FORMER Shoalhaven mayor Joanna Gash has labelled a letter from Robyn Watson, defending her husband Cr Greg Watson and his “treatment” during the recent local government election, as “hypocrisy”.
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Mrs Watson has distributed a letter of support for her husband, listing his achievements over his local government career and condemning the 22,000 “illegal fliers littered with false statements and innuendos” that flooded local letterboxes prior to the election.
She said it was “soul destroying” to see someone you love have their reputation trashed, “when you know what is being said is untrue and also you know how hard he works and has worked to make the Shoalhaven a better place”.
“The personal damage to Greg’s reputation can never be fully undone,” Mr Watson said.
Mrs Gash said there must be two Councillor Watsons and Mrs Watsons within the city.
“One Mrs Watson who is defending her husband about supposedly unsaid untruths,” she said.
“Where was that Mrs Watson when she authorised all the Gash Must Go posters?
“They were authorised by her and placed on people’s fences prior to the election.”
Mrs Watson denied she had authorised the Gash Must Go posters.
“I had absolutely nothing to do with them,” she said.
“Cr Watson has admitted the brochure that came out about me was done by them,” Cr Gash said.
Cr Gash said she had purposely refrained from “stooping to those tactics during the election”.
“I never attacked any of the candidates but what I see here is just hypocrisy,” she said.
“What they are saying now is almost unbelievable.
“Nobody thought about how it might affect myself or my family.
“It was a concerted effort to erode my credibility. Don’t preach the high moral ground to those who know the real facts because I know, as do others, what actually happened.”
Mrs Gash said she could no longer sit back and “watch the hypocrisy and blatant lies being published”.
“It saddens me having to come out publicly like this,” she said.
“The community shouldn’t have to listen to this political maneuvering. It certainly doesn’t buy you credibility.”
Gash sides with developer
A war of words erupted between Cr Watson and developer George Anasta over council’s move to have the Owen Street car park land at Huskisson potentially reclassified to community land rather than operational.
Cr Gash agrees with Mr Anasta, who had plans for a multi-million development for the area, that the new council shouldn’t have made a decision on the motion put forward by Cr Watson just an hour after being sworn in to their new positions.
“The decision shouldn’t have been made,” Cr Gash said.
“I’m very concerned the new councillors voted on the issue prior to having any background knowledge whatsoever
“We asked for it [the decision] to be deferred and a briefing to be held but that was not accepted.
“I find it incredible new councillors really didn’t know about the land or what options had been presented from reference groups. This is not in the best interest of the community.
“The motion may well have gone through after a briefing but that should have been held first to acquaint new councillors what was going on.
“The staff put in a lot of time and effort into this and to be told it was a ‘Mickey Mouse group’ that made those decisions was just not fair.”