Failure of the Professionals

The Council Election this Saturday will see a new Council elected after being under Administration for four years.

As Mayor I will seek Council to revitalise its Administration and external advisers.

Our City has had ten years of top level administrative incompetence in the form of General Manager Carr, followed by four years of "fat cat" bureaucracy in the form of the Council Administrator Kibble. And of course fat cat bureaucracy breeds fat-cattery with Council's Administration requiring revitalisation to be in line with the new and strong political leadership I am offering.

There are professional firms such as Price Waterhouse Coopers from the Oasis era still engaged with Council as high fee advisers. I will seek Council to agree to terminate their services.

It is my view that the Oasis debacle was a complete failure of the professionals to see the Public Interest as a value of itself rather than an extension of the elected body that pay their accounts. On all major budget matters there is a point on which the public interest beacon stands and at which professionals must say "We will no longer engage with Council on this matter".

Price Waterhouse Coopers, Macquarie Bank, Ernst and Young, Abbott Tout, the Labor Party, retired and comfortable Premier Bob Carr, retired and comfortable Hon Craig Knowles, Hon Paul Lynch - they all failed us here in Liverpool.