Ratepayer row

By Ed Merrison
A FURIOUS row has erupted between a ratepayers group and a councillor after it was revealed that he had registered the Knox Reform Coalition as a business name.
Cr Garry Scates said at last week’s council meeting that he had registered the business name Knox Reform Coalition on 13 October.
The move has widened the rift between the council and the KRC and has prompted both sides to threaten legal action.
Cr Scates’s registration of the name predates the municipalitywide distribution of a leaflet released under the name KRC which called on voters to sack Knox City Council.
The move could potentially bar the coalition, formed by Knox Action and the Knox Ratepayers Association, from using its adopted name.
The Coalition, chaired by Richard Thomas, could also be barred from putting out literature under the name Knox Reform Coalition.
During the meeting Cr Scates read from a statement while brandishing a copy of his registration certificate to a transfixed gallery at the Knox Civic Centre.
“The name ‘Knox Reform Coalition’ is registered and owned by myself, Garry Scates.
“I give clear notice that all literature under the name of ‘Knox Reform Coalition’ that has been distributed must be withdrawn and no further use of my registered name can be used without my authority.”
Cr Scates said he had chosen to announce publicly his proprietorship of the name Knox Reform Coalition in order ‘to illustrate a lack of professional skills and business acumen and to ask how they (Mr Thomas’s KRC) could run a $100 million business’.
“I am shocked that a group of individuals making grand claims about themselves and about their business acumen couldn’t actually do the simplest of tasks register their own business name,” Cr Scates said.
Cr Scates also said his intention was not to gag Mr Thomas’s group.
“I believe that all persons have the democratic right to express their views.
“Not allowing my business name to be used will not stop different views being expressed and nor should it,” he said.
Nevertheless, Cr Scates made it clear that any use of his business name to express views which were not his own could have serious consequences.
“Be warned I’ll be knocking on your door with legal papers,” he said.
Cr Scates’s speech was greeted by a lengthy round of applause.
KRC chairman Richard Thomas hit back describing the Collier Ward councillor’s actions as ‘the most dishonest, devious attempt to destroy a democratic election that I have seen in 40 years observing elections at all levels’.
According to Mr Thomas, the Knox Reform Coalition publicly announced its name in May after having adopted it in February.
Since then the group has released statements, printed signs and published literature under the name.
“It is against the law to register a business name if to do so would be misleading. This attempt by Cr Scates is clearly aimed at misleading voters,” Mr Thomas said.
Mr Thomas explained that his group had not registered the business name because it was a community group relying on volunteers and funded by community donations.
“We did not expect anyone to be so immoral as to steal the name,” Mr Thomas said.
“It is a commentary on the majority of present councillors that they appear to endorse Cr Scates’s immoral and disgraceful behaviour.
“Their motivation seems to be fear that, when the community gets the chance to express its view on this council in a few weeks’ time, they will lose their seats.
“Any councillor who supports theft and deceit in an election campaign deserves to be defeated,” Mr Thomas said.
Mr Thomas said the KRC had made a formal complaint to the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) regarding ‘Cr Scates’s attempt to improperly influence this election’.
Cr Scates has in turn notified the VEC and Consumer Affairs Victoria regarding what he sees as the KRC’s breaches.
With legal threats and accusations of deviousness issuing from both sides, Mr Thomas said it would nevertheless be the voters who decide Knox’s future.
“In the end, it will be the people of Knox who will decide at the ballot box.
“I have confidence that they will reject this type of gutter politics and vote for a fresh new team to manage our city into the future,” Mr Thomas said.

KRC warned of election backfire, page 3