With the Local Government Election imminent, we're looking for ways that we can make a real, tangible difference to the people of Fairfield.

A little late-night swotting over the Local Government Act (I seriously have to get a new hobby!) revealed a serious anomaly that has existed uncorrected for 15 years.

There is a provision for a rebate on Council rates for people on pensions and people who are experiencing serious hardship. The rebate was set - in 1993 - at the grand sum of $250, and here we are in 2008, and we find that the rebate is now set at the grand sum of ... $250!

Pensioners already do it so tough, yet here they are being screwed by an unfeeling State Government (yes, it's a state law, and isn't that dodgy in its own right?) in a penny-pinching attempt to save money, while we have our seniors, disadvantaged and incapacitated struggling to put food on the table.

As a result of the local Greens action, Sylvia Hale MLC will be bringing a motion to the Upper House to amend the Local Government Act and correct this disgraceful neglect.

Keep an eye on the local papers for more on this issue. We're certain that the ALP will fight any attempt to fix the problem; at the moment they part-subsidise the rebate, and they won't want to chip in any more money, especially while the appalling Michael Costa holds the purse-strings. We will have a fight on our hands to get the Bill through, and then to compel Councils to honour it, but if we keep the "shame shame shame" approach going, they'll have no choice. 

Apparently Councils can chip in additional rebates, and some have chosen to do so. Not Fairfield! Mayor Lalich says it's a "State issue" - as he pretty much does for everything ...

Watch this space!

Factionalism and cronyism is alive and well in the ALP. They have dumped a number of sitting Councillors to give a saloon passage to former Mayor, Anwar Khoshaba and his team, in a real "Back to the Future" move. 

Despite Khoshaba's boasts that Labor will take three spots in Parks and Cabravale, we're going to take it right up to them to prove that their arrogant, "born-to-rule" mentality won't sit well with the people of Fairfield. Ours is a team that represents a fantastic mix of youth and experience, with people from a variety of professions and backgrounds. We're working hard to capitalise on the freshness and enthusiasm of our candidates to counter the recycled, tired old candidates put forward by our political opponents.

The simple fact is that the current Council is stagnant and ineffective. Mayor Lalich simply doesn't want to do the hard yards, but is perfectly satisfied to mug for cameras in a never-ending stream of happy snaps for the media. The Liberals don't offer anything particularly different, so local residents finally have a decent alternative in the Greens.

Well, it's time for this Council to take out the garbage! No more neglect of services, no more wiping out of native bushland to grab a dollar, no more luxury cars for photo-opportunity Mayors. 

We know The Greens need to work hard to get our message across to the citizens of Fairfield, and we're trying to meet with as many community groups as we can to understand their particular needs, as well as show them our credentials. If people don't vote for us simply because they don't know enough about us, that's very unfortunate. If they don't choose us because they do know our policies but feel we're not right for them, that's Democracy.

In the meantime, we need all the help we can muster, with people to help us deliver campaign leaflets and give out our how-to-vote tickets on election day. Show your support for the cause by registering as a helper now!

If you are a Facebook user, you can join the online 'candidates' group here.

For more details on each of our candidates, click on the thumbnails below.

Join up now and help us in the Local Government Election!

The Local Government Election is just around the corner, and we need all the help we can get in the Fairfield area for polling day. If you think you can spare any time on September 13 to hand out our how-to-vote cards, please call Bill on 0403-139-825 to volunteer.

We'd love to hear from interested locals - whether you want to get heavily involved and aspire to be a candidate, or you simply want to help out and show your support, you're most welcome to get involved and have a look at what we represent.

The August 16 meeting is full steam ahead - feel free to come along and see what we have to offer - call 0403-139-825 for details.

Still lots happening in our backyard in the lead-up to the Local Government Election.

It's amazing what a difference an election makes - if you look around the area, you'll see a frenzy of spit-and-polish to try to wallpaper over the cracks of a full term of inaction.

Those of you who read the local weeklies should have been shocked at the expose on Prospect Creek. Years of neglect on the watch of this Council saw the disgraceful condition of one of our principle waterways shown in the photo below. What was Mayor Lalich's response? He said it is "difficult to monitor the 100km of creeks and waterways throughout the city" - what an appalling set of weasel words! He then went on to encourage people to "dob in a dumper" - Mr Mayor, this mess is not as a result of concerted short-term dumping, but constant littering over a period of years!

  We are going to be monitoring all of the waterways in our area - and not just in the lead-up to an election. These kinds of things will not happen with Greens Councillors on watch, but even if we're not elected we'll still be vigilant.

We maintain a watching brief on the continuing Collingwood House precinct saga (the planned subdivision hasn't gone away - it's just gone quiet) and the Moorebank Intermodal, and we'll be asking a lot of questions about the capacity of the existing Councils to do the right thing - with rising costs in general and fuel costs in particular, there seems much more that could be done to show a real commitment to cost containment and emission control by Council itself. There's a lot to come on these issues, and we're looking for input from local residents to help us keep everyone honest.

We're also looking to connect with the various communities in our area so that we can better understand unique challenges and concerns they may have. Bill Cashman met recently with representatives of the local Lao community, and had a very productive introduction to their culture and needs. We hope to be able to do more of this before the Local Government Elections so that we're better informed, and groups that may not know us well can see what we're about.

We're hoping to reschedule the postponed meeting, where we were to have representatives from the Liverpool Action Group come to talk to us about the Intermodal. Keep watching this space. 

We're currently a very small group in an area dominated by safe Labor seats (Federal and State), but we're becoming more active and more involved, and we're looking to put our vision of a fair, socially-conscious society and environment firmly into the public view.

We can and have been successful in representing the views of our residents, but much more needs to be done, and the Greens need representation in Government serving this area.

More people need to get involved with grass-roots politics in our area. If we don't attract more of the passionate, intelligent people we have in Fairfield/Liverpool we will end up with more of the same dross from a pretty poor bunch of politicians.

It's well and truly time to put forward viable alternatives to the appalling Tripodi and Meagher, and to eat into the all-too-comfortable leads of Lynch and Khoshaba.

With the upcoming Local Government elections, we will have a chance to get Greens representation, especially in Fairfield. A strong Greens presence will put additional pressure on the ALP to be more open and accountable, and will protect against the unbelievable arrogance of the current State and Local Governments.

Our share of the vote at the last State poll was better than 8% in some parts of the area, despite a limited campaign and being heavily smeared by the major Parties. We can expect more of the same negativity from our opponents leading up to September, but with an optimistic, positive approach and strong word-of-mouth, we believe we can achieve our best results yet.

If you are a Facebook user, you can join our online FLG group here.