ACCOUNTABILITY: Just what does it take to get some?

There are a quite a few questions hanging out there that need to be answered. The first of course is why neither Launceston's  Mayor, or the city's  GM/CEO, could not answer this question in open council Thursday Feb 10 2021 when the cheque in question was drawn July 9 2020? By extension, if the councillors didn't know that a cheque for $1.2 Million had been drawn nor the circumstances in which it was, why didn't they? It seems quite apparent that they have been kept in the dark, some at least, and why might that be so?

The really big question that cannot be answered at Launceston's Town Hall is just what do you have to do in Launceston before the State Government will step in on behalf of the city's constituents and hold someone to account for apparently irregular behaviour? If ratepayers, and indeed the State's taxpayers as well, cannot rely upon 'the government' to protect their interests just where can they go?

If you GOOGLE 'Tasmanian council sacked' you will find the government looking into 'council performance and accountability' and it seems that the City of Launceston Council is, in the vernacular, TEFLON COATED and able to escape any kind of serious integrity test. Code of Conduct complaints finish up costing ratepayers dollars better spent on amenity infrastructure, albeit that it will as likely as not be required to cover overruns or something similar.

It is quite concerning when a councillor requests financial information, and in open council, they are denied access time after time. It is just the case that the GM/CEO has extraordinary powers under the Local Government Act that, in effect. render elections pointless when they are applied in the extreme – and they are regularly in Launceston. 

If you cannot pay your rates 'the Council' will come down on you like a ton of bricks. If you overstay your time on a parking metre, 'the Council', revenue hungry as Town Hall is, will penalised you to the maximum. Yet, Council and Councillors appear to 'get out gaol free' at every turn and even the press lets them of the hook. Why might that be?

In Queensland Councillors were held to account and the government  updated its laws to protect local government constituents from the excesses of delinquent councillors and councils. What needs to happen in Tasmania before 'the government' starts to take a really serious look at Launceston City Council's performance, accountability and integrity? Likewise, what signals does a council need to put out there before the Auditor General steps up to protect ratepayers and residents, the business community and the amenity of place from bureaucratic excess?

These are questions that are regularly asked by City of Launceston constituents amongst themselves and sometimes of 'government'. Such pleadings seem bound to fall upon deaf ears but surely one day someone for some reason will hear them – hope springs eternal.

“Something has to be heard to be ignored. He heard me this time, 

and he ignored me.” ― H.G. Parry, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep