With the second and final Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) State Council Meeting of the year coming up on Friday 10 October, Yarra Ranges councillors convened to put forward motions they would like to be considered.
Councillors discussed and have put forward three motions at the Tuesday 12 August council meeting, focused on addressing occupational violence, improving the Local Government Performance Reporting Framework (LGPRF) and supporting increased age and gender diversity among councils.
Ryrie Ward Councillor Fiona McAllister spoke mostly to the third motion and said motions typically get universally supported unless they’re controversial, so she suspects most of these will.
“I’m going to hazard a guess here, but I’m thinking we’ve got one Councillor under 40, and my apologies if I’m offending any of my fellow Councillors who may be close… but also one woman,” she said.
“It’s not that I don’t have the utmost respect for my fellow councillors, I think we have a wonderful council, but in this day and age, our lack of age, gender and cultural diversity as a local government is pretty shameful, and we’re not alone, there are many councils,”
“We’ve re-entered what they call fragile status because of our lack of diversity, and are again advocating for state government to support us and councils and communities, as often this is community-led across Victoria, for it’s not just about representation at Council, but it’s also about local leadership.”
Yarra Ranges Council dropped from three female councillors to one after last year’s council elections and currently only has two councillors under the age of 40. The council wants MAV to request the state government commit to funding education and support programs, such as the 2022-24 Women Leading Locally program, to help encourage women and young people to run for council in 2028.
The Victorian Government had set a target of 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women in councils by 2025, though only 44.8 per cent of people elected to local councils in Victoria were women last year, up slightly from 43.2 per cent in 2020 and from 38 per cent in 2016. Regional and rural councils have generally had lesser numbers of women councillors.
Melba Ward Councillor Mitch Mazzarella said it’s always great to have a wide diversity of candidates and people interested in running for council.
“I was elected at 19 and it proves that anyone can do it and anyone can have a go,” he said.
“The average age of councillors now in Victoria in the reports is 57 and a half years of age, so a bit of a difference there but there’s always room for young people and I would highly encourage young people and anyone really to step up, have a look and see if they can.”
The first motion Yarra Ranges put forward requests MAV to undertake statewide research into occupational violence incidents against council staff and councillors and seek WorkSafe support for a public safety campaign, and the second motion asks for MAV to advocate to the state government for the LGPRF to better align with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reflecting the ‘strategic leadership and impact of councils.’
Lyster Ward councillor Peter McIlwain said it’s been the case that the LGPRF has been the measurement process or procedure by which councils have been asked to assess their performance.
“However, as a new councillor coming in and looking at that framework, and as a previous academic, I must say, there’s questions around how useful that framework actually is,” he said.
“I put forward the idea that maybe we can supplement that, or even hopefully in the future replace it with the Sustainable Development Goals, which are goals that have been formulated by the United Nations, they use around the world, that now tried and tested and supported with a great deal of research,”
“The thing is that the Local Government Act actually requires us to undertake strategic and integrated planning, we need to address our community vision, we are required by the act to address issues such as climate change, and also to make intergenerational decisions, but none of that is reflected in the current framework, whereas the sustainable development goals do face forward, face the future and face the challenges that we are presented with.”
The motions were carried unanimously and Yarra Ranges Council Mayor and O’Shannassy Ward councillor Jim Child will be representing the councillors at the state meeting in October.
