Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Lesley Yeomans: Australia Correspondent on the Hornsby Shire council being ordered to repay $36 million

Transcript

Lesley Yeomans: Australia Correspondent on the Hornsby Shire council being ordered to repay $36 million · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So faly we go, Leslie Yumman's back. Let us Leslie,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: very good morning to you.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: So the Hornsby Shire Council, how does this work in Australia?
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: So how is it they're owing the government money?
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Well, they're owing the government money because they were granted
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: quite a lot of money about six years ago under
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the community the Community Stronger Communities Fund and what happened
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: was thirty six million dollars of the money they were
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: granted under that fund was for a special park with
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: sporting facilities. But they've been unable to get that park
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: up and running and get the sporting facilities built. So
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: the state government has said, you've had plenty of time
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: to get it done, you've been going past your deadline.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: You haven't been able to prove that you're even on
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: track track to have anything developed, and so it's time
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: to pay the money back now. The Stronger Communities Fund
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: was actually described as pork barreling on steroids back six
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: years ago when Premier Gladys spiagically and when the then
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Premier sort of agreed that yes, it was pork barreling,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: but a lot of governments did it and it wasn't illegal,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: so it was okay, okay.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: So what's interesting also about this is the Hornsby mayor
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: is a bloke called Philip Ruddick. And Philip Ruddick used
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: to be a very senior federal minister. So what's he
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: going to say for himself.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Well, he's not a happy man about this. He left
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: federal politics. He used to be the Attorney general, federal
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: attorney general. He left politics back in twenty sixteen, but
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: he became the Hornsby mayor and a Hornsby counselor in
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, so it didn't take him too long to
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: miss public life to a sort of lesser degree at Hornsby.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: And he's not happy because he says that he shouldn't
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: have to be paid back, that the state government's just
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: trying to get some more money in before it releases
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: its state budget. So yeah, he sort of is not happy.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: He says, you'll pay it, they'll pay it back, but
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: they shouldn't have to.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Right take me to Melbourne, so you had you have
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: King's Birthday yesterday of course, Now this King George statue.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: The vandals have they got the video and all of
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: that on.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: This or no, yes, they have. What happened was on
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Sunday night, the eve of the King, the King's Birthday
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: public holiday, a couple of people have gone to the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: statue in King's Domain in the CBD in Melbourne and
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: they've decided to chop its head off and spray paint
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: it with some red paint. Now there is a video
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: that's been uploaded to social media. You can see the
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: person then a hives or the person. I don't We
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: don't know if it's a he as there with a
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: headlight and it's chopped the head off, the heads fall
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: into the ground and then someone else has come along
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: and spray painted the statue, so they don't know who
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: it is as yet. The police and Melbourne City Council
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: don't know who it is yet, but it has been
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: uploaded to social media, so where they're still trying to
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: ascertain who that is and also if it's the same
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: people who who did some similar things back on the
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: eve of Australia Day back in January, when a couple
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: of statue statues were also vandalized.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: World is full of too many pillocks, Leslie, good to
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: catch up with you appreciate Leslie Emman's out of Australia
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: for US this Tuesday morning.
• 3:36
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• 3:40
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• 3:41
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• 3:43
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