A Moorabool councillor has defended a yearly expense bill that’s as high as the total of all other six councillors combined.
Woodlands ward councillor Pat Toohey racked up $6675 in expenses in the past financial year, which included a $1802 telephone bill and $4873 in training fees.
The mayors at the time, councillors Paul Tatchell and Allan Comrie, were reimbursed $2424 and $1826, respectively, for their expenses.
Cr Toohey said his “lobbying expertise” had required him to attend conferences and lobby for funding for council projects. He said he had been attending national roads conferences for several years and had been successful in lobbying the state and federal governments to commit to funding for the Halletts Way project.
“I had discussions with relevant ministers at the conferences and that’s the time when you can get some time with them,” Cr Toohey said. “We were able to discuss [building] the Halletts Way ramps.”
Cr Toohey said he also visited Canberra with Moorabool council chief executive Rob Croxford to convince the federal governments to invest money in the Parwan Employment Precinct.
“A lot of these things take three or four years – lobbying, putting forward information, building relationships with bureaucrats and ministers, trying to put forward the community’s needs.
“In some cases, it’s the area of your expertise and your area of lobbying that requires you to travel. All my expenses are directly related to pursuing policy, pursuing outcomes in regards to better roads, better infrastructure and success in gaining funding for probably multi-million dollars.”
Cr Toohey said attending conferences and building relationships with ministers and senior advisers was “invaluable”.
The sole Woodlands ward councillor also racked up an almost-$2000 phone bill in the past financial year, attributing the high figure to “calling people back”.
Cr Toohey said he took the “personal approach” of communicating with people.
“I ring them to see what their issue is and that’s proven to resolve their issues more successfully than several emails to and fro,” he said.
Cr David Edwards was reimbursed $141, Cr Tom Sullivan $1327, Cr Tonia Dudzik $514 and Cr John Spain $519 for their expenses in the past financial year. They were all for telephone bills.
