The full text of the Letter to the Editor of the Comment News, sent on 26 October 2007, is below.
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I refer to the article
on the front page of the Comment News dated 23 October, in which the
mayor of Armadale is quoted as having said that the election results
show that the people of Armadale are "quite content with the
direction that council is taking".
I see that the
mayor's recent foray into federal parliamentary party politics, at
ratepayer's expense, appears to have rubbed off on him, with him
invoking a fundamental parliamentary party political principle; "why
let the truth get in the way of party hype?".
What the
election results show, is not that the overwhelming majority of the
people of Armadale, support what the council is doing, and has been
doing; instead, the fact is that the results show that the people
have spoken, and, at the reported rate of voter participation for the
whole of Armadale, with 70% not voting, 70% of the people of
Armadale, have clearly said, "we don't care who gets elected, or
what they do to us".
If the people of Armadale, did in
fact overwhelmingly support what the council is doing, and has been
doing, then the 70% that showed that they simply do not care, would
have instead have voted, with the sitting councillors getting a
majority of all eligible voters, not simply a majority of the few
that could be bothered to vote.
The councillors that were
elected, and, the "support for the council", are from the
votes of the vocal minority, NOT the majority of eligible electors. I
note that the published results, do not include the percentage of
eligible voters, that voted for each candidate.
70% of the
people of Armadale have shown that they do not care who is elected,
and they have given whoever is elected to the Armadale City Council,
a clear mandate to do whatever they want, whether it is increasing
the rates so as to have minimum property rates of $10,000 next year,
and, $20,000 the year after, and using the money to travel to Las
Vegas, "to actively investigate the effects of casino's ",
because the people have indicated that, however high the rates are
set, they can afford it. The council has also been given a clear
mandate to authorise for the brothels that the state government is
imposing on the people, to be established next door to the
childcare centres, if it so wants, to increase trade for the
brothels, so as to increase rates from the brothels, because the
people of Armadale, simply don't care what happens in the area.
A
proverb exists, that states "Evil triumphs when good men do
nothing". The proverb is wrong. Good men would not do nothing.
They would act. The proverb should instead be "Evil triumphs
when it is actively supported by apathy". The people of
Armadale have voted, and the overwhelming majority have said that
they simply don't care what happens.
Perhaps, the electoral
commission will at some future election, not misrepresent what it
will do, and what it has done, as happened in this election, and,
will perhaps better promote local government elections, so, in
the future, sitting councillors will not be favoured in local
government elections by the electoral commission.
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