7 December 08

Auburn council’s funds freeze fiasco: real agendas unveiled

The Social Justice Network (SJN) welcomes the decision by Auburn Council last Wednesday to lift the freeze of funding for Auburn Neighbourhood Community Aid Centre (ANCAC). The SJN can proudly claim that its campaign among residents helped end this “embarrassing debate”, as described by the Mayor on an earlier occasion.

“This fiasco, which was created by the Greens Councillor, was important to unveil many facts and many real agendas” said Jamal Daoud, SJN spokesperson. “The first fact that was unveiled is that the Greens is another regressive political force that was hiding behind slogans of social justice”.

The fiasco in fact ended the Greens self-declared monopoly on progressiveness in the council, and in the Australian political arena in general. Trying to cut funding of ANCAC, The Greens was targeting the most marginalised people in Australia. Not only this. The Greens councillor entered an unholy alliance with the far-right Liberal party councillors.

“The Greens Councillor, Malikeh Michaels, swallowed all her election promises to fight against developers and real estate agents on the council. In fact, she entered an alliance with Liberal and Unity councillors of mainly developers and real estate agents”

After this fiasco, who can believe the Greens mythical promises to represent the needy and marginalised people in Auburn (and in Australia in general)? This is surely a question which remains hanging for the Greens Party to prove itself.

“The Greens proved to be strong when the issue was about closing down illegally operated brothels in residential areas, or it was about shutting down injecting rooms. But when it is about shutting down a noble organisation that helps very poor people meet their basic food needs, the Greens was the one who actively moved this motion, twice”

The other lesson from this fiasco is that there is another political organisation that will help “keep the bastards honest” on Council. Our organisation proved that it has the commitment and the ability to fight for the rights of needy marginalised citizens. The people of Auburn and NSW are watching very closely our campaigns and achievements.

“The people of Auburn and NSW now have an alternative voice to resort to when they have problems or issues of a social justice nature. The group is already campaigning on many issues of social justice. These include draconian Anti-Terrorism laws, the highly discriminatory citizenship test, delays in granting permanent visas or citizenship, and under-representation of marginalised people in decision making bodies.”

Now, Auburn residents know who kept their promises and who was selling them empty election promises. The latter it seem includes not only Greens councillor Malikeh Michaels, but also perhaps unwittingly Clr Izzet Anmak. His main election promise was to represent local residents’ interests, and not political parties’ agendas. Instead he was dragged into serving the Greens-Liberals agenda in their bid to destabilise state Labor government, but at local residents’ expense.

For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0424 163 667