Shock jock slams 'Green' Tweed Council as Mayor strikes back
"The Greens are arguing about a hospital. What are they on about?”
Tweed Heads
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DIVISIVE radio identity Alan Jones has attacked Tweed Shire Council in support of a rogue councillor vying for mayoralty.
But Greens Mayor Katie Milne fired back at Jones and said he was "arrogantly telling us he knows what's best for us”.
"Alan Jones doesn't seem to respect there is a large Green vote in this shire because the community loves this land deeply and wants to see it protected,” she said.
Jones will visit Tweed for Liberal councillor James Owen's Take Back Tweed dinner at Kingscliff later this month.
Cr Owen has been vocal in his criticism of the so-called 'Rainbow Four' - an alliance of four progressive councillors who hold the balance of power in the chambers, including CrMilne.
He's accused them of being driven by political ideology rather than what's best for the Tweed and believes a "silent majority” is waiting in the wings.
Backing Cr Owen, Jones said "any sensible person couldn't possibly contemplate an administration led by the Greens”.
"I get a feeling the Greens are frightened of any car that drives down the main street,” he said.
"You're wasting your vote if you vote for the Greens, it's as simple as that.”
Jones said the Tweed should be reaping the benefits of the Berejiklian government doing "more for infrastructure than any other government in the last 30 years”.
"The Tweed should be a beneficiary of that but instead the Greens are arguing about the hospital, where the hospital should go. What are they on about?” he said.
"There's no one in Parliament House in Sydney, in Canberra, who's going to listen to someone knocking on the door saying, 'Oh, I'm from the Greens, I'm in the Tweed, please do this for me'. You just don't get anything done.”
However, Jones also said the LNP needed to "do some work” in the region if it wanted to reclaim power.
Cr Milne defended the council's track record and said Tweed fared quite well when it came to government funding.
She said the Tweed had been victimised in the past by "politicians who only wanted to develop this paradise at any cost”.
"Mr Jones has no idea about the complex issues surrounding the Tweed hospital or the long history of dodgy attempts to develop these State Significant Farmlands,” she said.
"Tweed's unemployment rates are at all-time lows and below the national average, but if Mr Jones really wants to help, his attention on the lack of social housing well below the state average with some of the highest rates of homelessness in Australia would be welcome.
"In some way I am pleased that Cr Owen has now clearly revealed how far to the right he really is in bringing Mr Jones to town, but for the sake of all those kids who get bullied, sometimes even to death, I wish he hadn't.
"We need to set an example in politics to model much better behaviour or our communities will suffer for such divisive, ego-driven political agendas.”
The next Tweed Shire Council election will be held on September 2020.
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