by Sahar Foladi
This year’s local council elections have already started with dramatic events as two councillors surprisingly exit, another switches wards and leaving vacancies for fresh-faced candidates.
Outgoing councillor Tim Dark joined the City of Greater Dandenong as a 23-year-old, saying his point of view as a young person on waht the community needed was “very different” to much older colleagues.
As the Liberal councillor exits council, he says the more people that put their hands up for public office, the more there will be change in people elected in the council.
“I think there are a lot of people who will seek office. There are different groups and factions of the Labor party attempting to get control of the council.
“I think people are starting to become more aware of democracy and what’s happening, the way things have been historically.
“I think it’s evident in mine, Bob Milkovic and Rhonda Garad’s election that there’s people who prefer to be different, in a healthy democracy to have different ideas rather than an echo chamber.
“The issue then becomes purely about personalities and who deserves to be deputy mayor or mayor rather than who is the best for the role and what they have to offer to the council.”
The contest between Labor councillors Richard Lim and Angela Long for the deputy mayoral role in 2023 had sparked calls to investigate an alleged Labor party caucusing before votes were cast.
As reported previously, Cr Long withdrew from the contest as she risked getting kicked out of the Labor party of which she has been a member for over 39 years and expected to receive her life membership.
Cr Dark said he abstained from voting as a result.
This year’s elections would’ve seen another Labor party duo, Cr’s Lim and Sean O’Reilly go head-to-head for the Springvale North ward if it wasn’t for Cr Lim’s ineligibility to stand as he failed to enrol as a candidate before enrolment closed.
“It’s extremely unfortunate to end up in that situation. At the same time given you’re the owner of multiple properties within the municipality it’s on you to be able to follow your obligations and that’s an issue Richard has discovered the hard way,” Cr Dark said.
“The same thing happened with Peter Brown (former councillor of CGD). I attempted to help him in terms of what options he had, and I know he tried very hard including legal action. And the ruling was not in his favour.”
This election, the Greens-endorsed councillor in Keysborough South, Rhonda Garad is standing in Cr Angela Long’s Cleeland Ward seat, saying the ward has been “neglected”.
Cr Dark says Cr Garad has a strong chance to win the seat given her strong portfolio.
“She (Cr Long) has been on council for a long time (more than 25 years). She knows how it operates, I don’t believe the Labor party will happily concede that to the Greens without some level of a fight.
“Rhonda is running because Cleeland is neglected and that’s her point of view. Given what I’ve seen in the past 8 years it’s probably correct.
“We fundamentally have different points of view in terms of ideological background, but we have the same goals and points of view when it comes to accountability, transparency and integrity and that’s where we’ve gotten along for so long.”
Candidate nominations opened on Monday 9 September and close on Tuesday 17 September. As the lists are filled in for each ward, Cr Dark hopes candidates have a “serving” attitude coming onto council.
“As long as those people who come in with an intention of serving the community and ensuring it gets what it needs and not for future political goals, that’s going to be a very important aspect.
“One thing Greater Dandenong has always had is, regardless of political ideologies, we’ve been a relatively harmonious council, in comparison to City of Kingston.
“I would hope for the better for ratepayers that is kept up.”
