WHATEVER is behind ex-mayor Keith Fagg’s call to replace Geelong’s democratically elected councillors with commissioners?
Double Take asks only because his vague explanation in a newspaper column this week was long on rhetoric but short on specifics. Like what council had actually done wrong.
Keith said council’s structure of 12 ward councillors and a directly-elected mayor was somehow “broke”, leaving them unable to “genuinely create a clear, shared sense of purpose nor promulgate that purpose constructively together”. Huh?
Undefined “outside imperatives and diverse agendas” were blamed, while a ward-funding investigation that actually cleared councillors of wrongdoing was supposedly evidence of “governance failure”.
Keith’s solution was to hastily appoint commissioners pending a review of council, including “the number and nature of members”.
He might lack detail but Keith’s 10 months as Geelong’s first directly elected mayor surely taught him a golden rule of politics: never order a review unless you already know the outcome.
IMAGINE GPs adapting Keith’s rationale – and its language.
Doctor: I have bad news – you’re broken.
Patient: Oh no! Where, doctor?
Doctor: In your structure. That’s why you can’t promulgate your purpose.
Patient: What caused this terrible affliction?
Doctor: Outside imperatives and diverse agendas.
Patient: Is there a cure?
Doctor: Yes, extensive surgery, which could affect the number and nature of your members.
Patient: When is the treatment?
Doctor: After a two-year review, lest your dysfunction continues and we come to accept your mediocrity and acrimony as the norm.
RICHARD Marles can move motions in parliament but budging a Hyundai at Breakwater was beyond the power of the federal MP this week.
Labor’s Member for Corio put himself to the test when photographer Reg Ryan was unable to back the Indy’s little SUV up a slippery slope after taking a picture of Richard admiring Geelong’s historic aqueduct.
Richard pushed hard as he could from the front but the two-wheel-drive couldn’t assist with traction on the damp, grassy surface.
Eventually Reg summonsed his big 4×4, which towed out the company vehicle in a jiffy.
Reg generously praised Richard anyway, noting how he looked to have put himself at considerable risk of moving a non-parliamentary motion from all the exertion.
