Your Voice Was Heard
Thank you and congratulations for having the courage to take a stand for the “Little Guy”.
Your voice was heard.
Thank you for the 144 people who had the courage to stand up and push back on a proposed strategy that would have had dire consequences for many residents in the East Gippsland Community.
Your “Vote” made a difference…
Your signature on the Empower the East petition was not “Officially” recognised, however unofficially it had a MASSIVE IMPACT.
Your collective votes unnerved the majority of councillors to postpone the acceptance of the RLUS (Rural Draft Use Strategy) in its current format.
It was a feisty debate and at times it looked like it was going to be passed, but to my surprise, one of the councillors moved the motion that the final decision to accept the RLUS be postponed till July 25th, 2023, and allow further input from the community.
The vote was cast 7-2
7 voted for the RLUS in its current format to be postponed and have further discussions and input from the East Gippsland Community and 2 voted that it be passed in its current format.
“YOUR VOTE” did count and once again, thank you, you have averted a decision that would have had disastrous outcomes for many people
What does this mean for you and me?
1. First, it means that we have some breathing space to push back and protect those who are the losers in the proposed RLUS format.
PS. Everyone in East Gippsland community is affected!
The more I study the documents, the more it becomes apparent of the adverse results it will have on the overall well-being of our community.
2. It gives you and me time to alert the community who will be personally affected by the proposed changes.
4. It gives us time to look at the 353 – page RLUS document and decipher all the other hidden agendas and items that are woven through this document.
You will be shocked at the increased control that it will give the EGSC (East Gippsland Shire Council) Planning Department if it is passed in its current format.
5. It gives us time to develop a strategy to protect those who will be adversely affected.
Let’s take a stand and make our local government, that, is the unelected bureaucrats who hide behind the councillors be accountable and transparent on every decision they make on major policies that affects the whole community.
Your Voice Matters.
Empower The East — has been designed to give the “invisible people” a voice in how our local government behaves and the decisions they make that affect every aspect of our lifestyle and well-being.
This is about you being heard.
The push back has begun and this is only the beginning to fix long standing issues we have had with our local government, the EGSC.
It’s far worse than I thought.
It is shocking to discover the Major Policy Changes that have been drawn up by our unelected bureaucrats that will affect EVERY PERSON in East Gippsland.
If it sounds like this is an overreaction, go and read the pages and pages of documents that are currently being tabled before the councillors.
My observation is that the majority of the community are completely unaware of what is being proposed without proper community consultation.
We have the
1. Rural Land Use Strategy.
2. East Gippsland Housing and Settlement Strategy
3. A draft annual budget 2023/2024
4. A 10-year budget policy
All of these have repressive hidden agendas that if passed in there current formats will have dire consequences for every member of our community and give our local government massive control and overreach into every area of our day-to-day life.
Accountability and Transparency
Most of us would be unaware that a council is run like a corporation, where there is a board (the Councillors), a CEO (Anthony Basford) who reports to the board, and the various departmental managers who report to the CEO.
This link will reveal who they are and their roles.
https://www.eastgippsland.vic.gov.au/council/organisation-structure
What I have discovered is that local government, e.g. The EGSC are not under the same transparency and regulations that a business corporation has to abide by.
In other words, they are a corporation without the accountability that you and I must abide by if we are running a Pty Ltd corporation
Oh, they claim they do, but evidence has come across my desk to prove otherwise.
Where to from here?
We have a very short window of time to hold our local Government, EGSC accountable and require them to be transparent in how they make decisions, use our money and care for our overall well-being.
Our target is the July 25th Council meeting to expose and amend the current proposed policies that will affect us all.
We must not let our Local Government (EGSC) gain excessive control and overreach. Unfortunately, the current proposals will empower them to achieve that.
Strategic taskforce
We are in the process of forming a strategic taskforce of independent experts who have volunteered their time and expertise to disseminate the hidden agendas and recommend changes that are beneficial to the
lifestyle and well-being of our community.
Their purpose is to inform you in plain and simple language of the implications and what the outcomes will be if we/you allow these agendas to be passed.
Plus, they will pass on strategies and recommendations to be submitted to our local government (EGSC) via submissions and petitions.
How can you help?
1. Pass this information onto as many people as possible because a grassroots people movement will overturn the bad decisions they are planning to make.
2. Tell others to join the Empower the East grassroots movement, they can do this by filling in their details on our website www.empowertheeast.com.au this will be the quickest and fastest way to communicate with everyone as events and evidence unfolds.
From this list we will be able to inform everyone as we file petitions and submissions to our local government.
3. If you have a level of expertise and prepared to put time into this campaign to reform our local government, email us at info@empowertheeast.com.au
Thanks for your support.
“Hold onto your hats, it’s only just begun”.