Twenty years ago " sister city " relationships were in vogue. The idea was to create a bond with a city in another part of the world - and we were assured this would lead to interesting cultural exchanges - and heaps and heaps of rewarding commercial activity.
Wollongong forged such a liaison with the Japanese city of Kawasaki and our council has approved expenditure of $ 50,000 to send a delegation to that city - and to fund a return delegation of Japanese to visit Wollongong.
Our delegation will include the Lord Mayor, Alex Darling, the deputy Lord Mayor Kiril Jonovski, CEO David Farmer - and an unnamed council officer.
It would be reasonable to ask - why four people ? Why both the mayor and the deputy mayor ? The obvious person would be the CEO - if trade deals are to be negotiated - and why a " council officer " ? Or is this to be a person drawn from a hat to be some sort of employment reward ?
The Wollongong delegation's visit will cost $ 28,900 - but we will also pay $ 20,400 for a Japanese party to visit our city. Why are we paying this bill ? Isn't a " sister city " thing a two way deal ? Is Kawasaki so impoverished that it can not - or more likely will not - pony up the cash to send it's elected representatives on such an obvious junket ? Why is Wollongong being the bunny ?
The big question is just what has this " sister city " relationship delivered by way of a benefit to Wollongong in it's twenty years duration ?
The answer would seem to be - zilch !
Times are tough and we are being asked to dig deeper to fix this ailing city's infrastructure. If there are commercials gains to be made then sending CEO David Farmer on a visit would be reasonable - but sending a pack of " junketeers " on a glorious holiday at civic expense is just not on.
Dump the relationship - and put the money to better use !
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