Speaker I am rising to speak in support of the Local Government Amendment (Governance and Integrity) Bill 2024.
Victorians rightfully expect their councils to be high functioning, efficient, transparent and accountable entities with an embedded core ethos of acting to the benefit of their communities.
They expect their councils to govern with integrity, to behave appropriately and to put the community’s interests first and foremost.
Unfortunately, this is not always born out in practice. Time and again we are seeing some councils and councillors behave in ways and make decisions which undermine public trust.
But it is not just trust, Speaker, that is impacted.
The consequences of poor local council governance for residents, communities and businesses is serious – in some cases directly impacting lives and livelihoods.
This is despite the advances we have been making to reform the legislative setting for local councils – an ongoing and arduous process given that when this Government was elected in 2014 we were dealing with a very, very old act.
Back then we undertook to modernise the Local Government Act, and in doing so have put in place many more measures to deliver a robust and democratic local government sector with clear standards and goals in service of the community.
Despite the reforms, we are still seeing some councils fraught with integrity, misconduct and accountability issues.
Since the 2020 council elections, twelve councils have had municipal monitors appointed. That includes Darebin Council which covers most of the district of Northcote. Darebin is now onto its second round of municipal monitors, having had one appointed in 2020 and another two appointed together this year.
Statewide, 56 councillors have resigned. One council has been dismissed following a Commission of Inquiry. And one has been suspended.
IBAC’s Operation Sandon, the Local Government Culture Report and the Local Government Inspectorate’s examination into councils have also laid bare some serious concerns.
And I need to pause just to make it absolutely clear that these issues are stemming from the top.
They are not about the council library workers or the customer service personnel, the street cleaners and gardeners and aged-care support workers and the like.
We know these people work hard in the circumstances that are offered to them. And that they are continually having to push back on council moves to outsource and privatise their labour to help their bottom lines.
No - what we are talking about here is the high level decision making which occurs at an executive level and at a councillor level.
And Speaker, you need only to attend a public Council Meeting at one of these dysfunctional councils to know the extent of how far transparent and democratic processes have degenerated.
It is no wonder that when the topic of the local council is raised at a community level, on the street or in conversations, the overwhelming sentiments are exasperation, distrust, anger and disappointment.
Speaker this Bill aims to make improvements to the Act to support better council leadership, councillor conduct, and to strengthen oversight and good governance.
Seven of the recommendations from Operation Sandon are incorporated and will be implemented though these amendments, including the development of a Model Councillor Code of Conduct.
There is provision here for regular mandatory training for councillors and mayors and deputy mayors.
And to reflect the gravity of some of the misconduct we have seen, the amendments extend the maximum period an arbiter can suspend a councillor for misconduct from one month to three months.
An arbiter will also be able to direct a councillor not to attend a council meeting, and direct that a councillor is ineligible for the office of Mayor or Deputy Mayor for up to 12 months.
There are also powers to disqualify a person from standing at future council elections.
These stronger measures reflect the serious consequences to the community when misconduct occurs, and it cannot just be a slap on the wrist.
Speaker the next round of local council elections are coming up in October and it’s fair to say that this is causing a fair bit of stir in my inner north community.
There is a growing sense that things really need to change, because frankly it feels as though they have been broken for a while.
As a Member of Parliament, I am to a degree sympathetic to the difficult role that Councillors and Council Executives have in navigating the competing priorities of a diverse community.
It’s not an easy feat and I appreciate there will be differences of opinion at times. And some councillors are doing a fantastic job sticking up for their communities.
Nevertheless, there have been some major, major red flags in the inner north and that is why we have had successive monitors appointed to Darebin Council.
The first monitor John Watson was appointed in 2022 in response to serious community concerns about governance and councillor conduct.
Mr Watson’s final report outlined a raft of failings – including financial mismanagement, poor confidentiality procures, lack of transparency, poor meeting procedures and the like.
He also made the point that political and personal divisions between councillors were creating an environment of conflict and poor decision making.
Since then, I’m afraid things have not got much better, Speaker.
Two new monitors have been appointed this year following a series of extremely volatile public Council Meetings and many community complaints about dubious decision making.
I have spoken before in this chamber about my extreme disappointment in Darebin Council on a number of important community issues.
Not least of these was the disastrous Darebin Parking Strategy which then-mayor Susan Rennie tried to unilaterally impose on the community.
The policy she championed was effectively aimed at getting cars out of Darebin by shaming and penalising car owners, with zero regard for the practicalities of their lives.
So strong was the backlash from the community over this ill-thought out and surprise policy, that residents from all walks of life joined in opposing it with over 8,500 signatures, placards on fences, questions at council meetings, emails and more.
I myself wrote to the Mayor to outline the many ways the hardline policy was harmful.
It was a completely distressing situation until the Greens-controlled council had to back down under the pressure and abandon the policy.
Now some may call this democracy in action – and to the extent that the community galvanised to change the outcome, there is some merit to that.
But these fights are not without cost. Residents feel the impact and weight of them. They feel aggrieved and disrespected.
And they feel hoodwinked by processes that are very good at keeping them out, silencing and disempowering them.
It’s the formula of springing a new policy on the community with far reaching consequences, providing very limited opportunity for residents to understand let alone provide feedback, and then pushing ahead.
And in Darebin these fights seem all too common.
Just last year the community was outraged as Darebin Council moved to cut its 18 not-for-profit early learning centre leases to a mere two years and burden them with hiked up fees.
The kinder community put in an enormous effort to shift this after the Greens councillors and Councillor Rennie originally voted to strip their long term security.
And a short while before that, the thriving business innovation precinct down in Wingrove Street Alphington came to an abrupt and ruthless end under order of Darebin.
Dozens of businesses have been booted from the site and Darebin is still not being upfront with the community about what they intend to do with this sensitive and valuable riverfront land.
In more seriously misguided logic and Greens posturing, Darebin has also put roadblock after roadblock in the way of critical social housing projects. Projects that our community needs to give more people the dignity of a safe and secure home.
And we all know the Member for Richmond’s track record of voting against social housing in Yarra while she was Mayor.
In terms of Yarra, which only covers south Alphington in my electorate, all I’ll say is that a repeatedly raised topic of conversation in the resident groups is their aspiration to get a boundary change so they become part of Banyule instead of Yarra. I think that says it all, Speaker!
Back in Northcote, locals have also been appalled by the disregard Greens-aligned councillors have shown to local sport across the years, and there’s genuine anger about the upkeep of facilities, deliberate scuttling of government-funded projects, and attempts to repurpose sports grounds into passive spaces.
Many times I have called on our councils to see the value of sport in our suburbs, the connection and wellbeing our clubs bring.
It’s disappointing that even when opportunities for grants are offered to Council, they have little interest in taking them up.
Or do so, only to whittle away the funds and delay the projects.
Speaker these are just a few examples of what my community has had to burden over the years.
In other cases, residents have reported to me serious instances of bullying, racism, undisclosed conflicts of interest and bias. We’ve heard of disinformation and defamation.
We’ve also heard of arbitrary and contradictory rulings, and the abuse of the Mayoral role to silence dissent.
What I’ve observed from the outside is that the political motivations and aspirations of councillors from minor parties, who tend to use councils as their profile building platform, all too often means they overstep and put their own interests and ambitions above the community.
That’s when we tend to see time wasting on matters which are not really relevant to local government. We see dysfunction and delays in decision making. We see animosity and abuses of power.
All the while the genuine needs of locals are left by the wayside.
The consequences for this kind of poor governance and behaviour is far reaching. It impacts people’s lives and the prosperity of our suburbs.
Councils wield an extraordinary amount of power to determine the direction, priorities, services and funding outcomes for the suburbs they represent.
They employ hundreds of staff, manage very large budgets which include revenue derived from resident rates, determine local laws and hold much of the decision-making power when it comes to projects going forward or not.
They impact on the day-to-day lives of Victorians.
Whether that’s the state of the footpath on your street or the availability of a not-for-profit kinder place for your child or being able to book in-home aged care support for your ageing parent.
Councils need to be held accountable for their actions and to be transparent in their decisions.
Community interest must come first.
I commend the bill to the house.
