Last Tuesday, 8 June 2010, the Coalition of Residents and Business
Associations – Melbourne (CORBA) met with the Federal Member for
Melbourne, Lindsay Tanner at his Melbourne electorate office. The
North and West Melbourne Association (NWMA) was represented by Kevin Chamberlin, Vice Chair and Bill Cook, Treasurer.
CORBA had meet with Lindsay previously on the issue of Melbourne City
Council (MCC) reform. He was very supportive of the need for reform
and offered strong views on some aspects of the problem. The CORBA
position paper on MCC reform, supported by the NWMA , is on the
website of CoRBA ( www.corba-melbourne.com )and this may be reached through the link on the NWMA website. www.nwma.org.au
Lindsay pointed out that he had raised the matter with Richard Wynne,
the Minister for Local Government, who advised that the Government was
satisfied with the current MCC structure and electoral system and no
review would take place. The NWMA understands from a number of sources within the
ALP that Richard Wynne actually wants the MCC reformed, but our Local
Member Bronwyn Pike and the Premier John Brumby do not. Hence, the
Cabinet position of no reform prevails.
Lindsay undertook to discuss the matter further with Richard Wynne after he had met with CoRBA and to write to him again requesting a comprehensive review of the MCC.
For example, the election system and structure of the MCC is so unjust, as it is never required to be reviewed. Every other municipality in Victoria is required by the Local Government Act to be reviewed every two terms. A number of other aspects of the MCC election system and structure are also of concern as they are designed to reduce the influence of small business and residential groups and hence undermine the democracy and good governance in our Council.
Please refer to the CORBA position paper for a comprehensive
presentation of all the reasons for reform of the MCC. You will be
very surprised at how undemocratic the system is and how the Labor
State Government actually made the system worse than the one left
behind by the former Liberal/National Government.
Several other matters affecting individual CoRBA members were raised generally supporting the CoRBA dissatisfaction with the Council structure, voting system and consequent performance. These included:
- Latrobe Close and the use of Federal stimulus money to provide social housing in a way that excluded community input, ignored the planning scheme and would be to the long term detriment of the intended occupants;
- the housing scheme on the Carlton Public Housing Estate creating an exclusive gated community;
- the thwarting of the purchase of a suitable facility for a community centre in Carlton;
- the decision on the Swanston Street upgrade, involving a process that failed to take into account the needs of affected business interests, especially small business;
- the process for the purchase of the JH Boyd site in Southbank, by the City of Melbourne, which has failed to provide much-needed open space for this intensely developed area by selling off a major part of the site for further intense development and has failed to consult properly with local residents; and
- totally inadequate consultation with the community by the Council.