Making sense of FOI council expenses.

Much debate has been had regarding overseas travel I took on behalf of this community as Mayor of the City of Ballarat.

I have worn the ongoing wrath of those eagerly pursuing a myth-making narrative that I have wasted rate-payers money on self-glorification and excessive travel expenses.

They were neither of these.

I worked hard on this city’s behalf and because of this we are now heralding the rewards.

On my visit last year to Krakow, Poland, I met with the Organisation of World Heritage Cities – and on the way home from this visit was required to stop in Japan due to flight connections.  To advantage this stop, I also spoke with the World League of Historic Cities.

Many things were achieved on this tour, including introducing the incredible opportunity for the 13 Councils including Ballarat to come together to celebrate and share its goldfields heritage.

This concept was lauded.

Several weeks ago, a group of global heritage experts, via Zoom, hosted a World Heritage Symposium Communique, its annual conference, focused on and around Ballarat. The lead person responsible for cataloguing and assessing our UNESCO bid, Barry Gamble, was among those taking part.

My final letter as the Mayor of the City of Ballarat was to write to the former Victorian Premier Dr Denis Napthine, to engage his support as a co-ambassador for the UNESCO World Heritage Listing of the Goldfields.

He agreed to join our bid, understanding the wonderful success of the Budj Bim UNESCO listing near Portland. 

In recent weeks, along with fellow Ambassador and former Premier of Victoria, John Brumby, Dr Napthine announced $50,000 to help in the formalisation of the Goldfields bid.

Given my years of advocacy – and as current Chair of the Ballarat Heritage Advisory Committee and a director of the Board of the League of Historic Cities – it is special to see it now taking shape.

It has not happened overnight, or in the last 12 months.

When the UNESCO stamp finally lands on our region, it is estimated that it will generate $68 million within its first year – such is the international tourism significance.

Some might consider that a good return on investment.

It is a shame that those who have publicly condemned me for travel, and with little interest in the project, are now taking applause for the achievement, while simultaneously publicly condemning my travel expenses.

What matters is that Ballarat benefits.  It is the double standard that jars.

Another of those junkets I am accused of taking on your behalf was to Maroochydore for a regional conference in October last year.

At that conference I spoke with national aviation and sustainability experts.

It was during these discussions that I was able to further discuss plans for the upgrade of the Ballarat Airport and its runway.

An urgent phone call before I left Maroochydore resulted in a flight rescheduling to enable me to go the Parliament House in Canberra at the request of Victorian Senator Sarah Henderson.  Again, I pursued the airport funding.

This year, that lobbying started paying dividends with $5 million of Federal funding announced for the project.  More will be required.  But it is a significant start and a recognition of the project’s worth.

So indeed, I travelled on Ballarat’s behalf – returning to our city with millions of dollars in reward.

On your behalf.

In a global, national and local sense, it is a case of compete or go stagnant.

Ballarat struts each of these stages. European nations understand competition: each observes and visits the other, challenging the status quo and pursuing excellence.  This generates exacting standards.  As such, they become places we want to visit.

Compete or go stagnant.

This is Ballarat’s job too. If we simply followed the ideas of some councillors, blinker ourselves to the world, we would slide into an irrelevant dot on the map, best avoided for travellers seeking style and substance.

Despite this, the local mudslinging has become an artform for some. It is disappointing given we have better things to do – and much more to achieve.

That remains my focus.

Those who choose to dance on the results of the recent Freedom of Information report about councillor expenses are free to do so.

When they assess – they will observe that I was the Mayor for three of these years – a full-time mayor and not within a Covid-restriction period. If questions on costs are being ‘forensically’ asked – they should equally interrogate the current Mayor’s income.

Cr Taylor takes a full council income of about $110,000, yet turns up for ratepayers on only three of five working days.  He then gets paid two days in his own job.

On a five-day working-week analysis, that’s a $44,000 expenditure for nothing. I am yet to see the headlines on that.

Why haven’t his close supporters like Cr Johnson, Cr Harris and Cr Hudson spoken up against this if their concern for councillor costs is genuine?

I worked very hard and went where I had to when I had to. Seven days a week.

I had to tell our story to get the reward.

For those remotely interested in the events of the past year – the IBAC report into the Council – and the more recent Pitcher Partners report into certain projects – it should be publicly noted that I was not asked one question by any investigator.

Not one question.

This is my chance to talk to you.

Cr Samantha McIntosh

1st October 2020