Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to address Council. I am
presenting as Co-Convenor of A Better Eurobodalla (ABE), a community forum
dedicated to having open and inclusive government in our region. ABE has
previously addressed Council on transparency and open communication, key
principles of good governance.
Some context for the decision that is recommended to councillors today. Recently we
residents and ratepayers of Eurobodalla have consistently and convincingly been
told that money is tight in the management of our shire. We believe you. Expenditure
is being curtailed across a range of areas.
An example as highlighted in a recent letter to the Moruya Mail by Susan Murphy,
the president of the Moruya and District Historical Society. I quote:
‘In 2022-23 total annual funding for the three historical societies in the shire
(Batemans Bay, Moruya and Narooma) declined from a total of $4500 in the
preceding years to $3000 per annum, or only $1000 for each society. In the case
of Moruya, we pay around $2500 in rates each year. So the MDHS is paying the
Council $1500 per annum so that we can provide this valuable community
resource. This is an embarrassing lack of support for the preservation of this
community’s local history. ‘
There are other examples.
Another fundamental consideration for the expenditure of scarce public moneys is
open competition. We have all lived through the ‘whiteboard’ scandals of
governments at federal and state levels in recent years. That is when decisions are
made which ignore or override the reasonable competitive processes that are based
on transparency and meeting the policy objectives of the relevant organisation.
Another piece of relevant history comes from the Council meeting of 28 February 2023.
At that meeting earlier in this calendar year, Council agreed ‘THAT Council
provide Sculpture for Clyde with the agreed $8,000 Tourism Destination Event
funding and contribute an additional $12,000’.
At that meeting four councillors, Mayor Hatcher, Councillor Grace, Councillor Shutz
and Councillor Dannock declared a non-significant, non-pecuniary interest in
Sculpture for Clyde – Hallmark Event Funding and stated that they did not believe
their interest would preclude them from voting on the matter. All four of these
councillors stating that a donation was received from the event organiser for their
teams in the 2021 local government election.
At that meeting the agenda paper for:
PSR23/008 SCULPTURE FOR CLYDE – HALLMARK EVENT FUNDING stated:
‘Hallmark event funding has historically been granted to two well established
events in the Eurobodalla, with over ten years of development, growth, and ability
to demonstrate their capability to meet the key attributes. The Sculpture for Clyde
event has not been held on the Batemans Bay waterfront since 2017, making it
difficult to assess the event against the key attributes.
A budget was provided to Councillors on 20 February 2023 indicating that Council
funding would be part of the income to support the relocation of the event to the
Shire. The organisers were clear that additional council resources would not be
required to support the event.
Council has been approached by many event organisations over the past 12
months to increase its support. This has been for both commercial events as well
as not-for-profit organisations. For example, Council will recall a request by the
Narooma Oyster Festival for additional support based on the unprecedented
growth of that event, coupled with the dramatic increase in running costs.’
So, the $20,000 granted in February 2023 was ‘part of the income to support the
relocation of the event to the Shire’. Based on the publicly available material, it is not
at all clear what the $20,000 currently under consideration will be used for.
To better understand Sculpture for Clyde I went to their website and contacted them
direct. While the website gives no information about the structure or constitution of
the organisation direct advice has given me the not-for-profit structure and
committee names. No financial details beyond the value of prizes are available on
the website. What it does tell me is that the major partners listed are: Batemans Bay
Lodge, Bridge Plaza Village Centre, Climate Control, McPherson Park Lawyers, L J
Hooker Batemans Bay, the NSW Government and Eurobodalla Shire Council. Plus
16 listed local businesses as major sponsors.
The website and local publicity indicate that the value of the prize money for 2024 is
$112,000 with the acquisitive prize set at $100,000.
From today’s Agenda paper:
‘The event will benefit from Council’s Rapid Response Team, which will be
deployed for the 2024 event.’
and
‘Financial assistance to Sculpture for Clyde 2024 event has not been included in
Council’s published 2023-24 budget. Funds will be sourced from within the
existing events operational budget. Providing funding for the event will include a
$20,000 financial contribution as well as a waiver of venue fees of $8,074.00.’
So, we have a proposed $20,000 grant, waived venue hire of over $8000 and
uncosted support in kind. In addition, my understanding is that Council will meet
whatever the associated costs for installing the acquisitive prize-winning sculpture
might be.
Meanwhile the community grants offered to not for profit organisations for youth,
seniors, healthy communities and NAIDOC week by Council are limited to $500.
Councillors there is another way to consider governance, and that is the pub test.
Here we have an organisation that has established relationships with several
councillors coming to Council for financial and in-kind assistance with no transparent
competitive process.
By contrast, the established Hallmark events supported by Council had to apply
through a formal expression of interest process within a Council established
timeframe. They report on their $20,000 per year as a condition of their grants.
Additionally, unlike Sculpture for Clyde, these events do not rely solely on Localis
data (all I could find for reporting) but survey attendees and participants on
experience and home location and provide reports based on these data.
If the argument for supporting this proposal is that Narooma and Moruya have
Hallmark events and therefore Batemans Bay deserves one, then run a competitive
process.
Meanwhile Sculpture for Clyde is offering prize money of more than $100,000. An
extraordinary amount for an art prize in our regional community. Just maybe the
prize money could be set at $80,000 thereby negating the need for Eurobodalla
ratepayers to subsidise this event when we are in a recognised period of financial
stress.
The recommendation being put to councillors today is not supported by a rigorous
and transparent decision-making process. If there are funds available to support art
and cultural activities that draw visitors to Eurobodalla and its businesses, Council
should run transparent, competitive processes. That way the community, that funds
Council activities, is confident that the best possible decisions are being made.
Bernie O’Neil
Co-Convenor
A Better Eurobodalla
21 November 2023
A Better Eurobodalla 