It’s just sour grapes: Abraham

By Rebecca Fraser
CASEY councillor Roland Abraham has accused former mayor John Hastie of “sour grapes”.
The Four Oaks Ward councillor made the comments after Mr Hastie branded him a “nonperforming incumbent” last week and criticised his performance as a councillor.
Mr Hastie said he had been staggered by Cr Abraham’s activities during his term as councillor and this had driven him to stand again.
The former mayor and Cr Abraham will now go head to head in the 26 November election with 12 other candidates in Four Oaks Ward.
In 2003, Mr Hastie lost his seat to Cr Abraham.
Cr Abraham said he was extremely disappointed by the former mayor’s comments, branding them childish, unprofessional and bitter.
“It is not appropriate to personalise attacks to try and increase your hopes and chances of being elected.
“At the end of the day it is not about Cr Roland Abraham or John Hastie or Paul Richardson, it is about the community.
“To stoop that low shows the smallmindedness of some individuals.
“It is silly and it really is sad and something you expect from a twoyearold,” he said.
He also said he was not ashamed to admit that he was not perfect.
“I am not Mr Perfect but I have represented the community to the best of my ability. I might not get everything right all the time and I do not have all of the answers but I am not embarrassed to say it,” he said.
Cr Abraham added that some candidates were only selfgratifying themselves by standing for council.
“What really disturbs me is that people are running for the wrong reasons.
“I have a lot of respect for John and my family and I voted for him when I was a young lad and he worked extremely hard as mayor of Casey and the City of Berwick and served for 20 years.
“But this was not the right thing to do and it saddens me to see this coming from someone of his calibre,” he said.