By JASON TURNER
AN unusual number of questions from residents at recent Greater Dandenong Council meetings has sparked debate about how the council conducts public question time.
There were audible groans from councillors when the gallery was notified how many questions (24) were to be asked at last Monday’s meeting. Another 30 were asked at the previous meeting.
At the past 30 meetings, an average of seven questions were asked.
Outspoken Paperbark Ward councillor Peter Brown asked officers if they needed to be answered if the questioner was not in the public gallery.
Soon after, a motion was pushed through giving discretion to the council’s chief executive officer John Bennie about what questions were answered during the meeting.
“I’ve been on council for 10 years and I’ve never seen such a sheer volume of questions,” Cr Brown said. He said the process was getting “hijacked” and moves had to be made to fix “the abuse of procedure”.
The public does not have to be in the chamber to ask questions, with the opportunity to send questions in advance. The question then receives a written response and the answers are also published online.
Cr Brown was quick to add that the concerns were not based on the meeting length, but the possibility that the questions were driven by “an agenda”.
He questioned the legitimacy of some the questions, pointing to the similar wording of questions coming from certain people.
“The questions aren’t coming from Liberals or Labor. I suspect it’s the Greens.”
He pointed to a vast number of environmental issues being raised as coming straight from that party’s agenda.
Cr Matthew Kirwan said the public question time procedures should stay as they were.
The Greens-aligned Red Gum Ward representative said restricting public question time could “hurt the free speech of everyone”.
Cr Kirwan, himself notorious for submitting public questions in the lead-up to his election to the council last year, believed the debate stemmed from concerns about meetings going on for too long.
Dandenong meetings normally start at 7pm and finish about 8pm. However, the past two have finished an hour later.
Dandenong Residents and Ratepayers Association president Jim Houlahan said any push to restrict public question time would be a bad move.
“It’s a simple and fundamental part of the democratic process. Having so many questions may indicate the council is not dispensing enough information to the public about what is going on.”
Monash University local governance research unit director Ken Coghill said the concept of public question time was important.
“It allows citizens to become involved, to feel a sense of inclusion and to be more satisfied with their lives. It also facilitates council being better informed and to thereby make better decisions.”
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