By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Casey councillor Wayne Smith has ‘value-added’ to his recent council-funded trip to the US – with a side-visit to Broadway, New York.
After official council business was done in Arizona, Cr Smith flew to the Big Apple “at my own expense” in January with the prospect of landing some Broadway talent at Bunjil Place, Narre Warren.
His school friend and Tony award-winning producer Rodney Rigby was “keen to talk business” about a possible show or concert, Cr Smith said.
Cr Smith attended Rigby’s Broadway hit musical Come From Away, which was expected to tour Australia in the next two-to-three years.
“But (Rigby’s) talking about doing something at Bunjil a bit sooner than that.”
The trip came on the back of a budgeted $5000 investigatory visit of Phoenix Light and Lantern Festival in Arizona in the Christmas-New Year.
Casey has plans to partner Sichuan Lantern Company in hosting a smaller-scale version of the festival in 2019 – though that may be postponed to 2020, Cr Smith said.
After attending Phoenix, Cr Smith said he’d underestimated the “huge undertaking” involved.
“You can’t appreciate the scale of this thing till you go there.”
The Casey festival hinged on local partners coming on board with the project as well as finding a suitable site, Cr Smith said.
“The next thing is the (Sichuan Lantern Company) will come to have a look at what sites are in Casey.
“They are keen. You have to remember though that they (the Sichuan Lantern Company) picked Casey on the basis of its location near Chinese communities in the South-East.”
The festival was likely to be smaller than the Phoenix two-month extravaganza, which is on “10 acres of bitumen”.
He said it would be a challenge to find an expanse of bitumen in Casey.
The former Casey Civic Centre site and car park in Narre Warren, with its extensive sloping lawns, may not be suitable, he said.
Cr Smith said he was impressed by the size and creativity of the Phoenix festival’s lights such as the Taj Mahal and Sydney Opera House.
The 10-metre tall installations enchanted both adults and kids, he said.
Cr Rosalie Crestani had described the hastily-approved Christmas-New Year trip – on top of the China mission last April – as not meeting the “pub test”.
She however welcomed the “extra benefits” to Casey from Cr Smith’s side-trip to New York.
“There is this perception of whether this trip is a junket, despite the good work done.
“That’s why I covered my own trip to Israel (for the 100-year commemoration of the Battle of Beersheba last year).”
She was supportive of the projected jobs and economic benefits of the council’s $620,000 China strategy, but held reservations about dealing with a communist nation with a “concerning” human rights record.
“I do support Cr Smith’s efforts to look beyond our usual partnerships.”
Dissenting councillor Milla Gilic has questioned the expense, especially the need for further trips to China and overseas.
With Bunjil’s state-of-the-art online conferencing facilities, “we don’t need to go there (China) every time.”
Cr Smith said negotiations couldn’t be done that way with Chinese business people and officials. They preferred “face-to-face” meetings, he said.
Casey Residents and Ratepayers Association spokesman Brendan Browne said there was a “severe lack of accountability” for council-funded overseas trips.
“The only solution is to put a stop to the trips altogether.
“If councillors want to have a holiday overseas, let them pay for the whole trip themselves.
“Every time a councillor travels overseas they neglect issues and opportunities closer to home.”
