Not a good look
THE very public brawl between the State Government and Geelong council over the Green Spine may be a portent of greater hostilities to come.
The council’s decision to tear up parts of the award-winning green vision for the CBD clearly indicates its resolve to make tough decisions. “Courageous,” it said. Ludicrous more like it!
Rattling cages can have serious implications, and in this case it was the sledgehammer response of the Government, which did not hesitate in seizing control of the project.
City Hall’s failed move was not unanimous. It scraped through on a 6-5 vote, with councillors Eddy Kontelj, Mayor Stephanie Asher, Anthony Aitken, Kylie Grzybek, Trent Sullivan and Ron Nelson in favour. And it’s this Stout-Hearted Six that could create a dilemma for Spring St further down the track.
That is not to say council’s future decisions and direction will be driven by what, on face value, is an interesting mix of individuals. For that to occur, they would need to remain united, and that is far from guaranteed when different interests, egos and alliances are at play.
Regular observers of City Hall intrigue have disclosed the bloc emerged during the behind-closeddoors mayoral vote, came together again to back the Green Spine changes and may hold sway on major issues in future. Pure speculation and hypothesis, of course, but often where there’s smoke …
Should the council — or, more to the point, some councillors — further antagonise Spring St and run a counter agenda in future, they should cast their minds back to 2016 when the Andrews Government sacked the council and popularlyelected mayor Darryn Lyons.
Amid allegations of harassment, bullying and widespread dysfunction, the Government summarily dismissed councillors without blinking an eye. Well, not quite; it wielded the recommendations of an “independent” inquiry commissioned by the then local government minister, Natalie Hutchins.
There was — and still is — much conjecture about that sorry episode, particularly about who the offenders were, what were the misdemeanours so crucial to force an investigation and whether it was politically-motivated. Conspiracy theories abound, but ratepayers will never know — and have never been told — the complete story, with the full findings remaining under lock and key.
A reasonable question that arises in this current strained relationship is will history repeat itself? The Government’s reasoning behind its Green Spine intervention was it would not stand by while the city wasted ratepayers’/taxpayers’ money on the joint project. Most people would agree, as the council intended spending $2 million on ripping up what had already been constructed.
But that argument is a bit rich coming from a government that scrapped the contract for the East West Link back in 2015 at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $1.3 billion-plus.
Although the Government has moved quickly into control mode on the Green Spine and flagged a review of other funding partnerships with the city, Cr Asher is obviously made of stern stuff.
She has flatly rejected backflipping on the project … it was implemented by government-appointed administrators, she argues — and has described Minister Lisa Neville’s comments that a transport network plan for the city included buses as “blatantly incorrect”. All this discourse in the public arena, which will not be appreciated by a government sensitive to even the slightest criticism.
If (yes, a big if) the simmering tension between City Hall and Spring St erupts, the Government faces a dilemma — how will it bring the council to heel?
Surely, it would not contemplate a second sacking of democratically-elected local government representatives? The Geelong community would not tolerate a repeat, would it?
There are other more subtle means, of course. Diplomacy for one, constructive dialogue for another. That goes two ways, of course. But as a start point, some councillors need to re-think their responsibilities to the people they represent and forget playing politics.
Graeme Vincent is a former Geelong
Advertiser editor.