A community petition has been launched calling for Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council CEO Kate Gallaway (second from left), pictured with Mayor Robert Poi Poi and former Labor government and ministerial community champions, to be sacked due to concerns about trust and transparency. Photo: Facebook.
Residents in the Northern Peninsula Area (NPA) have sensationally launched a community petition calling for the council to terminate the employment of its chief executive officer amid claims of trust breaches and a “severe lack of transparency”.
The Change.org petition was started on 19 November and asks Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council (NPARC) to sack CEO Kate Gallaway, who was appointed permanently to the role in May 2023, on the basis she and the council’s executive leadership team have eroded community trust by failing to provide information and adequately engage local stakeholders.
The petition was started by Seisia resident Kawia Sunai, who unsuccessfully ran as a Division 5 candidate for the council at the 16 March local government elections and received only 8.96 per cent of primary votes.
“A change in leadership would signal a significant step towards restoring transparency, trust and respect for the community,” Ms Sunai says in the petition.
“It would pave the way for a leadership willing to consult with the community, share documents related to decision-making processes and respect our traditional people.
“Therefore, we urge the responsible authorities to remove the current CEO of Northern Peninsula Regional Council [sic] from office immediately.”
The petition comes on the back of the former state government appointing in August a financial controller and governance adviser to oversee operations for a six-month period in the wake of criticism about NPARC’s strategic, operational and financial management.
In June, the council voted unanimously to adopt an operating loss of more $5.7 million for the 2024-25 financial year.
One NPA business operator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Cape York Weekly while they had not signed the petition, they believed it was “sweep away” the council’s senior ranks.
“Look around – the community up here is going backward, particularly if you’re trying to operate a business,” they said.
“My own belief is that the CEO and most of the senior staff don’t know what they’re doing and don’t want to listen – there’s been a lot of decisions over the last couple of years where there’s no transparency; it’s either incompetence or nepotism, or both.”
Cape York Weekly asked NPARC Mayor Robert Poi Poi and the five divisional councillors whether Ms Gallaway still had their confidence as CEO, but none of the elected members responded to inquiries.
At the time this publication went to press, 125 people had signed the petition online.
The date they do this research we don't have frogs calling in Cooktown. It's not wet enough. Happen… View