A ‘mystery’ phone survey testing the water for a mayoral run
Will popular Deputy Mayor Frank Wilkie have an unopposed run at the top job in March? Well, we will know soon enough after a wave of those expensive and annoying ‘robo-calls’ in a phone survey asking locals if they preferred Cr Wilkie or Cr Amelia Lorentson.
Cr Lorentson has reportedly been busy denying that she will run for Mayor or that she has any connection with the polling, so who’s behind it?
Is it another candidate or just someone with plenty of money and a peculiar interest in local politics?
Those looking for hints point to poll questions about how important it is that the Council should be “free of political party candidates”. Put another way, is this a landmine to be avoided?
‘Independence’ is a fine line to walk, particularly for Leigh McCready – defined under our electoral laws as a property developer – who did not make the cut as the local LNP contender for the seat of Noosa next year and is running for Council instead.
On social media, Ms McCready has this carefully-worded response to the question of whether she’s running as a party candidate.
And yet the LNP has been emailing all of its local members with this blatant attempt at firing up the troops.
“It’s crucial that we rally behind our LNP members who are running for local government.”
Stacey McCray
Secretary, LNP Noosa SEC/Branch
All of this, of course, involves grey areas, but with that sort of LNP help, It’s not easy selling the line that you’re running as an ‘independent’.
And that segues to this
The other local LNP member who’s running “as an independent”, Alecia Staines, a former Primary School teacher could actually use a bit of help from the party with her free Canva website.
Along with a list of generic ‘visions’ for the shire that could almost be AI generated, and lots of spelling mistakes and typos is this gem;
Is this a suggestion that Councillors should be provided with Segways to help them get around the shire? Let’s hope not.
A mayoral monopoly on the ‘good news’
The graphic below may support those wondering what happened to the long-established Council practice of spreading the Media Releases and kudos around amongst Councillors, rather than using the Council media unit as a kind of quasi Mayoral publicity unit.
Long time Council observers have been bemused in this term as the Mayor has made the most of her opportunity to create a platform launching her from obscurity to the LNP candidate for the seat of Noosa.
Will our next Mayor spread the love and the limelight amongst other Councillors? If we want at least the appearance of a more collaborative Council, that might be a good start.
Can our Council use spell-check?
Finally, you don’t need to be eagle-eyed to spot that the streets of Peregian Beach are named after birds.
This effort by Council comes under the heading of “you just had one job – get the spelling right.”
This is their dyslexic version of Jabiru.
We have no idea what a “Jaribu” is, but perhaps the local Garden Centre may request the dodgy sign remains in place to help amused tourists find their way here for a coffee and a chat about spelling.
