Socialist Party Australia - SP Councillor's speech at swearing in ceremony

Last night the Yarra City Councillors were sworn in at Richmond Town Hall in front of a big audience. Here is SP Councillor Stephen Jolly's speech, which had the best response by far on the night.

"Last Saurday 91% of voters in this area voted for what they believed were left-wing candidates - either Green or Labor or Socialist Party. This sends an important message, by the way, to the Labor Party federally, who seem to think that after their defeat last month they have to embrace evangelical christianity and be even more pro-market in order to win elections. The people of this area have exposed that idea for the rubbish it is.

"The brave and defiant stand of locals last Saturday shows that they expect us (the 9 Councillors - Editor) to provide some sort of relief from the neo-liberalism of the State and Federal governments and big business.

"Relief for the working families who are mired in debt and struggling to provide for their children - with child care and aftercare and vacation care debts.

"Relief for the old people, especially in the low rise Housing Commission homes in Collingwood, who after 50 of paying taxes and slaving for bosses are left to rot with no support.

"Relief for the people of the Housing Commission estates who live everyday faced with mass unemployment, deep poverty and drug use in and around their homes.

"Relief for the groovy young people who serve us our cafe lates and cappucinos in Smith St and Brunswick St, but when you scratch their shell you find young workers trapped in long term casualisation.

"As as a socialist I say, relief even for the home owners and middle class and small businesses in this area who are hit year-in year-out with rate rises by a Council too scared to fight the Federal and State government cuts to their funding and instead decide to offload the problem onto homeowners.

"The Socialist Party wants to improve conditions on the Housing Commission estates through better access to child care, after care and vacation care and more youth workers.

"We want Council to stand up to dodgy development in our area, such as the Banco development on Smith St. If Banco think they can go over the head of the 1500 people who lodged objections to their plans by going to VCAT they will have another thing coming.

"We want to fight for the urban environment by opposing the extension of the Eastern Freeway, which will worsen air pollution and boost car use in our area.

"And we want to support local workers by opposing long term casualisation. If small businesses want support from Council they must show that they are sticking to basic OHS and industrial law.

"To get these changes local people must continue to mobilise and organise. Socialist Councillors cannot do it on their own. The fight to implement our programme will not be easy.

"The current budget, voted in by the old Council with 4 ALP and 4 Green Councillors says in its preamble: "new initiatives or projects that are not cost neutral to be justified through a business case". In other words we had a Council that was Green-ALP in name, but Thatcherite in economic policy. This will be challenged in 2005.

"We believe the similarities between Green and Labor are greater than the similarities between these 2 blocks and the SP. That is why I voted tonight for (ALP's) Kay Meadows for Mayor for the next 12 months - I will ensure both Labor and Green and the independents all get a go at the Mayors' job in the next 4 years. (Editor's note: There are 3 ALP, 3 Green, 1 ALP-leaning independent, 1 small l liberal independent and 1 SP on this Council. Last night SP voted with the ALP and 2 independents for Kay Meadows as Mayor for the next year against the Greens, the vote going 6-3. The SP had originally intended to abstain on this vote, but this is not allowed under the Victorian Local Government Act).

"We, on the other hand, want to drive through policy successes so that in 4 years time we can say to the electorate, 'this is what we did with 1 Councillor can you imagine what we could do with a majority SP Council?' We will use (and already have used) our position to squeeze every reform for ordinary people that we can. This will come out more clearly in the next week or two.

"In conclusion, we live in the most exciting part of Melbourne at the moment. A journalist on a local paper said to me this week 'I'm glad I work on this paper and not somewhere in the Eastern suburbs, this is going to be an exciting 4 years!". Last Saturday made me even prouder to live in this area. I still can't believe that the people of Collingwood, Fitzroy, Clifton Hill and the rest of the area voted for the Socialist Party in enough numbers to get us elected.

"We are about to make history. We want to try to stand up the juggernaut of neo-liberalism that has gone on for the last 30 years. Let's together storm the gates of heaven. Let's make the next four years a success"