Results of Petition to Cr Longland

1st March, 2016

by Menkit Prince

As of today we have hit 95,000 signatures for our petition! That does not include 1,747 signatures collected locally by hand. Twelve days ago we presented our petition to Tweed Shire Council. At the time there were a total of 33,955 signatures. However because it was addressed to Cr Longland and not to council, the minutes read:-

• Petition addressed to Councillor Barry Longland from "the people of Uki" containing 32,208 online signatories, 1,747 handwritten signatures totalling 33,955 signatories. As the petition is addressed personally to Cr Barry Longland it will be provided to him for his information.

Note that normal procedure for all petitions is to table the text of the entire petition. This is very disappointing to us that the largest petition ever received by council is not even tabled properly! The fact is that the content is a council-related matter and Cr Longland is employed by council so we find their excuse unjustified.

In response to the pressure this petition is creating on Cr Longland, he has publicly announced his new motion to do a 'referendum' of the people of Pottsville ONLY. Note that a referendum is normally to the whole electorate.

See his announcement on http://www.echo.net.au/2016/02/151743/#comment-2857490

We are stirring the cauldron here and intend to continue the pressure until he either complies with the petition request or becomes so disliked nobody will vote for him at the next election - and that includes the three National-party aligned councillors who also vote anti-koala i.e. Crs Byrne, Youngblutt and Polglase. We have focussed on Cr Longland as he has in the past pledged to protect koalas and holds the balance of power in council therefore is letting his supporters down.