Soft Intimidation is still Intimidation ; Wells plays the soft glove in Gash's presence

Little bit of background for this story.

Prior to the Local Government Election, I met with Federal Member Joanna Gash to discuss the election and the passing of preferences.

Of course it would be extremely unlikely for The Greens to ever suggest that voters pass a preference to the Conservatives in politics regardless of the any claim of independence. They simply are not progressive enough.

One thing though the Mrs Gash and I did establish at that meeting was that we both didn't want to see Greg Watson resurrected as Mayor. I also told Mrs Gash that she didn't need to bother with preferences as her personal vote would be so high that no one else could really assist her- voila- 6 weeks later and Team Gash announced with a fanfare ' NO PREFERENCE DEALS!' which is such nonsense anyway as no one can give a preference other than a voter- Party's can make suggestions but it is the voter who ultimately decides. In Team Gash's fanfare they made out that The Greens had done some sort of dirty deal with Watson.

 The Greens certainly don't make deals, but suggest to voters- well if you like us and we are unsuccessful the next best candidates are from party XYZ. We make these decisions with input from all our local group members,regardless of what any other group does.

At that meeting I also advised Mrs Gash that I would be a team player but as she well knows there are times when our ideologies will be so far apart the word team wont figure.

Little did I know that my definition of team player and Team Gash's was so different.

Deputy Mayor John Wells called me into the Mayoral office after committee a fortnight ago to discuss 'how I thought Council was going' and that he would tell me how 'he thought I was going'-woo hoo lucky me, my personal critic.

However when the office door closed behind me it was a different story and they immediately queried why I was supporting things written by Fiona Phillips. Fiona is well known for her stance during the election on Mrs Gash holding down her Federal Members job and that of Mayor.

They asked me since I had a problem with the Mayoral Minutes being bundled why didn't I say something to them- umm HELLO...Wells and Gash were both in the meeting when I discussed this issue at length and even raised the code of meeting practice that seemed to direct that the Mayoral minute should only address one issue ( there can be multiple minutes). Fiona Phillips attended this meeting also and astutely picked up the issue and wrote a blog piece on the issue. I reminded them both of this meeting.

Wells did actually ask me how I though things were going and why wasnt I being a team player....Mr Wells I was not elected onto Council via TEAM GASH and the community expect me to report issues on process and accountability to them not just roll over and play cute puppy for the sake of good relationships. In fact this questioning astounded me-two people well versed in the world of politics who seemed to equate team playing to NOT exposing the issues! That is the 'game' of politics....disagree on issues and remain civil and listen to your colleagues.

So once again I reiterated my version of team playing....reminding them of the expectation my constituients had.

Wells then went on to imply that somehow we had bargained and they had lived up to their bit by giving me chair of a few commitees (not major ones, but committees that they did not want to deal with)- this was a strange little veiled threat.

Finally Wells played a sympathy statement asking me to be kind as it was a stessfull time for Jo- he did apologise to Jo for doing so but I still found it a little strange.

It was an oddly executed session of intimidation and  in an odd way I am thankfull for the hardening up that I have had to do over the last 4 years. I certianly wont be bowing to that sort of pressure anytime soon.