By LIAM DURKIN
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2
LATROBE City Councillors may have inadvertently borrowed from the titular character of Shakespeare’s greatest work, when voting on whether or not to spend $9500 to send mayor Dale Harriman to the country where the famous play is set.
Not that is matters now, for Cr Harriman has confirmed he is paying his own way.
“I’m quite happy to pay for it myself and hopefully that puts the matter to rest,” he told the Express last Friday.
Councillors were split 4-all at council’s monthly meeting on Monday, March 24, after an urgent business motion was put forward to allocate $9500 for the mayor to travel overseas and attend the Traralgon City Band’s Tour of Remembrance.
Cr Harriman removed himself while the motion was discussed, which ultimately saw deputy mayor Sharon Gibson use her casting vote to give the motion the go-ahead.
Crs Gibson, Adele Pugsley, Joanne Campbell and David Barnes voted in favour. Crs Tracie Lund, Darren Howe, Leanne Potter and Steph Morgan voted against.
However, the court of public opinion came down hard on the decision, calling it a junket with no tangible benefits to the Latrobe Valley.
Speaking against the motion, Cr Howe questioned the purpose of sending the mayor on what he termed a “European vacation”.
“This trip is said to promote good will and strength in community ties, which is great, but it offers no economic benefit to our city whatsoever,” he said.
“This doesn’t align with our council plan, transition plan or to the expectation that our community has of us. It simply doesn’t pass the pub test – at least not any pub I’ve been to.”
Latrobe City Council held an unscheduled council meeting last Monday (March 31) to consider the personal offer from the mayor to pay for the trip.
The meeting took place after the Express went to press.
Nonetheless, Cr Harriman maintained the journey was worthwhile, especially given plans are in place to speak to coal county towns in northern England undergoing transition similar to what will likely be experienced in the Valley.
“If we can get some ideas from the northern English or Welsh towns and council as to what worked over there, what didn’t, what’s been successful, what options there are to move forward, we know that the coal industry here, as much as I hate to say it, under the current political environment, is being demonised and a lot of our workers are suffering from that, I want to know what we can do to help move forward with them and find like-for-like jobs and have a future for our kids here,” he said.
“We’ve had some interest in discussions with companies that are looking to invest in the area from Europe, or they’ve already invested in the area, they’ve wanted to meet up, we’ll negotiate that.”
The Traralgon City Band has raised more than half-a-million dollars for the remembrance tour, which will coincide with the 110th anniversary of Gallipoli.
The band had been in talks with Danish officials, who Cr Harriman said would include an invitation to the Royal Family on the proviso the Latrobe City Mayor was also in attendance.
“The indications coming back from Denmark were that the band said if our mayor attends Denmark and the Royals attend, what are the chances of the Royal Family coming back (to Australia)? And there’s been a positive response that they will look at Queen Mary on her next visit to Australia providing a reciprocal visit, but that part of the tour is basically one-and-a-half days that they’ll be in Denmark, the majority of the two weeks will be spent on the Western Front,” Cr Harriman said.
“The reason they wanted the mayor to attend is, over there the mayors are held in probably the same regard as the Premier or Prime Minister… so the treatment changes, (it) takes it to a higher level.”
In something that is sure to excite local royalists, Cr Harriman said he “will be offering an invitation directly to the Danish government and to the royal family to make a visit here” back to the Latrobe Valley, which includes Australian-born Queen Mary.
Addressing the junket connotations, Cr Harriman said he certainly wouldn’t have time to visit Legoland or enjoy too many Danish savouries while he was overseas.
“I know the band’s itinerary, most mornings are a 6-6.30am start, and most of the time it is getting back to your two-star, three-star accommodation at 10-10.30 at night. The offer to go is also based on sharing a room with a band member to help reduce costs, so I don’t think you’d call that a junket,” he said.
“Of the 12 or 13 days that the band’s away they only have one potential day off. I know there was some comments about a holiday – it’s a full on commemoration of the lost lives of local diggers and nurses from World War 1.
“That’s the focus of it, what’s come out with some offers either side of that is incidental. The whole purpose of the tour is to pay our respects to those fallen diggers that didn’t make it home. A number of the graves we will be visiting are those of soldiers whose names are etched onto the cenotaphs around Latrobe City.”
Cr Harriman also has a personal connection to wartime, as his great uncles served in WW1, one on the Western Front.
“Personally it is very emotional for me,” he said.
“It’s just disappointing it got personal but that’s fine, that’s the rough and tumble of local politics, we dust off and move on.
“I’m quite disappointed in the blowback that’s come on the band, for asking council to pay my way, and I know they are really, really disappointed and really upset. The band members have paid their own way, they’ve fundraised, they’ve gone out and putting money in their pocket, and I think it’s really disappointing there’s been such a negative impact on them.”
Cr Howe attracted some criticism after his attempt at humour fell flat during the council meeting.
The former mayor played the song Holiday Road by Lindsey Buckingham into the microphone, made famous in the National Lampoon films.
It is understood Latrobe City received a number of complaints in the days following, although one hopes time spent dealing with them did not take time away from more urgent matters given it was clearly a tongue-in-cheek gesture.
The tour will see the band play in places of significance to Australia’s wartime history in the UK, Belgium, France and Denmark from June 11 to June 25.
When asked if he would be packing a triangle to assist the band, Cr Harriman said he knew his limitations.
“I’m edging for the drum major role leading the band in their processions, but I don’t think I’m musically talented enough to be anywhere near even a triangle,” he said.
“I’ll leave the music to the qualified musicians and play the role of dutiful mayor as best I can.”
The full name of Shakespeare’s play is: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The Latrobe City version could well be: The Tale of Harriman, placed in Denmark.
