狙击”逼宫“，Ryde华裔副市长成功留任！邀请廉署调查，市府欲起诉AFR报道失实（视频/组图）

【今日澳洲11月13日讯】莱德市（Ryde）议会周二晚召开临时市政会议，市长Jerome Laxale和华裔副市长周硕面临两名自由党议员“逼宫”。近200当地居民出席旁听，其中包括上百名华裔，现场举牌声援周硕，气氛十分火爆。

周硕与支持者合照（图片来源：供稿）

经过长达4个多小时的激烈辩论和投票，最终通过议案，市政府邀请廉政公署（ICAC）介入调查，市长和副市长继续留任。市政府谴责《澳洲金融评论报》（AFR）报道失实，计划采取法律措施。

莱德市华裔副市长周硕（左）和市长Jerome Laxale（右）合影（图片来源：网络）

此次动议由自由党议员Trenton Brown和Jordan Lane共同发起，要求将10月30日《澳洲金融评论报》（AFR）相关报道内容递交廉署展开调查，期间市长Laxale和副市长周硕停职。同时，要求北悉尼规划专家小组撤回Eastwood购物中心升级计划，并冻结玉湖集团资产。

周硕和黄向墨合影（图片来源：网络）

该报道质疑周硕在表决Eastwood中心升级时，“未充分申报与华人企业之间的关联”。同时，质疑他的经济状况、同华企关系，以及与中国政府的关系。

Trenton Brown议员表示，周硕不仅需要对媒体质疑给予解释，更应主动辞职；Jordan Lane则认为，市长和副市长公信度已下降，理应配合调查并下台。

自由党议员Trenton Brown（左）和Jordan Lane（右）（图片来源：网络）

工党韩裔议员Peter Kim则指出，正副市长的停职应待廉政公署调查结果后决定，不应盲目听信媒体而决议。

工党女议员Edwina Clifton也对该动议和媒体报道提出疑问，因为莱德市政府最终并未拥有Eastwood购物中心改建权力，她认为周硕回避整个审批过程中的讨论和投票，是恰当之举。

工党女议员Edwina Clifton（图片来源：网络）

莱德市政府总经理George Dedes在动议修改案中补充，建议纠正不实报道，否则将向澳洲新闻协会报告，或采取法律措施。

现场百余名华裔居民手持中英文标语，表达对周硕的支持。因人数众多，市政府采取限流措施，大批居民被迫滞留在场外。

多名民众在例会现场发言。社区代表Dr Felix Lo盛赞周硕，称其为“一心为民”的议员。与此同时，也有部分居民援引澳媒报道，要求市长和副市长停职并接受调查。

现场旁听人数众多，大量支持者无法入场（图片来源：供图）

经过4个多小时的辩论，Clifton议员发起的动议修改案最终以投票6：5通过，内容包含：莱德市政府将相应事宜递交新州廉政公署调查；莱德市政府总经理配合廉署，调查Eastwood购物中心升级审批流程；市政府将对相关新闻媒体报道内容采取法律行动并公开报告；莱德市政府将媒体的不实报道向澳洲新闻协会报告。

此外，市长Jerome Laxale和副市长周硕将继续留任。

周硕就该动议发表演讲，重申他从未隐瞒“曾是商人”的身份，自费参选只因感恩成功而回报社区。

他表示，在Eastwood购物中心升级议案中，他完全合法、合理、合规地申报了真实的关联，并已全程回避。在决定进入政界时，为确保百分百清廉，早已主动放弃所有可能产生利益关联的投资机会。

他在演讲中嘲讽媒体的“无耻逻辑”，抨击内容不实。“逼我承认明明不存在的经济关联，等同于逼我对所有人撒谎。”

周硕手握支持民众表示感谢（图片来源：供图）

周硕更在演讲中斥责试图“弹劾”他的议员们，指责对方“揣着明白装糊涂”，“不做实事专搞政治斗争”，并称会用最强硬的手段还击到底。

演讲结束时，他用中文向在场华人支持者承诺，会继续努力，为下一代华人做好榜样，打好基础，“让他们能更有尊严地融入澳洲。”

周硕副市长演讲稿全文（英文）如下：

As your independent deputy mayor, I have enjoyed being a listener and doer in the community over the last 2 years. I rarely talked about myself because my focus has always been on you, our people. However, tonight I believe the people of Ryde deserve to hear more about the REAL Simon Zhou.

As a typical first-generation immigrant, I started my life in Australia as an international student. From there, I worked very hard, from a part-time checkout operator to a full-time Engineer, and from after-hours online businessman to founder of a successful enterprise.

I am grateful for my success and I believe what people with this kind of luck should do, is to pay for it, by giving back more to the community. In 5 years time my business donated over $100k to charity organisations such as the RSPCA, WWF, and UNICEF. BUT I wanted to do more! So, I put my hand up for a position on council and was thankfully elected. After being elected, I rented a local office and hired a full time assistant, both at my OWN expense.

I have NEVER hidden the fact that I was a businessman. INDEED, I believe my success as an entrepreneur has endeared me to the local community and given them confidence in my ability to lead and get the job done.

In this position of privilege, I have always ensured my business dealings do not conflict with my civic duties.

Regarding the Australian Financial Review journalist’s concerns about Eastwood Centre upgrade, the FACT remains that at the time the Eastwood Centre Voluntary Planning Agreement was discussed in Council, NEITHER myself NOR any family member, owned shares in ANY of Yuhu’s businesses. By law, I was fully entitled to vote, however, because I knew the landowner in person, I still chose to declare a non-pecuniary interest. I did not vote on this matter, and I excused myself from council chamber on both occasions before any debate started, as I believe was ethical and proper. During my absence from the chamber, I had no prior knowledge of what other councillors would debate, how they would vote or what the final outcome would be.

As I have already explained, since entering local government I forfeited any business or investment opportunities that could potentially cause any conflict of interest. The allegation by the AFR journalist that I should declare a pecuniary interest in the Eastwood Centre when NO such ‘interest’ existed is not only ridiculous, but misleading journalism. It’s a disgrace that readers of this well-known and respected newspaper have been exposed to such false information and inflammatory statements. It is fake news at its worst!

In recent days, I have received calls from some of my fellow councillors asking me whether I plan to resign due to recent unfavourable media attention. I can assure you now, Australia is a democratic country, if any organisation think they can eliminate a strong voice elected by our people, by tarnish and defamation, I am excited to say, I and my lawyers are rubbing our hands.

I would like to, however, congratulate the AFR journalist on at least getting some of the facts right in his articles. I’d like to share some of this outstanding journalism with you now.

Firstly, on 30 October paper page 44 “Mr Zhou never stood to profit from the Eastwood Plaza development.”

Secondly on 8th November page 3 “Mr Zhou did not personally stand to profit from the council decision and absented himself from the vote.”

And finally, on the same page  “There is no evidence Mr Zhou misused his position on Ryde Council to benefit his property holdings.”

These comments speak for themselves and need no further comment from me, other than to say that I believe these attacks against me have made my position even stronger as they resolve me of any wrongdoing. It’s fair to say that this attempt to undermine my integrity has ‘back-fired’ spectacularly. In time, I believe the community will also see that this dirty media coverage was based on nothing, but jealousy and speculation aimed at bringing down a successful Chinese immigrant. As a proud Chinese-Australian representative, it is time WE immigrants fight back and stand up for ourselves against this kind of bullying and harassment.

Let me state clearly for the record that if I had voted in either of these resolutions, I would have voted in support of the proposed Eastwood Centre redevelopment and Eastwood Plaza upgrade, as I believe it is urgently needed and in the best interests of the local community. In addition to this upgrade, a range of supporting facilities and infrastructure are also required to truly bring Eastwood into the 21st century. Such improvements include pedestrian footpaths, traffic lights, public toilets, rubbish bins, family spaces, entertainment venues and so on. These are all long overdue!

Yes, the community is lucky to have me as their trustworthy representative, and you, councillors, you are lucky to have me too as your colleague, don’t you realised that I am the only genuine independent in this council who does not do political or personal attacks, and I have always been the person who can silence you up when you are wasting our time on party politics.

Come on councillors, don’t play dirty politics, You are smart enough to know in the Eastwood Centre proposal, Simon Zhou did everything right, you are smart enough to see the media is attacking me in the current political environment, simply because I was born in China, you are smart enough to know Simon Zhou has a good community heart and is working hard to achieve real outcomes for the community. The community CAN NOT AFFORD to lose Simon Zhou! If you really care about the community too, leave me alone, let me do my job, and you should do your job too to work with me, to stop this heritage planning proposal as soon as possible.

Many of you have enjoyed the cheers from the gallery and told the community you would help them to protect their rights against the heritage proposal. At this stage only myself and Dr Kim have been doing real work on street with the community, where is your action? stop wasting time on personal attacks and get on with the job of representing the community.

For my community, again I thank you for your ongoing support, I will continue to represent all of you with excellence at every turn. I hope you can get home as early as possible, and still be prepared for the risk caused by the bushfire.