Question: “What do rising sea levels, modern day slavery, and the United Nations, have to do with the work of a local government agency in the state’s sunny central west?”

Answer: “Not much!”, according to Cr Lukas Butler.

While heated debates are rare enough in the hallowed halls of Dubbo Council, a recent innocent (and seemingly logical) question about the United Nations from the local elected landscape gardener at a recent meeting got some colleagues hackles rising.

The debate began when a Macquarie Library report – normally a subject likely to generate somnolence, rather than a storm – referenced one of our august international body’s lists of goals. It was then that Cr Butler raised a pointed question…

“At the end of their library report, they make it once a month, they said ‘we subscribe to the 17 goals of the United Nations’, and I said, ‘what’s alleviating world poverty’ got to do with library services in Dubbo?” Cr Butler told Dubbo Photo News.

“That put the nose out of joint of one of my colleagues who accused me of ‘targeting library staff,’ but it was a genuine question; I simply don’t see its relevance to what we do,” he added.

The debate, he said, also includes other examples of what he sees as thinly-veiled virtue signalling from the professional staff in their otherwise mundane reports.

“Earlier we had the Operational Budget, and it mentioned a reference to ‘rising sea levels and climate change’. What, on the Macquarie River, did they mean?

“Why are we in an Operational Budget, responding to rising sea levels? I just don’t see how that’s relevant… it’s just a nod to the climate change issue,” Cr Butler added.

On a run by now, he then mentioned an earlier report on a vexing issue, but one which again, might leave our hard-working ratepayers scratching their heads.

“At the end of last year, they also put in a report that council had ‘trained our staff to expunge (remove) slavery in our supply chains’.

“I asked then, ‘why then, do we have four Teslas on the books?’” Cr Butler said, referencing disputed claims that the electric car manufacturer uses cobalt from alleged child slave labour mines in central Africa for its engines.

These instances, he said, are worrying examples of council staff – on the public dime – inserting essentially-political issues into what should be factual reports of their operations.

“I don’t like this virtue signalling; rising sea levels may be one of the least important issues we have,” Cr Butler said.

“I can see where it comes from, but mid-year reports are not the place for inserting comments about these type of issues, many of which are disputed anyway,” he concluded.

Deputy mayor, Phillip Toynton, said that he followed the debate and had some sympathy for Cr Butler’s views.

“In talking about the UN’s 17 goals and core values, I think he raised a good point, although it was not articulated all that well,” Cr Toynton opined.

“Out of the 17 values, in all honesty, only three or four may relate to Library Services, things like ‘education and equality’,” he argued.

He added that the question regarding electric cars and cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo raises debate about whether council can actually remove all enforced labour products from its supply chain anyway.

“I thought the cobalt reference was a very good point, council can sit there and say: ‘we don’t support slavery,’ but how do we verify it?” Cr Toynton asked.

“Council should stay in its lane and stick to its core duties and not get into issues like rising sea levels and global warming,” he concluded.

Cr Shibli Chowdhury also agreed, arguing that local government is a service provider for local ratepayers that should largely stick to its knitting.

“My personal view is that the people elected us to deliver locally in local services, that’s what we should be doing,” Cr Chowdhury said.

“We should be focussing on what these issues are, not things that we have no control over, that should be our main priority,” he concluded.

Cr Richard Ivey, however, said that he believes there is a good reason for well-meaning motherhood statements from Turtle Bay – the United Nations’ New York headquarters – being referenced in council reports.

“I didn’t see it as a problem as such, if we‘re looking at obtaining the maximum benefits for our ratepayers, why not recognise the UN Charter?” he asked.

“Many of their goals are also those of our library services, ‘reducing inequality through education’, things like that are certainly connected with what the library does,” he concluded.

Former mayor and committed environmentalist, Cr Mathew Dickerson, agreed with Cr Ivey, saying that he could see no objection to issues like modern-day slavery and global warming being included in Council reports. He also argued that Cr Butler’s Tesla-slave labour link is not necessarily supported by the evidence.

“I’ve got no problems with these reports, staff have to give us the accepted views of all of us, we can’t be miffed by the facts,” Cr Dickerson said.

“The claim that Teslas are made using child slave labour is highly-contested – the company says they’re not – and anyway, any vehicle on the road has workers under conditions that would not be acceptable in Australia,” he concluded,

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Tracker Riley closure no sweat for Stampede

Hundreds of locals taking part in this weekend’s Dubbo Stampede have nothing to fear from current works on sections of the Tracker Riley Shared Pathway, council has assured runners.

The work, between Regand Park and the John Gilbert Water Treatment Plant, was intended to end earlier this week. The closure was to allow for stormwater repair works to be undertaken along this area with gates at both ends of this section of the shared pathway closed during the work.

“Proposed works will have no impact on the upcoming Dubbo Stampede Running Festival event,” council stated.

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Old Vic Park lav has flushed its last…

They say that some journalists will attend the opening of a carpark or a toilet block, but will they see it destroyed?

Council recently announced that the old amenities in Victoria Park will be demolished over the next week with the area being fenced off while the work is undertaken.

Toilet facilities at the new Victoria Park amenities between the entrance to Dubbo Aquatic Leisure Centre and the Victoria Park playground have replaced the facility, with the site to be levelled and new turf installed.