First published September 20
The saga of the Huon Valley’s ‘dysfunctional’ council flowed on this past few days in a torrent of media releases. The rush started soon after Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein, offering no evidence, dumped on Mayor Peter Coad as the cause of all the trouble.
One wonders if the Minister has ever got around to reading for himself the report of his Board of Inquiry, which, in June, found HVC dysfunctional and made 55 recommendations — most of which Gutwein seems to have decided can be ignored ( see http://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/divisions/local_government/board_of_inquiry_-_huon_valley_council ).
The media releases make entertaining reading:
Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens spokesperson on Local Government, September 15:
Minister for Local Government Peter Gutwein’s call for the Mayor of the Huon Valley Council to stand down is a shameful attack on the man elected to change the broken culture of that council.
The primary recommendation of the Huon Valley Council Board of Inquiry was to disband the entire council and call fresh elections.
Mr Gutwein was forced to set up a Board of Inquiry to investigate serial complaints about governance and misconduct, but he refused to take their advice. Instead, he created a sham mediation process that’s in no way independent.
By ignoring his own Board of Inquiry, Minister Gutwein has placed Mayor Coad, and the other councillors pushing for transparency and accountability, in an untenable situation.
Mayor Coad is an independent, popularly elected representative of the Huon Valley residents. He was elected by the community explicitly to change the council culture of backroom decision-making, special favours to councillors, and opaque financial arrangements.
The Board of Inquiry placed equal responsibility on the councillors, the General Manager and the Mayor for the communication breakdown that has occurred. The Board strongly argued against instituting a mediation process, and argued that the parties were past that point.
By ignoring the Board’s recommendations, Minister Gutwein has effectively picked a side and set the Mayor up as the fall guy.
Minister Gutwein needs to stop singling out the Mayor. He should stand up for the best interests of the Huon Valley and support the recommendations of his own Board of Inquiry, disband the council, and call fresh elections.
( – See more at: http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php/press-releases/#sthash.w6WbciJS.dpuf )
Councillor Ian Mackintosh, September 17:
Ian Mackintosh today signalled his withdrawal from the mediation process the Minister Local Government, Peter Gutwein, directed Huon Valley Council undertake.
“Minister Gutwein’s attack on Mayor Coad on Thursday flies in the face of his own Board’s findings along with their recommendations, the Mayor is not the problem here.
“The Mayor stepping away from the mediation process was for sound reasons and he is not alone with his concerns.”
Cr Mackintosh is supportive of the vast bulk of the Board of Inquiry recommendations. But by allowing a riven council to establish its own mediation process the Minister, perhaps unintentionally, has created an environment where real and tangible reforms recommended by his own Board are unlikely to be realised.
Cr Mackintosh has asked Minister Gutwein reconsider the Directions he has provided Huon Valley Council.
Mayor Peter Coad, September 18:
Huon Valley Council’s mayor, Councillor Peter Coad, said today that the decisions of Councillors Ian Mackintosh and Liz Smith to withdraw from the council’s mediation process demonstrated clearly that the wheels had fallen off Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein’s Ministerial Directions to the council, issued on June 15.
That two councillors had joined him in asserting that the mediation process was fatally flawed, said Mayor Coad, highlighted why the Gutwein board of inquiry’s main recommendations should be implemented.
Cr Coad asked how Minister Gutwein could expect the council to apply good governance principles when he had been responsible for imposing what had proved to be a flawed process on council.
“What the Minister has done,” he said, “was akin to putting the fox in charge of the hen house to deliver a process that was never going to work.
“The Board of Inquiry’s final report confirmed that mediation was not the answer to council’s dysfunctional state, and experts in corporate governance want the major findings of the board to be implemented.”
The independent board’s three main recommendations were: (1) dismissal of the councillors and appointment of a commissioner to perform the functions of the council; (2) not call a new election for at least 12 months; and (3) that the question of whether the Minister should have the power to dismiss a council’s general manager should be referred to the review of the Local Government Act 1993.
Cr Coad said the Minister’s directive on mediation had revealed that there was no genuine commitment on the part of the Heart of the Huon group of councillors to tackle the council’s serious governance issues.
“I hope the Minister does not ask Crs Smith and Mackintosh to resign from council, as he did me,” he said. “Both of these councillors are highly respected, and they represent their constituents in a very professional manner.”
Cr Coad said it appeared that Minister Gutwein had given much weight to the findings of the report of the commercial law firm Page Seager, in defence of the council, but very little to his own board of inquiry’s report on the behaviour of the council.
The Page Seager report, he said, which totally rejected the findings and recommendations of the board’s report, had very serious legal questions hanging over it.
Mr Gutwein’s attempt to remove a democratically elected mayor was not supported by evidence presented in the independent board’s report, said Cr Coad.
“The question has to be asked,” he said, “is why is the Minister advocating for me to resign when he has no evidence to support his request?”
Cr Coad said that, in April this year, he had provided Mr Gutwein with highly reputable legal advice detailing possible breaches of the Local Government Act.
“I have received no advice from the Minister as to whether this advice is being acted upon,” he said.
“It would appear that the Minister has chosen to ignore this legal advice and, instead, decided to advocate for my removal as mayor.
Cr Coad said he believed there were political motives behind the decisions of the Minister that were not being revealed to residents of the Huon Valley.
( http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/pr-article/peter-coad-the-wheels-have-fallen-off-/ )
Councillor Liz Smith, September 19:
I have written to the Minister for Local Government, Peter Gutwein, explaining my reasons for deciding that I will no longer be participating in mediation as part of the Ministerial Directions in the structure established by the council.
This is because I reached the conclusion that there has been little, if any, apparent change in the culture of the majority of councillors since the release of the Board of Inquiry report and the Ministerial Directions, despite the training provided to councillors by the Local Government Association of Tasmania and the Local Government Division.
I had hoped that the Board of Inquiry report, by highlighting the issues, would result in fundamental changes in the culture of the council.. To this point there has been little more than an exercise in “ticking the boxes” without addressing the underlying problems.
The opposition of the majority of councillors to the mayor’s contributing to all council committees by being an ex-officio member (in accordance with recommendation 38 of the Board of Inquiry) is a demonstration of the ongoing culture and the lack of respect for the position of an elected leader, and without that respect there is no future for mediation.
Similarly, the lack of support for the motion that I proposed at the August 31 council meeting to get a report on the Human Resources unit of council so that we, as councillors, could properly fulfil the functions for which we were elected, demonstrated that the majority of councillors want to continue with “business as usual”.
Their decision also appears to have been influenced by verbal advice provided by the General Manager at the council meeting. In addition, with the withdrawal of the democratically-elected mayor from the mediation, the process cannot bring benefit for the Huon Valley Council and its ratepayers.
( http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/pr-article/another-huon-valley-councillor-withdraws-from-mediation-/ )
Rosalie Woodruff MP, September 19:
The withdrawal of a second councillor from the Huon Valley Council’s mediation process should send a strong message to the Local Government Minister that his process has been corrupted.
Huon Valley Council appointing their own mediator has fuelled the division on an already dysfunctional Council.
Councillor Mackintosh withdrew from mediation because he was concerned it wasn’t independent. This can’t be a process designed by the Minister just to tick his boxes, but keep the status quo.
Instead of demanding that the popularly elected Huon Valley Mayor “step aside”, Minister Gutwein needs to return to the original recommendation of the Board of Inquiry.
Minister Gutwein has to stop pointing the finger at Mayor Coad, and have a good look in the mirror.
The Minister’s own Board of Inquiry was very clear about what’s needed — fresh elections, following a two-year period with an independent administrator. This is the only way to clean up the dysfunctional culture that’s developed on Huon Valley Council.
Huon Valley residents have launched a petition, calling on the Minister Gutwein to implement the Board of Inquiry Recommendations. They don’t like the Minister’s ‘pick a side’ process and want this handled responsibly.
Premier Hodgman has said he wants the people of the Huon to be confident that they’re getting the right level of service from their Council. That begins with Local Government Minister, Peter Gutwein, doing the responsible thing and taking the Board of Inquiry’s advice.
( http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/pr-article/huon-valley-council-mediation-fruitless-fresh-elections-needed/ )
Earlier …
SACKED …
• ABC: Huon Valley Council to be sacked after infighting, Minister to appoint commissioner Huon Valley Council will be sacked after mediation failed to overcome bitter divisions between councillors and the general manager. Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein told the Tasmanian Parliament he had hoped the council would resolve its issues through mediation, but it had failed. “As this council is unable to work together for the benefit of the Huon community, they’ve left me no other option but for me to take the course of action I have outlined,” Mr Gutwein said. “They deserve to have strong leadership, goodwill and and good governance.” The council has been plagued with infighting. Last week, Mr Gutwein criticised Mayor Peter Coad for pulling out of mediation and told him to resign. But Cr Coad refused to go and called on Mr Gutwein to sack the entire council, in line with the recommendation of an independent investigation. Two other councillors have since pulled out of the mediation process …
*Lindsay Tuffin has been a journo for nearly five decades … in Oz and Pomland.
• Madeleine Ogilvie: Half a million dollars wasted in Huon debacle Minister sat on his hands while dysfunction continued Gutwein completely hands-off during critical mediation period Ratepayers should not have been saddled with sorry state of affairs …
• Peter Gutwein: Huon Valley Council It has been clear for quite some time that the Huon Valley Council has not been operating as well as it should. The Government believes that as a democratically elected council, in the first instance it is up to the councillors themselves to resolve their issues. We have assisted the council by appointing a Board of Inquiry to independently investigate a number of concerns and complaints that had been raised. The Board recommended that either the Council be dismissed or a mediation process initiated …
• Rosalie Woodruff: Huon Valley Residents Suffer Gutwein’s Delay After three months, the Minister for Local Government has finally taken his Board of Inquiry’s advice on fixing Huon Valley Council’s toxic culture. Minister Gutwein’s decision to dismiss all the Huon Valley councillors, appoint a commissioner for at least 12 months, and then call elections at some point afterwards is a welcome relief. It took the withdrawal of three councillors and an online petition organised by Huon Valley residents to force the Minister to get his head out of the sand. We’re pleased he’s finally going to listen to his Board of Inquiry and address the dysfunction, but it shouldn’t have taken three months. It’s Huon Valley residents who have been left in limbo and who are suffering from Peter Gutwein’s poor process …
• Watch Peter Gutwein make his statement HERE …
EARLIER on Tasmanian Times …
• How low can Huon’s council go?
• phill Parsons in Comments: … Amalgamation with Kingborough may have broken the hold of local special interests but more likely is the pervasive idea that a ‘cargo’ will arrive in the hands of a white knight investor [Forestry, the hydro, a mining company, a sawmilling company, woodchip exports, world scale fish farms] will arrive to save the old guard will return to the halls of local government having festered in the other halls nearby and in Canberra. Until and only when the Huon transforms its own products and talents it will remain caught in the eddies of an economic backwater.
• Bob Hawkins in Comments: Between now and the arrival of the commissioner next month, Gutwein needs to appoint an acting commissioner to oversee day-to-day running of council. And, when the permanent commissioner takes over, a forensics squad should get to work delving into every nook and cranny of HVC files (well, those that still exist), going back if necessary to council’s formation in 1993. We don’t want to have to put up with more classic Lib/Lab crap such as, “Forget it. That’s all in the past. Let’s make a fresh start. Let’s move on!” I’m not alone in believing this council, one way or another, has never not had rot in it.
Chris
September 19, 2016 at 15:51
Guess what the Gut whiner is about to “act”!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-20/huon-valley-council-to-be-sacked/7860852?section=tas
Geoffrey Swan
September 19, 2016 at 16:41
I am confused.. the Mercury has a different version of the story…
SOUTHERN Tasmania’s Huon Valley councillors will be sacked unless they can convince Local Minister Peter Gutwein otherwise by mid-October.
Mr Gutwein has told State Parliament this morning that requirements set out by him in June have not been met by the council and he has been left with no choice other than to sack the elected representatives.
He has given them until mid-October to explain why they should not be dismissed.
Is Gutwein still holding out an olive branch …
Carol Rea
September 19, 2016 at 18:10
Sounds like Gutwein is putting in an Admistrator for 12 months then allowing the incumbent Councillors 12 months until the 2018 election cycle to ‘prove’ that they can operate in a responsible and transparent manner for their community.
It will be an interesting 12 months.
Chris
September 19, 2016 at 19:56
Whose right and whose wrong, Mercury v ABC?
Is it in Gut whiners plan to amalgamate councils and will the Clarence liberals be able to take over Sorell or is it stacked too?
Simon Warriner
September 19, 2016 at 20:34
From up here in the NW Gutwein is certainly looking rather indecisive, at best.
Certainly not looking like the decisive and diligent minister he would have us all believe he is.
Geoffrey Swan
September 19, 2016 at 22:56
If anyone wants to see Minister Gutwein in action today… ignoring Rosalie Woodruff’s accurate comments… here it is.. about 36 minutes in and runs for 5 minutes approx.. I am still confused.
http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/ha/qt/qt200916.htm
TGC
September 20, 2016 at 00:47
Whingers all
Mark Temby
September 20, 2016 at 10:55
The easiet solution in the medium term is the full amalgamation into a single southern municipality. No more HVC elections ever; no more tin pot plays between Cygnet, Huonville, Geeveston and Dover; just better representatives within a larger region.
phill Parsons
September 20, 2016 at 12:32
One year under administration and then a new election for the same boundaries is unlikely to resolve the malaise that holds the Huon Valley in a time warp caught between the ideas of the 1950’s and the unresolved forest wars.
The usual suspects are likely to stand and the usual voter preferences are likely to be expressed.
Amalgamation with Kingborough may have broken the hold of local special interests but more likely is the pervasive idea that a ‘cargo’ will arrive in the hands of a white knight investor [Forestry, the hydro, a mining company, a sawmilling company, woodchip exports, world scale fish farms] will arrive to save the old guard will return to the halls of local government having festered in the other halls nearby and in Canberra.
Until and only when the Huon transforms its own products and talents it will remain caught in the eddies of an economic backwater.
Bob Hawkins
September 20, 2016 at 12:40
Between now and the arrival of the commissioner next month, Gutwein needs to appoint an acting commissioner to oversee day-to-day running of council. And, when the permanent commissioner takes over, a forensics squad should get to work delving into every nook and cranny of HVC files (well, those that still exist), going back if necessary to council’s formation in 1993. We don’t want to have to put up with more classic Lib/Lab crap such as, “Forget it. That’s all in the past. Let’s make a fresh start. Let’s move on!” I’m not alone in believing this council, one way or another, has never not had rot in it.
John Hawkins
September 20, 2016 at 23:05
Something smells seriously rotten in the Huon Valley.
Paul Harriss,woodchips, barges, council, collusion and the departure of Huon Harriss a Minister and newly minted Liberal are all somewhere in this quagmire.
A quandary for Gutwein who cannot see the beans of corruption within the bankrupt loss making Tasmanian Forestry industry spilt further accross the forest floor.
Why did the all powerful Harriss the new Liberal recruit vanish without trace?
pat synge
September 21, 2016 at 10:44
#11
I have been asking myself the same question.
john hayward
September 21, 2016 at 12:20
The dismissal of the law as merely a “scrap of paper” was originally deployed by authoritarian states in respect to their contempt for international law at the time of WW1.
In Tas, the concept has been extended to domestic law, most recently by Peter Gutwein. I was given a particularly blatant demo in a case about nine years ago, also in respect to the Local Govt Act, involving forestry.
The mystery here is to what Tas Inc interests are behind the desperate determination of the Heart of Huon crowd to remove the mayor.
I’ve heard only guesses. Disinterested Huon locals must know more. They should share the specifics with the rest of us.
John Hayward
Mark Temby
September 21, 2016 at 13:12
The old hoary chestnut of “sustainable” biofuels from native forests hit the Mercury again from the AFPA with a second article from Jan Davis.
http://www.themercury.com.au/news/opinion/talking-point-energy-from-burning-forest-waste-is-green/news-story/8427ad39db668694869264764332d0f2
Southwood in the Huon, as it was known, was always part of Tuckey’s 2020 Forestry Vision (then again, so were MIS, Timbercorp and Gunns). Three sites for power generation in Huonville, Smithton and Scottsdale with the two majors, obviously responding to generous lobbyists and donors, amending Renewable Energy legislation last year to include “wastewood.” All conveniently ignoring the scientific facts like wood is carbon based and less efficient than even the dirtiest coal. It was the Huon Division of the Liberal Party just last year that moved for an official climate change denial position in its policies.
One would expect all this when the pond contains a limited demographic pool of older, white conservative males resistant to any new generation or sex.
gerrya
September 21, 2016 at 14:35
#10 and 11
Former Mayor also very quite in the media, possibly not so behind the scenes.
Southern waste solution about to be dumped on valley residents?
Mick
September 21, 2016 at 16:48
Talking of transparency & dysfunctionality, what happened to the two rants about the Council that appeared before this one? They were here one day, and gone the next, with no explanation. Or is transparency and dysfunctionality only for others?
Ed: They are in archives …
Bob Hawkins
September 21, 2016 at 20:54
Once the commissioner is in the job, it will be her/his responsibility to examine all the findings and recommendations of Gutwein’s Board of Inquiry; and to seriously consider which issues require forensic investigation. I’m waiting now for someone to name what they see as the main issues. I’d start with: asbestos in Cygnet Town Hall; the terms of council’s contract relating to the Cygnet camping ground; the dawn destruction of Franklin’s football clubrooms in early 2009 (another asbestos issue); circumstances surrounding two years of an illegal/unapproved jetty at Franklin; an examination of the appointment/selection process for the general manager’s job in 2013; how council’s management came to be restructured by an acting council officer; an examination of events surrounding council’s HR department these past three years; a variety of compliance issues . . . Anyone else got any ideas … ?
Trish Kyne
September 22, 2016 at 00:41
Looking at the comments to date:
#11 – One hopes that when choosing an administrator the minister does his homework regarding familial ties.
If a new home is sought for Harriss he would be a dreadful administrator; just look at forestry. He is also related to a very large percentage of the valley, and councillors. Not an independent choice!
The administrator needs to be able to cut through the BS and smoke and mirrors that constitute business in the valley. I think one of the investigators from the BOI, who are already very familiar with the valley issues would be a good choice.
They could hit the ground running, and are not so easily snowed.
#15 Former mayor not so happy on Sunday when some of us were promoting the petition at the markets; didn’t face us though, held court at the scout fundraiser.
What happens now to the Geeveston Town Hall Incorporated Business? No councillors left to be on their board, just the GM for the time being. Will the council continue to fund this project by paying for staff etc while the committee keeps their books away from the auditor general? They have also given themselves the provision to pay consultancy fees to whoever they choose. Lots of unanswered questions remain regarding the true nature of this exercise. Does ‘no councillors’ equal another job for the administrator? That should be interesting.
Trish Kyne
September 22, 2016 at 04:15
So – Gutwein ignores the recommendations of the BOI investigators who actually did the hard yards and understand the truth of the situation.
Then the minister directed the flawed mediation process; and now the minister has announced in parliament that he is considering charging the Huon Valley Council with the costs of their mediation process?
Only a politician expects the community to pick up the costs of their mistakes.
Bob Hawkins
September 22, 2016 at 10:18
#18. As admirable, and independent, as the BoI investigators were in their probings into HVC, they obviously are now conflicted. I think, having, within legal constraints, told it as it is (though possibly with quite a few warts excised), they are now disqualified from being considered for the commissioner job. I thank them both for doing a pretty good job in getting the dismissal ball rolling.
Trish Kyne
September 22, 2016 at 13:46
Maybe it’s time for the Integrity Commission to have a look?
The Toxic Avenger
September 23, 2016 at 20:19
#15 re “Southern waste solution about to be dumped on valley residents?”
It is the perfect place for toxic residues!
The valley’s high rainfall will leach toxins into the island’s salmon farming catchment area, and it is known that fatty Atlantic salmon flesh is notorious for storing PCBs and other toxins. Salmon + pollution is a synergistic combo!
I hear there is already DDT in the Hospital Bay sediment, if they put a toxic dump down that way maybe no one will notice the difference?
Or stick the toxic dump at Lake Pedder, where the platypus already have PCBs in their fat?
My tip however is to keep the Huon salmon clean, given that they are one of the few things on the island making a dollar, and stick the dump elsewhere, preferably somewhere dry.
Treeger
September 24, 2016 at 15:34
#22, #15 is talking about the Southern Forests Residue Solution (I hope). IE, the ongoing debacle around how the government can remove wood waste left from forestry operations- without subsidy. Oh, apart from the freight subsidy in allowing secret containerisation of wood chips. Oh, apart from biomass grants. Oh, apart from an unknown sum of Huon Valley Council ratepayers money spent on the doomed Waterloo Bay Application. And lastly, the remainder of the federal forest agreement money that was somehow allowed to be spent by Paul Harriss on re-tooling sawmills.
(just look around the world, these things are a major priority for other governments…….not). The old men still pulling the strings in The Huon have such a disconnect with nature and the rest of the planet on climate change, perhaps they could benefit from a spot of nature therapy on The Great Barrier Reef or in The Tarkine on foot rather than in a machine.
gerrya
September 26, 2016 at 12:29
#22 & 23
On a bend in the Huon river upstream from Judbury you will find a facility that was mooted for expansion not so long ago ( https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-43.0540957,146.8142092,1884m/data=!3m1!1e3 ).
Join the dots in #23 add the Ta Ann Harriss link (previously published in TT) and you might begin to see the picture. All said to be in the interests of residents of the valley from the dual solution of providing an alternate source of energy and removal of wood waste without the need to truck through Hobart. Sadly, no mention of the probable pollution of the Huon (Sorry to add to your woes My Swan), no mention of when plantation timber will run out, and no mention of increase in the cost to ratepayers when remediation is required. Visionary – hardly, Delusionary – sadly yet again!
phil Parsons
September 29, 2016 at 14:53
As followers of the periginations of local government on the Nortern Beaches will know an Administrator can discover many hidden matters and make staff changes that end special arrangements.
However vigilance is needed to avoid a toady being appointed with the purpose of keeping matters hidden from the electors.
Trish Kyne
September 29, 2016 at 17:16
#23 Treeger – the ‘revamped’ barge proposal is listed in ‘pre-assessment’ @ HVC. With the Franklin project being approved by council on Wednesday night and the Recherche Bay project to go to council, one would hope that two large projects with huge employment and tourist destinations along the Huon, that the barge proposal is torpedoed. Eyesores and noise and trucks every 7 minutes 12 hours a day 7 days a week do not sit well with the other developments.
#25 Phil, I agree. The former mayor announced last week that he had the job as administrator…besides being related to 1/2 the population there are other issues.
Geoffrey Swan
September 30, 2016 at 17:12
#26 An absolute minimum prerequisite for any potential administrator, apart from having no links to the Valley, previous or current, is the person needs to demonstrate functional literacy.
Wikipedia: functional illiteracy…”reading and writing skills that are inadequate ‘to manage daily living and employment tasks that require reading skills beyond a basic level’.