A sign on the Lane Cove Council Car Park situated at the back of Coles was vandalised with anti-Liberal Grafitti. The graffiti included the words “Vote Greens”.
Two Liberal Councillors, Bennison and Brooks-Horn, put forward a notice of motion for debate at Monday’s Lane Cove Council meeting. The Notice of Motion read:
“We refer to the attached photograph of graffiti on Council property by what appears to have done by either Green’s candidate(s) and/or their supporters.
The removal of graffiti not only cost the ratepayers of Lane Cove financially but also takes time away from staff when their time could be spent serving the community.
It may not have occurred to the vandals that such graffiti is illegal and that these vandal(s) need to be educated on their inappropriate actions.
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That Council:
1. Report the matter to the local Police.
2. Write to the Green’s candidate(s) requesting: a. Reimbursement to Council for the cost of removal. b. Educate their supporters that graffiti on Council owner property is vandalism and illegal.”
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The Notice of Motion provides no evidence that a Greens supporter did the vandalism. In fact, there has been an increased amount of vandalism around Lane Cove during the lockdown period.
Rochelle Flood is a local Greens Candidate that is intending to stand at the Lane Cove Council election on 4th December 2021.
She told ITC that she had not been contacted by either the Lane Cove Council or Councillors to discuss the matter. She labelled this notice of motion as absurd and a time-waster.
The very principle of our justice system is that a person is innocent until proven guilty, and guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. To put up a motion without evidence or seeking comments from the Greens is a denial of natural justice.
Rochelle Green said she spoke to her supporters, and none of them said they were involved in the vandalism.
Climate Matters
She said she would rather see the Liberal Councillors concentrate on the more significant issues like climate change.
She noted that both Clrs Bennison and Brooks-Horn have voted against climate motions.
Council and the Lane Cove community recognise the potential impacts of our changing climate and, as a result, declared a climate emergency in 2019. Council made a commitment to developing a CRP to identify local climate shocks, community stresses and risks in response to our changing climate.
At the August Lane Cove Council Meeting, the Lane Cove Council debated the adoption of a Climate Resilience Plan (CRP).
A Draft CRP was placed on public exhibited from 23 June to 4 August 2021; twenty-eight survey responses and two separate submissions were received. The responses were generally supportive, although the respondents requested more defined resilience targets and actions, while some who do not support the adoption of any climate actions. Overall, 87% of responses supported the Draft CRP.
In building climate resilience, both mitigation and adaptation to a changing climate need to be addressed.
Climate mitigation is the ability to reduce the impacts of a changing climate, while adaptation involves ensuring infrastructure upgrades consider the changing climate, both privately and Council-owned assets. Furthermore, in response to the increased frequency of extreme events (storms, floods, bush fires), emergency management planning needs to be adapted and modified to ensure we can respond to these changes.
The Draft CRP sets goals and targets on five (5) resilient themes:
- resilient people,
- resilient buildings,
- resilient urban open space,
- resilient natural environment, and
- resilient governance.
The goals and targets will guide the implementation of the priority actions over the next five years to respond to the challenges posed by a changing climate.
Councillor Scott Bennison was very vocal about not supporting the CRP but gave no reasons as to why the CRP should not be implemented.
The notice of motion was debated and Councillor Andrew Zbik stated this motion should never have been put on Council’s Agenda.
Councillor Bennison stated that he did not know who put the graffiti there but still wanted to pursue the notion of motion.
The notice of motion was defeated with only two councillors Bennison and Brooks-Horn voting for the motion.
Lane Cove Council Election Survey
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