So much needs to be done in the Shoalhaven. Mothers with young children are still negotiating roads with no footpaths. Motorists are not only dodging potholes and crumbling roads but are also seething with frustration in traffic snarls. Parks and public places look dishevelled and unloved.
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We have bushfire recovery to manage and are in the grip of a resurgent pandemic.
Yet some councillors persist in thinking it appropriate to indulge in toddler politics that gums up meetings and does absolutely nothing for the betterment of the community.
We saw this once again this week, when a motion was introduced with clear political intent to discredit the minority party, The Greens, over an issue that seems at best irrelevant and at worst, entirely fabricated.
Did it have anything to do with roads? No. Rates? No. Rubbish? No.
The motion called for condemnation of The Greens on the basis of a text message, sent by someone who was calling for a boycott of a business which had cleared land. There was no name, no verification, not a shred of evidence whatsoever linking The Greens to a boycott.
The time taken to debate this motion in the development committee? At least an hour. And the tone of the debate? Utterly infantile.
If the intention was to discredit anyone but the mover of the motion, it was a complete failure. What the debate did instead, by descending into a slinging match and seeing the ejection of a councillor, was to demonstrate once again the poor standards that have come to characterise council meetings.
On the heels of that dismal performance came an email from a councillor purporting to show incontrovertible evidence of the Mayor's alleged anti-business stance. This "evidence", it became apparent very quickly, was a poorly executed cut-and-paste job placing a comment from Amanda Findley on to a totally unrelated thread.
Councillors, all of you, we want you to stay focused on the important work at hand, which is getting your community through this crisis. We want you to stop your silly political games. They might impress you, when you gaze adoringly in the mirror, but they only serve to alienate those who voted for you.
And if you think this dysfunction might bring on an early election, you are mistaken. COVID restrictions won't allow it. So just get on with your jobs and stop bickering.