Better Council Inc claimed to be about local policies, but its aim was to dislodge Greens councillors from the local government areas of Woollahra, Randwick, Waverley and the Inner West because of their support for Palestine.
It was a well-resourced campaign, with leaflets distributed to homes throughout the inner west (the Prime Minister’s seat) and the eastern suburbs.
It will never be clear how effective it was but, with a few hundred votes separating candidates in some council wards, it is likely to have played a role in the final result (still to be declared).
Better Council’s campaign message was: “Together we can create change. Rubbish, not radicals”, implied that the Greens are not focused on local issues, putting their focus on international issues, especially conflict in the Middle East.
Alexander Polson, a single director and owner of DBK Pty Ltd, a one-dollar company, registered Better Council with the NSW Electoral Commission in May.
Polson describes his “boutique advisory” company as involved in “Business Growth, Advocacy, Public Policy”. He promises to empower family offices, growth companies and non-profits across the Middle East and North Africa and the Asia Pacific.
Polson, a staffer for Liberal MP and now shadow foreign affairs minister, Senator Simon Birmingham, has also been a manager of government and industry affairs for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Sophie Calland, the group’s authorising agent, is a member of the Labor Party. She described Better Council as a “non-partisan grassroots group of young professionals who are passionate about keeping local government focused on local issues”.
She also told Crikey that she isn’t concerned about any specific international issue, such as the war on Gaza.
However, some investigation suggests the group’s key aim is to promote support for Israel’s policies and push back against councillor and community support for Palestinian rights.
It is supported by the Christian Zionist Group Never Again Is Now, which states that one of its members is Labor Friends of Israel.
Better Council did not express any concern about Liberal councillors’ efforts to promote support for Israel at Woollahra Council.
During a Better Council organising meeting on September 8, Polson’s message was to keep Greens off council because “what they have been doing for the last few years is raising rates and reducing parking and spending a lot of money on unrelated issues”.
Even if his view was generally true of the four targeted councils, the Greens could not be responsible as they don’t control any of them.
In the Inner West Council (IWC), Labor has regularly used its majority to block initiatives from Greens and Independent councillors. It also rammed through a rate rise last year, which the Greens, along with independent Councillor John Stamolis, argued against.
At the Better Council organising meeting, a woman asked how she should reply to any questions about why she opposed the Greens’ childcare policies. Greens MLC Amanda Cohn, the party’s spokesperson for local government, said they supported local government providing “high quality and affordable early education and care”.
Another asked why Better Council was not targeting Labor in Randwick, where Labor opposed a Liberal-inspired no confidence motion in Greens Mayor Philippa Veitch, thereby ensuring its defeat.
Polson answered that IWC Labor councillors had stood by the Jewish community.
This was a reference to Labor Mayor Darcy Byrne and seven Labor councillors voting against a motion to undertake an ethical audit of council’s investments in the light of the International Court of Justice ruling against Israel for “plausible genocide”.
Hagit Ashual and Michael Manhaim also attended the Better Council organising meeting.
Ashual was operations director at the Zionist Council of NSW until July and, before that, the full-time program manager for the Australian Union of Jewish Students. She is an organiser for Together With Israel.
Manhaim’s LinkedIn profile says he has worked with the Jewish Agency for Israel with the pro-Netanyahu Zionist Federation of Australia.
Calland, who worked at Penten, a defence, intelligence and security agency, told me that Better Council did not have a position on Gaza.
With such strong Israeli connection, a question remains over whether Better Council should have registered as a foreign agency, rather than a community organisation.
Most of the group’s recruits who handed out at pre-polling had little knowledge of local issues — a reason, perhaps, why they were advised not to engage with specific local questions.
Tresna Karras, a candidate for Residents First in the Vaucluse Ward of Woollahra Council, was at the Petersham Town Hall pre-poll in the inner west on September 10, working for Better Council by urging voters to put Greens councillor Liz Atkins last in the Damun/Stanmore ward.
The following day, Karras was at Maroubra pre-poll, campaigning against Randwick Greens Councillor Kym Chapple.
Better Council claims to be highlighting the Greens’ “failure” to deal with local issues. While the Greens have responded to communities pushing them to support Palestinian rights in councils, unions and universities and do support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policies, Liberal councillors have also moved motions in support of Israel.
This campaign was not about time taken up in local government for global initiatives. It is about Better Council’s hidden agenda, which is about supporting Israel’s war effort and silencing critical voices.
[Wendy Bacon is not a member of any political party, but is a Greens supporter and long-term supporter of peaceful Boycott Divestment Sanctions strategies. This article is based on a longer version published at Michael West Media on September 12. Her previous and linked Michael West Media article is here.]