Council rejects formal positions policy – City of Ballarat council meeting briefs

A MAJORITY of councillors voted against establishing a formal positions of council policy at last week’s meeting.

A report was provided to councillors after a request was made by Cr Ben Taylor during the March meeting and it used Mt Alexander Shire’s policy as a template.

Mt Alexander Shire is the only Victorian Local Government Area to have this sort of policy, which restricts council from taking a formal position or advocating on certain issues.

If the policy was carried, council would have been unable to adopt a formal position on issues which are subject to a state or federal referendum, are international in nature or are state or federal laws which do not affect local government’s operations.

Mayor Cr Des Hudson voted against the policy and said the letter he wrote to the foreign minister regarding council’s adoption of a position on the conflict in Gaza did not cost any money or much time.

“This started from a notice of motion on a humanitarian issue,” he said.

“I sent a letter and I’ve had a response from the foreign minister thanking us for the letter.

“The issue has been fully dealt with and resolved… it took an email with two attachments, not a great deal of time or a great deal of effort and zero expense.”

Cr Daniel Moloney argued the policy had potential to restrict democracy by controlling what could be discussed by councillors.

“This is a massive mistake,” he said. “It places unnecessary bureaucracy protocols around your role as a councillor.

“If you don’t like it, don’t vote for it, it’s as simple as that.”

Cr Belinda Coates said the policy was a “knee jerk” reaction to recent debate and that different community members want councillors to discuss different issues.

“Essentially this policy is an attempt to limit, censor and restrict democracy,” she said.

“It’s an extremely vague and poorly considered policy.”

They were several community submissions supporting both sides of the debate, with those for the policy arguing that local government needs to stick to local issues and stop wasting resources.

Another submitter suggested that there had only been three notices of motion about international issues in the last four years and therefore it was not a big issue.

Cr Taylor, who voted for the policy along with Crs Amy Johnson, Belinda Hargreaves and Samantha McIntosh, said the policy would insure local government only discussed local issues.

“We have a great opportunity to put local back into local government,” he said.

“On matters that are broader or international in nature it shouldn’t be about us councillors making that decision.”

CEO Evan King said there were no instances he could think of where a local issue had been removed from a meeting agenda to make room for an international one.

“I am unaware of any items that council isn’t dealing with that it’s required to deal with,” he said.

Funding agreement approved

Commerce Ballarat is set to receive more than $400,000 from the City of Ballarat over the next three years after a funding and service agreement was supported by all councillors.

The agreement is designed to ensure Commerce Ballarat can continue to support local businesses and Moloney said these are services which would otherwise need to be delivered by the City.

“This is not a sponsorship, this is a service agreement where Commerce Ballarat is well placed to directly deliver a range of different services in the City of Ballarat that we would otherwise be largely required to deliver ourselves.”

New policy for boat sheds

A new Lake Wendouree Boat Shed Policy was carried by all councillors following community consultation and work with stakeholders.

The policy aims to clarify the City of Ballarat’s role was trustee or committee of management, sets out the rights and obligations of boat shed licences and provides a framework for managing repairs.

“This policy strikes a balance quite well,” said Cr Moloney.