Griffith City Council and Griffith Business Chamber have sparred over Baiada Poultry’s Griffith investments in a feud sparked by a question during Tuesday’s ordinary council meeting.
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At the meeting, Councillor and chamber member Paul Snaidero tabled a question without notice alleging Baiada Poultry Pty had withdrawn $50 million in investment in Griffith because of alleged problems in dealing with council.
Cr Snaidero’s question to General Manager Brett Stonestreet was as follows:
"Have you been advised by the Director of Sustainable Development [Neil Southorn] of the loss of a $50 million development in connection with Baiada Poultry and what measures have you taken to address this?"
Mayor John Dal Broi said in response: "I contacted Simon Camilleri [Baiada managing director]... and he refuted that comment outright".
Paul Pierotti, Griffith business chamber (GBC) president said on Wednesday, "I can confirm that Simon Camilleri approached myself, Martin Ruggeri, Chamber executive member and planner, and Councillor Paul Snaidero at a Premier and Cabinet meeting on Thursday August 17 to inform us he had enough of GCC and has therefore chosen to invest $50 million elsewhere".
The Area News sent all three comments to Baiada and the company responded in a statement:
“"We are not scrapping any projects or reducing our investment in Griffith. In fact we would like to increase our investment and production in Griffith but our growers face significant red tape when seeking approvals from the State. We are very pleased to see that the current Berejiklian NSW government is committed to reducing red tape in farm approvals."
Mayor John Dal Broi said, “I am extremely pleased at the ongoing confirmed commitment of Baiada to Griffith. Baiada is one of the city’s major employers and production enterprises and is a major asset to the Griffith economy. This also takes into account all the associated industries supporting the poultry industry giant on their expansion plans.”
Paul Pierotti said, “it’s a play on words about scrapping existing projects or downgrading versus what he said - $50 million future project... it doesn’t hide from the fact that he said that $50 million would go elsewhere that is 100 jobs from the processing plant because Griffith Council had become as difficult as Tamworth where he strategically exited”.
Mr Pierotti called for an independent assessment of the attitude of GCC towards developers and investors.
Earlier, at the Council meeting, Cr Snaidero and Mayor Dal Broi also argued over whether Cr Snaidero sent the Mayor a text after the Save Griffith Base Hospital rally on August 12.
“It was you… you called me a capitulator, thank you very much,” Mayor Dal Broi said
Cr Snaidero denied he sent the message and said, “You are a liar Mr Mayor, you are a liar.”
On Baiada, Mayor Dal Broi said “Griffith City Council will also contact State agencies involved in the approvals process to discuss how these processes can be expedited. It is also in the interest of Council that farm approvals proceed as smoothly and efficiently as possible.”
“It is disappointing that the executive of the Griffith Business Chamber, who should be promoting the Griffith economy, are making statements which mislead the community with incorrect information and it is very disturbing to see they are willing to challenge Mr Camilleri on his comments”.
Paul Pierotti said, “"We are willing to sign stat decs on what we were told by Simon Camilleri and will take legal action against anyone who discredits us".
Baiada Poultry is a privately owned Australian company which produces poultry products throughout Australia.
Audio of Griffith City Council meetings is found at: https://soundcloud.com/griffithcitycouncil