Residents addressed council tonight on the proposed sell off of our aged care facilities. All speakers performed wonderfully well = articulate, informed, concerned, and passionate about preserving this service for the long term.
Some of the themes that were prominent included:
- the lack of genuine consultation and council’s secrecy over this issue
- the lack of justification
- the permanent loss of a service and its impact on individuals
We present below one resident’s submission. Please listen to this carefully since it summarises beautifully how council has failed its community and the lack of transparency. We also note Hyams’ fumbling and disingenuous response to the issue of the lack of community consultation. When council makes this audio available it is worth listening to simply because of his pathetic attempt to defend the indefensible.
Glen Eira Debates 
March 12, 2019 at 9:20 PM
I watched and speakers were wonderful. I hope councillors were squirming in their seats listening but not Silver and Hyams. What they said was insulting and offensive. Anyway, submissions is not consultation when the decision has already been made.
March 12, 2019 at 9:31 PM
Yup let’s give it over to private industry! Disgusting https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/maggots-in-man-s-head-at-nsw-aged-care-facility-20190312-p513nt.html
March 12, 2019 at 9:39 PM
I attended tonight’s meeting and submitted a submission. The next council meeting is on the 2nd april we definitely need more of a presence if we are to make a difference. I encourage anyone who is available to attend the next meeting.
March 12, 2019 at 10:36 PM
As the speaker said, council is forced to call for submissions by the existing legislation. It is not done by choice on the part of council. Other past comments on this blog have said that it should be a conversation that is held with ratepayers. Do ratepayers want to keep subsidising aged care? What is the full story? Why was this decision made? Until people are privy to the full story and are given the opportunity to voice an informed view, then we do not have consultation or even democratic process. We have rule by bureaucrats and 9 nonrepresentative councillors.
The only reason that I can see why council opted for this course of action is simple. Money. All the rest of council’s public statements is baggage tagged on to avoid the truth.
Rereading the public notice I’m alarmed by the statement that council now thinks it shouldn’t make public all submissions. Why not? Another instance of avoiding transparency is all I can come up with.
Governance in Glen Eira has been a problem for decades. Nothing has changed.
March 13, 2019 at 5:46 AM
Simply appalling. No consultation, no justification, no transparency, no empathy and no direction re funds and assets. A disgraceful disrespect to public.
March 13, 2019 at 3:15 PM
Agreed. You don’t announce you are selling and then ask people what they think. Plus you don’t reveal any good reasons for what you decided and keep the real reasons secret.
March 13, 2019 at 9:26 PM
In twenty plus years I have not seen or experienced a single change enacted through their consultation processes.
It’s is just tick-box exercise the bureaucrats do to fool the councillors (not that they need much fooling) into thinking the process of seeking idea’s further than their little click has been done.
This continuing roll-on of sham processes one after another has become a big threat to local democracy and leads one to wonder just who is pay who to get the results they what.
Our councillors should do their job of representing the community and insist that changes accommodated through the submission process be made public or at least relayed back to the submitter’s as to why or why not.