‘The shortest route to corruption is when they try to shut down free speech’

GAVIN WAUGH’S volunteer status has been terminated after he criticised Melville city council for breaching its own wetlands management policies.

“Melville council is not really doing what it says it will do regarding environmental management,” the Bull Creek resident says.

“It does not respect its volunteers.”

The 59-year-old retired safety inspector says the council wrote to him in April stating he could no longer represent himself as a council volunteer nor take part in Friends of Bull Creek Catchment activities.

The reason? A supposed failure to follow rules and take instructions from council staff.

“I am taking no notice because they are out of order,”he told the Herald during a visit to land where his group has been removing invasive plants.

“The shortest route to corruption is when they try to shut down free speech.”

• Melville city council has revoked Gavin Waugh’s official “volunteer” status, saying he fails to follow rules and instructions. Mr Waugh, pictured in Bull Creek, says it’s because the council is unable to tolerate criticism of how it manages the natural environment. Photo by Carmelo Amalfi

.The council is standing by its decision, with Mr Waugh’s treatment coming ahead of a wider council move to crack down on “risky” volunteers who the council believes are political. The council will vote on the proposed new classification on June 17.

Mr Waugh says volunteers care about the environment and have a responsibility to speak up.

“They’re beating me up and trying to shut me down. I feel like the people who took on the Blue Gum tennis club over its encroachment on Bush Forever land (Herald, May, 2014).”

The Friends of Bull Creek Catchment was formed four years ago and was awarded a grant to strip and replant an area behind Rossmoyne Senior High School.

“Although that effort is commendable, concentrating on that area has allowed other relatively good areas to recede,” Mr Waugh says.

He says grass trees at least 100 years old have been lost or are threatened by the Sydney wattle because the council has been reluctant to remove the weed.

“Volunteering it’s what we do,” states the council’s latest glossy newsletter. “Volunteering can make a huge difference to someone’s life, and also increase your community well-being and sense of neighbourhood connection.”

by CARMELO AMALFI