From what we’ve seen and heard at recent Council meetings, let’s try and unpick the current drama surrounding the Granite Belt Alliance.

In March Graham Parker, President of the Stanthorpe & Granite Belt Chamber of Commerce, used the Granite Belt Alliance as a forum to move a motion about Emu Swamp Dam. 

The Mayor, chairing the meeting, allowed the motion to be debated despite it not complying with the Alliance’s rules about the required notice to be given of proposed motions.

One can only imagine that this small tantrum from Mr Parker was because he thought that not enough people were publicly supporting Emu Swamp Dam.  (Perhaps he formed this view when the online petition only managed 170 signatures?).

At the Council meeting on 10 May 2023 Councillor McDonald asked Mayor Vic Pennisi about the mystery of the missing minutes of the Granite Belt Alliance.  The resulting exchange saw Cr McDonald voluntarily leave the meeting and the Mayor issue an order reprimanding Cr McDonald for inappropriate meeting conduct. 

At the Council meeting of 24 May, Mayor Vic Pennisi and Councillors Tancred, Gow, Bartley and Gale voted against correcting the minutes to reflect why Cr McDonald left the meeting.

Also on 24 May 2023 Councillor McDonald moved to receive a piece of correspondence in relation to the Granite Belt Alliance meeting on 20 March 2023.  This motion was passed.  However the letter is not attached to the draft minutes.

Why?  The answer lies behind the budget papers in the Agenda for the special council meeting on Wednesday 7 June: a notice from the Mayor to repeal Cr McDonald’s motion.  The reason given by the Mayor in his attached letter is that

This is not about transparency as has been suggested on many occasions, or about what becomes public, this is about due process. The letter is not of any strategic nature and consequently should never have been tabled at a Council Meeting.

Really?  Whether or not the letter is of a “strategic nature” is irrelevant, and is a misquoting of Council’s meeting policy by the Mayor.  The policy in fact states that

A Councillor may table relevant correspondence to the Council (as defined in Section 5 of the Policy), which must relate to strategic local government matters.  All operational matters will be dealt with in accordance with Council’s formal request processes.

So the policy makes a distinction between strategic and operational matters.  The actual question then is whether the Granite Belt Alliance and matters in relation to it are a strategic or an operational matter.

For an answer let’s go back to Item 10.1 from the Agenda for 24 May 2023.  The covering report is done by the CEO himself, Dave Burges.  The “Background” section of the CEO’s report states that:

The purpose of [Granite Belt Alliance] is to provide greater cohesion between the member organisations and to:
• Work collaboratively to achieve better outcomes for the Granite Belt;
• Share and disseminate information across the member organisations;
• Improve communication with Council, other levels of government and the community; and
• Provide Council with strategic guidance and/or recommendations in relation to issues relevant to the member organisations on an ongoing basis.

So given the Granite Belt Alliance’s purpose is to provide strategic guidance to the Council it’s hard to see how matters in relation to it are operational rather than strategic.

In the end no doubt this repeal motion will pass, given that sadly not enough of our Councillors seem to value integrity.  Instead they wave through non-reports and decide that it’s perfectly fine to approve clearly incorrect minutes. 

However it’s interesting to note the lengths that the Mayor will go to prevent any public embarrassment to his friend Graham Parker at the Stanthorpe & Granite Belt Chamber of Commerce.  At the end of the day we can hope that Mr Parker and the Mayor have learnt a lesson, and they might make a little more effort in the future to show some respect for the rules.  

3 June 2023