Over the last few years the State has mandated Codes of Conduct for local councils. The Codes were certainly a noble idea. It’s a pity barely one sitting of Queensland Parliament runs it course, with those who made the rules, breaking the rules they deem fit for all and sundry with complete impunity. The CMC enquiry into the Gold Coast Council recommended that all elected officials should be made to declare who is funding their campaign BEFORE the voters cast their vote, not after. For example, it would make for very politically hot debate if Cairns voters, at the next election, were able to find out who was funding who before the election, to make it clear who serves who, post election. With democracy these days being a lot to do with who has the biggest and best advertising campaigns, (the best democracy money can buy), you don’t need to be Einstein to figure out what is going on, when campaigns are funded by property and development players as in the Gold Coast. So Douglas agreed with the CMC findings calling for pre-election declarations to define who is funding your campaign, only to be told a few months later, that the State had dropped the issue, seemingly as the ALP, National and Labor Parties all did some navel gazing about the damage it could do to their own funding ‘scams’, if they were forced to reveal their true masters in the height of an election campaign.

Johnstone and Douglas Shire both came unstuck when flaws in the independent assessment of code complaints became a political football. The basic aim of the code complaints process is to depoliticise complaints. But a system that refers the outcome of complaints back to political adjudication has all the judicial balance of a Burmese junta. So some process changes are indeed needed before the Code complaint methods have much judicial credibility and proper methods of adjudication need improvement and one would hope that the people of Douglas can look forward to better governance standards in the new CRC, as those like myself, who sometimes argue without the numbers on the floor, can become like a barn door to a sh..t thrower, when the officious political judgment is an easier way to gag debate, rather than rational consideration.

CONTACT ROD DAVIS: vote@roddavis.org

MOBILE: 0418 235561 or HOME: 0740 994434

MAIL: PO BOX 714, Port Douglas, 4877.