Ward imbalance to stay
GEELONG’S most disadvantaged suburbs will continue to have one less voice than the rest of the region after the State Government refused to fix the city’s imbalance, a councillor has warned.
The City of Greater Geelong wrote to Local Government Minister Adem Somyurek in August calling for the MP to enable the addition of another councillor to the city’s northern most ward — the only ward with two councillors instead of three.
But, in a letter seen by the Geelong Advertiser yesterday, Mr Somyurek wrote to council to say he would be happy to discuss the matter after passing new local government legislation.
Windermere Ward councillor Anthony Aitken said the letter was a rejection of the city’s request, leaving his northernmost ward underrepresented for another four years following the upcoming October election.
“Essentially the implications of what the minister’s letter said is ‘no’, he doesn’t support changing the boundaries under the current legislation,” Cr Aitken said. “The new legislation is before the parliament, and even if it is passed, the advice that the council has received from the
VEC is that there can be no change now for the October 2020 election. So even if there is legislation change to bring in the Government’s desire to have single wards, it can’t be enacted and put in place for the October 2020 elections.
“It means it perpetuates the disenfranchised for the next four years and Geelong, that the northern suburbs will continue to only have two voices representing it, when other parts of Geelong have three.
“The community out there needs as many voices as it can have to challenge and change public policy to effect significant generational change in that community.”
Mr Somyurek yesterday confirmed Geelong’s ward structure –— and those of all Victorian councils — would not be altered until new legislation was passed through the Victorian parliament.
“All changes to ward structures will be considered once the Local Government Bill 2019 has passed the parliament,” he said.
The new Local Government Act has been presented with six proposed reforms, including a return to single-councillor wards despite Geelong’s 2016 Commission of Inquiry, which led to the sacking of the council, slamming the structure.
Health figures show residents in Corio-Norlane — the city’s most socio-economically disadvantaged area — have shorter life expectancies, compared with the region’s most advantaged postcodes.