Kangaroo Island councillor Graham Walkom has been put for years, by the mayor, the majority in council and council administration, through a grinding machine of endless persecution, negating even his most basic civil rights.
The methods used have been legal and para-legal prosecutions in all available forms, but also ostracism. In this past year ALL council employees have been ordered not to have any contact with him, either verbal or written, and this includes his council matters as a private citizen. This ostracism has made life to him, to put it mildly, unpractical… Graham Walkom has been unable to discuss with council representatives rates, library matters, report sewerage faults, report road matters, and he needed to liaise with the electoral commission directly to arrange his nomination for the council election.
Most people would have been emotionally shattered at this unfair and nasty treatment, so Graham’s resilience is a testimony to his strength of character.
That being said, the present mayor, Jayne Bates, has raised the grinder yet another notch: despite Graham having nominated days ago for the mayorship, she now demands that Cr Walkom liaise on any council matter (and through that, any electoral matter) with… who else? his opponent in the mayoral elections due in mid-october !
Electors are entitled to know what kind of tricks are being used to rig the election game, and the extent of the dirt in Kangaroo Island politics, so here’s the exchange.
Gabriel Bittar, KIpolis.net webmaster
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Cr Walkom,
Jayne Bates
Mayor
Kangaroo Island Council
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Jane,
Are you aware that Cr Clements and I are the only two contestants for the election of mayor and that there just may be a conflict in the adjustments you are making without reference to council.
Graham……all our very best….you are up against a group of ignorant bigots…including some members of staff… we especially hope you defeat Clements. Bates is already past tense and her real track record is now a blot on the Islands records…..we perused the new shopping list and were most interested in one of the new candidate residential addresses….best of luck pal.
My response is directly put to M Jayne Bates. Please explain to the community of KI what you are getting up to. If it is to once again show how little respect you hold for the community of supporters of Cr Graham Walkom you have succeeded. I understood the mayor in particular would be there to set an example of the behaviour one would expect from a Mayor. Maybe you have something to say to the community as to why you are not running for Mayor yourself but have elected Cr Clements to fill your role whilst damaging the reputation of Kangaroo Island Council on the sidelines. Not a good look.
I heartily endorse the KI mayoral candidate Graham Walkom. I know him to be a man of high ethical standards. Graham has dealt with serious illness over the last few years, and has also had to manage the nastiness and childish behaviour of many councillors, including the Mayor. These people have deliberately made life as difficult as possible for Graham. Ken Liu has also copped plenty of this sort of bad behaviour – including racial bias – when he surely does not deserve it. Could it be that the election is being compromised by less than ethical behaviour yet again? It is time to change the way our council is managed. Vote for Graham to change the dynamic from tired and devious to open, honest and energetic!