MEDIA RELEASE
8th August 2008
The Illawarra Greens today called for the sacking of General Manager of Shellharbour City Council, Brian Weir. Council’s joint partner in the Shellharbour Marina Project, Australand, announced yesterday that work on the $100 million marina complex had been delayed indefinitely.
Greens Shellharbour spokesperson Sue Fleet said, ‘Mr Weir must take responsibility for this debacle. Serious questions are now raised as to how Shellharbour City Council allowed itself to be in a position where one party to the agreement could renege on its obligations without regard to the other party’.
The Greens are also calling for the release of the Original Management Agreement and each change to the agreement since its inception.
‘Brian Weir’s assertion in the media today that stringent safeguards were in place to protect Shellharbour‘s assets and ensure that the council would not be financially exposed, is laughable,’ Ms Fleet said. ’The Shellharbour community provided the land for the Shell Cove project. In the process, we lost our community golf course, local farmlands and the natural wetlands near South Shellharbour beach’.
‘Council has poured millions of dollars into the project in the 25 years since it was first touted in 1983’, said Ms Fleet. ‘Mr Weir derives a $30,000 p.a. bonus, paid out of the Shell Cove project income, to oversee the project. The potential conflict of interest is obvious. Is it any wonder that Mr Weir did not want the (former) councillors to review his contract?
The Greens are calling for the release of all financial documents relating to the project.
‘Australand’s decision to delay construction of the marina indefinitely must provide an opportunity for Council to withdraw from the project’, said Ms Fleet. ‘The Greens would certainly be in favour of this’..
Contact: Sue Fleet, Illawarra Greens, 0402 819 577