Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery has been accused of ‘‘closing the council’s ears’’ and trying to install ‘‘golden gates’’ at Wollongong’s boundaries, after he pushed for changes to be made to the council’s community speaking forum.
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In a notice of motion at Monday night’s council meeting, Cr Bradbery suggested the policy for the public access forum – which allows people to speak for five minutes on an issue at the start of meetings – be ‘‘tidied up’’ to stop irrelevant issues being brought before the council.
‘‘What I’ve noticed has crept in is the attitude that you can come and bring extraneous issues, not only those affecting our local government area, in front of this chamber and make use of this forum,’’ he said.
Independent councillor Vicki Curran said she was ‘‘flabbergasted’’ to hear this motion, as she did not understand why Cr Bradbery wanted to exclude people from outside the LGA.
‘‘If we adopt this, our ears are closed to everyone else,’’ she said.
‘‘The Lord Mayor is wanting to close our opportunity to listen to experts, academics and advocates who possibly live outside our golden gates.
‘‘I’m picturing next [he] will be requesting armed guards at the entry points to our city to ensure those living outside our beautiful city can not influence our minds ... by taking up a mere five minutes of our time.
‘‘And let’s face it, we do not have them lining up at the doors to do so.’’
Liberal Michelle Blicavs agreed, saying Wollongong councillors often made decisions affecting people outside the city and successfully suggested a change to the motion allowing citizens or businesses from outside the region to speak with approval of the Lord Mayor.
Leigh Colacino said he was also keen to allow all people a place at the forum, but said he thought the wording of Cr Bradbery’s motion would allow relevant people to speak.
‘‘[It says] that a nominee of an entity owning land, conducting a business or providing a service can get up and speak,’’ he said.
‘‘So that about covers it. The only people we are possibly excluding would be someone who has absolutely nothing to do with Wollongong.’’
The suggested changes to the policy will now be placed on public exhibition for four weeks.