Shire steps up illegal dumping efforts – Moorabool Shire Council meeting briefs

MOORABOOL Shire Council will expand its campaign against illegal dumping of rubbish in the municipality.

Cr Steven Venditti-Taylor successfully introduced a notice of motion at last week’s regular council meeting about the practice, describing the problem as a major issue for the Shire.

“We’ve got chemicals, hazardous waste, garden waste, construction and demolition waste, soil dropped everywhere,” Cr Venditti-Taylor said.

“We’ve got household waste, people moving soil with no permits, cutting down trees; we’ve got so many issues in this.”

His motion called on the Shire to consider developing and implementing a community education and awareness campaign.

The campaign would be designed to address illegal dumping of rubbish, soil, chemicals and litter, and would inform residents of the impacts those activities have.

The campaign would also include a ‘Dob in a Dumper’ component.

Under a second part of the motion, the Shire will write to relevant state and federal MPs to highlight the issue of cost-shifting to councils for illegal dumping clean-ups and to advocate for stiffer penalties for the offence.

Finally, the Shire will seek grants or subsidies to assist with cleaning up land owned by state and federal authorities within municipalities.

The Shire is already running a campaign to publicise illegal dumping, but Cr Venditti-Taylor said there needed to be a multifaceted approach.

Cr Rod Ward, who seconded the motion, said he had noticed an increase in the practice over the past decade.

“And probably over the last two years it’s worse than ever,” he said.

Cr Ward said he had lodged two notices about illegal dumping from his trip to work the day before the meeting, and described the problem as “an epidemic”.

He also supported a ‘Dob in a Dumper’ campaign.

“We don’t know how much of this comes from outside or within the community or outside the Shire, but what we can encourage our residents to do is dob in those they see dumping,” Cr Ward said.

“I had a phone call last week…of trucks coming in under cover of night and dumping in our Shire.”

Cr Sheila Freeman also spoke in support, saying that she understood that some rubbish might be coming from outside the municipality but stronger penalties were needed.

“In the UK they actually have the power to take the vehicle of the person that dumps the rubbish, so maybe it is time the government started looking at better penalties,” she said.

Cr John Keogh said Cr Venditti-Taylor’s motion needed to be “fully implemented”, while Cr Jarrod Bingham said a resident had called him at 11pm on one occasion after following a truck involved in dumping.

He drove to the reported site and confirmed the call, Cr Bingham said.

Push for mandated child safety checks fails

Cr Freeman failed in an attempt to make a Working With Children Check (WWCC) a necessity for all councillors.

In her own notice of motion, Cr Freeman moved that the Shire commit to all councillors obtaining a WWCC “as a proactive measure to strengthen public trust and demonstrate leadership in child safety following recent reports of child abuse in childcare settings.”

She also wanted the Shire to urge all other councils to implement the same standard, and to lobby the State Government for legislative changes to make a WWCC mandatory for all current and future councillors.

Cr Freeman said councillors may not work directly with children but were often in positions of trust and were present at community events, schools and youth programs.

“A Working With Children Check is a simple, cost-effective measure to reinforce our commitment to child safety and model best practice,” Cr Freeman said.

“This motion is about public trust.”

But after a lengthy debate, in which five councillors spoke in detail both for and against the motion – including mayor Paul Tatchell, who temporarily vacated the chair to speak and vote – Cr Freeman’s move was defeated on a five-to-four split.

Cr Freeman called for a division, with herself and councillors Venditti-Taylor, Ward and Moira Berry voting in favour. Councillors Keogh, Bingham, Tatchell and Ally Munari and Tom Sullivan voted against.

WorkCover premium going up

Councillors voted to accept a 15 per cent increase in its annual WorkCover premium, which will be paid by 18 August so the Shire can secure a five per cent discount.

The discount would drop to 3 per cent if the premium is not paid before 1 October.

An officer’s report said the 15 per cent increase would mean a rise of $83,369 on last year in dollar terms, but to make at least some savings it was recommended that payment be made before 18 August.

Cr Ward moved the payment, but expressed concern about financial imposts on local councils.

“It seems like Council is incurring additional costs but not having the ability to match that in revenue increases,” he said.

The report said the State Government had acknowledged that changes made to WorkCover in 2023 aiming to better align the scheme with other states and territories continued to put financial pressure on municipalities.

“The Victorian Government has confirmed that the average premium rate will be 1.8 per cent of the state’s rateable remuneration for 2025-26,” it said.

But it said that the Shire’s Employer Performance Rating (EPR) for the 2025-26 year is 81.67 per cent – 18.41 per cent better than the industry average.

“Dating back to 2021-22 Council’s EPR was 192.13 per cent, so over the past five years a substantial improvement has been made,” the report said.

Mayor slams council “talkfest”

During councillors’ reports, Cr Tatchell questioned whether a recent Rural Councils Victoria weekend forum in Yarrawonga had actually been worth attending.

“…They brought a planner in from Sydney as the speaker – and metropolitan Sydney if you don’t mind – to talk about rural planning,” Cr Tatchell said.

“There were only four questions asked…because that’s all that were allowed; two of them were denied because they were about taxes and the costs of actually doing developments in rural areas.

“My concern is, the Shire pays a lot of money to go to these things. There were 100 councillors up there that should be entitled to express their view, ask a question, and bring that back to their council.

“Otherwise they’re nothing but a talkfest, and I’m really disappointed they took that approach.”

Cr Tatchell said he ultimately walked out of the event.

“I’ve got better things to do with my time than to sit there and listen to someone from Sydney [talk] about the problems I’ve got in Moorabool,” he said.

Renewables link details sought

In a notice of motion carried by a five-councillor majority vote, Cr Venditti-Taylor moved that the Shire seek details on how many Moorabool properties affected by the proposed Western Renewables Link (WRL) have been physically accessed by proponent AusNet in preparation of its project Environmental Effects Statement (EES).

His motion called for a letter seeking those details be sent to AusNet and the Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny.

Specifically, Cr Venditti-Taylor wanted to know the proportion of the total number of private properties affected by the WRL route, both within the Shire and along the entire distance, that had been accessed.

The EES is on public exhibition until Friday 22 August, and Cr Venditti-Taylor’s rationale was that many residents were struggling to complete submission within the 40-day exhibition period.

He told the meeting that with legislation granting forced access to properties recently passing through the State Parliament lower house, the situation was escalating quickly.

“Information on what’s actually happening with this project has been held back from us. For us to make the best decisions, all the information should be handed over,” he said.

Explanatory notes submitted with his motion said Cr Venditti-Taylor felt that there were “information gaps” in the EES, and information such as the details he wanted were essential so the Shire could advocate in the best way for its ratepayers.

Cr Munari said many questions had been asked about the WRL and many had not been answered, but she considered the motion to be wasting time when the biggest issue now was preparing residents’ and the Shire’s EES submissions.

Cr Ward said he was in favour of the motion after discussing it with Cr Venditti-Taylor.

“Asking this question does not mean that we’re not going to continue fighting against the towers,” he said. “This won’t stop the staff from reviewing the [Shire’s] EES submission, it’s simply a letter going to government.

“And if we can get a response that says [for example] 80 per cent of residents have let them on the land, then we know that that part of the fight doesn’t need to be had – it’s already been had and it’s lost.

“But if we know that 20 per cent have let them on the land and 80 per cent are still fighting, then we’ll continue that part of the fight.

“This is just gathering information.”

Cr Freeman agreed, arguing that knowing how many properties had been accessed with permission was “crucial” for the Shire’s submission.

“This is a matter of transparency and public confidence,” she said.

But Cr Berry concurred with Cr Munari, adding that the privacy of landowners who had agreed to allow AusNet onto their properties must be taken into account.

Cr Keogh spoke in support, saying that Cr Ward had “summed it up very well”.

“The more information we’ve got, the more we can sharpen our focus for the people who haven’t signed,” he said.

Cr Sullivan, meanwhile, said he understood the intent of the motion but like Cr Munari questioned whether the Shire would simply be wasting its time.

“Do we really think we’re going to get a response from AusNet?” he asked. “It’d be good to know, but they’re not going to give us an answer, no way.”

Those who voted in favour of the motion were Crs Venditti-Taylor, Ward, Freeman, Bingham and Keogh.

A vote against was not called because the positive vote was an automatic majority.