MILDURA councillors can’t allow themselves to submit to proposed council media policies that strike at the heart of free speech.
They must not be silenced from voicing their opinions, or from publicly raising their concerns on behalf of the community who voted them in.
They need to remind themselves who they work for, who entrusted them to be our voice inside the town hall.
Mildura Rural City Council late yesterday removed one clause from its proposed policy which would have prevented councillors from saying anything negative about the council, including policy.
They did so after it was raised with chief executive officer Sarah Philpott by the Sunraysia Daily, claiming its inclusion was an “administrative error”.
Whatever the reason, it’s a good thing it has been removed, because had it been voted in at tonight’s meeting, it would have required every councillor toe the company line in full.
But there remain other “recommendations” on this media policy that also need to be thrown out the window by councillors tonight.
While it is important for a council to work as a team and run cohesively, preventing free speech is what dictatorships are made of, not democracies.
And one of the real strengths of this new council lies in its diversity.
The new council is made up of two former mayors, one who sits on the right of politics and one near the centre, a woman who is a strong advocate for gender equality, and a left-leaning tradie who has had a run at Federal Parliament and now sits in the mayor’s seat.
Then there’s those elected for the first time, including a celebrity cook, a nightclub boss, a Werrimull farmer and two local women with business backgrounds who want to cut through the political BS and get the economy moving.
They are nine very different characters, each with their own views, which is healthy for a community as vast and diverse as the Mildura electorate.
Under the proposed policy, the town hall bureaucrats also want to block your councillors from having off-the-record chats with journalists.
I can’t tell you how many off-the-record chats I’ve had with politicians at all levels over the years.
This is important because a robust relationship between local politicians and the media is often how things get done in a community.
It’s how political pressure can be poured on at the right time to obtain state or federal government funding, for instance.
It is a relationship that goes both ways, but always with bettering the community in mind.
Here’s the thing: it suits government bureaucrats to quietly cruise through their highly paid positions unquestioned and certainly without criticism.
It’s why drawing up their own media policies gives them further control of the messaging and avoid unwanted scrutiny.
But our elected representatives can’t allow themselves to have the same red tape stuck over their mouths.
They are voted in to be our community’s voice, a right they must protect for themselves and future councillors.
