The General Manager's initiative to consult with Launceston's ratepayers in regard to the striking of the annual rate before it was actually struck was unwelcomed by three Aldermen but wholeheartedly endorsed by the city's Ratepayer's Association. Does that tell you anything?Well the Association has taken the opportunity to make a submission to Council on the subject, so let's see where that goes. Ratepayers write to the press and one imagines that the bureaucrats at Town Hall will disregard them as will many Aldermen. The bureaucrats seem to think that more of the same will do it for them – it has up to now. They'll predictably be fighting for the status quo – unless there has been a mind shattering shift in their sentiments – and all the consultation will look like just so much window dressing.
Typically 'community consultation' in Launceston involves bureaucrats telling ratepayers and residents what is good for them rather than an opportunity to listen to them and to take on board new information.
The cynics seem to be finding indicators that the process here was less genuine than it might have been and has been presented as. If ratepayers are treated like mushrooms, and in the past they have been, their cynicism should have been expected. The test will be when the rate is struck! Let us see if there is indeed an effort to be more equitable and better financial managers.
1 comment:
I didn't bother to waste my time attending a pretend meeting at Town Hall. If the council was actually interested in what Launceston people want then they would have listened and taken a different direction years ago.
Half the council was missing at the last 2 meetings. We pay you handsomely these days and you can't even turn up.
All the present crop are just a waste of space.
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