Secrecy suggests something is going on

The murky dealings over the Kibbleplex site in Gosford seem to be well matched by the equally obscure negotiations over the China Theme Park site in Warnervale.

In both cases, it sounds as though inept local-government servants are being well and truly outmanoeuvred by shrewd property speculators, while the public (the owner of both sites) is being kept completely in the dark and spoonfed only the least possible amount of information that both councils can get away with.

Nobody in the community is being offered an opportunity to assess these negotiations, and we shall only find out anything when the deal is past any possibility of influencing the outcome.

Didn't someone say that the essence of government is open agreements openly arrived at?

The government is fond of telling us that, if we are doing nothing wrong, our actions should be open to scrutiny by any agency that wants to pry into our affairs.

Doesn't the same principle apply to government whose main purpose is to act in our interests, and doesn't the passion for secrecy suggest that something is going on that will eventually be to our detriment?

Both of these projects will shortly come under the aegis of the new Central Coast municipality, at which point it is to be hoped that there will be a more responsive and responsible attitude to community rights.

Perhaps, the property speculators are hoping to seal a binding agreement with the two existing councils before the sales come under the scrutiny of the new authority.

Email, 31 Jan 2016

Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy