Vikki Campion: Forget rates, rubbish and roads – Green activists press-gang shires into ideological jihad

Just when you thought that poor horse had been flogged to death, the Voice is being dragged back on to the agenda via local councils, writes Vikki Campion.

Just when you thought that poor horse had been flogged to death, the Voice is now being dragged back on to the agenda, via local councils at their recent annual conference in Tamworth.

Each year, a big chunk of ratepayers’ money from each council goes to the NSW Local Government Association to lobby other tiers of government. And now, you are now paying them to hassle state politicians to bring in a policy the great unwashed shot down at a referendum.

The reason for this obsession is Green activists who have press-ganged the shires into their ideological jihad.

The conference, saturated with puppeteered Greens and not-so-independent teal-flavoured councillors, voted to lobby Premier Chris Minns to commit to the Voice, with Canterbury-Bankstown Council moving for “implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Voice, Treaty and Truth”.

You would think Canterbury-Bankstown, a major growth area, would have more pressing issues such as cleaning up the streets or dealing with broken footpaths. But no.

Potholes in Bankstown CBD. You would think the local council had more pressing issues than chasing a state-based Voice. Picture: Amaani Siddeek

“A NSW Voice would enshrine the fundamental principles of self-determination, representation, and understanding from the Uluru Statement from the Heart at the highest levels of decision-making in NSW parliament, state and local government laws, policies and matters that affect First Nations People and communities,” the conference moved.

But it didn’t stop there. The same councils that refuse to honour Australia Day voted for “all NSW councils to officially recognise and annually support Mabo Day”.

Jhonatan Gonzalez and Jessica Vinasco enjoyed a Bondi Beach barbecue in January. What’s more important, Australia Day or Mabo Day? Picture: Tom Parrish

What’s more important to Australians, a day that unites an incredible egalitarian nation from the misery of a convict colony or a legal finding by the high court?

Which one represents the multicultural melting pot of NSW?

Yet the Greens’ organisation is vastly superior to any other political organisation I have seen up close, and the slickness of the machine was never more evident then this week in Tamworth. It was clear the most influential person at that NSW LGA conference was not in that room. The person calling the shots for the Greens was in the head office telling them how to vote via a group chat.

This was my observation and the observation of councillors with decades of experience.

Oh, and there’s no crossing the floor in the Greens or, like Lidia Thorpe, you are ex-communicated.

It wasn’t just the blatant bloc-voting that frustrated the true independent community councillors there, but that each month the same motions miraculously appear on different council business papers across the state.

Either the Greens have a hive mind or, like their voting guide, these motions come from head office with a pre-prepped media pack and talking points written by a faceless apparatchik.

Greens councillor Liz Atkins. Picture: Supplied

One Greens councillor, Liz Atkins, plastered social media with her train trip to the conference from Sydney to Tamworth, but was less forthcoming about the journey on the plane flight back. Atkins was most passionate about a motion to ensure “trans and gender diverse people to determine their gender marker on council identity documents such as gym or library cards”.

Why do we suddenly need a gender marker to read a book?

The conference also moved to create a new guideline to “assess inclusivity of frontline services, including queer and trans inclusivity, accessibility for disabled people and Aboriginal cultural safety”.

Frontline services for councils should be, no matter what these Green councils claim, roads, rates and rubbish. A bad road does not discriminate on pronouns or Indigenous heritage.

Our national road accident statistics show soaring injuries and deaths. Bad roads transcend such things as sexual identity. Yet, after this, we will soon have guidelines for it.

More than a decade ago, I reported on the same NSW LGA conference in the same regional city. Back then, communities did not want politics on councils.

Now, it doesn’t matter what how much you volunteered at the local footy club, or the P&C, or with Meals on Wheels; it is increasingly coming down to the colour of your political banner, which is how the Greens have swarmed NSW councils while real community-minded, independent thinkers are left with a dwindling chance of giving their community real representation.

WIND FARMS ARE DESTROYING THE ENVIRONMENT IN ORDER TO SAVE IT

We’re famously the nanny state of over-regulation, where you can’t put another room on your house without checking for endangered frogs, unless you happen to be a giant wind factory being constructed by billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest.

Squadron Energy, owned by the man who punched on inside the Nationals Party Room at parliament seeking love for the same developments thousands of ordinary people rallied outside against, has been forced to pay $56,340 in fines for compliance breaches at his Clarke Creek Wind factory.

Squadron failed to comply with environmental regulations and then failed to report its noncompliance, earning another fine, its latest compliance report shows.

Apparently the goodwill of the taxpayer goes even further than underwriting wind and solar whether they produce power to the grid or not, but also to whether or not they bother adhering to planning regulations. It’s self- regulated.

Squadron Energy has invested in a giant wind factory. Picture: Supplied

Koala homes are being ripped up for the concrete monoliths. Picture: Adam Head

Iron ore’s good export mate, coal, is subject to constant around-the-clock external auditing by environmental protection agencies.

However, when it comes to ripping up koala homes for concrete monoliths, Mr Bowen’s bureaucracy leaves it up to the good faith of wind developers.

Squadron, owned by the Forrest family’s investment vehicle, Tattarang, assured us they were “proud to hold itself to higher standards” when the basic standard applied to the project in 2022 was using “blunt force trauma” to kill koalas. Yesterday they assured us no environmental impact occurred as a result of “administrative” infringements.

They aren’t the only ones kicking environmental goals. France-owned Kaban Wind’s first annual mortality assessment has exceeded its “impact triggers” for murdering too many endangered Spectacled Flying Foxes and Vulnerable White throated Needletails, while Magnificent Brood frog numbers have steadily declined.

This is how you save the planet, apparently.

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