Liverpool Council is pressing on with its fight against the State Government in the courts despite calls against such action.
Nathan Hagarty, the former Liverpool Labor councillor and now Member for Leppington, says such action is unprecedented.
“The mayor seems to think it’s all about him, it’s not, it’s about the ratepayers, it’s about the staff and the residents,’’ Mr Hagarty told the South West Voice during an interview at his Leppington office yesterday.
“This is about the welfare of staff and using ratepayers’ money wisely – it’s not about the mayor and his ego.’’
And Councillor Peter Harle has told his Liverpool Community Independent Team supporters that he had voted against the motion to seek legal action following the release of an interim report into the council.
“Sadly, we lost against the mayor’s motion to mount a legal challenge against the State Governments’ proposal to postpone the local government elections in September,’’ Cr Harle said in his post.
“The voting was 5 for 3 against; naturally the mayor and his Liberal team won based purely on numbers. Three councillors, me, Karess Rhodes and Betty Green voted against the motion, with two councillors absent.
“The estimated costs of a legal challenge are likely to be in excess of $300,000,’’ Cr Harle said.
“That is on top of the multimillion-dollar Supreme Court challenge against council for an unfair dismissal claim brought on by John Ajaka, the terminated CEO.’’
This afternoon Liverpool Council said in a statement released to the media that it has been given additional time to respond to the interim report by the Office of Local Government.
“Today at 1600 hours, the Council will come before Mr John Robson of the Land and Environment Court, to seek a halt on all actions against it until the substantive court case, listed to be heard by the Land and Environment Court from 6 September, has been fully heard,’’ the council said in the statement.
“Liverpool Council’s time to respond to the Interim Report has been extended by the Office of Local Government to 5pm next Wednesday, 31 July 2024.’’
The council is also seeking orders that the intention to suspend the council not proceed, the election of council be allowed to proceed, and that the interim report into Liverpool Council be expunged from the public record.
Good Morning South West Voice
An Update on the legal hearing from the Land and Environment Court held on Friday 26th July 2024.
While the Mayor of Liverpool has stated that the Government has “conceded” to all the terms sought by LCC that is not quite correct as there is a difference between conceding and entering into an legal action “By consent” which is what actually occurred.
The facts are that “By consent, the court granted a series of injunctions in favour of the (Liverpool) Council:
Mr Glover is restrained until the last day of the final hearing from conducting any public inquiry and
the Minister is restrained until the last day of the final hearing from suspending council, postponing the election of Council and appointing an administrator.
The Court date is set down for the 8th and 9th August 2024.”
The key is that “the NSW Government has said it would cease (suspend) all action against the council until the matter is fully heard in Court on the 8th and 9th of August.”
Therefore everthing now hinges on who wins their case in Court on the day, that will determine the outcome of what happens going forward.
There is still the very real possibility that a Public Inquiry could proceed and that Liverpool Council could be suspended, an Administrator appointed and the Council Elections Postponed.
It ALL depends on outcome of the Court case.
So it’s back to a case of wait and see.
Kind Regards
Michael Andjelkovic
Independent Community Campaigner
My comment relates to today’s Council Election voting at Lurnea Public School Polling Booth. The Council chose not to use the NSW Electoral Commission to run the voting, instead using a private company as did Fairfield Council. This booth was a shambles. Some workers marking off voter names had no idea they are meant to make a small line between the 2 arrows left of each name. My son and I had to correct the marker as he just put a mark not near the arrows. My son explained that it is vital for computer verification to be accurate but, the man said he was told he could put it anywhere! Some workers even seemed to have a lot of difficulty locating correct alphabetical sections for names. I spoke to the supervisor about marking between the arrows and he didn’t seem to care saying, it’s changed. I pointed to another worker’s roll and showed the supervisor where marks should be made between arrows and he didnt respond other than saying he’s understaffed. I also pointed out that the big queue coming in and those who had already voted were using the same door so people with walkers,prams, wheelchairs were having to jostle through the incoming queue to get past. Again supervisor said he was understaffed. He was probably overwhelmed and already had enough by 9:50am. To finalise this circus the ballot boxes were marked in thin child like writing as “big pappers” and “little pappers” (yes 3p’s!) Embarrassing. One now wonders how many voters will be sent non voting letters as their names were not marked off correctly and also how other Liverpool polling booths are being managed today. Also it could be possible that some names could be marked off later in the correct spot when they havent voted. Too open to corruption. Scary! The Liverpool election should be voided and rerun by a well trained organisation rather than some private company using bare minimum of workers, some who just seem to have been plucked from anywhere. Is there a reason other than money that Liverpool has not used the electoral commission? In view of its current situation one would think they’d use the best. Legislation should be amended to ensure elections are run by the NSW EC.