Petition challenges borough’s community vision overhaul

PUSHBACK to the Borough of Queenscliffe’s newly adopted community vision has continued this month, with the council receiving a petition calling for it to be overturned.

At its July meeting, the borough adopted significant changes to its community vision that saw the document’s previous references to reconciliation and climate action removed.

Its drew strong criticism from not only both local residents but also Cr Isabelle Tolhurst, who questioned how community consultation had informed the document, and why the results of that consultation had not been made public.

“It makes a mockery of the community’s good faith engagement and becomes hypocrisy when set against the rewritten vision,” Cr Tolhurst said at the time, pledging to refer her own council to the Local Government Inspectorate for a legislative breach over the process.

The petition, lodged by local resident Greg Crowe on Wednesday last week, was signed by more than 400 people.

In addition to overturning the new vision, it called on the council to develop a new draft vision based on the feedback received, undertake further consultation before the vision is finalised, and to restore the “core components of the original vision that reflect the community’s strong commitment to reconciliation” and climate action.

It also requested “a full and accurate report” of the outcomes of the community consultation be released to the public, which the borough compiled with on Wednesday, ahead of the meeting.

The consultation showed almost 80 per cent of respondents identified with the original vision, 30 per cent did not want to see a change to the pillars in the document, and 35 per cent believed tackling climate change and its health impacts should be a top priority.

A further 30 per cent indicated that of the pillars, the “protecting and celebrating Wadawurrung and borough heritage” pillar was the one they would change. However, the report did not provide any information on what changes the community had requested.

“At its core, the revised vision carries the aspirations of the initial vision,” the borough said in a statement on its website.

“Still included are our shared concerns and common goals, such as caring for our environment, recognising and protecting our heritage, and doing the work to help local business and our community to thrive.

“Naturally, acknowledgement and respect for Wadawurrung is integral.”

The commitment to managing climate effects, the statement continued, is “embedded in several pillars” in the document, while the “goal of inclusion” is captured by the vision’s aspiration to be “a friendly, respectful and welcoming community”.

“A vision statement for a community is necessarily broad. What is important is that as many people as possible recognise something they aspire to within the words.”

Mr Crowe was unable to speak to the petition at the council’s meeting on Wednesday last week and instead published a statement online.

“This petition is an invitation to hit the pause button and an opportunity to do it better and do it differently,” he said.

The petition will be considered at the borough’s next meeting later this month.