Defiance before the fall for Ipswich council
AS HE ROMPED to victory with 80 per cent of the vote, Paul Pisasale promised comeuppance for those who questioned Ipswich City Council. Less than two years later it has all come crashing down.
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IT’S election night in Ipswich in March 2016, and an ecstatic mayor Paul Pisasale is dancing cheek-to-cheek with daughter Lisa and crowing arm-in-arm with supporters.
It’s been another whitewash, another victory with over 80 per cent of voters electing Pisasale back into the red and black mayoral robes.
But then he addresses the investigations and dark questions that dogged him in the election’s lead-up.
“Those grubs out there that tried to hurt the city, they’ll get their own punishments,” he says. “Let’s just get on with the job, and tell the world — tell everybody — what a great city Ipswich is.”
Fast forward more than two years, and allegations surrounding local politicians such as Pisasale have caused the city not to be associated with greatness, but with scandal.
The city of 210,000 people is about to become one of the rare local government jurisdictions to have its council sacked.
The dismissal is due to an “unprecedented integrity crisis”, Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe says.
Fifteen people have been charged after a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation, including seven councillors or employees.
That includes charges of corruption against Pisasale and two of Ipswich’s chief executive officers.
It raises the question of how Ipswich’s government came to this end, and among possible factors are a culture of secrets and blindness to conflicts of interest, an at-times weak media and a lack of earlier investigatory scalps.
The first area to start with is the last. One example of the CCC running its ruler over council goes back to 2013, when it looked at dealings between then Ipswich CEO Wulff and a flood contractor in the area, Claude Walker.
Walker’s company had been renting Wulff’s swish apartment in Brisbane’s Hamilton.
The watchdog then found no evidence of criminal action or official misconduct.
But come this year, the CCC laid corruption charges against Wulff, who had earlier denied wrongdoing, and Walker in an alleged $104,000 bribery scandal.
Other probes chased shadows in ensuing years — Pisasale’s election donations came under scrutiny but again the CCC found no evidence of corrupt conduct or a misuse of funds.
By last week, the CCC, in a report into Ipswich, conceded its own investigation record might have spawned problems.
Earlier allegations either had not been substantiated or had not amounted to criminal conduct, and “the outcome of previous investigations may have discouraged council employees from reporting their concerns”, the CCC’s report said.
Asked if this pointed to flaws in earlier probes, the CCC argued new information had emerged “which was not available at the time of its previous investigations”.
The CCC’s report last week, tabled in Parliament, also highlighted the twin diseases of “governance failures and cultural issues” at council.
There were “inappropriate” relationships flourishing between council and the private sector, especially with contractors or property developers.
At one stage, the CCC alleged, a property developer paid a “councillor for his assistance setting up meetings with relevant council town planning staff”.
Secrecy was also paramount and another problem.
The CCC accused top council operators using private emails to hide from Right to Information applications — which in theory would have required council to hand over potentially unfavourable documents.
Sometimes information was just stonewalled. Council refused for over 18 months to answer Courier-Mail questions about one of its companies — including whether directors on that company, such as Pisasale and veteran councillor Paul Tully, had hired a private jet during a US tour.
It even spent $80,000 on lawyers to fight RTI queries about the jet and other issues.
Even when pressure mounted, Pisasale and council handled the media well.
Despite some concerning stories, Pisasale would invariably lasso favourable coverage from sections of the media, diffusing negative articles with portrayals of him as a hardworking, slightly goofy, politician.
That image is buried. Despite no convictions yet — and people such as Pisasale indicate they will fight charges — headlines are instead grim.
It’s tough reading for those within council and Ipswich who wanted the right thing. But for the short term, the focus will be on reforming the problems that afflicted Ipswich.
What’s going on at Ipswich
What has happened? Ipswich City Council held their final meeting yesterday. It comes as the Bill to sack them is brought before State Parliament today, where it is expected to be passed.
Why is the State Government dismissing the council? Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said last month the government was dismissing the council in a bid to create certainty for the community. It comes after more than a dozen people were charged with dozens of offences following the Crime and Corruption Commission’s investigation into the council. None of the current councillors are facing any charges.
What will happen to the dismissed councillors? The dismissed councillors will be able to stand for office again at the 2020 council elections. They will not be receiving any compensation.
What will happen once the councillors are sacked? The government will appoint an administrator to run the city until the next council election in March, 2020. The management of roads, rates and rubbish is expected to continue like normal, but residents will not have a local councillor to speak to about their concerns.
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