This is the personal blog of Ian Ker, who was Councillor for the South Ward of the Town of Vincent from 1995 to 2009. I have been a resident of this area since 1985. This blog was originally conceived as a way of letting residents of Vincent know what I have been doing and sharing thoughts on important issues. I can now use it to sound off about things that concern me.

If you want to contact me, my e-mail is still ian_ker@hotmail.com or post a comment on this blog.

To post a comment on this blog, select the individual post on which you wish to comment, by clicking on the title in the post or in the list to the left of the blog, and scroll down to the 'Post a Comment' box at the foot.

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Thursday, December 17, 2015

Roe 8 Decision Highlights Deeper Malaise

No doubt many words will be written and spoken (and cartoons drawn), and rightly so, about the Supreme Court decision invalidating the environmental approvals for the contentious Roe 8 highway project across the Beeliar wetlands.

For those who want to find out more, the judgment can be downloaded from http://decisions.justice.wa.gov.au/supreme/supdcsn.nsf/judgment.xsp?documentId=4DC12FEF66845A8248257F1D00095F93&action=openDocument&SessionID=EA3F2IOG9F.

The Editor of the West Australian is increasingly isolated in supporting Roe 8 and the broader Perth Freight Link, which flies in the face of decades of bipartisan freight planning for Perth and WA - and was cobbled together only to 'replace' MAX light rail funding when then-PM Tony Abbott said the federal government would only help fund road infrastructure, not public transport.

In finding that the Environmental Protection Authority ignored its own policies, Chief Justice Wayne Martin highlights the politicisation, incompetence or worse that has infected too many important decisions of public service and so-called independent agencies. Even now, Barnett's response is that Roe 8 will go ahead because he'll find a way around the Supreme Court's judgment.

There is another court case in progress that highlights precisely the same issue - this one about the Development Assessment Panels (DAPs) ignoring the requirement to have regard to local Town Planning Schemes. Wayne Martin's judgment will give great heart the many who are aghast at the DAPs' riding roughshod over long-standing community expectations that have been enshrined in their local town planning schemes, which have the status of law under the Planning and Development Act, 2005.

Why is it that we can no longer trust our governments or agencies that supposedly represent our interests to do so impartially, intelligently and with integrity? Why do we have to resort to the courts to ensure that they do the jobs they were elected (no mention of the PFL in the 2013 WA election) or employed to do?






Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Voters Don't Like Broken Promises

I've written a number of times about the way in which the New South Wales government is repeating the mistakes of the WA government in trying to force amalgamations, but now there's a lesson that the WA government should heed from NSW.
http://www.governmentnews.com.au/2015/12/council-mergers-blamed-for-13-by-election-backlash-in-nsw-coalition-heartland/