I note that the member for Castle Hill and current Hills Shire councillor, Mark Hodges, used his column in the August issue of Dooral Roundup to promote a petition to NSW Parliament calling for a new school to serve the Castle Hill Showground precinct.
This online petition was started by property developer and Liberal Party functionary Mr Yves El-Khoury. It has also been promoted by Councillor Mitchell Blue.
The pressing need for new schools is difficult to dispute and so I have signed the petition online and am happy to encourage others to do so.
However it is difficult to overlook the startling hypocrisy.
In October 2023 Councillors Hodges and Blue voted with the majority on Hills Shire Council to decline an online petition with 16,193 signatures in connection with destructive plans to develop parts of the Fred Caterson Reserve for use by an out-of- area elite rugby club.
Then, in February 2024, the same councillors were a part of the majority that resolved to adopt a revised Code of Meeting Practice, ignoring 97 objecting submissions.
Amongst other things, the code prevents council accepting petitions unless the signatories provide a full residential address and written signature, thereby excluding online petitions.
And now Councillors Hodges and Blue are promoting an online petition to the NSW Legislative Assembly. The NSW parliamentary petition requires only an email address be supplied to accompany a signatory’s name. Signatories must also check a box declaring that they are a resident of NSW.
It is distressing to note that these councillors have no compunction in using – in support of their own agenda – the very same means that they have prohibited their own constituents from using to make representations to council on matters of concern to the community.
It seems that they and their colleagues support democratic expressions of public will only when it serves their agenda and their purpose.
Perhaps their shameless hypocrisy will not go unnoticed when electors head to the polls for council elections in September.
Yours sincerely,
Hugh Vaughan, Kenthurst NSW
