Increasingly I feel I’m in Porpoise Spit, the fictitious town in Muriel’s Wedding.  Muriel’s dad, the Mayor of Porpoise Spit, had some great lines like “You can’t stop progress!” and “Deirdre Chambers, what a coincidence!”.

Here in Southern Downs, our Mayor seems to be taking a shine to the line “Commercial in Confidence”.  In last Tuesday’s Stanthorpe Record, Mayor Vic Pennisi said that the Emu Swamp Dam deal is “commercial in confidence” to “both parties”.  If you’re wondering where the Mayor might have picked up this phrase, could it have been from Granite Belt Water, who seem to use this phrase to respond to any question they don’t want to answer? 

Our Mayor has certainly latched on to the phrase in order to keep Council’s Emu Swamp Dam deal out of the public eye.  But can this deal really be confidential?

We know Council is selling the water allocation.  We know who they’re selling it to.  We know why they’re selling it: for Emu Swamp Dam.  The only thing we don’t know is the price, and whether Council has bothered to protect itself against the massive financial risks in this deal.  So these unknowns are not “commercial in confidence”.  They’re critical to open and transparent government.

To sell a public asset other than in an open market requires Ministerial approval.  It’s that unusual.  Rightly, the sale of a public asset can never be “commercial in confidence”, no matter how much the Mayor would like it to be.

I find it impossible to see how the ratepayers knowing the terms of this deal could in any way prejudice the interests of the Council.  Would it mean that Council got a worse deal from Granite Belt Water?  Would it mean that GBW walked away from the deal?  Both seem very unlikely given that this project will not go ahead without Council’s 450 ML allocation.

The Council, as the seller of this very valuable asset, is in the driver’s seat.  The Council is required to comply with its obligations under the Local Government Principles which require transparency to ensure that the local government is accountable.  Where’s the accountability in a secret sale of a very valuable public asset? 

The fact that Council is trying to keep this deal hidden, should worry all ratepayers.

As a buyer, no doubt Granite Belt Water would not like other sellers of water allocations to know what they’ve agreed to pay Council.  To that I say “tough luck”:  that’s what you get when you want to buy a public asset.  It is not OK for the Council to help GBW out, to the detriment of open and transparent government and scrutiny by ratepayers.