A question of governance

The issues I raise concern Cameron Park and its adjoining Centenary Car Park, I make no allegation of misconduct on anyone's part, rather I consider the matters to reflect adversely upon the supervision of staff by Mayor and General Manager, a failing which can only serve to raise concerns as to due process in Council. All information quoted is from Council's own website.

Recently I browsed that website for content relevant to Cameron Park, Car Park, and super market. The history of this matter of course goes way back but we need only go as far as Council meeting of 19 November 2008, when item 09.207/08 features "Proposed sale of part of Council Car Park (and Cameron Park Maclean)" was tabled. A senior Council staff member within Civil & Corporate declared a non pecuniary interest in that he "Leases shop from tenderer in proximity to site". There were three tenderers, the Newcastle based Buildev Development, Woolworths, and the local entity – Holder Baker Enterprises. That staff member is placed in an awkward situation since Item 1. of his specific delegations affirms his appointment as an "appropriate person" for the purposes of opening and dealing with tenders under the Local Government (Tendering) Regulation 1993. Here tenders were certainly involved.

I consulted other records on the subject, the Council meeting of 22 June 2010 dealt with the matter of "Centenary Drive Car Park – petition received," item 13.095/10 but on this occasion the minutes contain no declaration of interest by that senior staff member, and his name is appended to the report. Was he involved in the preparation of that report? So do we assume that his pecuniary interest was merely intermittent?

We come to the meeting of 18 May 2010 "Cameron Park Maclean-Classification" item 13.062/10. The minutes show no declaration by that senior Council staff member neither is it known what participation if any he had in this matter. So, again we find no declaration of interest by him. Nor is the extent of his involvement known to us, again, was he involved in the preparation of this report?

Next we look at Council papers for 24 February 2009, item 09.002/09 "Reconfiguration of Maclean Car Park (involving some elements of Cameron Park)". Here we have a declaration of interest from that senior Council employee only now it becomes non pecuniary "Lease shop next to car park", we are left to wonder why the change from "pecuniary" to "non pecuniary"? Circumstances do not appear to warrant this.

I note that at its last meeting on 20 July 2010, item 13.103/10 "Centenary Drive Car Park – potential retail site" the same staff member within Civil & Corporate declared a pecuniary interest being a "business owner in proximity to site". He nevertheless assisted in preparing that report to Council. Would it not have been better to divorce him from the proceedings, entirely?

I wish to highlight the fact that appropriate controls, checks and balances along with recognised principles of staff supervision and segregation of duties appear to be largely absent. Mr. McPherson the General Manager as this officer's immediate supervisor should have ensured that he was never placed in a situation where questions of conflict of interest might arise. Nor do we know the extent of that employee's involvement in the matters to hand for we can only speculate as to what was the actual extent of his involvement out of session? I believe that the Mayor has an over arching responsibility where supervision of Council employees is concerned, I am not convinced that such supervision is adequate. I do not feel that the employee involved has been well served in this respect, neither I think have the people of Maclean.

JOHN HANCOCKS

Maclean

* GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT live.com.au for consideration.

5 sleeps to polling day and .......

....the Nats Kevin Hogan is still providing laffs on the NSW North Coast.

This time a give-away note pad (below) proudly proclaims that he did not use taxpayer's money to produce the pad.

Er, you're a first time candidate Kevvie - not a sitting MP - so you're not eligible for any taxpayer funded printing allowance.

There's no virtue in claiming to abstain from what you can't access in the first place!

Antony Green takes exception to News Ltd & Sky's psephological howler

This was Sky News last night (14 August 2010):

















This is The Australian and News Ltd this morning (15 August 2010):

THE Coalition is leading the government and is on track to win the 17 seats it needs for an election victory, according to a Galaxy Poll.
On a two-party preferred basis, the Coalition is ahead of the ALP 51.4 per cent to 48.6 per cent, the opinion poll published by News Limited's Sunday newspapers.
News Limited also publishes of The Australian.
The poll of 4000 voters in 20 marginal electorates in five states predicts devastation for Labor in Queensland, where a potential swing of 5.4 per cent against the government could cost it 10 seats.

This is Antony Green's Election Blog, also published early this morning, telling the world that the Australian media is getting it wrong, wrong, wrong:

When I entered the swings into the ABC calculator, I got the following result

http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2010/calculator/?swing=state&national=0.3&nsw=-2.4&vic=1.6&qld=-5.4&wa=-2.1&sa=0&tas=0&act=0&nt=0&retiringfactor=1

This produced a national 2PP figure of 51.1% for Labor, completely at odds with the figure of Coalition 51.4% reported above. Then it dawned on me that whoever calculated 51.4% has made a very basic error of political analysis.

The five 2PP figures for 2007 and 2010 reported above apply only to the four electorates in each state. They are not 2-party preferred figures for each state, and the Galaxy tables have been very precise in setting out the 4-seats per state nature of the poll.

What someone has done is take the five entries in the 2010 2PP column and average them to get a national figure. Wrong. Very wrong.

There are two serious errors committed here. First, the figures are for four electorates, NOT the states. Second, while the state samples are the same size, the state populations are not. To get a National 2PP figure, you need a weighted average of the state swings, NOT a simple average of the survey 2PPs by state.

The method I used in the calculator is the correct way to produce a national 2PP %. If you assume the swings in the four states are uniform in each state, the new state Labor 2PP %'s are NSW 51.3%, VIC 55.9%, QLD 45.0%, SA 52.4% and WA 44.6%.

These produce a National Labor 2PP % from this Galaxy poll of 51%, not 48.6%. Someone has made an absolute howler in trying to turn polls in 20 marginal seats into a national figure.

The Neilsen Poll published by Fairfax this morning and previewed by Lateline last night supports Antony Green's assessment that surveyed voter intentions are now favouring Labor.

Update: Channel 7's Weekend Sunrise was still repeating the wrong two party preferred percentages during news updates - up to and including the 8am recap.

Actual Galaxy Research 8-13 August poll results here showing 2pp % Labor 52% Liberal 48%.

A Visual Impression of Teh Oz Economy under any ToBattyNob Guvmin'

With grovelling apologies to

the NSW Dept. of Fair Trading

and its copious illustrated leaflet pile.

6 more sleeps to polling day and.....

....it's still anyone's guess whether, after the 21st of August, Oz will be governed by a well-meaning but essentially conservative Labor pollie or ruled by a dictatorial theocratic ultra-conservative Liberal pollie.
Hughie's sense of humour is showing. Think I preferred it when all he threw at us was droughts and flooding rains.

No explanation required

Thanks Tandberg!















The Age

Finally, 15 & 17 August 2010 climate change becomes a focus of NSW North Coast debate in federal election

Climate Change Australia is part of the Climate Action Australia Network and:

is a community climate action group, with branches in Grafton (Clarence Valley), Port Macquarie (Hastings Valley) and Taree (Manning Valley) in north eastern New South Wales. The aims of Climate Change Australia are to: raise awareness about climate change issues and impacts encourage everyone to conserve energy and water promote the increased use of renewable energy encourage all levels of government to take urgent action on climate change. Next Tuesday CCA will host a candidates forum on climate change attended by all six candidates in the Page electorate. Candidates will put their position on climate change and answer questions from the community. Place: Roche's Family Hotel, Grafton Date: 17 August 2010 Time: 5.30pm to 6.30pm Information: clarenceclimate@yahoo.com.au The CCA Manning branch will also be holding a candidates forum in the Lyne electorate on Sunday 15 August 2010: CWA Hall (Quay North Building, 17-19 Horton Street) near the fig tree at The Town Green, beginning 10.30am. Contact stevelockhart@bigpond.com Ph: 02 6583 6393 The Northern Rivers Echo reports that on 17 August 2010, Grafton and South Grafton business people have been invited to meet the candidates of Page and Cowper. However, debate is stifled at this venue: With the support of Clarence Valley Council Mayor Richie Williamson, the Grafton Chamber will host an evening with the candidates following the council meeting on Tuesday. Due to council meeting procedure, questions cannot be raised from the public gallery. However, straight after the meeting, the Grafton Chamber of Commerce and Industry invites business people and the public gallery to join us and the candidates for light refreshments and an opportunity to raise questions with the candidates. Attendees are urged to be seated in the public gallery of the Grafton Council Chambers, 2 Prince Street, Grafton by 6.30pm.