Forum –
While (MP Adam) Crouch is able to gasp and heave while attempting to articulate what he wants (“I want a public inquiry”, CCN286), he even expects the community to support him.
Has Mr Crouch even considered there are in excess of 21 000 people who have signed a petition for a judicial enquiry which covered a number of clearly set out points?
I’ll go so far as to say Mr Crouch is wrong.
The Minister doesn’t only have two choices; she has at least three choices and possibly more.
One is to return the councillors, two is to have a public enquiry and the third is to have what in excess of 21,000 people have asked for, a judicial inquiry.
The petition has a number of parts and one has to wonder which part of that petition Mr Crouch doesn’t want addressed and why.
Could it be he is not wanting the community enlightened as to how this financial crisis happened and who is responsible?
Surely that is reasonable.
Or could it be he isn’t wanting us to know why we had the poor performance and breaches of integrity requirements by the Council?
Surely, he wouldn’t object to having reforms to the Local Government Act to protect the community from the impacts of financial mismanagement and malfeasance (if any) in the future.
Or (information on) whether councillors and senior staff were negligent in their duty to properly manage the Council and whether they have been dealt with appropriately.
Or could it be the biggest concern Mr Crouch is worried will be exposed is the impact of amalgamation on the Council’s financial problems, or any other matters relating to the poor performance of the Council?
All these points were clearly covered in the well supported petition.
Mr Crouch needs to start listening to the community, not expect us to “back” him.
Email, Apr 8
Joy Cooper, Green Point