At tonight’s LCIT General Meeting for the 3rd of April 2025, Councillor Peter Harle will be discussing the controversial issue of a donation of $20,000 to Lebanon for humanitarian aid as debated and approved at the November 2024 Council Meeting.
Strange that this issue has gained Media attention five months after the unanimous Council decision. Might it have to do with announcement of the Federal Election and who is likely to benefit from it?
Councillor/Deputy Mayor Peter Harle has received numerous negative comments on Facebook and personal emails, some derogatory. However, there were also substantial numbers of residents and posters on Facebook that agreed with his comments.
His email response has been:
Thank you for your email.
I suggest you watch the actual portion of the Council Meeting, link below, when the Urgency Motion was put before Council.
Below is the portion of the Council Meeting as advertised on Local Pulse Press:
The Urgency Motion EXACTLY as it happened here: https://youtu.be/2sdZPfccNJo?si=RSG5SjKa5sud5EJU&t=4328
Sadly, the media tends to sensationalise the issue by using emotive wording to attract attention and generate a similar response.
For example, “Council empties community grant funds to send money to Lebanon”. That statement is far from the truth, the factual statement was posted on several Facebook pages and in italics below.
Statement on Facebook.
The following comments were placed on several Facebook pages featuring the Telegraph / Liverpool Leader article.
“The article is misleading, Council allocates around $500,000 for community grants, out of a $400 million budget, and divides that into several categories, one of those had zero balance others had more than $100,000, it was simply a matter of transferring funds between categories.
$20k was taken out of a category that had a $28k balance, leaving $8k. It was never zero for the community grants as implied by the media.
The $20,000 was allocated on compassionate / humanitarian grounds prior to the ceasefire in Gaza/Lebanon. (November Council Meeting).
It was specifically intended to alleviate the suffering of women and children by providing blankets and mattresses during the winter months in the war torn region. The money was to be sent via an Internationally recognised aid agency.
While it’s arguable that it’s not Councils’ responsibility but that of the Federal Government, the Liverpool LGA has a large Lebanese Community and hence it’s considered that they have contributed towards that $20,000.
In the past, right or wrong, Council has contributed to floods in Serbia, Pakistan, and earthquakes in New Zealand as well as flood and bushfire relief within Australia. These are very rare events, the first donation of this type in more than 10 years where money was to be sent overseas.
Any donations are a very small percentage of its annual budget, in this instance it represents less than 20 cents per ordinary ratepayer.”
In general, Australians have always been generous in helping those in need. Council has, during my four terms as a Councillor, sent varying amounts of up to $10,000 overseas as humanitarian aid. Examples were; support for Serbia and Pakistan after disastrous floods and to New Zealand for Earthquake relief and interstate for floods and bushfires.
I also recall that when I voted against a similar motion to send $10,000 of rate money to Serbia for flood relief, I received numerous emails castigating me for not supporting that Motion, which I believed should not be a Council responsibility as the Federal Government had already sent substantial amounts for flood relief. However, the significant Serbian Community disagreed with my point of view.
A similar effect would have occurred had any Councillor not supported this urgency motion.
This Motion was put up as an Urgency Motion by Cllr Richard Ammoun and supported by the Mayor, I’m sure that the Lebanese Community and its leaders would be extremely vocal and disappointed had this motion not been supported by any Councillor, irrespective of any political point of view.
Personally, I am against Council sending ratepayer money overseas as humanitarian aid, particularly when the Federal Government has already done so. Note, Cllr Ammoun had incorrectly stated that the Federal Government had NOT sent any aid, in fact it had sent more than $120m. Had Councillors known that it may have resulted in a different outcome.
In closing, everyone is entitled to their opinion, currently there are many that support both points of view.
Kind Regards
Cllr Peter Harle
updated 28 of April 2025