Strathfield Independents Fact Check

18/11/2024

https://www.olg.nsw.gov.au/councils/misconduct-and-intervention/councillor-conduct-framework/

The deadline for submissions has been extended by 2 weeks. Follow the link to the page to see the discussion document and easy steps to make comment on each part of the proposal.
An Office of Local Government with teeth will improve the outcomes for residents and w**d out those using councillor positions for the benefit of themselves and hidden supporters to the detriment of the majority of residents.
Never happened in Strathfield of course but just in case.......

Independent review of the effectiveness of the framework for dealing with councillor misconduct in NSW

07/11/2024

The minutes of the 22nd Oct meeting have been posted. Routine council matters but CCS10 could be interesting.
The OLG is trying to change the legislation so that they will actually have some teeth and be able enforce council/councillors code of conduct.
Proposal is on the OLG website and worth reading and even making a submission by 15th November.
Strathfield Independents, Matthew Blackmore declared a conflict of interest and excused himself from the discussion as restricting the activities of real estate agents on council "would impact his livelihood"
The OLG might like to examine the Strathfield Square debacle and probity report to see what can happen without OLG authority to intervene.
Precisely why the rules need to be changed.
When OLG can solve problems within councils there may be less need for the involvement of ICAC in what are often just examples of stupidity and lack of ethics.

10/10/2024

No surprises with the election results as preferences were not a factor.
The mayoral election went as expected. The Liberals unsurprisingly did not consider Matthew Blackmore a reliable partner.
Among his demands after the last election when Labor induced him to abandon an agreement with the other independents before the ink was even dry was that the Mayor vacate her position after 12 months and handover to him - against long standing practise that the mayor and deputy serve for 2 years after the election.
Histrionics, allegations of bullying, blackmail, failure to attend meetings where he may have to explain himself etc made the Liberal's decision easy.
The decision of councillors to deny Cr Pensebene's request to participate via ZOOM was also understandable given her actions after the last election.
Cr Blackmore took the opportunity to thank his 2 supporters - both unqualified members of the discredited Town Centre working group and Strathfield Chamber of Commerce.
Council staff are to be commended for initiating the Probity Report that exposed the group as "Highly conflicted" with "significant risks".

26/09/2024

The vote counting continues at a snails pace and the results may appear obvious but the distribution of preferences under the weighted inclusive Gregory Method -WIGM - can produce unexpected results. The following links explains how it works – good luck with understanding that.
https://elections.nsw.gov.au/getmedia/32c0dab6-1b60-4e77-99f6-ebbcb735950c/distribution-of-preferences-detailed-report.pdf.
There may be 2 independents elected. The major parties may get 3 seats each or a 3/2 split probably Lib/Labor.
An Independents support may be needed to get the seat in the Big Chair.
Can an Independent be trusted?
After the last election, (3 Labor, 4 independents elected), the Independents agreed, the night before the first meeting, that they would vote together to keep local politics local. A document was signed by all and witnessed by council staff. Plenty of copies around.
During the campaign Labor policy was “no Real Estate Agents on local councils”. Plenty of adverse comments re Mathew Blackmore from Labor that cost Elizabeth Farrelly her job and reputation. SMH Dec 4th 2021. Fin Review 26th Jan 2022

After Blackmore signed the document – (a real man’s word is his bond so doesn’t even need a signed document! ) – within hours, principles were forgotten a deal was done for Blackmore to have a turn in the Big Chair if he supported Labor.

Would either party trust Matthew Blackmore if a similar situation occurs this time??

After preferences distributed who knows???

09/09/2024

Matthew Blackmore and Strathfield Independents couldn't help themselves - they have invented another scare campaign. Not on the scale of the "Lend Lease will take over the square" of the last election but a blatant lie anyway.
According to Blackmore, COUNCIL INTENDS TO STOP THE WEEKLY RED BIN COLLECTION - Absolutely not true.

I thought they may have come up with a world beating master plan to stop global warning if elected - this is just pathetic petty scaremongering.

If he had attended more than 4 of the council meeting in the last year he would have known that this was never discussed.
Cr's Ben Cai, Nella Hall, Raj Datta, Sharangan Maheswaran and Sandy Reddy have worked together to make the achievements of this council possible for the residents.

Cr Blackmore's major achievement was to bring the council into disrepute when the Probity Report into the Blackmore instigated Town Square Working Group, stacked with his cronies, found potential for corruption and were sacked.

Blackmore was silent when the Council investigated the Water St development which would have cost the council millions. He was the only supporter there and could have clarified the process but he may have incriminated himself - revealing his backers/beneficiaries, or maybe just his poor ability to assess a proposal and lack of decision making skills.

Selective absence at meetings when questions may have been asked.

04/09/2024

Strathfield Independents have released their Election Manifesto.
No promises - just taking personal credit for all the normal issues that councillors are elected to address.
• A few interesting points.
Claim that no property was rezoned by council for overdevelopment. Really? Not for lack of trying.
• Who voted to give the developers in Water St an amazing Xmas present by rezoning the land, rezoning and selling off the existing council depot, requiring the loss the open space in Hudson Park and a cost to council of $7 million +?? Defeated eventually by other councillors.
• Who voted to rezone the council property in Homebush so that it could be sold? Amalgamation of this property by a developer with adjoining properties would have enabled a much bigger development to be built?
• Who was invisible when the issues of rezoning Bressington Park, Elliott Reserve were being fought by a small group of residents?
• Who was invisible when the biggest rezoning of all - the abolition of Strathfield Council and takeover by Burwood and Canada Bay - was being fought by the same small group of residents??

• I have attached a copy of Matthew Blackmore’s LinkedIn page from 2019 which gives some details on his claims in Para 4 of their message to voters.
An amazing CV that lists some employment history but doesn’t tell the whole story.

• Elders Reals Estate – sacked, charged and convicted of Fraud. A 10year ban from the Real Estate industry for 10 years from 9/06/2009.

• Then works for Robert Chung Real Estate until outcome of trial – illegally for a few months as he had been banned from 09/06/2009.

• Sales for Burwood Scene - didn’t sell too well as the business folded.

• Manager at Pollburg for 3 years – actually flipping burgers at Macdonalds – with a very recent fraud conviction I don’t think he would have been allowed too close to the till.

• Education – Australian Catholic University claimed– they have no record of completion of any course.

• President of the Strathfield Chamber of Commerce.
This Chamber was established in 1991.
It was deregistered by ASIC on 18/09/2017 for failing to provide returns to the Office of Fair Trading since 2011.
A page claiming to be the Chamber was all that remained.
This has not deterred Matthew Blackmore from continuing to claim to be the President and Susan Macdonald (secretary of the Strathfield Independents Party) from claiming to be the Secretary of the Chamber.
This misrepresentation continued and resulted in Susan Macdonald and other Matthew Blackmore cronies being appointed to the working group advising on the redevelopment of Strathfield Square under the mayoralty of Matthew Blackmore. No conflict of interest adequately disclosed. Fortunately, Council legal joined the dots, a Probity Report was commissioned and they were all terminated. Adverse headlines in the Daily Telegraph on 01/08/2023.

The Strathfield Chamber of Commerce page has changed its name pretending now to be the Strathfield Business Chamber.
A Chamber without a president??I know someone who will take the job!
Do Strathfield residents want a loose with the truth, non-resident real estate agent who can't be bothered attending meetings for another 3 years?

28/08/2024

The minutes of the last Council meeting have been published.
Interestingly, under Apologies etc, Page 2, Cr Blackmore gets a specific mention.
"No leave of absence or apology was received by Cr Blackmore and he did not attend the meeting"
I think everyone there has had enough of his posturing and histrionics.
Page 5, item 5.4 Cr Maheswaran has a few words to say about being councillor on Strathfield Council. Can only guess who he refers to.
ICAC have issued a general warning to all councillors in NSW. They monitor all councils and no doubt this can cause anxiety to those Councillors who have something to hide.
Perhaps Cr Blackmore should follow Cr Doueihi's example and quit now as he promised to do a few months ago when he became anxious.
Still waiting for policies to be announced by any party/group but Libs may have started a little early!

14/08/2024

The last council meeting of this term was held last night.
As expected the Strathfield Independents Party's sole representative did not have the courage to attend or the decency to send an apology.
Cr Blackmore has failed to attend 5 of the last 8 council meetings.
"Anxiety" possibly brought on Cr Maheswaran's detailing of interactions (as mentioned 5.5 last meeting and previous post here) with him and possible exposure of his "conflicts of interest" declarations of the last few years would make hiding in his wardrobe a good option.
It appears that "Flipper" has changed his mind about standing for election. If he has any street meetings he may be willing to answer the embarrassing questions there.

Waiting now for the lies to appear in the Strathfield Independents election material.
Cr Blackmore may be the only one to save the residents from drowning in a high tide caused by climate change,, being struck by an asteroid or burnt by a solar flare or a more creative threat they will come up with.

Liberals have already claimed "rate increases by Labor". The blame for that may go back to "Rate Pe***ng" and the amalgamation debacle promoted by the Baird government but the truth doesn't matter! How many real estate agents do we need on council??

05/08/2024

The minutes of the 23rd July meeting have been published. What is unsaid or unexplained is more interesting than the actual minutes and residents deserve to know just what is occurring as we approach the election.
Item 5.5 suggests there have been threats made and harassment made to Cr Maheswaran and other councillors. Not a big pool of suspects left???

CR Blackmore, 10.3, proposed a strange motion that would have used considerable Council resources.
The motion was amended by Cr Maheswaran, supported by all other councillors, to cover specific properties
1. A proposal involving multiple sites in Homebush first put to council in 2018 by a company called HOMELINX PTY Ltd. Joining the dots of names involved and ICAC report into Canterbury Council might give some clues as to why questions are being asked.
2. Strathfield Square properties that Cr Blackmore and the fake Chamber of Commerce were promoting before the Probity Report stopped them.
3. The Water St proposal that was initially supported by Cr Blackmore, would have given a Xmas present to some developers and cost the council $7M with significant loss of open space.

When these specific matters were added to the motion, Cr Blackmore remembered some conflicts of interest and left the room.

Not too hard for Cr Blackmore to provide more details and Residents deserve these if he intends to stand for relection in September.
He did say in March that he would not be running but Flipper has been known to change his mind.

29/07/2024

I have added some documents from 2021 demonstrating the dishonesty of Strathfield Independents at the time. They may do even better at these upcoming elections.
SI Flyer with lies re dates of establishment, Labor Flyer rebutting lies re Lend Lease proposal and a fake letter some residents residents received.. There is no record of an Audrey Hamilton residing or owning property in Strathfield.

Most of the members of Strathfield Independents reside outside the municipality - source - NSW Electoral Commission records.
Neither Matthew Blackmore nor the executive members of SI live in Strathfield LGA. - Croydon and Concord respectively. Source - NSW Electoral Commission , ASIC.

Strathfield Independents did not exist in 2017 when Bressington Park was saved and Matthew Blackmore played no part - no addresses to council or even attendance at any council meetings and no written submissions. I know as I attended every one, spoke at many and made written submissions, as did all of the Save Our Strathfield Independents group. Obvious why the name was worth stealing.
The Bressington issue was resolved by the previous council before Blackmore was elected to council in 2017. He achieved only 0.66 of the quota required using the group name "Mayors Independent Team" and a page "Vote Strathfield" or similar.

25/07/2024

Strathfield Independents -SI- Lies prior to 2021 Election.

The Labor party had the resources to produce a flyer highlighting some of the lies told in the SI election material in 2021.
Claim – SI are the only people opposing the Lend Lease proposal.
As mentioned on this page previously, SI members did not want this proposal as it conflicted with their own plans. These were exposed by the Probity Report and the Town Square development committee, including members of SI was sacked.
Labor – “never been any intention for this proposal to proceed to the SLPP, and Council was not the relevant consent authority.”
A completely false scare campaign which could have ultimately benefited SI members and Esperia Court Pty Ltd. This was common knowledge to anybody paying attention but obviously alarmed residents who weren’t.

Their flyer also highlighted voting patterns where Cr Blackmore voted to rezone community land at 1 Loftus Crescent, and Hudson Park West, gifting a rezoning to developers as already detailed on this page. These proposals were eventually defeated at significant cost to council - $70000 was quoted for the Loftus Crescent proposal alone.

IN 2019 SI objected to my registration of the Strathfield Independents trade mark “for political purposes”.
Their submissions went to hundreds of pages of verbiage. I felt sorry for the assessors.
In a 19 page decision - this was longer than all my submissions - she found that the Strathfield Independents “failed to establish any of the grounds of opposition” on all 8 objections.

A couple of points.
From their electoral material, SI claimed to have been established in 2014. An email was sent to the electoral commission by Blackmore in 2014 but no further action was taken. The next record the assessor found of Blackmore using the Strathfield Independents name was a flyer allegedly delivered to an unknown number of household after June 2019.

Consequently, SI could not have had any role in the fight against amalgamation, the potential loss of Bressington Park and Elliott Reserve – all finalised in 2017. The work on these was done by Save Our Strathfield which morphed into Save our Strathfield Independents and the original Strathfield Independents.
Blackmores registration of the name as a local party was an obvious attempt to claim the credit for work done by others.
The assessor found the Strathfield Independents name was already a registered business name, domain name and page in early 2019 before Blackmore started using the name.

To summarise, much of the electoral material distributed by Strathfield Independents in the 2021 election contained blatant lies, designed to grossly exaggerate the achievements of Strathfield Independents at the expense of those who actually did the work.
Residents do not pay much attention to local elections and are easily swayed by lies told by dishonest candidates late in the campaign.
Their trust that councillors are honest residents prepared to serve their community is sometimes misplaced.

15/07/2024

.Business Ethics.
Working in Real Estate requires a basic certificate, then with experience, Licences are issued.
Class 2 initially then after at least 2 years experience ,a class 1 licence can be issued by the Office of Fair Trading.
The link below to Office of Fair Trading shows the lack of ethics displayed by Matthew Blackmore leading to a Fraud conviction and disqualification from the industry for 10 years from 9th June 2009.

https://verify.licence.nsw.gov.au/details/Property%20-%20Certificate/1475-T50

After 10 years, on 9th March 2020 he was issued with a Property Certificate as assistant agent.
From Fair Trading
Before you can get a class 2 real estate agent licence, you must first hold a certificate of registration as an assistant agent. You need to have a certificate of registration for at least 12 months and gain experience under the supervision of a licensee.

On 27th May 2020 he was issued with a Class 2 Real Estate Licence.
HE HELD A CERTIFICATE FOR ONLY 2 MONTHS INSTEAD OF THE 12 MONTHS REQUIRED.

From Fair Trading,
What's the difference between class 1 and class 2?
You need a class 2 licence for two years before you can apply for a class 1 licence. This helps build your skills and experience, so you are ready to take on the additional functions of a class 1 agent.
A class 2 licence allows you to:
• act as an agent for a client to sell, buy or exchange property, businesses or professional practices
• negotiate with clients and vendors
• collect rent, deposits, bond payments and fees related to a lease, licence or contract.
A class 1 licence allows you to do all of the above, and:
• act as a licensee in charge (LIC)
• work independently as a sole trader
• if you are an LIC, open and authorise trust account transactions for the business.

On 29th May 2020 his licence was upgraded to a Class1 Real Estate Licence.
THE CLASS 2 LICENCE WAS HELD FOR 2 DAYS INSTEAD OF THE 2 YEARS REQUIRED..

The link below details the issuance of Class 2 and Class 1 licences to Matthew Blackmore.

https://verify.licence.nsw.gov.au/details/Property%20-%20Individual/1-3J812F1

How were these licences obtained without even close to the required experience?
Accidently, fraudulently or exploiting a loophole in the system?

His self promotional material after receiving these licences claimed 18 years in the business – neglecting to mention that he was banned from the industry for 10 intervening years. Office of Fair Trading did pick that up and the wording was changed.

ETHICS??
An individual with any integrity would not accept and use a qualification for which they are not entitled or actually qualified.

Verify licence contains a list of public registers across NSW. Including, asbestos and demolition, charitable funding organisations, commercial agent, community gaming and trade Promotions, contractor and trades people, conveyancers, design and building practitioners, high risk work licences, holder...

11/07/2024

The minutes for the last Council meeting still haven't been posted. I don't think much happened anyway.
This page was started to highlight the "alternative facts" put out by Matthew Blackmore, the party and the fake chamber of commerce ( now defunct??).
This group may contest the next election so a report card will be put together starting from when they hijacked the Strathfield Independents name from the group which successfully saved Strathfield from amalgamation.
IP Australia who regulate intellectual property, trade marks etc found that the Strathfield Independents party have no right to use the name "Strathfield Independents" for political purposes. Their objections to our Trade Mark registration was 300+ pages of submissions covering 8 claims all comprehensively rejected - a 2 year process.
Our submission was 12 pages and the Trade Mark "Strathfield Independents +logo" is registered to us.
The Strathfield Independents domain name, business name were all in use and legally registered before Blackmore & Co decided they needed the name and it's reputation with residents to be re-elected.
The group name he was elected on (did not achieve a quota) could not be used again as putting Blackmore in a group name might invite an internet search which would bring up the unfortunate incident that resulted in Blackmore being banned from the Real Estate industry for 10 years.

Boring stuff but this dishonest conduct started a long time ago with claims to have been educated the Australian Catholic University, experience in Government Administration, Board Member of the Strathfield Chamber of Commerce etc and has continued to the failed attempt to hijack the Strathfield Square for their vested interests.
Plenty of gaps to fill in before the elections.

27/06/2024

Cr Blackmore overcame his anxiety and attended a council meeting after declaring he would not be attending any more in this term. Not surprising that Flipper changed his mind again.
Council and Councillors appear to have gone into election mode - nothing controversial.
It might be time to start preparing an end of term Report Card for Strathfield Independents to be distributed prior to the election.
Plenty of material starting with the BIG LIE promoted in the lead up to the 2021 election that they were the only party/ group opposed to the high rise Lend Lease proposal for Strathfield Square.
It became clear with the Probity Report that the only proposal they were interested in was the one proposed by their supporter (singular!) - serious conflicts of interest concealed by Cr Blackmore and the Fake Chamber of Commerce.

01/06/2024

The Ghost councillor turned up on Tuesday to avoid having to explain himself and keep his place at the trough. Taking time from his real estate career in the interests of the community or maybe real estate is a bit quiet??
Little was achieved. Much discussion about verification of all conflict of interest declarations made over the last couple of years.
It's not that hard.
A forensic approach would be to identify the "crime" then find the evidence - not look at all the evidence then look for a "crime"
What has caused the council embarrassment recently?
The Town Square Working Group debacle.
Were any dubious Conflict of Interest statements made at workshops or meetings which led to the wrong people being appointed?
I believe there were, have put some details here and they are not hard to verify.
The Probity Report was a cover up for the actions of council and councillors in the establishment of this working Group.
Compare the qualifications required for the new committee members and those of the old committee.
Perhaps a cadet reporter from the Tele could come up with a story that would reflect badly on Council with a few hours work.

These things best tidied up in-house and that is not happening.
Guidance from the OLG will not be forthcoming. I gave them examples of false statements 2 years ago. The response, a phone call, nothing in writing of course, was that a it is up to the GM to monitor.

16/05/2024

Some Strathfield Town Centre Masterplan (STCMP) working group correspondence.
The fake Chamber has been supported by Mayor Pensebene - check the web page - and of course has worked with Cr Blackmore for years.

From its inception the working group meetings were inundated with “plans” and proposed motions from the Fake Chamber of Commerce. All still on their page if you have good eyes nothing better to do.
Who prepared and funded these detailed plans?

Some excerpts from letters posted on Strathfield Chamber of Commerce page to David MacQuade, Senior Governance Office, Strathfield Council

20th March 2023 - a proposed method of distributing the realised wealth of the Strathfield Town Centre project to benefit who?? Esperia Court Pty Ltd possibly?
3rd April 2023 – proposed motions pressuring the committee to approve the plans
16th July 2023 -- more pressure to approve –
“I draw your attention to a time constraint that might hinder future designs of a new Masterplan for Strathfield Town Centre. Esperia Court Pty Ltd currently has an approved DA which expires in November next year" - (ie 2024)
This was LIE – the DA expired on 11th November 2022 and so was completely irrelevant to any new plans.
This gives a good indication of who is pulling the strings of the fake Chamber of Commerce.

From May 2023, Council started the Probity Report process and the working Group was finally disbanded before too much damage done. Time and Council resources wasted.
This is the type of activity that ICAC might take an interest in but the perpetrators weren’t smart enough to cover their tracks and gain any financial benefit as far as I know.

14/05/2024

COUNCILLOR LEGACY.
Many councillors like to be remembered for their good deeds.

At the last meeting Councillors were presented with a “script” to clarify their Conflict of Interest Declarations. No doubt this will evolve into a formal document and be available on the website.

This should bring an end to vague statements such as:-
Councillor Workshop 18 July 2023 –
“ Cr Blackmore is an acquaintance of 2 members of the committee”

He has been closely involved with these people for years.
This committee was stacked to benefit a few but is now the sacked Strathfield Town Centre Masterplan Working Group.
There certainly was a MasterPlan but not one to benefit us.

Both members were also members of the Strathfield Independents party. Susan Macdonald an office holder with the party and self proclaimed Secretary of the Strathfield Chamber of Commerce for more than 10 years.
Cr Blackmore claimed to be ex President and member of Board of Governors going back 10 years.
Cr Blackmore asked Council to congratulate Andrew Soulos on being elected President of this fake Chamber on 6th October 2020.
The Soulos family development company is Esperia Court Pty Ltd. Their DA for the Town Square properties expired on 16th Nov 2022.

Interference in the Town Square goes back years with the same people involved.
From the June 2015 minutes :-
On 5th June 2012 Strathfield Council passed the following motion.
“ Strathfield Chamber of Commerce Adversarial Apology
That Council contact the Strathfield Chamber of Commerce requesting that they cease their strategy of adversarial politics in relation to the Town Centre and formally apologise to local business and residents for their misleading information campaign. Further stating in the communication that Council and Councillors will not tolerate this behaviour and that political point scoring should never ever occur at the expense of our community”
No apology was given”

There are many examples of Cr Blackmore misrepresenting conflicts of interest regarding the Town Square. Council meetng 4th Feb 2020 and 3rd March 2020 are examples.

Fortunately Council staff finally saw the “big picture”, commissioned the Probity Report and the potential for interference for the benefit of a few has been removed.
It was a long term plan with potentially a big payday for some.

The new Councillors Form could be called a “Blackmore” as a reminder to all of the OLG advice – If in doubt, GET OUT.

03/05/2024

The Strathfield Festival is on this weekend - might be a bit damp - but I heard the Matthew Blackmore Circus Tent will be there with the Ghost Councillor available to answer any questions residents might have about his pay for no service.

I'll have to check my source - he's sometimes unreliable at cocktail hour on a Friday.