Bill Pickering Should Be Handed The Robes: Not Mayoral, but Papal

Cr Bill Pickering of Ryde in the Papal Robes

Rarely can a few paragraphs of text move someone to shed a tear or two, but a letter to the Northern District Times on July 9th, 2014 certainly did. I’m told the author was a fellow member of  Cr Pickering’s Liberal Party branch, but have not been able to confirm this as yet.

That letter gave me a new perspective on Cr Pickering and the hero status he enjoys within his own party. Don’t take my word for it, have a read for yourself…….

Proof – Cr Pickering’s Popularity Within His Party

The letter was a response to one sent in by Cr Pickering (below) and generously published by the Northern District Times in which he rattles off an extensive list of achievements as councillor.

Cr Pickering Lauds Cr Pickering – NDT, 2nd July, 2104

Let’s have a look at what he has to say. In a letter titled “It’s time to move forward”, Cr Pickering has a crack at all and sundry with a competing view of reality. He rattles off a list of achievements connected to the political quagmire of the last twelve months and you have to say, it’s extremely impressive, given that he would have had to balance all those things with the mundane kind of stuff councillors are expected to do, like advocate for better traffic outcomes, open space, recreational land use, red tape on local business.

“I stood with former Liberal mayo Artin Etmekdjian in achieving a Supreme Court Injunction against attempts to illegally sack the former General Manager, John Neish,” Cr Pickering writes.

What a stunning achievement that was – at an estimated cost of more than $300,000 for ratepayers. I’m sure residents would be delighted at that sort of expenditure, especially those among the 3,000-plus that objected to the shambolic Civic precinct plan.

The ICAC “findings” against Cr Petch and a local businessman mentioned in Cr Pickering’s letter may seem sinister, but don’t really amount to much – just an allegation, a bit of mud throwing, an attempt at smear.

Run this sham ICAC Ryde inquiry through a common law filter – with proper rules of evidence – and you end up with……… a lot of questions!

“I defended and continue to defend the actions of John Neish, who as a whistleblower suffered unfairly at the hands of councillors now found to be corrupt,” Cr Pickering asserts.

Touching words there by Cr Pickering and he must have a different version of the report. Neish suffered at the hands of “councillors” – plural – you say? There’s only one councillor I can see in the report that was slapped with unfair “corruption” findings. Where is the other? Were you working with a draft copy that no one was privy to?

Just for housekeeping – only one whistleblower suffered unfairly and it wasn’t Neish. We should hear more on this soon.

Cr Pickering  says he “pushed hard” for the ICAC inquiry? What exactly did Cr Pickering do to “push hard” – who did he speak to, what real evidence did he provide, what political favours did he call on? Tell us all about it Cr Pickering, or is that all part of the uninteresting detail?

Finally, Cr Pickering’s letter took the opportunity to put the boot into Ivan Petch again. But I want to know when Cr Pickering plans to thank and honour Cr Petch for giving him a leg up, a “break”, in politics. The pic below shows Cr Pickeing – appropriately on the far right – revelling in his 2008 Ryde candidacy on Ivan Petch’s ticket.