Many members of the NWMA Inc. have been concerned for a long time about the electoral structure and operational performance of the City of Melbourne.
From the early 1990’s when the Kennett Government amalgamated Councils, through the Bracks reforms of the early 2000’s, there has been an ongoing campaign by the State Government to disenfranchise residents and small business from being properly represented on our Council. For nearly ten years the Association has been active through organisations such as CoRBA (Coalition of Residents and Business Associations – Melbourne) to change this gerrymander with remarkably little success. The Napthine Government to its credit engaged retired Federal Parliamentarian Petro Georgiou to report to the Government on changes needed in local government, but the last State election intervened before the Government could respond.
The Andrews Government then had to reinvent the wheel and prepare its own process to review Local Government in Victoria. Through its discussion paper this government seems inclined to retain all that is bad with the City of Melbourne and promote change for the rest of Victoria but not Melbourne where it is most needed.
This submission is The Association’s response to this discussion paper.
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