Port Hedland councillor Camilo Blanco takes aim at media coverage as meeting goes over four-and-a-half hours

A Town of Port Hedland councillor has taken aim at media coverage of a recent lengthy council meeting, labelling the reporting as “garbage”, “communist” and “propaganda” despite the September meeting also stretching for more than four-and-a-half hours. Cr Camilo Blanco dismissed the suggestion that long council meetings were an indication of dysfunction after the August council meeting took more than four-and-a-half hours to complete. He labelled coverage of the meeting by this masthead as “propaganda” and urged the public to ignore it. “The media suggestion that this democratic process of questions and debate is a sign of dysfunction ... would mean to me that they would be more like communists rather than living in a democracy,” Cr Blanco said. A letter from the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries in March outlining concerns over the proper functioning and co-operation of council cited “excessive duration of council meetings” as one of the main areas of dysfunction. It marked the second time in five years the State Government has had to step in to help solve problems at the troubled council. Despite this, Cr Blanco said extended meetings reflected “democracy in action”. “One day you may have something important to say but your silence and lack of support may contribute to the public and elected representatives being gagged forever,” he said. “Don’t let it happen. Push back when the media prints this sort of garbage and propaganda.” Another point of contention was the labelling of Cr Adrian McRae as “pro-Putin”, which South Hedland resident John Ashenden said was “disrespectful” during public statement time. “For the media and certain councillors to continually attack Cr McRae for attending and scrutinising the recent Russian election is unacceptable,” he said. “I ask how does an elected official engaging in international observation warrant such a low-life label? This kind of baseless attack should not have any place in the local media or council chambers.” Cr McRae flew to Russia earlier this year to participate as a scrutineer in the Russian elections. Footage published by Channel One State News post-election showed Cr McRae congratulating Russian President Vladimir Putin on his victory. “Can I please pass on sincere congratulations to Mr Vladimir Putin,” Cr McRae said at the time. “In my memory, the world has never seen such a transparent and comprehensive victory as what we saw here over the last three days.” After the elections, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said they were “not free, fair, inclusive or credible”. “They took place in the context of the Russian Government’s longstanding crackdown on the freedom of opinion and expression, and on opposition figures, civil society, independent journalists, human rights defenders and anti-war voices,” a statement said. Mr Ashenden also defended the lengthy meetings, describing them as “democracy in action” and argued if the administration was concerned about the duration of meetings they should reduce the number of agenda items. “If you dedicated 10 minutes to every item in this agenda it would go for four hours,” he said. Former councillor Renee Coles also alluded to media coverage at public statement time and said an affidavit concerning the coverage should be made. “I know there’s one certain newspaper article just recently, I would love to have had an affidavit put towards that one there,” she said. “We can probably get a couple of others as well to support the affidavit in lack of information provided but we can save that for another day.” Ultimately the meeting was not declared closed until 10.05pm, more than four-and-a-half hours after opening at 5.30pm.