In
Monday's paper there was an article about the need for Councillors to set their
own Code of Conduct rules. This is what we always did until an over authoritarian
state government decided, in in 2013, that they were better at doing this than
we were. And so they passed a law about it that allowed Councillors little
freedom in the way that they went about their work and much stricter rules of
conduct that they had for themselves. It comes back to the old adage that Councillors
and Councils are a waste of time and money. Not true, of course, but we keep on
getting it.
Nevertheless,
giving Councils back the power seems like a good idea. ICAC has been flooded
with trivial matters from councillors about the behaviour of their colleagues
and feel that we would be better off monitoring the discipline of each other. As
far as I am aware Unley has had a couple of these investigations in addition to
my complaint about the behaviour of our Mayor early in his first term of
office. The problem, as I see it, is that Council will still not have the power
to do anything more than a ‘slap on the wrist’.
It’s a bit like me suspending a
student for repeatedly wagging lessons by not allowing them to be at school at
all for a day or two. We both see the irony but I can only use the rules
available to me!
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