JUNE 2015
SYDNEY LORD
MAYOR CLOVER MOORE
HISTORY
Sydney's Lord Mayor is the Independent (No party
affiliation)
Clover Moore.
She
won
a
seat on the South Sydney Council circa 1980. In
1981 the Labour State government amalgamated part of South Sydney with
Sydney City Council. Clover won a seat in Sydney City. She was well
regarded in that position, and was favoured to take the position of
Mayor in 1987. Before that happened the State Government sacked Sydney
council and appointed a commissioner to manage the city. Clover
contested at the next State Election and won a seat in the Legislative
Assembly (lower house) in the NSW Parliament in 1988. In
Australia, state governments have complete control of local
government. In 2004 the then NSW Labour government offered the
then Lord Mayor of Sydney (independent Frank Sartor) a cabinet position
and then amalgamated Sydney Council with the strongly Labour electorate
of
South Sydney probably with the expectation that a Labour candidate
would win the newly created Lord Mayor position. Without relinquishing
her Legislative Assembly seat, Clover Moore contested and won that
election and has been Lord Mayor of Sydney since.
In 2012 the NSW State government introduced what became known as the
“Get Clover Law” by legislating that a person could not be a member of
both state and local government. Clover relinquished her seat in the
NSW Parliament.
LATEST
The NSW Baird Liberal government appears to have decided to attempt an
increase of major party control of local government, perhaps hoping to
capture the Sydney City Council into the bargain. . To this end it
proposes
to amalgamate 41 NSW local councils to 18 (via James Robertson SMH). It
is calculated that larger
councils would be dominated by the Liberal-Labour axis, because the
cost of being elected increases as the size of the electorate increases.
The Queensland and Victorian governments have already carried out
amalgamations. In both states there was wide dissatisfaction following
amalgamation. Both
Premiers (Beattie and Kennett) lost their jobs at subsequent elections.
After widespread dissatisfaction the incoming (Newman) Queensland
government fulfilled an election promise to allow de-amalgamation, but
when it came to the crunch it only allowed four councils to vote on
deamalgamation.
In all four the majority were in favour of deamalgamation. Ex Premier
Kennett of Victoria is on record that further amalgamations should not
be attempted. In Sydney's east, five councils are to be merged.
(Sydney, Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick, Botany Bay). Woollahra reports
that 70% of it's residents do not like the idea. Clover Moore is very
much against the merger. Sydney Council has a population of around
200,000. The enlarged council will have a population of around 500,000.
My prediction is that despite widespread objections, the NSW
amalgamations will go ahead. I further predict that Clover will remain
Lord Mayor of the enlarged Sydney Council, and that Premier Baird will
be removed from office either before or at the next election.
A STRATEGY
TO COUNTER AMALGAMATION
A LOCAL GOVERNMENT
PARTY
In Australia, we currently have two levels of Independent Government,
State and Federal. Local Government is completely under the
control of State Government. I
would like to suggest the formation of a new political party called the
“Local Government Party”. I would further suggest that it have the
following policies.
1 HIGH COURT CHALLENGE:
The state of NSW has a constitution that basically says the Legislature
shall “have power to make laws for the peace, welfare, and good
government of New South Wales in all cases whatsoever:"
I suggest that any amalgamation be challenged in the High Court on the
ground that amalgamation is not for the “good government” of the people
of NSW, and submit that a referendum on the issue would be a good way
to settle the matter.
2. DIRECT GOVERNMENT:
In Australia we like to think that we have representative government. I
think of it as a periodically elected dictatorship. To my mind for
example the Swiss have representative government. Any time the elected
representatives do something that the electorate does not like, they
have a choice.
They can either sack the Governor (As Governor Grey was sacked
and Arnold Schwarzenegger took power in California) or they can enact
citizen initiated legislation to overrule the unwanted law.
I suggest that local government (councils) immediately implement
“ivote” (or a
similar system) to enable a vote to be called by any member of the
public (subject to evidence of significant public support) on any government
or
council
regulation
or
legislation
on
sacking
and especially on amalgamation.
3. LOCAL GOVERNMENT INDEPENDENCE
In the USA there are three distinct levels of government (Federal,
State and Local), and powers of
each level cannot be infringed by other levels. Each Local Government
area makes it's own building laws, and this gives personality and
individuality to each city. Think San Francisco and Los Angeles. Two
such different cities could not exist in NSW because the State
Government could not resist legislating "for the good of the people"
even if that were not what the local area wanted. Or
look at New York City (Manhattan) versus the city from which New York
State is governed.
(do you even know what city that is?). Albany has no character,
and the Governor of NY is not as well known as is the Mayor of NY.
I would suggest that the new party have as a policy that the “NSW Constitution Act 1902 Section 51 (2)”
be
revised
to
read:
(2) The manner in which local
government bodies are constituted and the nature and extent of their powers, authorities, duties and functions
shall be as determined by a local government constitution.
and such further amendments to the NSW constitution as would make our
Local Government more like that in the USA.
TPP = TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
Nancy Pelosi (God Bless Her) has put an oar into this incredibly
undemocratic act by our governments.
I mean, a treaty about trade that is a secret? Why? What is
there that must be hidden from we the people? And nobody is
outraged? That makes me suspicious that the people who own or
control or influence the media have some sort of personal ends in mind,
something that does not allow close examination, something that has
been made worthwhile to our politicians who are selling us out.
"We are making a binding treaty about
everything that is going to give up some sovereignty and you the people
will pay the price so that we in power can extort more out of the rest
of you".
Do you wonder that politicians really do not want people to have access
to long range killing weapons? If I was doing that sort of thing
to my fellow man I would also be worried about LETHAL
REPERCUSSIONS. Of course the organ grinder is not visible, and
will not suffer opprobrium. That is what he pays bribes to avoid.
UN AND PARTITIONING OF STATES
The UN has ventured into partitioning states on a few occasions.
Notably Israel, where two warring sides were partitioned along the
ceasefire line. Then there was Cyprus and Sudan. Korea was
another example, as is Crimea. The dissolution of the USSR is an
example of an internal decision on partition.
Should not a group of people be allowed to separate into states?
There are caveats. For instance, a small population might live in
a resource rich area. They would love to partition into a state
and tax all that wealth. A perfect example might be the oilfields
of Saudi Arabia, which is settled by Shia.
So perhaps we should adopt a model where a new state is formed within
the Federated nation. The people who want to partition are given
a state with wide powers. They control everything except
resources and defense. They do not control internal
migration. But apart from those few powers their powers should be
wide, including establishing Sharia law, police, enacting civil and
criminal laws and determination of income tax.
The Federal government would enforce taxation of national resources
(Minerals, bandwidth) and have a Federal court to settle disputes
between the states (Pollution etc.). The Federal income from
resources should, after prescribed deductions for Defence etc, be
distributed pro rata to the states. The Federal Government should
have a constitution that could only be changed by a two thirds majority
of votes in all states.
So I suggest that this become a directive for the UN. Any people who
meet prescribed conditions who want secession should be supported in
their endeavour. Likely applicants would be the Kurds of Turkey
and Iraq and Iran. Texas (Oh that's right, they believe they can
secede from the union at any time), Quebec maybe? Sumatra, the Rohinga
of Burmq, Hong Kong, Arnhem Land, Scotland, West (Sunni) Iraq.
ISIL.
This chapter is a work in progress. Suggestions are solicited.
barvennon@hotmail.com