Kieran for Wodonga

Today the Stockagents held their final “Save the Saleyards” Rally in Woodland Grove. Naturally I was not invited to attend, I’m an evil Greenie who wants to avoid the City of Wodonga taking on new debt. I went down to High St anyway.

Leafleting a short distance from the protest gathering, I received the usual array of hostility, as well as a few copies of the long awaited stock agents campaign leaflet (pictured above). It will arrive in Wodonga letterboxes during the coming week.

There are a few things that need to be said about it:

The most obvious is that it fails to comply with electoral law.

1. The recommendation that voters “Vote 1 to 9 according to your preference” is borderline, it could be seen as misleading voters on how to cast a correct vote (ie. number every box, not just nine).
2. The authorisation does not comply with the electoral act. Authorisations need to list the person who authorised the leaflet, and a physical address at which they can be found. The VEC is quite explicit about the fact that a PO box is insufficient. This leaflet lists the “Albury Wodonga Stock Agents Association Inc” as the authorising person, and then gives their PO box.

These are probably just honest mistakes, but none the less they make the continued distribution of this leaflet unlawful.

Even more embarrassing to the stock agents association has to be the fact that not all the candidates they recommend actually support them!

One candidate on that list has explicitly told me, in the presence of other candidates, that he does not agree with the tactics or position of the Stock agents association.

Another of the candidates has told me, and other candidates, that the primary reason he is running is to feed preferences to Lisa Mahood, a councillor who voted for the sale and relocation of the Saleyards.

A third candidate does not state that explicitly, but as a member of the Labor Party, that is what he is doing.

Then there is the small matter of the people who financed the leaflet. Look at the logos at the bottom of the leaflet, these businesses have a vested financial interest in ensuring that the ratepayers of Wodonga continue to subsidise a saleyards.

I am fed up. The self interested campaign of the Stock Agents Association has been an annoying distraction from the real issues of this campaign.

Update: Apologies to Ben Robson, I accept I can be a bit too touchy about these things. Keep up the good work.

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The Border Mail’s article on Thursday night’s public forum can be found here.

Once again the Border Mail has taken the odd liberty when selecting a “quote” to put next to my name. I the past I can see this has been an honest mistake that has not overly distorted what I was trying to get across, but Ben Robson took it a bridge too far.

“I think retiring the city’s debt is an essential pre-requisite to a just and equitable society,” Kieran Bennett said.

This appears to have been an attempt to contract two parts of my speech into one sentence, because I did say:

We are committed to the environment, because it is an essential prerequisite. Our ultimate goal, is to work towards a more just and equitable society.

And:

At the same time that we need urgent action to secure our future against the threats of climate change, our city’s ability to plan and invest is severely restricted by our large debt burden.

The speech I gave on that night, word for word, can be found here. I hope that in future, Ben Robson will prioritise accuracy over convenience when reporting on local politics.

Tonight saw the one and only candidates forum, organised by the Wodonga Ratepayers Association.

Maybe thirty members of the public joined half a dozen organisers and fourteen candidates to discuss the election. In my allotted five minutes I delivered this brief address:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

Dennis Black and I share a vision. We want to see a just community and a sustainable future. We want to see greater local democracy, and better council services.

But as a community we have reached a cross roads. There is a major problem on the horizon, and our actions in the next four years will determine what sort of community Wodonga will be in the next one hundred years.

The world’s leading climate scientists agree, that climate change now poses a threat to our survival as a species. To preserve a planet similar to that on which all life on earth is adapted, we must keep atmospheric carbon levels below 350 parts per million.

This year, 2008, saw carbon dioxide in the earths atmosphere reach 385 parts per million. three hundred and eight five.

As a town, there are two things we have to consider when confronting this climate crisis.

How do we minimize our carbon emissions, in order to do our bit and reduce atmospheric carbon levels.

AND

How do we secure our community against the threats that climate change will pose, here in Wodonga.

The biggest threat to our way of life, is the impact that climate change will have on our access to water.

Drier conditions are becoming the norm in inland Australia, and our town is competing with towns and cities up and down this river for a dwindling resource.

We must plan to use our water more efficiently.

Council has an important leadership role to play in this. Council can be the educator, the mobilizer, and the instigator of more co-ordinated response.

I want to make clear, Dennis Black and I are not opposed to new development or new investment. Quite the contrary. We want to see council attract and promote appropriate development, that is sustainable in light of this climate crisis.

But none of this comes will come about without investment.

At the same time that we need urgent action to secure our future against the threats of climate change, our city’s ability to plan and invest is severely restricted by our large debt burden.

Clearly the time has come to develop a more urgent plan towards retiring Wodonga’s existing debt.

We must fully consider the cost of debt, vs the need for investment, when making decisions about the future of council assets like the Saleyards, and when considering new plans for redevelopment.

It is clear, that the problems of climate change, complicated as they are by our debt burden, require a united community response.

Dennis Black and I are committed to involving the whole community in the decision making process.

When council commits to greater community involvement, council will benefit by drawing on the greater wisdom that exists within our community.

But, there is no point tackling climate change, if we do not also work towards a vision of social justice. We are committed to the environment, because it is an essential prerequisite. Our ultimate goal, is to work towards a more just and equitable society.

Dennis Black and I are committed to improving council services, promoting housing affordability, and working to make Wodonga a city that interests and excites our young people.

We want to see an inclusive approach, that involves the whole community in decision making. We see this as the best way forward in building action on the most pressing issue that faces Wodonga and the world.