Staying home for election

CASEY councillors will not approve any more overseas or interstate travel for themselves until April 2009.
The moves follows heated debate at Tuesday night’s council meeting, with some councillors accusing their colleagues of ‘hypocrisy’ and ‘electioneering’ in the lead-up to council elections later this year.
The one year moratorium was raised by councillor Michael Farley who said it was important to show local residents that they were not travelling around the country during tough financial times.
“The perceptions are pretty bad about the City of Casey and that is the reason I believe we should support this (the travel ban),” he said.
Ratepayers forked out more than $45,000 in 2007 to pay for several trips by Casey staff and councillors. More than $56,000 was spent on interstate and overseas travel in 2006.
Casey Council now lists all travel undertaken by councillors and officers on an online travel register.
Each councillor gets $5000 per year to spend on training and education, including attending conferences.
Deputy mayor Colin Butler said he had unsuccessfully tried to introduce a similar move for the past five years. “You can always tell when an election comes up,” he said.