17 NOVEMBER 2021
ISSUE 265
REAL INDEPENDENT LOCAL WEEKLY NEWS
Drone artistry on display
News
November is a bumper month for community and sustainability on the Coast, with Central Coast Council celebrating National Recycling Week. See page 5
Out&About
Community events and festivals are back on the social calendar following the lifting of COVID restrictions and Central Coast Council is lending a helping hand with almost $300,000 in funding. See page 15
The Central Coast Drone Flyers, an avid group of drone photographers, are launching an exhibition at The Entrance Gallery to showcase their aerial photographs.
Business
See page 17
“It’s like nobody wants to know us.” Central Coast Council can’t attract staff, can’t keep staff and can’t get meetings with the State Government. “It’s like nobody wants to know us.” Local politicians, the media and the community “are attacking the hell out of us”, “like a pack of wolves out there”. These were the observations of Council Administrator, Rik Hart, when he held a press conference on November 10 to respond to criticisms of the
decisions made to get the Council back on a sound financial footing since the financial crisis. On October 6, 2020, the Council announced it faced immediate and serious liquidity issues. In November 2020 Hart became acting CEO and since May this year he has been the Administrator. Hart explained the context that drove the decisions he and Interim Administrator Dick Persson made in the weeks and months after the Minister
for Local Government suspended the Councillors on October 30, 2020. Hart said over the 12 months he had been at Council he had formed the view that the State Government did not fully understand the consequences of its initial decision to request that Council seek commercial loans to support the business. “Our experience to date is that none of the state government agencies – Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
(DPIE), Office of Local Government (OLG) and NSW Audit Office had any experience in dealing with a local government entity being effectively placed into receivership and being required to seek commercial loans,” Hart said. He pointed out the difficulty Council had in dealing with the agencies with no coordination between them and with each of them following their own policy agenda and setting. He said the Council had been treated like a “piece of carrion sitting there with hyenas
pulling them one way and vultures attacking”. He said the State Government kept them at arms length while the Council had to dance to a commercial bank’s tune to secure two loans totalling $150M. The banks actually demanded hard assets rather than future cash from rates as surety for the $100M loan the Council secured in late December, 2020 so some community assets were now mortgaged. Continued page 4
Two Central Coast Businesses – Fruit For All in Berkeley Vale and S&P Dominello Flower Growers in Peats Ridge – have won 2021 Fresh Awards from Sydney Markets Limited. See page 24
Sport
The Central Coast Mariners have made it through to the final 16 in the FFA Cup by securing a win against Blacktown City FC in the Round of 32 elimination match. See page 32
Puzzles page 19
It all starts with spirit spiritsuper.com.au Advice on Spirit Super is provided by Quadrant First Pty Ltd (ABN 78 102 167 877, AFSL 284443) and issuer is Motor Trades Association of Australia Superannuation Fund Pty Ltd (ABN 14 008 650 628, AFSL 238718), the trustee of Spirit Super (ABN 74 559 365 913). Read the PDS at spiritsuper.com.au before making a decision.
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