Tuesday 23 September 2008

The I Don't Wanna Know Councillor

It would appear that one of our civic leaders, Councillor Alan Blake, chooses to remain ignorant about history and what is happening to Cairns.


In an email to all Cairns Regional Councillors, to seek support for the historic Cairns Yacht Club building, local campaigner Ray Taylor said "this provides yet more ammunition to the argument that this place is of 'significance', Ray Taylor said in the email.

Ray included a letter from one of the RAAF pilots that used the Yacht Club during the war years.
  • From: Alan Blake
    To:
    'raymond taylor'
    Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 5:31 PM
    Subject: RE: Emailing: Press Release-21.0

    Please remove this spam from my email address.

    Unwanted emails will be dealt with as per the Privacy Act.

    Thank you.. AB

Now this isn't email spam, by any definition.

I've had the wrath of Sir Alan, which may surprise some. We were, I thought, kinda good mates throughout the months running up to the election, but all that changed.

The night before the new Council was sworn in a couple of weeks after the March 15 election, I received a late telephone call around 10:30pm. Some of Alan's concerns were valid, which I won't relay here, but his tone and threats were extraordinary.

So all my 'friendship' amounted to nought. Zip. Nil. I even enjoyed a nice social friendship with his politically savvy son Danny, who manages the family furniture business. A number of luncheons and coffee dates later, it was nice to connect with a Councillor, regardless of our political leanings. I even had coffee dates with Lance Royce, the former Liberal chair, who is more right of centre than Hitler. Byrne's former foot soldier Dennis Quick shouted me a cuppa just a few weeks ago.

I guess Alan was protecting himself and I, or the Blog, was a handy security blanket. As CairnsBlog reached a critical mass around pre-election Cairns, Alan would rather have been kept out of it's firing line I presume. However, he was never my target.

So when Ray Taylor gets an email like this, it simply makes a mockery of the role a Councillor has to undertake. To serve and listen to all.

To threaten dear ol Ray Taylor, a long time contributor to this community, it paramount to an abuse of his role, and one would have to question the appropriateness of threatening a constituent with the weight of the Privacy Law.

Alan, you may not agree with this issue to save the old Yacht Club building, but many do. Your Council passed two motions to advocate and protect this building on it's present site. You have an obligation to now stand behind that motion. You are the Councillor in the Division where this old building sits, and you are treating the Cairns community - at least those 11,000 that signed the most recent petition - with contempt.

"He's just another plonker in paradise," Ray Taylor says.

I have to agree.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I polled outside Redlynch State School for Annette Shepphard way back in some election, 2000 I think. Alan Blake was running against her, he was nothing short of threatening and rude, towards me. He lost that time around. He is a pig of a man, how he ever got elected has got me absolutely stonkered, something rotten's in Denmark alright, bloody putrid if he can get elected.

Anonymous said...

Mike, maybe you and Rob Pyne need to choose your friends more carefully.
ummmm can someone show Cr Blake where the "delete" button is.

KitchenSlut said...

Mea maxima culpa! I confess *sob* I voted for Alan Blake! What a mistake!

Initial positive communications between some inner city residents and the said councillor have since turned to the cold shoulder of silence ..... and promises of accessibility since denied.

There will be a proactive campaign well before the next election to try and source and fund a credible, electable candidate to the city division and rid us of this nauseous scourge!

Anonymous said...

This fellow Alan Blake is out to get rid of Val as Mayor,trusting in his cohorts Bonneau,Gregory and Cochrane to assist him.
One would like to see a campaign by some of the other Councillors to make sure Blake is never given the opportunity to stand for Mayor.As it stands now,there is much infighting in our current Council,instead of getting on with legitimate business.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh Mike. You are another victim of the Blake seduction and then when you are of no further use to him rejection and ignorance. Don't feel hurt or agrieved there are a large number who have experienced this and one suspects Val has also succumbed to the Snakey Blakey ethics.

Many predicted on your Blog some time ago that Cr Blake would not be able to help himself and would make a move to unseat the Mayor to achieve his long standing ambition. One hopes Val has the strength to deal with this nauseous scourge, so beautifully described by the Kitchen Slut, and squashes him like King Boob did.