‘Extreme agenda': Northern Beaches Greens councillors caught obsessing over woke motions despite slugging ratepayers with massive tax hike
The Northern Beaches Council, which is dominated by the Teal affiliate group Your Northern Beaches, voted in favour of a 29 per cent rate hike in mid-June, drawing the ire of local residents.
The four Northern Beaches Greens councillors who voted in support of the historic rate rise then opted to 'hijack' the same June 17 council meeting and advance a detailed motion titled "support for the Beaches Palestinian community and a ceasefire in Gaza."
The motion, advanced by 21 year-old Greens councillor Ethan Hrnjak, lobbied for the council to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and boycott companies linked to Israel.
Despite raising rates to cover growing costs, the Mr Hrnjak also tried to push the council to write to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and seven other federal government ministers and MPs "advising them of council's position on the issue.'
Instead of pushing back against the tax increase, which stands as the largest in the council's history, the Greens spent the majority of their designated speaking time during the meeting expressing solidarity with activist groups including the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network and Medical Aid for Palestinians.
'This council has a duty to speak out. While this may be symbolic, it matters to our community,' Mr Hrnjak said after voting to increase ratepayers annual council bills by $168.
Independent councillor Vincent De Luca raised an amendment in response noting there 10,000 foreign conflicts and the local council was "not the appropriate jurisdiction to debate international matters such as international conflicts."
The Greens have seperatly tabled a motion for the upcoming July 15 meeting to debate nuclear weapons and to urge the locality to adopt a raft of recommendations including flying the flag of the International Campaign to Abolish nuclear weapons.
The motion also calls on Sophie Scamps and Zali Steggall, the two federal members for the Northern Beaches area, to raise the gesture with the federal government.
Ms Scamps and Ms Steggall have already both signed a declaration to the federal government advocating for nuclear non-proliferation.
The federal government banned nuclear power as an energy source in the 1990s, is a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and is a founding member of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty.
Instead of interrogating the council allocating $173 million - or 40 per cent of its budget - to fund the salaries of its employees, the Greens councillors put forward a notice of motion on 15 April titled "Clean, Green and Local NSW 2024 Policy Reform".
The motion called on the council to "examine the 'Clean, Green and Local NSW 2024' policy platform of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW and prepare a high-level summary".
The council is guided by the Draft Northern Beaches Environment Study.
Councillor Hrnjak introduced another motion at the March 18 meeting named "Condemnation of Modern Slavery" which argued for council to receive a report on the implications of amending the Procurement and Contracts policy to ensure "modern slavery compliance".
The vote resulted in an even split, with opposing councillors arguing that Australia has some of the strictest anti-modern slavery laws in the entire world.
Mr De Luca railed against the Greens for discarding crucial local issues.
He said were instead focused on their 'extreme agenda to dominate local council with international matters that have no concern for local people'.
'The main concern of our everyday citizen is the cost of living, decreasing rates at the Northern Beaches Council and all of the other works that need to be done such as the resealing of roads and yet the Greens are abusing time and resources at council meetings to push their own agenda," Mr De Luca told SkyNews.com.au.
Mr De Luca, who stands as one of the last points of opposition to the Your Northern Beaches/Greens bloc, labelled the Greens performative stunts in council meetings as 'frustrating' and said they were 'misusing council as a political stepping stone'.
Despite Northern Beaches council overseeing an expanding budget, Greens councillors have continued to flood notices of motions calling for repeated reviews into what Mr De Luca claims are secondary issues.
Greens councillor Miranda Korzy has submitted a motion for the July 15 meeting lobbying for council to commission a complete review of plastic use in council infrastructure.
Mr De Luca said the minor party's councillors were "insulting" Northern Beaches residents who primarily want council to minimise costs and rates.
'The Greens are out of touch with our local community, they voted for the 29 per cent rate increase. If they showed any compassion, they'd be voting against that, instead they are talking about Gaza and they're talking about nuclear weapons disarmament,' he said.
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The Liberal premier spruiked his policy to create a state-owned insurer, but Mr Winter questioned whether there was any modelling behind the proposal.
