Instagram · Post · 9 June 2026
✈️ The Age of Travel Entitlement
For the 7th consecutive month since the election, Elected Member Travel Entitlements have clogged up our City's meeting agenda. This ongoing circus didn't happen by accident, the seeds were explicitly sown back in February 2024.
The original push to bake business-class travel into policy was highly contentious from day one. During that fiery debate:
💼 One Councillor confidently argued that no one in the chamber would waste ratepayer funds, believing the council could manage luxury entitlements "like grown-ups."
🛄 Another Councillor countered with a grounded perspective, reminding the room that their role is an ordinary one for an ordinary person, and stated they felt uncomfortable being treated as someone who needs to fly business class.
🤫 A former Councillor even tried to completely shut down the debate, aggressively counting another member's speech timer down to the second the exact moment it hit the 5-minute mark.
🗳️ The 5-to-4 Split
Ultimately, this policy narrowly passed by a razor-thin 5 votes to 4. That single decision effectively unlocked the door to the relentless entitlement bartering, policy tweaking, and political posturing we are witnessing on the agenda every single month.
The jury is officially out. Have our elected members lived up to the promise and acted like grown-ups with your money?
My vote is a definitive NO.