The Flaming Irony

Irony abounds when you note the closest we got to live stream swearing* was delivered by a Councillor during debate over live streaming of question time on Tuesday night, it was a very mild and quite forgivable bit of French but in context hilarious given one repeated concern from Councillors was that members of the public might swear or say something defamatory on camera.

The good news of course is that the motion passed (just) and full video live streaming is on its way via a $7K camera heading from over east because as we all know Perth has no camera or IT shops ~ “there goes the procurement policy” noted Councillor Re.

I did in question time suggest the eminently sensible option of audio-only streaming of public question time, this is how Swan, Vincent, Victoria park and other councils who live stream in some fashion do it, the officers report itself gave 3 options – 2 of which were exactly the same and provided exactly the same outcome.

Regardless I must offer congratulations and kudos to all those who spoke to and supported the motion, that is Councillors Spagnolo, Re, Proud, Sargent, Thornton and Farrelly. Councillor Caddy also voted for the motion as did Mayor Irwin who has always been pretty liberal with question time (as long as nobody mentions Worksafe ;))

If you only like the happy endings, now might be a good time to stop reading (though there is a nice bit at the end)….

quid pro quo:

The bad news is that it is clear that several Elected Members are looking to use this ‘win for the community’ as quid pro quo for the reduction of the length allowed for public question time, for limiting the number of questions and potentially limiting the type of questions that can be asked, these were only musings in debate but have it appears been gathering steam behind closed doors… watch this space…

During debate several Councillors complained about 1 ½ hour + question times and how tired some Councillors might be afterward, bless . To be fair the last 2 meetings have indeed had 1 hour plus question times combined with heavy agendas, but such meetings are rare, PQT in my experience would on average take 25 -30 minutes at best, there might well be ways to alleviate these issues but prohibition should IMO not be one of them.

Credit where due : the Local Government Act Regulations only provide for 15 minutes of PQT requiring Councillors vote for an extension to PQT after that – and to their credit I have yet to see any Stirling Councillor vote against extending question time.

 

Quite the most frustrating part of this debate however was some barely veiled contempt pointed by certain elected members towards the gallery.

Deputy Major Sandri noted that the behaviour in the gallery was sometimes `less than ideal` adding to the irony by noting that Councillors are bound by a code of conduct. Some have suggested that this is a little rich from a Town Planner who it appears did not declare a conflict of interest when voting to change the City’s parking laws for Places of Worship allowing the City to recommend approval for a DAP Place of Worship application handled by the Deputy Mayors company.

Councillor Hatton who has apparently being coming to Council for some 10-15 years recalls people being ejected from the chamber for bad behaviour, perhaps that is true, though I am unaware of such **, or for that matter of Councillor Hattons mass attendance record prior to standing for Council.

It was noted that often questions from the gallery had nothing to do with the Agenda, yet if you have a question on an agenda item it usually will not be answered because ‘that item is on tonight’s` agenda and will be discussed later’ – yet it many cases is not, many agenda items, even when there have been related questions are passed by exception resolution meaning they do not get debated.

Personally I think that if a member of the public has made the effort to come and ask a question about a specific agenda item that the Council should make the effort to either answer that question or call out the item even if just to address the question.

 

Councillor Boothman got really flaming upset about members of the gallery asking questions that Council should not be expected to answer, questions that should not be directed at Council, I respectfully suggest that Clr Boothman is making assumptions rather than actually listening to questioners and their intent, given there are no deputations allowed at PQT in Stirling questions are often statements. If listening to residents’ concerns is too hard for some Councillors then perhaps … :redacted:

To clarify Councillors, the members of the community asking questions that night about the Karrinyup and White Sands redevelopments were and continue to be fully aware that the City is not the decision maker, this they understand, they are not quite as simple as some Councillors may prefer to believe , and even were that the case,  they pay for this shit.

I did not say it was not getting better:

Recently the Council (I think it was Mayor Irwins deputation delivered by Councillor Caddy?) did make a deputation to the DAP for the Yelo cafe DAP refusal, this is progress, and in answers to questions it appears that Councillors have ‘called in’ the RAR for the Karrinyup DAP application – more progress.

Progress on these fronts are at least in part due to the attendance and pressure from members of the public taking part in surveys and coming to Council asking the questions that Councillor Boothman does not like, he mused that more people will be in asking the exact same questions next week, this might be true given the answers are not often forthcoming – nonetheless he misses the point that if the questions and answers are live streamed – there would be no need for people to come in and ask again, of course the public can read the minutes, available as surreally suggested by Councillor Lagan given we are talking about electronic streaming, at the library ….

If Council were to be more proactive on such issues in the first place, by default, and lets be honest few of them are a surprise, then perhaps question time might be a little less fraught

The simple truth is that the community does what it has discovered it has to do to try and get Council to do that which the community expect that  it might not unreasonably be expected to do, that is to proactively advocate on behalf of the community, making deputations to the DAP, to DevelopmentWA and State Government in cases where the City is not the decision maker, no differently from the public gallery attending Council meetings to try and comment on decisions that they also have no part in.

Having attended meetings across several of the more prominent LGA’s each with their own pro’s and con’s, Stirlings handling of question time fares very well.

Whether that will continue will depend on the quid pro quo that is bubbling away in the back of some Councillors minds.

…………………

* I have heard swearing from the gallery, it happens, though the frequency of members of the gallery saying `bum` or something similar are quite rare, I did once at an electors meeting cough in a manner that to the uneducated ear may have sounded like a rather loud ‘bullshit’ though I am sure that was a trick of the acoustics.

People who come to Council do get emotional, though rarely confrontational, they rarely get actionable and surely knowledge of recording might make the public a little more cautious when addressing Council.

** I did once guide one of our American friends from the lectern prior to what had the potential of being a more forceful ejection, he left the building under his own steam and was later allowed back in.