Parra News August 10 2021

LOCAL NEWS
Mayor confirms he’s out
Uncertainty surrounds Liberal Councillors ahead of upcoming election
NICOLA BARTON
parra news » Tuesday, August 10, 2021
The Liberal Party’s two City of
Parramatta North Rocks Ward
Councillors have announced
they will not recontest this year’s Local
Government Election, as factional wars
stir.
Lord Mayor Bob Dwyer and Councillor
Andrew Jefferies’ decision to call it a day
comes after Councillor Martin Zaiter
unsuccessfully took the NSW Liberal Party
to the Supreme Court, in an attempt to sue
its State Executive over a ‘mismanaged’
election nomination process.
Cr Zaiter launched the civil case against
the Liberal State Executive, which he is a
member of, after it made the decision to
not run nominations in Parramatta.
As it stands, Local Government Conferences
are held so that branch members are
able to preselect nominees for elections.
Parramatta, however, does not have one,
after members voted against its establishment.
In the case of where there is no conference,
candidates will have to run as
independents, unless the State Executive
determines to contest and thus open
nominations and endorse them under the
Liberal name.
Some party members believe it is a
breach of the constitution to remove the
preselection process and leaves the door
open for factional powerplay.
The Court rejected any evidence that
was directed to explaining that dispute
or speculating about what one faction or
another might do.
“While such things may be matters
of great and legitimate interest to the
participants and those concerned with
local government in Parramatta, they are
irrelevant to the legal issues which the
Court has been called upon to decide,” the
Court documents stated.
Following the Court outcome, the Liberal
State Executive opened nominations for
Parramatta.
A Liberal Party source said that the
party’s left and hard right factions, led
by two senior Ministers in the Berejiklian
Government had “concocted”
Current Councillor Andrew Jefferies.
Current Councillor Bob Dwyer.
and “rorted” the process to install their
preferred candidates across all five of the
City of Parramatta Council’s Wards.
Cr Jefferies said he has loved representing
the community over the last three terms,
across both The Hills and Parramatta, but
said the toxicity of the chamber is unbearable.
“For some it’s more about score settling
and bullying than genuine community
representation,” he said.
Current Councillor Benjamin Barrak.
Current Councillor Martin Zaiter.
“That certainly won’t be changing
over the course of the next term and
with the State Executive acting less than
transparently by deliberately dragging
out the nomination process till the
last minute, leaving less than a day for
candidate nominations, while excluding
local branch members from the decision
making process; it’s just not something I
wanted to be associated with.”
Cr Dwyer said it’s time for him to focus on
Current Councillor Bill Tyrrell.
Current Councillor Steven Issa.
his family and his health moving forward.
“It’s been a difficult Council term from
the start and at the end of the day it does
wear you down,” he said.
Parra News understands all remaining
Liberal Councillors have nominated,
however whether or not they will be
endorsed will be up to the State Executive
to decide.
The Local Government Election will be
held on December 4.
Hope blackspot may be fixed
NICOLA BARTON
Wentworth Point’s mobile phone
network blackspot is causing
headaches, as residents working
from home or trying to check in at
venues are often without signal.
City of Parramatta Councillor Patricia
Prociv recently put forward a Notice of
Motion, which was endorsed, calling
for the Council to write to the Chief
Executive Officers of Telstra Corporation,
Singtel Optus and TPG Community,
seeking information regarding upgrades
or construction at the suburb’s mobile
network base stations.
These include stations at 47 Hill Road
(Telstra), 6 Baywater Drive and 19 Hill
Road (TPG Community) and upgrading
the 3G network at 45 Hill Road (Optus).
The issue of slow service is nothing new
for the highly-dense suburb but has only
increased with lockdown and the number
of people switching to a work from home
model.
Wentworth Point resident and community
advocate Clement Lun said residents
and businesses are experiencing difficulties
accessing mobile networks and have
been airing their frustrations online.
“The mobile infrastructure is shocking
in our area and can’t keep up with the
growing population,” he said.
“It’s a real challenge with everyone now
at home and trying to connect all at once.”
Optus, Telstra and TPG told Parra News
that they are investigating the establishment
of additional mobile base stations in
the Wentworth Point area.
A Telstra spokesperson suggested those
experiencing poorer indoor coverage use
a network extension device.
“Customers may also be able to utilise
their fixed broadband connections in their
homes to enable our voice calling and SMS
over Wi-Fi feature on supported devices,”
the spokesperson said.
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