HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Subject Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-10-14 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

Burnside Council Elections

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (16:07): I note with interest the comments made by the member for Heysen in relation to some local government activities of the current Lord Mayor, Mr Yarwood. I would like to make a few comments about the world of local government. As most members probably know, I spent many years in local government—17, to be exact. It is my unpleasant duty to report to the house that in the forthcoming council elections one Jim Jacobsen—one of the menaces of local government—is running yet again for the Burnside council in the Eastwood ward.

Members will no doubt remember all the carryings-on in Burnside that plagued that council for years before the 2010 election. Interestingly enough, I know that Mr Jacobsen has been scurrying around the countryside in my electorate, at the Yankalilla and Kangaroo Island councils, aiding and abetting, scheming and plotting in both those councils and also acting, to some extent, as a consultant, I take it.

Today, you rarely hear of problems in Burnside, apart from Mr Jacobsen, who regularly visits the council, calls out from the gallery and tries to be disruptive when the council is in session. Nothing much changes. Burnside is now a place where successful and orderly administration is not disrupted by the presence of Mr Jacobsen all that often, I understand. We no longer hear about problems in Burnside council in talkback radio or read about it in the Messengeror in The Advertiser, although Mr Jacobsen, as I said, has been scurrying around and being a menace in other areas, such as in my electorate, for one.

You see, Madam Deputy Speaker, Mr Jacobsen has a very plain attitude, like most other malcontents: if he cannot control it, he will attempt to wreck it. This was his strategy in the decade or so before the 2010 local government elections. Towards the end of that period, he absolutely redoubled his efforts to disrupt the orderly conduct of business, and he adopted an aggressive attitude to all other councillors who did not agree with him, to the mayor of the time, who he did not respect, and even to council staff.

Council resolved to put in closed-circuit television, largely to record his threatening behaviour. Naturally, he led the fight against this for weeks before losing that council election as mayor. His unruly behaviour in the council chamber saw him ejected from the chamber on numerous occasions. Towards the end of the last council, he refused to leave even though the council had elected to eject him due to his grossly improper behaviour. He has a track record of being menacing and threatening, particularly to female councillors. They were all a part of Mr Jacobsen's tools to try to dominate and take over the council.

Mr Jacobsen put his energy into bringing up countless motions for council to consider, which took up hours and even days. Most of those items were frivolous and simply self-serving for Mr Jacobsen. When he does not get his own way he harasses and harangues government at every level trying to convince them of wrongdoing on everyone's part but himself. It was all part of his agenda of self-aggrandisement. I have actually witnessed his behaviour at a meeting at the Burnside Town Hall (since the last election) after a marine parks rally where he tried to bully his way, in the central part of the hall, towards myself. I just ignored him. This has led to expensive inquiries and select committees.

Mr Jacobsen is known in Local Government Association circles as the cure for insomnia. As soon as he got up to speak at assemblies other councillors either used to yawn or, more importantly, risked increasing their blood pressure by listening to his tirades against anybody. Within the confines of the Burnside council he was an amazingly destructive individual and because he failed in the 2010 election peace and productive work has been done in that district. May I add that in 2010, prior to the local government elections, myself and other members in this place had a few words to say about his attempts to become the mayor—he did not.

My intention with these remarks today is to prevent, if possible, a return to the past, the past of bickering and of meetings of council which were less than useful and mostly destructive. I wish to warn the residents of Eastwood and the Burnside council of the destructive nature of Mr Jim Jacobsen in the hope that the electors will not give him a soapbox to go on the warpath again in the Burnside council. Local government in this state does not need characters such as Mr Jacobsen in there, and I see nods around the chamber. It gives me no great pleasure to raise this matter again in the house but I believe that, generally speaking, the local government of South Australia should be robust. It is full of a lot of decent people and they should be allowed to get on their way without being bullied by fools like Mr Jacobsen.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT