A RIFT has opened up between Katherine Town Council elected members after a “point-scoring” attempt to ban fracking at last week’s meeting resulted in an embarrassing procedural breach.
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On February 24, Alderman Toni Tapp-Coutts moved a notice of motion to “ban unconventional oil and gas mining” within the Katherine municipality, a decision the council has no legislative power to enforce.
Following a failed attempt to lay the motion on the table, it was then reworded to “support the community of Katherine and request a moratorium” on the contentious mining method.
The amended motion was eventually carried with a 5-2 vote, but the outcome has infuriated mayor Fay Miller, who blasted the debate as a “grandstand” designed to serve the political aspirations and personal agendas of several aldermen.
“I think it was point-scoring,” she told the Katherine Times.
“It’s not a huge win.
“They voted to do something that we have absolutely no authority to do.
“We’ve got no legislative power.”
The motion to push for a moratorium has been praised by Katherine’s anti-fracking faction, but the actual result mirrored one already achieved by the council last year when it wrote to the Mines and Energy Minister asking for the municipality to become an exclusion zone for mining and gas exploration.
Under section 145 of the council’s by-laws, the mayor is responsible for accepting motions from elected members, but Alderman Miller would not clarify why she included one in the agenda that requested a fracking ban after the suggestion was originally discussed three months ago.
During the November 25 meeting, Alderman Miller advised Alderman Tapp-Coutts that any motion pertaining to fracking could not include the word ban, as the council had “no authority to do so”.
Alderman Miller said she was disappointed that the elected members had opted to make a decision before Dr Allan Hawke’s report on fracking - which recommended that it “can occur safely” in the Northern Territory - was released on February 26.
“There is no urgency, that’s why I believe Tuesday night was a grandstand,” she said.
“It was obvious there was a lot of collusion; it was obvious, to me.”
Alderman Miller admitted that the rewording of the motion had altered its original intent and created a procedural breach, adding that she understood why the community was questioning the capacity of the council.
“I can understand why people have got concerns, so have I,” she said.
“Because this a purely orchestrated, I believe, orchestrated grandstand for Tuesday night.”
Under local government framework, changes to a motion are allowed if its original intent is maintained.
Chief executive officer Robert Jennings refuted claims of a breach and said changing the motion from banning fracking altogether to merely supporting a moratorium was “incidental”.
“Council clearly does not have the power to ban the mining described and the change to request a moratorium is consistent with council’s powers,” he said.
One alderman, who spoke to the Katherine Times on the condition of anonymity as not to breach the council’s media policy, said the debate had deteriorated into a “sad joke”.
“It was amateurish,” the alderman said.
“The discussion turned into a sad joke, but it’s always going to end that way when you have too many people pushing their own carts.
“We can’t ban fracking and anyone who doesn’t understand that shouldn’t be on council.”
Local Government Minister Bess Price said, while she understood there was an aversion to fracking in Katherine, it was concerning that aldermen did not understand their powers.
“If the people of Katherine are worried that Katherine Town Council maybe doesn’t understand their boundaries within the Local Government Act, I’m happy enough to organise a debriefing, so we can all be [on] the same level playing field to understand where the boundaries are.”
When asked whether or not the council knew what it was doing, Alderman Miller would not be drawn into commenting.
“I’m going to leave that to the community to judge at the next election,” she said.