Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to put on the record that this Saturday Central Coast residents will finally have the opportunity to have their say and vote in the local government elections. Following the New South Wales Liberal government's forced amalgamations and 12 months of Liberal-appointed administration, residents will finally be able to elect candidates that are accountable to them and not just to Gladys Berejiklian.

I want to put some very important remarks on the record with regard to the Save Tuggerah Lakes Party. As some residents may already know, one of the parties standing for election, in every ward, is the Save Tuggerah Lakes Party, right down to the southern part of the Central Coast. What most people don't know is that they are a puppet party set up by much discredited Wyong mayor and Liberal member Doug Eaton. The time line goes something like this. In the early 2000s Mr Eaton became a founding member of the Save Tuggerah Lakes Party. In 2008 he was nominated as the party agent. In 2010 and 2011 it was Mr Eaton who completed the financial disclosures for the party. In fact, in 2011 Mr Eaton and his political partner, Mr Greg Best, and their wives donated a combined total of $6,000 to the party. I have the public documentation here, which I will certainly make available to the public through my Facebook page so they can see the evidence about how closely aligned these two parties are.

That donation of $6,000 to the Save Tuggerah Lakes Party by Mr Eaton and his wife, and Mr Best and his wife, made them the largest and only party donors leading into the 2012 council elections. Before that last election, Mr Eaton and Mr Best signed and witnessed the nominations of all the Save Tuggerah Lakes Party candidates. Probably the most damning evidence for this is Mr Eaton's own admission to the Central Coast Expressin 2003, where he said that at the last council elections the electoral system was such that 'a number of candidates ran in a number of political parties to deliver preferences to them'. Councillor Eaton then went on to say that Save Tuggerah Lakes was created for that reason, to create a sense that they weren't the Liberal Party, that they were something else.

Everybody loves the Tuggerah Lakes—but I don't know that Mr Eaton and Mr Best love and want to save Tuggerah Lakes. They're more into saving their own political skins and pretending their independence from this party is a reality. They need to come clean with the people on the coast, and so does the Save Tuggerah Lakes Party. Many on the Central Coast would recall that as mayor Mr Eaton championed a number of failed projects—most notably the very discredited $500 million supposedly job-creating Chinese theme park development in Wyong. This has been roundly condemned as never ever having been fit for development in documents recently tabled in the New South Wales parliament.

Recently, Mr Eaton was referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption on allegations of using his council position for his own financial benefit. It has also been alleged, and much aired in local media, by a council whistleblower, that, as mayor, Mr Eaton ordered his staff to prepare his own Order of Australia medal nomination, including typing up a biography that he had provided handwritten. Earlier this year, Mr Eaton ran as an unsuccessful Liberal council candidate in Wyong and now stands as an Independent. Let's be clear, when an Independent isn't independent, when they're aligned with a political party, it is a deception.

I want to put on the record that Labor is transparently supporting Labor candidates. We know that Doug Eaton is not shy of controversy. He represents the local government culture of wheeling and dealing that locals are absolutely sick of. Many on the Central Coast will have a choice on Saturday between an old council culture that puts deals first and ratepayers last or a new team that transparently reveals who they are and what they stand for. For all those who are voting Independent, I really urge you to make sure that the people are genuinely independent, not tied up with this preference flow to the Liberal Party, which has been the case for more than 20 years on the Central Coast.

Labor will clean up the mess. Labor will get on with the building of roads to improve our lives, the building of footpaths and the provision of services for our community. We've got young people with great vision on our team, and we've older people—like Jeff Sundstrom, local firefighter—ready to stand up for our local community. Vote Labor, and support our council on Saturday.