor’s earlier speech where he counselled the chamber to choose professional rather than political words in drafting a Motion.

He made his point after Deputy Mayor Doug Eaton had criticised the Local Government Minister and Office of Local Government over its Performance Improvement Order imposed on the new councillors for 12 months.

Cr Eaton called it a deplorable act and condemned the Minister and Office of Local Government for imposing it but the council toned it down after the CEO David Farmer agreed the councillors should be elegant in their wordsmithing.

Indeed.

Merilyn Vale