Misgivings over MP missive

By Lia Bichel
CASEY Council will extend an open invitation to a local MP who turned down requests from councillors to meet and discuss claims made in regional and metropolitan newspapers this year.
Councillors tried six times to make contact with Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan, inviting him to meet over a cup of coffee and discuss comments made in newspaper articles, which claimed that the council was misspending ratepayers’ money.
At Tuesday night’s council meeting, Cr Sam Aziz moved to extend the open invitation to Mr Donnellan after he had writen in response to the requests stating the “continued insistence that I attend a stage-managed meeting with all Casey Councillors purely to revisit some comments I provided weeks ago, still seems rather ridiculous.”
Mr Donnellan also said he “had a good working relationship with councillors that I need to.”
Mr Donnellan said the focus on him was “bordering on obsession.”
Cr Kevin Bradford, who was joined by Councillors Lynette Keleher, Wayne Smith and Judy Owen in opposing the motion, agreed with Mr Donnellan.
“This is obsession on this council,” Cr Bradford said.
But Cr Aziz said he wanted council to try every effort.
“It is disappointing that after the last attempt to get him to meet with the council, he emails to CEO that he has a good relationship with some councillors and the rest don’t matter,” Cr Aziz said.
“All we want to do is have some dialogue with Mr Donnellan to clear any misconceptions. It’s disappointing when you extend the olive branch to an MP and they return with that gesture.”
They also voted to write to Mr Donnellan again, with a copy to the Premier of Victoria, Leader of the Opposition, and speaker of the legislative assembly and state to express their disappointment with his response.
Cr Simon Curtis and Beverley Hastie were absent.