Council opposes Emergency Services Volunteers Fund – City of Ballarat council meeting briefs

CITY of Ballarat councillors have unanimously voted to formally oppose the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund and the requirement by the State Government to collect it.

The notice of motion was voted on at last week’s regular council meeting, and it also condemned the financial burden the levy will place on ratepayers.

Councillors committed to provide clear information about the levy and the collection mandate in rates notices, to advocate for the responsibility of collection to be shifted to the State Government, and to write to State ministers and local members of parliament to communicate the condemnation.

Cr Ted Lapkin said the new levy unfairly targets rural and regional areas.

“Why would the government impose such a destructive edict on such a productive element of our society?” he said.

“The reason I think is primarily financial. To this Labor government, country Victoria is expendable and exploitable.

“It sees rural regions as a source of low hanging revenue fruit.”

It is mandated by law that Local Government Areas collect the levy and mayor Cr Tracey Hargreaves said the City of Ballarat is taking all possible steps to advocate against it.

“People may have been looking to council to provide some sort of resolution that we wouldn’t collect this levy,” she said.

“The cold truth is that we don’t have that ability. We are required to follow the law.

“We are very united on this as a council. Council is doing everything we absolutely can to advocate for [ratepayers] on this matter.”

Election report accepted

Last year’s Local Government election report was accepted by councillors.

The report indicated that there were more than 86,000 enrolled voters within the City of Ballarat and more than 70,000 ballot papers were counted.

The overall participation rate within the City of Ballarat was 83.53 per cent which is below the state average of 83.79 per cent which excludes the City of Melbourne.

Cr Des Hudson said he was frustrated by the length of time it took to count the votes.

“It was the most drawn out, tiresome count in eight elections I’ve experienced,” he said.

Olympian policy updated

The Recognition of Ballarat’s Olympians policy has been updated following feedback from local Olympians.

A previously removed paragraph referring to the placement of hand/feet prints on columns according to sex has been reinstated following consultation with the Australian Olympic Committee.

There is also clarification around the definition of a Ballarat Olympian and other changes to improve clarity.

“There are just some minor tweaks to the policy. Some clarification around gender in line with the International Olympic Committee definition,” Cr Hudson said.

“All of that is in line with consultation with our former Olympians.”