In this article both the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor used the recent Northern Outback Business Awards as a forum to engage in their political attacks on previous Council administrations and promote themselves.

To use this respected community event to promote their political agenda I like many other people found their actions highly inappropriate, bad mannered and an insult to the patrons who paid to attend the Northern Outback Business Awards.

The Business Awards is not a political event or forum.

Both the Mayor and her Deputy took the opportunity to use the oldest trick in the political book, namely to blame past administrations for the problems of the present Council and believe me there are many problems.

I doubt if anybody at that function purchased tickets at that function to listen to a political lecture from two people who are not regarded as the smartest political team in Queensland local government circles.

This is the second time in recent weeks where the Mayor has used an event where patrons had to pay to attend and then were subjected to a political speech and performance from herself and a member of her Council.

Again it was totally inappropriate,  bad mannered and an insult to peoples intelligence.

Under my previous administration which the Mayor is so critical of she was not just a Councillor but she was Chairperson of the Council’s Finance and Administration Committee giving her total access to all council staff and information at any time of the day and obviously she was part of all decisions taken by the Council.

In reality she was part of the Council’s Leadership Team.

During these four years I cant recall the current Mayor mount any challenge to any of the major decisions which our Council made or worse still I can't recall her ever coming forward with any alternative policy or suggestions. 

During their address the Northern Outback Business Awards both the Mayor and  her Deputy were reported to have stated that the present Council had gone to great lengths to assist the business community and stressed that their Council was business friendly because most of the Councillors were business people and understood their problems.

This Council and the Mayor in particular has certainly been business friendly to “selected” businesses and organisations in our City by providing improvements to facilities in the immediate facility of the selected business premises while on the other hand they have penalised many other business establishments through their policies.

While the business community are very important and vital to our economy lets not ignore all other residents of this City.

This Council should never forget that we are a community consisting of many different types of people with different needs and aspirations with differing ability to pay.

We are all contributing to the City in different ways but true to form this Council are again creating divisions with their attitude being “it’s the business community v the rest”.

Sorry but that is not leadership.

Tony McGrady

Mount Isa

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