by Sahar Foladi
Future candidates of mayoral and deputy-mayoral roles for the City of Greater Dandenong will be have option to submit a three minute video speech for public viewing.
The notice of motion was passed at the council meeting on Monday 22 July after a long debate and questions from councillors.
The changes won’t be applied in the upcoming council election in October. After that point, it will undergo community consultation to be part of the Council Governance rules.
Moved by councillor Rhonda Garad and supported by Cr Bob Milkovic, the motion was described as “purely for transparency” and a means of addressing perceived backroom deals.
“It’s a powerful role. I don’t think it’s a lot to ask. We vote on behalf of the community, we want the best person. This process is to aid that,” Cr Garad said.
The intent is to know why the candidates are chosen for the roles and how and not to change the system, she said.
“We’ve seen a lot of unhappiness and some disaffection in who has been chosen as mayor and that’s because it wasn’t an open and transparent process.
“I think it’s a healthy practice in a democratic council for the community and residents to know what kind of vision people have for our city.
“We never heard a mayor say what they want to achieve in a year and as a resident that’s what I want to hear.”
Cr Milkovic agreed, saying: “There’s nothing to be hidden here and it shouldn’t be”.
“If you’ve done any deals behind the scenes with whomever, party members, mates and friends, the public deserves to know that.
“I’d be thinking council, residents, everybody are happy to support this to say, ‘This is who I am, this is what I’m bringing to the table and this is why you should vote for me’. Whether that’s a councillor being influenced by our residents to vote one way or the other doesn’t matter.”
Councillor Sean O’Reilly initially opposed the motion as “it won’t make a difference”, arguing that candidates are voted for by the councillors not the public.
He eventually changed his vote at the time of voting but still stands by his arguments, calling the motion a “boondoggle.”
“If I voted against it, they would say I would be against transparency but I’m against a stupid boondoggle exercise.
“Putting up a video speech in the public won’t influence the results. If a candidate put a video publicly they can do that on their Facebook page.
“Candidates can speak on the merits of their candidacy in the public statutory council meeting where the election happens. Candidates can speak to other councillors privately or prior to a council meeting.”
As the debate for transparency rolled on, it raised discussions about “done deals” pointing at the direction of alleged Labor party caucusing in last year’s deputy mayor contest between ALP councillors Angela Long and Richard Lim.
“It’s frivolous to even make a decision because in the case of this term, decisions are always made behind closed doors. There is no question on that,” Cr Tim Dark said at the meeting.
“We saw the most open public transparent version of a deputy mayor and mayoral election just gone where a councillor was threatened (of losing their) lifetime Labor party membership if they didn’t vote a certain way.
“That’s a serious issue because what we have now is a councillor in this chamber who has made more verbal mistakes than Joe Biden and it’s absolutely embarrassing.”
As reported previously by Star Journal, Cr Long had declared she’d withdraw from the contest or risk being kicked out of the party.
Council Watch president Dean Hurlston had called for an immediate Local Government Inspectorate (LGI) investigation of any councillors involved at that time.
“Fact of the day is caucus has already agreed, calls have been made, they’ve met with Labor MPs, decisions have been made and the mayoralty is awarded,” Cr Dark said.
Councillor O’Reilly says he doesn’t agree with what was “alleged” by councillors in support of the motion calling it “irrelevant” justification to the motion.
“That’s a completely different issue that doesn’t relate to what the substantial motion would achieve.
“People just want councillors to focus on what’s important, get on with the job and stop talking about yourself. This motion will have negligible effect on transparency.”
He argues if the public voted on the mayoral and deputy mayoral candidates the motion would be necessary and it would “remove political elements amongst councillors of selecting who the mayor and deputy mayor are.”
“Argument against it is that the mayor may not necessarily have majority support of the councillors they’re leading. We saw that happen in Geelong and there were big disruptions.”
Nevertheless, Cr Dark mentioned the “politicking and nastiness going on within the council” where councillors don’t get acknowledged by their colleagues at events due to the “faction divide”.
“Previously we had long-serving Labor party councillors with firm positions. Then a new group of councillors got elected who used the Labor party constitution to win the influence to get what they want and to move in and build things up.
“As a result it’s been a complete mess. There are some events you physically can’t go because you know what’s going to come, the repercussions out of it and the other issues that come with it as well…”
He gave the example of what happened at a recent NAIDOC week event at Dandenong Market.
“You’ve one of the biggest prolific councillors in Aboriginal groups, you’re very well known, you make eye contact with the mayor, you sit down, the mayor get up on the stage and what happens, you don’t get acknowledged.”
