Randwick City Council raised eyebrows yesterday by giving Councillor Charles Mathews a community service award at its Australia Day ceremony despite opposition from fellow Councillors.
Observers are questioning the appropriateness of it because Mathews is also the chair of the Council’s Civic Affairs Committee that selects the award winners.
The Council has a policy of excluding serving state and federal politicians from getting awards but not serving Councillors.
Greens Councillor Murray Matson has described the Mathews award as “inappropriate considering that he is a politically active councilor and the chair of the committee that decides the awards”.
He elaborated this afternoon after the ceremony,
“Giving a serving politician an award on Australia Day could encourage the perception that it is a political back scratching exercise when it should be about recognizing worthy individuals in the general community.”
Cr Matson says that Cr Mathews had little chance of getting an award prior to the last Mayoral election in November last year. Mathews had been a Council outsider until a five-year-old mayoral succession arrangement blew spectacularly apart.
Cr Mathews has had a rocky history on Council with an ICAC report finding that he had “engaged in corrupt activity” (page 102 “Report on Investigation into Randwick City Council” Feb. 1995). Then in 2004 he was voted off the Council. He won his seat back four years latter by recruiting high profile footballer Craig Wing to run second on his ticket.
A Randwick City Council media release states that he won today’s award “…for his long and distinguished career in local government.”
Councillor Matson is calling on the State Government to amend the Local Government Act to prevent awards being granted to serving Councillors.