Letters to the editor | May 31

In this article about the new privately owned day care centre opening in Murrumbateman, it was reported: ‘Despite the existence of the childcare facility already in Murrumbateman, Mr Hewlett says the current centre is at capacity and the new construction will complement the existing one.’ This statement is widely seen to be referring to the Murrumbateman Early Childhood Centre (MECCA) and as such is inaccurate and misleading to readers as MECCA is not at capacity [and] may have affected local families’ choices in how they manage their childcare requirements.

MECCA is a not-for-profit organisation which has existed to support the Murrumbateman community for over 30 years. We offer high quality early childhood services and continue to endeavour to lower our prices to make it more assessable to local families. While our service is popular, we still do have positions available for both our three-year-old and four-year-old programs.

I attended the rally concerning forced council mergers in Gundagai’s Carberry Park on Friday, May 12. Despite being given adequate notice of the rally, both Katrina Hodgkinson and John ‘No-show’ Barilaro failed to attend. The reasons they gave for the non-attendance was treated with scepticism by the large crowd in attendance.

There is no need to dwell on the credibility of Katrina Hodgkinson in relation to forced mergers. That has already been well established. But what about Mr Barilaro’s credibility? In his campaign speech at the Bombala RSL Club on March 18, 2015, he promised to oppose council mergers. He told the gathering: “Let me be clear, there will be no forced amalgamations in this region … I will keep ‘local’ in local government.”

On February 10 this year, when a large number of irate citizens, including myself, converged in front of Mr Barilaro’s office in Queanbeyan to front him on the forced mergers issue, he was nowhere to be seen.

He did meet with a small delegation at Gundagai a couple of days later on February 12. However, when he never turned up at the rally at Carberry Park, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. From the feedback I got, his credibility and that of Ms Hodgkinson in this area is, at its maximum, between zilch and zero.

But, what about Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s credibility? At an election campaign meeting on March 19, 2015 she made the following statement in regards to forced council mergers: “There will be nothing people will be forced into. It’s really a conversation that councils are having.” Really? Try telling that now to the people of Gundagai and Cootamundra. 

So, this begs the question. Why is there so much distrust in politicians and why are they held in such low esteem by the general public? I believe the following helps to answers that question.

We have had promises that there would be no forced council amalgamations from: Barry O’Farrell, the then leader of the Liberal Party; Andrew Stoner, former leader of the National Party; Paul Toole, former minister for Local Government; Gladys Berejiklian, leader of the Liberal Party; and John Barilaro, current leader of the National Party.

All the above have broken promises that were made either before or after the election. These promises were accepted in good faith by the electorate and, without doubt, helped these shysters to win government.

But not only are they untrustworthy, they must also be stupid. Even Blind Freddy can see that unless the government reverses its hated forced council merger policy immediately, then it is facing certain political annihilation at the next elections in 2019.