Mayor Steve Christou slams Care for Cumberland Facebook page
The fallout from a western Sydney council’s plans to potentially offload its assets has led to a “grubby and below the belt’’ Facebook campaign which included using a photo of the mayor’s baby nephew without consent.
Parramatta
Don't miss out on the headlines from Parramatta . Followed categories will be added to My News.
Cumberland Mayor Steve Christou has blasted a “grubby and below the belt’’ Facebook page that attacks the council’s plans to privatise its assets but his complaints have been labelled as petty political diatribe and an abuse of power.
The Care for Cumberland page was created after the council last month revealed potential plans to save $41 million by outsourcing assets including its 17 childcare centres and swimming pools, which are running at a loss of $6.4 million.
The page is full of memes attacking Cr Christou and non Labor Party councillors.
A now-deleted post raised the mayor’s ire when it used a photo of him holding his nephew with an “inappropriate caption” and “derogatory’’ comments.
The photo was supplied to the media in March for an unrelated story but the mayor was furious when the post named him and was posted without his parents’ permission.
“I can tolerate personal attacks such as this of myself,’’ Cr Christou said at a council meeting last week.
“This is a democracy and everyone is allowed to express their own views and opinions.
“What I won’t tolerate is the people who run this page violating this child’s privacy.
“They also referred to the baby boy as a she. On a second post they posted his photo again without parental permission.
“In this post they made light of his gender and included his name. It wasn’t until the baby’s father complained that the two photos and the baby’s name was subsequently removed.’’
“It’s not funny. It’s not effective lobbying and it’s below the belt and grubby in my opinion.’’
Cr Christou — a former Labor councillor who quit the party on the night he was elected mayor last September — blamed the United Services Union and Labor councillors for being behind the Facebook page.
“It’s no secret that the United Services Union is working with certain members of this chamber to derail this process of council identifying savings in these areas and ultimately giving this council a sustainable future,’’ he said.
All Labor councillors who opposed Cr Christou’s mayoral minute denied involvement with the page.
The union and the Care for Cumberland Facebook page administrators did not repond to requests for comment.
Cr Christou defended the council’s financial management.
“The reality we’re facing now, is if we don’t make difficult decisions and find savings, we will struggle to fund essential works.’’
He also mentioned Granville state Labor MP Julia Finn for “liking” the photo of his nephew.
But she ruled out being behind the social media account.
“It’s a Facebook page. It’s a democracy,’’ she said.
“This is a mayor who dishes it out but can’t can’t take it. He’s just a complete sook.’’
Labor councillor George Campbellhas slammed the mayor’s complaints as “full of nonsense’’ and for raising it as a matter of urgency in a mayoral minute.
“Of course I regard child safety as a matter of importance but there’s nothing that you said that has a bearing on child safety,’’ Cr Campbell said.
“After all it was you who put that photo in the public domain in the first place.
“It’s not a matter about any council activity. It’s a decision to endorse your diatribe.”
Cr Campbell also blasted the mayor insulting Labor MPs Ms Finn and Lynda Voltz.
“You have been abusing council’s vehicles of communication to pursue some of these very petty political points,’’ he said.
“I remember seeing a video of you down at Julia Finn’s office ridiculing the fact she wasn’t in there at a time when the State Government had closed all those offices.
“You have pulled this kind of stunt so many times but to run a mayoral minute in order to raise things that you don’t like about certain councillors and members of parliament is an abuse.’’
Cr Christou ruled against Cr Campbell’s motion of dissent and his mayoral minute to condemn the Facebook page, continue its child safety policy and seek police assistance if necessary, was passed.
But the privatisation debate is still raging. Ms Voltz raised the issue in parliament last week, urging the council not to privatise by filling the budget black hole “forced on them by the State Government’s “disastrous forced mergers policy”.
“The Auburn community already suffers from the second highest level of homelessness and unemployment in the state; the last thing we need is less public services,” Ms Voltz said.
Opposition local government spokesman Greg Warren said the forced mergers from 2016 were still having a detrimental impact on councils.
“I sympathise with the position Cumberland Council finds itself in but privatising public assets is not the answer,’’ he said.