Trial of Lex Wotton - Background On Lex Wotton

Background On Lex Wotton

Lex Wotten was a plumber by trade and the plumber for Palm Island as well as an Aboriginal elder, an indigenous activist of prominence and co author. He also married and is the father of four children.

In October 2002, at age 34, Lex Wotton was elected to his second term as councilor on the Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council in an ATSIC Regional Council elections where he was one of eight nominations seeking two positions. In May 2003, Wotton supported a group of Palm Island women who called for the resignation of council chairwoman Delena Foster, asserting that she "diminished the rights of all islanders by proposing a strict new alcohol ban" as well as threatening a significant source of income for the area. Eleven days later, Wotton stated that the council had only $600,000 left in its reserves to run the island until the end of June – a claim chairwoman Foster heatedly disputed by saying that the council in fact had $1.5 million. By the end of June, Wotton became fed up with the Palm Island Aboriginal Council's practices and handed in his resignation, reasoning that in the 3½ years he was on the council, the body did not achieve one long-term success.

Wotton, a plumber by trade, then kept his name in the public by writing to Letters to the Editor of the Townsville Bulletin to get his messages out. For example, in November 2003, Wotton's letter to the editor praised the decision to dissolve the Palm Island Aboriginal Council, since it would allow Palm Island to "to adopt the very principles and practice of good governance and to see it effectively and efficiently discharged for the benefit of all in our community." In March 2004, he wrote an open letter to the recently reelected official Mike Reynolds, requesting an explanation as to why the jetty at Arcadia Bay received part of a massive injection of state money whereas no state funds were allocated for the dilapidated Palm Island jetty, even though 86 per cent of the Palm Island vote went to Reynolds. At the end of March, Wotton was one of eight candidates for the new Palm Island Community Council.