Over the past year, I’ve had the privilege of being invited to speak with many residents at community meetings across Ipswich about the challenges and opportunities the city has faced after elected council representatives were dismissed by a unanimous vote of the Queensland Parliament in August 2018.
I often ask the residents for a quick show of hands of those who have read or heard of the Crime and Corruption Commission Operation Windage report (“Report) into the former Ipswich City Council.
Not surprisingly, usually only a few hands go up.
The question isn’t about catching people out. I ask about Operation Windage because it’s really important, I think, for Ipswich residents to understand why the former mayor and councillors were dismissed, and why your council has since conducted a “root and branch” review of our policies, procedures and culture.
However, far more crucially in my view, the Report also identified within council “significant governance failures and cultural issues that appear to have occurred over many years” which, the CCC reported, “would not have occurred in an environment in which the values of transparency, accountability and good governance were paramount”.
The view that some folks have suggested to me that the full council was dismissed only because of the corrupt behaviour of a few, is completely inconsistent with the Report’s findings.
It was the CCC findings of persistent and pervasive governance and integrity failures in your council which triggered the removal of the former elected representatives by the Queensland Parliament.
Re-establishing good governance, transparency and accountability in your council has been our central challenge this year.
Eighteen business transformation “projects” were established to inform and guide the reform process with one specifically tasked with creating the frameworks and tools to best manage interactions between councillors, council officers and the community once the March 2020 elections are held.
I’m pleased to report that, after consulting our community reference group, council has endorsed this work and introduced a leading practice Councillor Integrity Policy Package which sets clear, concise and certain standards for councillors and council staff.
The package addresses several key Operation Windage findings, putting appropriate controls around these risk issues and defining the support available for incoming councillors.
All existing councillor-related policies have been reviewed and amended to ensure alignment with relevant legislation.
We all want our new mayor and councillors to be successful in leading this city forward. The new Councillor Integrity Policy Package will assist them to carry out their duties in an ethical, transparent and financially responsible manner.
I encourage residents to review the package at ipswich.qld.gov.au/cipp
From my point of view I think the administrator has done a great job. We’ve seen more happened in the last 12 months and we have in a long time. Let’s not have a council and keep the administrator because things get done.
I agree David.My rubbish still gets collected each week, roads and footpaths are still being constructed.Life has gone on as normal.The sky has not fallen.Why do we need councillors?
I would like to understand what governance bodies externally (non council) how they have been impacted. What changes do we need to ensure that this never happens again and how will these failures be captured and corrected in a timely fashion in the future? Failures to governance policy and procedure can still be ignored so how will the system manage this in the future?