IRATE Speech - Making Community Democracy Work conference

Speech for WAC Conference
Fraternity Club, Fairymeadow.
10.00AM Saturday 16 August, 2008

My name is Olive Rodwell.  I am a mother of three and a grandmother in waiting for the sixth time.  I care about the future and the legacy we are passing on to the next generations.

I have been involved with several grassroots groups.  They include WAC, (Wollongong Against Corruption), ROC (Reclaim Our City), IRATE (Illawarra Residents Against Toxic Environments) and The Port Kembla Pollution Meeting.

WAC and ROC were recently formed in direct response to the problems in Wollongong City Council (WCC).

I came to Port Kembla over 55 years ago.  I was raised in Newcastle – an industrial city, but that did not prepare me for the horrendous pollution that existed in Port Kembla in the 1950’s.  Like many others I love this area and now fight to protect it.

Port Kembla and the Southern suburbs have been very active communities for decades.  We were the most polluted suburbs in Wollongong suffering an unfair burden.  The Port Kembla Pollution Meeting was established 22 years ago and still exists today even though the facilitators, WCC, pulled the pin on it several years ago.  We have achieved a great deal with BlueScope Steel’s Sinter Plant now much cleaner and with the Port Kembla Copper smelter now lying dead for the past 5 years and ready for burial.

IRATE was born out of the fight against the re-opening of the smelter and pursued the company for the 2 1/2 dreadful years of its operations.  We tried to challenge the validity of the reopening but the Carr Government denied us our democratic right to Helen Hamilton’s Land and Environment Court hearing. The night before the hearing was to start the State Government introduced the “Port Kembla (Special Provisions) Bill” into parliament.  It stopped the court case in its tracks.  We had only one option then and that was to constantly pursue the authorities and make the company comply with the lax consent conditions.

IRATE worked on many projects during the last 11 years such as the Strapping Plant at Oakflats, Tallawarra Power Station, the toxic drums at Kembla Grange, slag emplacement and extraction  at Korrongulla Wetlands, and many others.  Since WCC’s closure of the neighbourhood meetings IRATE has become involved in trying to stop the sell off and leasing of community land at Darcy Wentworth Park and Wetherall Park.  The demolition of the NES Hall was a disgraceful episode in WCC’s dealings.
 
We are well aware of many malfunctions occurring at both the state and local government levels.

Numerous letters written about a multitude of topics to the Minister for Local Govt, the NSW Ombudsman and to ICAC came with the usual disappointment and the same rubbery reply.  It seems this disregard for genuine community consultation is statewide.  It leaves the residents feeling disempowered and very frustrated.

Several of us even stood in the last Council elections so that ward Councillors would truly represent the people.  Once again we were dismayed when the lowest polling candidate was pulled into power by the ‘Preferential’ voting system used by our Wollongong Council.  This must change to eliminate the caucusing fiasco that was highlighted at the ICAC inquiry.

Our Ward 6 Councillors never showed at meetings, didn’t reply to faxes, emails or phone calls and we had to use councillors from other wards to raise our issues.  The ICAC inquiry showed clearly that both of our ward councillors did not properly serve the community.  That must change in the future. 

Nearing the end of the ICAC inquiry we thought that we were then on the right track with a new CEO, staff changes at Council and eventually the 4 disgraced councillors were sacked.

We don’t have confidence in Premier Iemma’s solution to the WCC fiaso by sacking the entire elected council and substituting them with 3 Administrators, 2 of whom are known to have worked in positions closely associated to the interests of the NSW Labor Government.  One administrator was the Director of State Planning when the reopening of the smelter was approved.  We are told also that we are to be deprived of our democratic right to vote until 2012.
We all know that the ICAC inquiry stopped short of many truths coming out, much of which would have reflected badly at the higher levels of government.

A Royal Commission is needed right now.

  • We are not going to be lied to or conned anymore.  We want transparency and meaningful consultation.
  • We are going to fight to restore our right to vote ASAP (and not wait until 2012).
  • We want proportional voting in council elections.
  • Ban caucusing in council meetings.
  • Ban donations to political parties.
  • Introduce publicly funded elections
  • We reject power going to powerful unrepresentative groups.
  • We want the highest ethical standards from our elected representatives.
  • We demand democracy and justice NOW.


We thank WAC for bringing together this conference that we hope will help install a true democratic process.  Let us all help to establish a charter that will ensure ethics and good governance in both local and state jurisdictions.

It is now up to us -  the people!  Local knowledge is important and powerful and the people must be empowered to be heard and consulted on important matters that affect our lives.