Strathfield Independents

This page is not associated with the "Strathfield independents" party - see "Old Stuff" at end of post for history.
From 2017 to 2019 the name STRATHFIELD INDEPENDENTS was in use by the people who saved Strathfield from amalgamation and avoided the loss of Bressington Park and Elliott reserve to development.

23rd March 2022.
Political participants (not all) in Strathfield have hit an all time low level since the council election in December.
The campaign was run on lies, personal abuse and since the broken promises.
Expectations of even a low level of integrity by participants have not been met.
Blackmore was elected Mayor by the Labor councillors despite their, and head office policy of wanting real estate agents banned from public office.
Labor needed another vote so all was forgiven and a real estate agent with a fraud conviction is now mayor.
It will be an interesting time.
I'll add more when time permits.

15th November 2021.
The letterbox is starting to fill with candidates claims of achievements made over the last council term and before.

The leader as usual in the false claims section is the "strathfield independents party" starring Matthew Blackmore with Sue MacDonald pulling the strings and writing the script.
Latest claim is to be "the only party standing up for residents" against a Lend Lease planning proposal.
A small group claiming to be a "Chamber of Commerce" (actually just a Facebook page as the real chamber was deregistered 4 years ago) is against this proposal - as are most of the existing councillors.
This group may be connected to a local family company with a competing development in Strathfield Square. Simple research to connect the dots!
This fake Chamber made a fuss about a submission to the Dept of Planning Environment - the one page reply was "it's nothing to do with us at this time". They, and the council, and other councillors, are well aware the that this "Chamber of Commerce" is a fake.
Input from a real Chamber, complying with the requirements to be a "Chamber of Commerce" and actually representing local businesses and residents would be valid.

Matthew Blackmore and party are still claiming the credit for saving Bressington Park and Elliott Reserve. These issues were resolved by the previous council mainly with input from Nella Hall and her group. The party did not exist in 2017 and Matthew Blackmore as an individual played no part. It's that simple.
The wording of the claim is deceptive "To have served on a council that saved Bressington Park & Elliott Reserve from development has been a great achievement" True - except he played no part and was elected only after the hard work was done by others and only by using the name of the mayor at the time and with only 2/3 of a Quota - have to love the preferential voting system we use.

7th November 2021
The long awaited Trade Mark decision has been made. The above logo will have the Registered Trade mark symbol attached.
Sue Macdonald acting as the secretary of the strathfield independents party opposed my registration of the above logo in 2 submissions totalling 200 pages based on 8 sections of the Trade Mark regulations.
My submission was 4 pages of text and 20 copied documents.
The decision was comprehensive - 20 pages.
Every objection by strathfield independents/Susan Macdonald/Matthew Blackmore failed.

This has been a complete waste of time and the strathfield independents party - members? office holders? - are liable for costs.
Among the many matters addressed was the date of formation of the strathfield independents party. Earliest date when Matthew Blackmore started to call himself strathfield independents was January 2019 - he claims 2014!
There is no evidence of Matthew Blackmore or any user of strathfield independents name contributing anything to the any of the issues at the time (2014-2017) such as amalgamation and loss of Community Lands.

The Trade Mark decision confirmed that theStrathfield Independents name was only in use by Nella Hall's group until 2019.
This group is now Nella Hall Independents - working for Strathfield since 2012 - and plenty of evidence in support!

5th November 2021
Nominations for the election have closed giving Strathfield residents only a few options - 4 groups and 1 single candidate.
Budgetary constraints put on candidates by the electoral commission will limit the amount of "information" stuffed in letter boxes and forced into hands in the street.
During prepolling (14 days before election at 2 sites) and on Election Day at 12 sites no campaign workers are allowed within 100m of the entrance to the booth. Voting will be a peaceful experience and Voters will have to have decided on their preferred candidate before arriving at the polling place - novel idea!
There will be no absentee voting so I-Vote, postal vote or prepoll will be required if voters are out of the LGA on the Election Day. One of these is expected to be the preferred method for most voters.
Nella Hall Independents has a group of long term residents from various backgrounds with professional qualifications ( still studying in one case) who are looking forward to working for the community in the next term. The group was formed in 2012 initially to fight against amalgamation and has fought successfully for residents on many major issues since then.
Writing 1 in the Group A box above the line is all that is required.

21st October 2021.

Strathfield Labor first out of the blocks with corflutes appearing - they claim that Cr Pensebene is Deputy Mayor - ex is more correct.
Election material during the "election period" starting 31st October is subject to scrutiny and must comply with the Local Govt (General ) regs 2005 - ie material can't contain an "untrue or incorrect statement" - seems straight forward enough so we'll see how long they last.
Cr Hall is now the Deputy Mayor for the second time this council term.
I wonder if Cr Pensebene will try to break Cr Blackmore's record of 100++ days after losing the position he was still claiming to be deputy?

I think there is a requirement, particularly during the election period, to not tell blatant lies and Strathfield labor is not off to a good start.

If she lies about being deputy mayor, which is so easily disproved, how accurate would the rest of labor's and claims/policies be?

17th October 2021
Council meeting on Monday was largely a waste of time. A couple of procedural approvals by Councillors that could have been done by email.
An amazing number of Notices of Motion. A couple of worthwhile ones but the rest??? Games being played and manoeuvring for the upcoming election between Cr Blackmore and Labor. World Peace wasn't mentioned and no councillor requested to go to the Glasgow climate conference but council was asked to report on Strathfield becoming a circular economy and carbon footprint assessment among other strange requests. I am sure Council has the experts on staff to write reports to the required standard!

The new council might consider costing some of the ridiculous motions put up during this term as an example to encourage councillors to do some research themselves and only submit well thought out motions with supporting information.

The surprise of the night was the way Mayor Kokkolis handled the meeting. Perhaps she should have had a proper term as Mayor during the last council. The Liberal party is not known for giving women a fair go but the other parties aren't much better.
Today, Jodie Mckay is quitting. Her replacement was getting some mileage out of "unnecessary by-elections through early Liberal retirements". I guess she didn't realise her retirement might undermine him!
I think Strathfield Labor were counting on her support during the Council elections - maybe one of the Labor councillors will be applying for the vacancy???

Strathfield is lucky to have a CEO and Deputy CEO who have had the council functioning well without councillors "input" for last few months.

Perhaps Councillors could trial 3 monthly meetings for the next council to see if they are missed?

18th September 2021.
Mayoral elections rarely follow the script and this was no exception.
New Mayor Kokkolis has quietly served 2 terms and is not running again - a kind view is that her colleagues rewarded her for her service and she'll have her name on the board.
A less kind view is that as a result of a you tube video put out the day before by a budding comedian, an uncontroversial mayor was required. The election of a controversial mayor may have resulted in more unwelcome publicity.

Cr Kokkalis was ( falsely I believe) accused of not living in the electorate, one of many "facts" in the video that were thrown around at the standard of a university under grad comedy night in the bar.
The Councillor whose primary residence is not in the electorate has been accused of leaking the allegations against Crs Doueihi, Vaccari and Blackmore.
Cr Hall was wrongly accused of being a member of One Nation party - actually in NSW you can only belong to one political party at a time and she is a member of her own party and employed by the NSW parliament. She was elected Deputy Mayor again.

There were obviously some losers on the night - the next council meetings might be entertaining.

5th September 2021
It appears there will be an election for Mayor and Deputy on 14th September. A "normal" council meeting as well which could be interesting.

The phoney Mayor will get to go to the election as Mayor so may be worth a few votes from those residents who aren't paying attention to council matters - about 90% of the electors at least.
The election should have been yesterday and this would have been all over.

10th August 2021.
This election campaign is like the "phoney war" -a period of declared conflict or activity in which little actually happens - named after a period at the beginning of WW11 where war had been declared but nothing was happening.

It appears that mayoral elections will take place - Strathfield may have a "phoney Mayor" for 2 months. It would be more productive to have councillors demonstrate some unity and elect a Chairperson for the three meetings and actually attend to business instead of the grandstanding and posturing that will eventuate with a temporary mayor. The legalities may dictate the course of action taken but it will be up to councillors implement it for the benefit of residents. There have been no meetings since June and if these meetings are unproductive do we need councillors at all?

3rd August 2021
Confusion in the Office of the Minister against Local Government. Are Mayoral elections for a 2 month term required or not? Common sense would say no but the bureaucracy may do otherwise.

At least they appear to be working towards using I-votes and these with postal and pre-polling would enable the election to go ahead in any circumstances.
Would save money if those unable to vote by alternate means were provided with transport to one polling booth on Election Day instead of having 10 booths employing 50 people plus all the volunteers.
The new election timetable has been released - I would hope the candidate/party/group registration process that some have already completed would just be rolled over to the new date. We wouldn't have to do it all again surely???

29th July 2021

Strathfield independents party starting telling porkies already.

They are claiming a start date of 2014?? Blackmore went to the last Council election as The Mayors Independent Team and the party was not registered till 2019. Lets see the proof! An email from 2014 from Blackmore to an electoral commission staffer in 2014 is not proof that Strathfield Independents have been working for the residents since then.

Claiming to have saved Bressington Park! - not a single council meeting attended let alone made an address, not a submission made. I did see Blackmore in the crowd at one of the many meetings we attended at Bressington.
The fight was won by Crs Mclucas and Bott on the floor at council meetings, residents also speaking at these meetings, and submissions highlight the issues with Crown Land, War memorial garden, rubbish EIS and traffic report,loss of sporting fields and the dodgy government grant (which never eventuated) to "protect the wetlands". All these were addressed by Nella Halls group at council and in submissions.
Bressington Park D.A. was rescinded before Blackmore was elected but that didn't stop him claiming the credit at the first meeting of the new council.
Copies of documents on the Strathfield Independents Fact Check Facebook page.

26th July 2021
Elections now postponed until 4th December. Councils have to elect new Mayors for the period Sept to December. Some have already served a year past their use-by date so chaos will continue and the losers will be the residents. Cancel the mayoral election and simply elect a chairperson for the couple of meetings before the elections. Save the cost of gold leaf on the Honour Board. Perhaps the word FOR in Minister for Local Government could be replaced with another word.

21st July 2021.
The pace has picked up very slightly. Labor have a team of 4, Liberals have not officially declared their position but rumour is a long standing liberal will be running as an independent. the SI party may have a team together with some low key letterboxing using a logo remarkably similar to the Strathfield Council logo. This is covered in the Candidate Handbook P 62.

Use of coats of arms, logos, trademarks

The coats of arms, logos, trademarks of local councils and other public or private organisations are the property of those bodies. It is recommended approval is obtained from those bodies before they are included on electoral material.

The intent would be clear to most people but the management of SI and the Strathfield Chamber of Commerce Facebook page do seem to struggle with basic English comprehension - "deregistered" is one difficult word!

There is a good chance this election will be postponed for a month or so - must be held by 31st December.
Let's get it over and done with!!

13th July 2021
The most boring election campaign ever continues with no candidates or parties declaring an interest but we can expect a flurry of activity close to closing time. The Covid lockdown may change the election timing and a decision will have to be made very soon on whether to delay the election further. November is being mentioned but there is no guarantee there won't be another lockdown by then. A delay would give the major parties time to get their houses in order and nominate candidates.
There is time to organise the election even under current lockdown rules - prepolling by appointment, postal votes and electronic voting would solve the problem.
The Strathfield Mayor had declared early end of termholidays for the Strathfield councillors but meetings will have to be started again if the election is postponed. No council meetings for 4 months might raise the question of do we need any at all?
There is also the NCAT inquiry into the Mayor's developer status prior to the last election. I don't think the Government could justify sitting on the decision for even longer - not that there would be any political interference in the process, just the usual bureaucratic delay!! Approaching 2 years since the matter was first raised.

3rd July 2021
Only 9 weeks to the Strathfield Council election and the silence is deafening. Covid lockdown has stopped campaigning by those parties/groups who are sufficiently organised but the others are still finalising candidates.
There may be some disgruntled candidates who missed the cut running as "Independents" with preferences going everywhere - or nowhere.
Rumour is Liberals will not be running a ticket at all. In Parramatta this has resulted in a court case against the party - no relevance here but an example of disunity. Perhaps Liberals do not want to be reminded of the success of the Amalgamation process and the ICAC investigation into our neighbours atCanada Bay council.
Thanks to Nella Hall and her group there is a Strathfield Council to vote for, Bressington Park continues to be sports grounds and Elliott Reserve is still open space - 100 + trees planted there to enhance the Cook River green corridor. The Management Plans for Community Lands that Nella Hall's group was working for before the last election have now been completed so the Bressington and Elliott Reserve debacles should never be repeated.
A single issue "Greens " party could not have achieved as much for the residents of Strathfield!
Another week at least of lockdown so not expecting anything of interest to report but with local politics there are always surprises!

21st June 2021.

Strathfield Council has held 2 information sessions for would be councillors.
Thursday session saw two groups of Labor hopefuls attending, one led by Cr Pensebene and other led by Ex Cr Datta - both hoping for party endorsement. Apparently Lib and Lab having trouble finalising candidates and may not endorse anyone.
Cr Datta had to withdraw late in the process last election in 2017 due to "branch voting irregularities" exposed by someone. I'm sure "someone" will be auditing every branch paperwork in the big happy party again.
The Mayor may have been right to cancel council general meetings until after the election - Lib and Labor candidates too busy fighting for survival to concentrate on council matters.
NELLA HALL INDEPENDENTS have finalised their candidates - a multitalented group of residents from throughout the Municipality who are keen to have an input into the management of their suburb.

16th June 2021

Dubbo Council is doing its best to keep the attention of the OLG and Minister. They have been issued a "Performance Improvement Order". Link to the DT article here - https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/.../cadf36314e8e1fbcbae....
Part of this order is to improve the councillors performance during meetings and these meetings can be seen on the web.
They look like Sunday school meetings compared to Strathfield Council meetings.
There are allegations of bullying - wouldn't happen in Strathfield!! LATE NEWS - there are allegations of bullying in Strathfield - who's the bully and who is the bullee yet to be revealed

10th June 2021
The election approaches and the gladiators are girding their loins for the battle to come.......A sight that could not be unseen so no pictures will be provided.
The Liberal Mayor has cancelled all further monthly general meetings to enable councillors to concentrate on their re-election - nothing to to do with the Office of Local Government investigation into whether he is/was a property developer in 2017. A long drawn out process with vested interests involved which could even be drawn out until after the election when it will become irrelevant anyway as he is not standing for reelection.
Have to love local politics - of course there is no interference from the Liberal State Government.

The preselections for Lib and Lab have not yet been decided so those councillors have to fight off a few contenders first and please their masters. Threats to run as Independents might sway the selectors.
Let's hope the newbies have less theatrical training and more management/decision making skills as there are some important decisions that have to be made with the residents interests paramount.
Nice if Councillors could leave their party allegiances outside the chamber and engage in polite discussion, accepting compromise and reach a decision. Circulation of ideas before a meeting and providing supporting information to motions may stop every matter being referred to a workshop.
Knowledge and correct application of the Conflict of Interest rules is not too much to expect. As the OLG says "IF IN DOUBT, GET OUT" . Declaring " a member of my party may or may not etc etc " as Matthew Blackmore has stated 5 times, is not acceptable - and that's from the OLG.
What is not needed are "front" groups like the "Strathfield Chamber of Commerce" - just an anonymous Facebook page masquerading as a genuine Chamber - with an agenda that appears to coincide with the interests of a stakeholder in a major local development. They have resurfaced now that councillors question time has been cancelled until after September.
I suspect Strathfield will under the spotlight of both OLG and ICAC after recent events here and in Five Dock.

OLD STUFF -
"Strathfield Independents" has been registered (July2019) as a party to contest local council elections by a group of people, 85% of whom do not live in the Strathfield LGA.(source- Electoral Commission list). The registered officers are Edith Werkhoven, Sarah Lalli and Susan Macdonald, all from Concord West. Matthew Blackmore is subject to the direction of the party and is rarely seen without his minder, Susan Macdonald.
Susan Macdonald appears to be the administrator of the fake Strathfield Chamber of Commerce page. The Chamber was deregistered in 2017 for failing to comply with reporting rules of Office of Fair Trading. None of the required annual returns have been filed since 2011. This hasn't stopped strathfield independents members claiming to be secretary and president.
The Chamber has been reborn - as a Facebook page claiming links to the deregistered chamber. It has the fingerprints of Sue Mc all over it!!

It would appear that the "strathfield independents" intention is to associate themselves with the goodwill and achievements of Nella Hall and her group, the original "STRATHFIELD INDEPENDENTS" that successfully contested the last council elections in 2017, to give them a chance of electing a candidate in the 2021 local council elections. Their previous group name"Mayors Independents Team" relied on retiring Mayor Soulos, only achieved 2/3 of a quota and was only elected due the complicated Hare-Clark counting system.

On a facebook page they claim a "founding date of 08/09/2012". Their representative was working at Macdonalds at this time after being banned from the real estate industry on when his real estate certificate was cancelled 09/06/2009 - information from the NSW government website. Google search "Blackmore Elders" will return press articles - fact or fiction??

In one of Matthew Blackmore's facebook posts he is attempting to take the credit for the victory in saving Strathfield from amalgamation.
His claim is based on knowing Andrew Soulos who was elected in 2012 and was a very late convert (2017) to the cause in fighting Amalgamation.
A very tenuous link showing his desperation for relevance!!! Fact is he was even less than irrelevant.

His behaviour is similar to Kim Jong Un in wishing to rewrite history with himself him in a heroic role - the photo on the Strathfield Independents Fact Check Facebook page may be how he sees his role in Strathfield and the world.

Blackmore made no contribution to the fight against amalgamation, made no submissions, did not speak at any meetings at council chambers, no submissions to the Delegate Richard Colley in Five Dock, did not attend Save Our Councils Coalition meetings at various places around Sydney, gatherings in Martin Place, rallies under the Tree of Knowledge behind Parliament House and other events. These places were very familiar to Nella Hall, Karen Pensebene and a small dedicated group of supporters.
Nella Hall was a key speaker at many of these events.
In Blackmore's facebook posts Nella Hall's contribution is completely ignored!!
After four years the disaster of the amalgamations is being realised in many councils - council insolvency and rate rises elsewhere.

HE MADE NO CONTRIBUTION IN ANY WAY TO THIS FIGHT WHICH OCCUPIED US FOR 5 YEARS.

Nella Hall and her team, NELLA HALL INDEPENDENTS, are not associated in any way with "Strathfield Independents" being promoted by Matthew Blackmore.

"STRATHFIELD INDEPENDENTS" is a registered business name, the domain name "strathfieldindependents.com.au" is registered and in use - and predates Matthew Blackmore's use of the name.
The "STRATHFIELD INDEPENDENTS" logo is progressing through the TradeMark system despite objections from Matthew Blackmore and strathfield independents and is expected to be available for our exclusive use for political subjects soon. The hearing is set for 4th August.

Matthew Blackmore has objected to my use of "Strathfield Independents". Last council election, while he was "The Mayors Independent team" we were using "Strathfield Independents" and Nella Hall was elected under that Group name. Obvious to most intelligent people that the name was already in use when he applied to register a party. The fact that there was already a registered business name owning the domain name was also not obvious enough.
Matthew Blackmore has withdrawn from the trade mark case opposition for reasons that apparently can't be disclosed to me?? Secret emails will come out in the hearing.
The final evidence submitted by Susan Macdonald was supposed to only address issues I raised in my evidence but no - they have now submitted over 200 pages compared to my 3 pages of text and a dozen copies of documents.
Susan Macdonald has now invited discussion on the fake Strathfield Chamber of Commerce and Matthew Blackmore's sale of his business to a friend - unfortunately he had failed to renew his business name 12 months before and the "friend" will have to change the cafe name soon. Good to have friends like that!! Consistency in lack of ethics will also now be raised - reasons for his 10 year exclusion from the Real Estate industry as well.

"Strathfield Independents Fact Check" is already providing political information and this will be expanded as the elections approach.

The party identification logo that Blackmore's group was hoping to use is shown below. Any similarity to the Strathfield Council logo completely accidental! A letter from Strathfield Council legal gives a clue as to why the logo is not used!
Strathfield Council did not object to the registration of this logo - maybe because the TM protection is only available when used as described in the application as reproduced below.
Reproducing this logo is obviously not an endorsement and does not imply that this site is in any way associated with Blackmore or strathfield independents party. Paperwork filed with IP Australia claimed that I am trying to associate myself with the strathfield independents party by revealing the logo on this page. I don't think a reasonable person would get that impression.
Trade Mark is for "charitable services, namely organising and conducting volunteer programmes and community services projects" - so where could it be used and who would want to copy it??? WOFTAM. (technical term for waste of time and money).
Good decision by council not to waste ratepayers money correcting an "own goal" by strathfield independents.

As expected, strathfield independents has tried, via their facebook page, to insert themselves into the major issues won by Nella Hall, Karen Pensebene and their many dedicated associates prior to the 2017 council elections. Adopting the "Strathfield Independents name is clear evidence of this as well as on his Facebook pages - "tripping down memory lane"
The Strathfield Independents Fact Check facebook page has the facts refuting these attempts to hijack the good work of many people - not one of whom is associated with the strathfield independents party or Matthew Blackmore.
The deregistered "Strathfield Chamber of Commerce" has been reborn as a Facebook page supporting Matthew Blackmore. Almost completely anonymous - Chambers usually have names of office holders etc but not this one. Just an email address associated with the strathfield independents party and Sue Macdonalds phone number. Embarrassingly inept attempt at being a proper Chamber of Commerce.

Too much information is on that facebook page that could only be understood by those involved so summaries will be provided when time permits.