Greedy grab for benefits

CASEY Rate Review Committee member Frank Brunda has claimed that the review committee was lopsided and unrepresentative of the wider community.

Mr Brunda joined Four Oaks Ward councillor Rob Wilson in a statement condemning the review committees final report and recommendations.

Cr Wilson said the report foreshadowed a cash grab for 1900 rural property owners.

He said this was buried in the vast volume of the report in a proposal to give rural landowners a 70 per cent rebate or reduction in their rates.

He said he had been warning the community for some time about the Rural Landowners Association (RLA) and its intentions.

This proposal means cheaper rates for less than 2000 properties, but who pays? It is the other 75,000 property owners who have to subsidise this greedy grab for cash benefits or rebates, Cr Wilson said.

Mr Brunda said the committee was initially formed because of pressure from the RLA.

It was supposed to have been representative of ratepayers, but it wasnt.

He said Edrington Ward councillor Mick Morland nominated him for a seat on the committee and that at the time he did not know Cr Wilson.

Mr Brunda said that as the meetings unfolded he could see that the committee turned out to be a megaphone for the RLA.

It was only interested in pushing for the privileged sections of the community. Thats what the RLA represents, he said.

However, committee chair Norma McCausland said Mr Brunda was given every opportunity to have his view put forward.

He, as everyone did, was able to take issues back to his representative group before decisions were made, Mrs McCausland said.

Cr Morland said Mr Brunda had shown an interest in the committee by asking questions in relation to pensioners. I nominated him to represent his section of the community and told him that he was representing ratepayers, not me, Cr Morland said.

This is a long and complicated report and I havent finished reading through it, but we have to spend considerable time on this issue.

I am asking questions as I go along and do not know at this stage which way I will go with it. We have to make the right decision because our decision will be with the council for the next 20 years.

Mr Brunda said the RLA representative Neal Laird was too eloquent and knowledgeable for other members of the committee.

Mr Lairds expertise and knowledge was used to represent the RLA, not the majority.

He knew what he was doing and what he was talking about. His experience and knowledge meant that he took on the role of a professional advocate for the RLA, Mr Brunda said.

During the earlier phase, committee members felt intimidated and faded away. Most of us were average ratepayers who were confronted by expert knowledge. This was demonstrated by nonattendance at meetings by some members and people not speaking out. This, in turn, gave the floor to people in a certain sector and they pushed these recommendations. There were 20 delegates on the committee and 11 were not there when the vote to adopt the report was taken. Three members of the nine dissented. I voted against it and I asked that my vote be recorded, he said.

Cr Wilson said nine members voted with their feet by staying away.

Mr Brunda said people who owned highrated properties and insisted on staying on them if the rates were high were putting themselves out on a limb.

If they have been there for 50 years they have to make decisions, because if one group has to be given preferential treatment then others will have to pay more.







Cr Wilson said people paid only according to the value of their properties.