I HOPE Cr Bobby Bourke has sought advice from the Minister for Local Government on his call (and, to be cynical, this call seems to be made every election cycle) for the people to be asked if they want to have a popularly elected mayor.
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Specifically, I hope he has sought advice on how we remove anyone who is popularly elected in the event that they are clearly not up to the task, as the current legislation is clearly untenable.
The fact that councillors can behave how they like and not be accountable to the Local Government Code of Conduct requirements if they were not, at that time, participating as a councillor is nothing short of a joke.
I agree with the advice the then mayor Paul Toole gave his winning ticket candidates in 2008 that “you are always councillors during your elected term”.
Ratepayers expect their elected representatives to conduct themselves with the utmost honesty and integrity in all facets of their lives.
Counting the cost of roos
SORRY to the well-meaning Bathurst Kangaroo Project supporters, but you have wasted enough of Bathurst Regional Council ratepayers’ money with your folly.
It was stated almost two months ago that $51,000 was spent, with an expected additional $8000 per month contingency cost for the temporary fence until the relocation is complete. So I guess now the total cost is upwards of $70,000.
So what’s the delay?
My sources tell me that NSW National Parks and Wildlife is studying the well-being of the 15 or so roos relocated to see that they are happy in their new home. Give me a drink!
So, councillors, you have had your fun at ratepayers’ expense, now show some real leadership.
Stop wasting our money, remove the fences and let the roos find a new home themselves.
Hoping to collect a collar
STILL on kangaroos, I held conversations with two long-standing agriculturalists in the past month or so.
I was amused that, without prompting, both ageing cockies raised the topic of the roos on Mount Panorama.
Both said, independently, that seeing kangaroos in their youth was unusual. “It was a novelty. We stood and watched them skip by, but today they’re everywhere,” one said.
I hear, too, that locals in the suggested relocation area have a bounty on roos with tracking collars.
One wag told me that he will place the $3600 collar on the bull-bar of his work ute if he manages to gets one.
So that will create some interesting data!
Australia’s largest kangaroo meat exporter claims commercial harvesting of roos is Australia’s best renewable resource.
Thumbs up
EARLY morning risers will be pleased that daylight saving ends next weekend. For mine, the clocks should go back on March 1 each year.
Thumbs down
BATHURST ratepayers still paying $8000 per month for temporary fencing to keep kangaroos on Mount Panorama. I suspect the total cost exceeds $70,000 by now. I wonder how many potholes this could have repaired?
