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Category: Road Transport / Local Government / State Parliament

Protesters shut down first meeting of new Inner West Council

Wednesday, 25 May 2016 05:34:10

Protesters drowned out the new Administrator's attempts to speak. (ABC News)

The first meeting of the new Inner West Council in Sydney has been shut down after hundreds of chanting protesters refused to allow the council's administrator to speak.

Key points:

  • Protesters shouted at new council administrator as he spoke
  • Residents angry about council mergers and WestConnex
  • Protesters said disruptions will continue

About 200 protesters, angry at the New South Wales Government's decision to merge Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville councils into one entity and the WestConnex project, drowned out Inner West Council administrator Richard Pearson during the meeting at Petersham on Tuesday night.

Protesters repeatedly chanted "stop WestConnex" while Mr Pearson was trying to speak and "out" as he left the meeting.

Officers from the NSW Police Riot Squad were called in to monitor the meeting.

There were reports that someone tried to spit on the Administrator during the meeting, but police said no incident was reported.

WestConnex Action Group spokeswoman Pauline Lockie said residents refused to recognise the new council.

"All those councils have been shut down and replaced by [Premier Mike] Baird's handpicked stooge," she said.

"We have no doubt that it's been designed to remove the community's voice and to try and remove opposition to these projects."

Mr Lockie said the protests would continue.

"We'll keep going on for as long as this whole undemocratic process continues, because we know that if we don't have proper elected representation at local level then that's going to make our campaign against things like WestConnex that much harder," he said.

Former Leichhardt Council Mayor Darcy Byrne attended the meeting and said the inner west will continue to resist council amalgamations.

"High on hubris, the Premier presumed that he could eliminate our democracy without creating a fuss and he's about to learn the hard way that the inner-west is strong enough to push back against his authoritarian agenda," Mr Byrne said.

"There were hundreds of inner-west residents who turned out to send a message to Mike Baird and they're not going to put up with him subverting democracy and taking personal control of our local community."

However, Minister for Local Government Paul Toole said the crowd's behaviour was "disgusting".

"The Administrator and the staff were there to make decisions about services for the local community," he said.

"They were greeted by a mob mentality of people who were there clearly out to disrupt the meeting.

"There is nothing democratic about a mob mentality."

AustraliaPlus


 

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