welcome councillors to the council
meeting of monday the 13th of
december 2021 our final council meeting
for the year and welcome to those of
you we don't have anyone in the gallery
this evening but to those watching
online we start with the reading of the
reconciliation statement we acknowledge
that we are meeting on the traditional
lands of the Woi Wurrung
and Bunurong
people of the east kulin nations and
pay our respects to their elders past
present and emerging we extend that
respect to all aboriginal and torres
strait islander people
we are reminded that as councillors we
are bound by our open office to
undertake the duties of councillor and
best interests of the people of the city
of stonnington and to faithfully and
impartially carry out the functions
powers authorities and discretions
vested in us under the local government
act and any other relevant act
councillors we don't have any apologies
this evening we are all present which is
great so i'll move straight to
introductions
so on my right we have councillor kate
hely councillor from northward
councillor nicki batagol from south ward
councillor alexander lew from eastward
councillor marcia griffin from north
florida
councillor molina said from south ford
councillor matthew koce from northward
councillor mike scott from south florida
councillor polly morgan from esport and
i'm councillor jami klisaris eastwood
councillor and mayor of stonnington and
we have on my right the ceo jackie
weatherall who i will ask to please
introduce our staff thank you mayor to
my right we've got judy hogan civic
support officer tracy lincoln's chief
staff analyst statista director planning
in place julia hilachi secretary
financial officer
fred kirchio director of customer
technology liz daly acting director for
community well-being
vic quasic director for infrastructure
and environment
mr tony mcelroy
senior governance advisor and that's it
thank you ms weber councillors you move
to confirmation of the minutes we have
the minutes from the council meetings on
the 23rd and the 29th of november of
2021. can i please seek a mover of both
sets
councillor scott is there a second book
for that
council of bada gold council scott was
it with any changes or any comments to
make in relation to those do any other
counsellors have any queries or
questions on the minutes
no can i please seek a motion all those
in favor
of accepting the minutes that's carried
thank you councillors
conflicts of interest councils are there
any conflicts to disclose even
councillor griffin thank you mayor uh
yes with the albion street uh officer
recommendation because my system is in
that street thank you councillor griffin
and councillor
thank you madame item 8.1 56 57 and 58
quarter street quran as i live in
charles street which is the next street
over and there's a very high probability
i will see this development for my
property if it's to be approved thank
you councillors so you will both vacate
create respective items any other
conflicts to declare
thank you
uh i have seven questions from the
community i don't have any questions
that were submitted for tonight's
meeting so councillors we moved to
idahoad
our general business
so
item 8.9 the councillor said he's
leaving the room
and this is for 56 57 and 58 quarter
scripts koran
and i also note there is an alternative
recommendation but first i will ask is
there a mover of the officer's
paper
no okay so is there a mover of the
alternative recommendation thank you
councillor badagal and the secondary for
that
councillor scott thank you council
do i need to introduce it first or you
can okay um so the
this is basically just to read what the
changes are it's to delete um so a1a is
to delete one residential level from
within the podium and subsequently
reduce the height to a maximum of 33.8
meters about ground level
then it's to increase the floor heights
for ground level first floor to 3.55
meters
respectively
um or from from 3.554 and increase the
first level from 3.55 to 3.8
and the public space treatments must be
similar and are aligned to the pocket
park so the compliments of
so this is an application for a
mixed-use development comprising retail
office and residential uses it's located
in an activity center which encourages
development as a focus for business
shopping working housing leisure etc
in april 2019 a permit was issued for a
mixed-use nine-story development with an
overall height of 33.8 metres it had a
six-story podium to florida street and
the adjacent rock park it was intended
for commercial use including two food
and beverage premises on the ground
floor with eight stories of office for
above
and according to the report the extra
level was supported in 2019 as it was
for office use with a high degree of
ground level activation in the public
realm
this proposal is for a change and it
includes an 11 story so that's an
additional two stories which is
effectively 10 plus the rooftop area
it's got a height of 35.7 compared to
what was approved of 33.8 uh it has an
increase in public open space and it has
a change in use with the ground floor to
remain the student beverage with a small
office first floor office space and
floors turbine to become residential
with 51 partners it also has a seven
stroke radiation porter street
so after the consult meeting it was
really clear that there were concerns
relating to the increasing price that
was being asked and also the change in
use
the proposal exceeded the preferred
maximum height by approximately three
residential floors
we received 26 objections and since then
officers have worked with the applicant
to reduce the height equal to that which
was already approved
um but it was it was felt that this
could be achieved by reducing the water
ceiling apart from the lower floors and
also remove the communal roof structure
on the top this alternate recommendation
goes a little bit further than that it
actually ensures that the building part
still doesn't exceed the 33.8 that's
already been improved it removes one
level of residential which brings the
podium back to the six stories that's
been approved and it now actually falls
within the preferred podium height of 21
meters
it also aligns the podium to the
development of the northern interface
which is six stories
it brings the height of the ground floor
and the first floor back to the
preferred height clearances that are
outlined in a the activities zone
schedule one which provides flexibility
and adaptable internal layouts for easy
conversion should there be any change in
use at a later point in time
and finally it ensures that the public
opens open space integrates with pocket
park so that it looks and feels as if
it's connected without any perceived
barriers
so by removing one level of residential
from the podium level there will be less
apartments obviously which also means
that the shortfall and parking will be
slightly offset depending on which
apartments are removed
so the applicant according to this
recommendation is still getting nine
stories which is an extra level to the
eight stories which are preferred to the
built form requirements and they're also
getting a good rooftop terrace provided
they stay within the overall improved
height of their thirty three percent
so in summary it allows the applicant to
change the use of the site but it aligns
the site better with the intention
behind the design and it keeps it in
line with the preferred built form
guidelines which are everything to the
site
thank you council vargo councillor scott
that's the second bill would you like to
speak
not at this point okay i'll open it up
is there any commentary or questions on
these items
um thanks man i didn't really have much
more to add to what council medical has
already said my main concerns uh with
this uh application
have been addressed through the
alternate motion
specifically around the
the use of the pocket park and how
the applicant will be
ensuring that the land that is now made
available to the public uh has a very
consistent approach to it so that people
will see the proper park and use the
pogba park but also use the extended
public access area as one space rather
than two separate spaces
excellent okay council better goal
assuming you don't need to sum up great
we'll put it straight to the boat can i
see a show i can answer all those in
paper
that's carrie thank you councillors
let's get councillor back into the
chamber before we move on
[Music]
[Applause]
so we move to item 8.2
planning application at 873 dandenong
road modern east
i should ask are there any questions in
relation to this item
i'll second third purposes of debate
okay thank you councillor morgan
uh thank you mayor
this application
uh
is for
an apartment building that is between
two other sort of agreement story
apartment buildings of daniel road in
northern east
and
officers have
recommended um that this
apartment building be approved with many
conditions so i'll take most of the
report as read basically so people are
requested i'm assuming
what this would be for the i guess what
stands out about this apartment building
as
uh being perhaps a bit unusual and why
i've considered it's
uh reasonable to support it despite some
of the restrictions of the site
is that its intended uses as specialist
disability accommodation dwellings so
what's been proposed is to have
a
a ground office space and then have
another seventh floor so a total of
eight floors with a total of seven
apartments and these will be dedicated
and designed in a way to meet the
requirements for special disability
accommodations
this is perhaps why even though some
aspects of this building such as
the allocated car spaces that are
proposed don't meet the standards
uh there are issues with this building
that came up during the consultation on
the
materials that are potentially being
used because it's very narrow and wedged
western between two other apartments
one at 881 the apartments at aa1
residents are very concerned because of
loss of sunlight and
overshadowing however
when
there are sort of white surveys and
shadows were done it showed that
actually almost all of the the loss of
overshadowing was already from the other
building and this is not going to
actually make a voice
one of the biggest uh concerns that were
raised by objectors was having really
high quality materials given the
narrowness of closeness of the buildings
to each other and what has happened is
after that consultation meeting officers
have actually created
a
more detailed and further recommendation
on this
as part of to add to this sport on this
application to cover this and it
basically reads as a schedule
construction materials external finishes
and colors including glazing to the
satisfaction of a responsible authority
uh must be included and materials must
be of a high quality as determined in
consultation with council's urban
designer
and i think that this is really
important because that was one of the
biggest concerns that were raised by
objectors
on balance although there are some
issues with this development it's more
what has already happened there which is
really out of scope for this decision
and this is not going to
i believe
significantly worsen the situation for
residents in terms of loss of bare
amenity and it will provided
provide needed accommodation for people
with disabilities within internet a
specialist level
although there's no
way to mandate the use as specialist
disability accommodation
with only seven apartments
uh i think five of them were single
girling and two were
two bedrooms
in a very narrow space in such a tall
building with a cost of it it's hard to
see how it could be commercially viable
to be used for anything other than the
intended purpose
and everything we've seen of what is
being planned is very consistent with
that use and
with
similar developments on even in the
neighboring buildings one and two
bedroom apartments
are not
relatively not expensive compared to
what fees will cost so it just doesn't
seem that it could be at all
commercially viable for anyone to build
seven apartments at the expense this
will cost and make any money off them if
they were going to use them as permanent
standard residential accommodations and
as such
the although there are concerns about
loss of car parking and
only having four car parks there for
those residents
it is certainly not the same sort of
issue as if it had been proposed for
standard residential accommodation where
i think for me that would be you know
certainly enough to say no development's
not suitable but for this use
it does
look to be
a very valid use and that it will
actually have more specialist
accommodation for people with
disabilities in southington which is
very important and i think that for any
kind of development in this area this is
really probably the best outcome we
could get
trying to put more apartments in there
for standard residential use
would actually seriously impact on
neighbouring residents because you would
need to put many more apartments in
there to make it commercially viable for
that use
so i think that this is a good
compromise and
i think that the accommodations that are
being made in terms of materials and the
feedback from residents of a process
where these need to be approved should
ameliorate most of the concerns that
objectives have
thank you thank you council morgan i
won't speak as the secondary i will open
it up are there any other questions or
comments in relation to this item
excellent all right well we don't need
to sum up so we'll move straight to the
vote can i see a show of hands for all
those in favor
carrie thank you councillors
item 8.3
planning amendment for 7-9 robinson
street param councillors are there any
questions on this
great is there a mover for this item
councillor scott is there a second girl
council about a golf
thank you may so um
the purpose of this uh
report is for council to consider a
planning amendment
for construction of buildings and works
which is in a commercial one zone
and a design and development overlay and
a reduction in the car parking
requirements associated with office use
at 79 robinson street the proposal seeks
to amend the existing planning permit
which allowed for construction of a
five-story mixed-use building to provide
offices
to all floors with associated changes to
the built form
layout and car parking provision
i'm supportive of this
officer recommendation and my
understanding is this proposal hasn't
already been through vcat and come back
to council with a slight change
moving from
residential to office
use
most of the
complainants
or the main concern was around
amenity impacts to car parking and
traffic use
in the street it is a relatively narrow
street as are most streets in southward
and however my understanding is that
when
we
look at applications that are moving
from being residential to
mostly or in this case all office use
and we see a decrease in traffic and
parking
within the local area
when it's compared to residential
parking and traffic only um
so yes i put this
excellent thank you councillor scott
councillor battlebolt do you want to
speak on this
you know i think the only thing i'd add
is that
thank you is that the permit was issued
by bcash so and really it's it's very
little change it's minor changes to the
built form no increase in height a
slight increase in the podium
um
during the console the applicant walked
the objectives who were on call through
the revised plans
and they also had had a dedicated
session the night before for residents
of that next door building uh where they
really were talking it through that it
was about about changing use
and and as council scott said um
there were some concerns about the
changing nature of the street around
traffic movements uh some concern that
it's going from residential to
commercial but it's the nature of the
activity zone uh so it's
it
great i'll open it up any further
questions or comments on this one
all right councillor scott we need to
sum up our machine fantastic we'll put
it to the boat show of hands for all
those in favor
thank you councillors that's carried
we moved to item 8.4 planning
application at 77 repton road northern
east are there any questions on this
councillors
no can i seek a mover of this item
council
um thank you mayor look i'll be very
quick because we want to be quick
tonight um this is a
the
councillor should be aware of this um
development application it relates to a
heritage property which
we had some discussion about earlier in
the year
the applicant has resubmitted an
application which is now suitable to
council in that it keeps the facade
and
as a result of that the officers are
recommending acceptance
and i commend it to the council thank
you council lou councillor i'll keep it
brief there um but
the council lose summary of the whole
issue is excellent and there's been many
amendments to this including retaining
the hassan the facade and the front arm
heritage
aspect of the building there's also
provisions for increased landscaping and
there's a significant tree on the
property that will be protected and so i
think that it is
a
very appropriate redevelopment given the
state of the building
in that the building did need
serious work it did need manual and
renovation but they've now got a design
that does preserve
the facade and their former heritage
character of the area and they've made
many provisions uh with the landscaping
they're doing the modifications they've
made to the original plants
fantastic thank you any further
questions or comments on this
great we'll put it straight to the vote
counselors all those in paper
thank you
that's it for planning so we move on to
our other items 8.5 state government
planning reforms council advocacy
are there any questions on this item
counsellors
no all right can i please second move up
thank you councillor healey and the
second up
councillor seth thank you council
healing thank you
um so it's really a continuation of the
conversation we've had a few times in
this chamber about how the community's
ability to shape
planning decisions has potentially been
loaded through
planning reform
um because the state's looking to
introduce new planning reform that could
lead to further removal of the
community's ability to shape local
planning decisions and reforms that
could remove a resident's ability to
meaningfully object to a development
next door or down the road so these
reforms could
ignore the desire of our communities and
the commitment of our councils to build
neighborhoods we want to be proud of
and i'm highly concerned about residence
rights being eroded progressively and
quietly by the state government through
these planning reforms under the valon
and some distractions covered
so i've said before that a neighbouring
former mayor of burundara recently
highlighted that over the last 24 years
each state government has introduced a
few new planning provisions
but this andrew state government has
introduced a third of all planning
provisions over the last
24 years in just over two and a half
years
and why because they have the power to
do so so we really need to make sure
that we continue to advocate for
third-party appeal rights for residents
that the community's voice remains
center stage and that the planning
system is transparent and helps to
strengthen local neighbourhoods and
economies
some of the concerns that are also
coming through is that
i've heard a lot from our planning team
about how there's great interaction that
officer to um
to delve level but we're not seeing this
into interaction of the elected
representatives of our community or the
communities input as well so we've heard
about non-disclosure agreements being
signed which honestly is quite a scary
phenomena
also there's a concern that the state
government is looking to offload all the
high effort and low reward tasks to
councils and that's a concern because
we're currently as we'll know in a rates
capped environment and can't expect the
council to keep doing more with less
however stonington is uniquely placed to
continue leadership on this issue um and
these anaesthetic areas have a unique
perspective on these reforms some of
these reforms may be okay for sort of
outer sort of rural regional areas but
for the metro areas we've got a unique
problem and we've got a collective way
of addressing that so this is really a
continuation this motion's about
continuation of the work um that was
started this year
and perhaps the planning reforms don't
sound like a particularly sexy thing to
even the newspapers etc but this is
something that our residents will be
really shocked about and dismayed about
if they have no voice to meaningfully
object to things that start going up
around them
and what's happening down the road so
this is really important motion for us
to continue the advocacy that we've
already started
well thank you councillor healey
councillor
um thank you madame um as you said
counselor healy has really covered the
key issues but this has been an agenda
of governments for a long long time
um you know there was a joke around
there for a while that the minister for
planning should have been re-titled the
minister for development because that's
really what was happening
and the fact is this is how the state
government raises its revenue it's
through
land taxes it's through stamp duties and
the more properties that can be built
the more stamp duty more sales and so
forth can be generated um this is going
to incredibly alarm our community when
they come to us
under development and find out they
can't object that their rights have been
eroded
uh we're going to be blamed for that
because we've seen it we've seen it with
um primary school developments where you
know and it's heartbreaking as an
elected representative
um and i've you know joined council
because of what was happening in the
planning 20 years ago and really
frustrated me
um and i'm you know i'm really dreading
those conversations that we're all going
to have to have with residents on issues
that are going to destroy their amenity
and there's nothing that they can do
about it
very true thank you
i'll open it up any further discussion
on these item counselors thank you
councillors we're really just supporting
what both councils have said because
this is incredibly important and it
really worries me that residents are not
across what's happening which you
alluded to council healing and i think
we've got a responsibility not just to
advocate to state government but also to
advocate to our residents as to what's
potentially happening because they are
going to be very shocked
when they come across any further
increases in state government power and
planning so i think we've got that
double-edged responsibility to let our
residents know
that we consider this as very serious
thank you
any other comments councillors
councillor cars just so quickly i it
feels a bit like the state government's
trying to hijack planning away from
local communities
um
in the 90s that sort of behavior gave
rise to save our suburbs and it became a
front and center issue for more than two
decades saving our suburbs from over
development and it feels like we need to
go back to that you know having those
save our suburb sort of mentality
protecting our local community from over
development we get so many residents
contact us as councillors complaining
about development and then there's
nothing we can do about it it ends up
going to vcat or the state minister
sometimes calls it in as well and it's
really concerning because the best
planning outcomes come from the local
community we saw what happened with
docklands it could have been much much
better than what it is if the city of
melbourne had had control of it all the
way through the state government
hijacked it and we've got a much lesser
outcome for the city of melbourne
forever and i just don't want to see
those mistakes repeated throughout
stonington and all the other
municipalities keep decision making with
the local community keep democracy as
close to the local community as you can
and that's that's where you get the best
outcomes local people know their local
area best and local government is the
government that is is closest to its
people so we really need to advocate as
hard as we can otherwise all the gains
we've had in previous years will just be
washed away and we'll see a sea of open
development again
thank you councillor coast from anyone
else like to speak on this council
morgan thank you matt i'll keep it
really brief because i agree with
everything that has already been said by
council but i think the other thing that
is worth highlighting in an environment
where the state government has put more
processes and and championed having more
deliberative democracy
in local government then why are they
doing this now we are less than a year
away
from the fixed term election date for
the state government and they should be
honest and transparent and take this to
the community at an election
and then introduce it if they're
re-elected because then the people will
be aware of it it will be an election
issue and there will be full
transparency and they'll be getting
community feedback
to push this through now
just ahead of an election which is less
than 12 months away
is is really
inappropriate
and with all the other issues we're
facing as a community this is not going
to get coverage or attention
and people will not realize what's
happened so they should be up front
and go to an election with this planning
changes and and have full transparency
to the community and if they're
re-elected maybe then there's a
justification for it because at least
people know and they've been consulted
and they've had a chance to have their
save the ballot box
beautifully said yeah thank you morgan
would anyone else like to speak on this
excellent so we've moved back to
councillor healey would you like to
summer um i think we're singing in
harmony with garbage and i don't think
we need to throw anything up and i'm
going to ask for a division just so it
being noted that it being unanimous
great
idea
so division has been called so all those
in favor please raise your hand and i
will call everyone's name out councillor
healy councillor babygirl councillor lou
councillor griffin councillor stay
councillor coast councillor scott castle
morgan and councillor casares
carried unanimously thank you
so we moved to itunes and councillor
griffin is leaving the room due to a
conflict of interest
and so that's alpine street southgate
footpath accessibility
councillors are there any questions on
this item
no okay can i please see the mover
councillor coast and the secondary
that's the morgan councillor coast thank
you oh thanks man for those who don't
know welbian street it's actually a very
narrow street it's one of those little
cottage narrow streets that just runs
off punt road and the width of the
street is 8.9 meters so
it's very challenging to provide
footpaths that comply with modern
standards for disability accessibility
and also to provide car parking on both
sides of the streets and have enough
room for cars to travel down the middle
of the street between the parked cars as
well
so what's happened traditionally is that
council hasn't enforced
the parking lots for saying that street
have allowed cars to actually park with
one wheel on the footpath as long as
they leave sufficient room for a
pedestrian to get past and that way
there's enough room for parking on both
sides of the street and for a car to
travel down the middle but
it's very challenging and it's not
disability compliant so there was a
complaint made to the disability
to the human rights commission
and
council had to respond because it was
basically non-compliant in terms of
safe accessibility for pedestrians
council initially was going to on the
recommendation of officers
do a staggered parking arrangement so
there'd be compliance
councillors had a different view to the
offices and they said no we want to
consult with the local community before
any decision is made we think we might
be able to get a more optimal outcome if
we consult with the community they often
have really good ideas and suggestions
so that is what happened there were two
consultations there was one on the 19th
of august and there was one on the 21st
of october as well
the 19th of august one was really an
opportunity for everyone to meet on zoom
hear from offices about what was being
proposed the rationale behind it and a
lot of it is is contained in in point 43
of this report which is the obligations
to comply with oz roads um australian
standards for parking facilities on
street victorian road safety rules act
and also the australian stands past part
one and two for design and access and
mobility and um council sort of
explained its position why it had to act
and the community expressed very clearly
that look there was concern over
disability over um over pedestrian
accessibility there was concern over
safety someone had been injured on the
street hit by a car um and there were
people in wheelchairs um in that street
who'd actually been beaten when they
were going down the roadway because they
couldn't use the footpath it was
extremely distressing so there was an
acknowledgement there was a problem but
there was
a lack of clarity about the solution
under the staggered parking arrangement
only 66 of car parking will be retained
and car parking is at a premium in that
area so look um
his team went away they did some more
thinking they actually did a really
detailed engineering study looking meter
by meter the widths and they worked out
a solution to go forward which was a
non-compliant footpath on one side and a
compliant footpath on the other side so
what we're looking at tonight is a
proposal for a 1.2 metre footpath width
on the north side which is is compliant
and we're looking at a
0.7 meter width or less
on the south side which is non-compliant
but that allows the current parking
arrangements to remain in place so you
get a really good compromised solution
a lot of the design work is being done
will be completed soon in financial year
21 2022
and the construction is planned to take
place financial year 2022-23
it'll take place at quite a cost
it's about 470 to 490k
for the bill 24k for the design we're
going to do that rather than do
maintenance work on the street so we'll
roll it all into doing a complete
redesign work and the local residents
will end up with a much better outcome
what they have today it'll be much
better street planning the footpaths
will be compliant look beautiful the
road will be redone it should be a
fantastic outcome that meets everybody's
needs and should act as a template going
forward for other narrow streets across
north and southward and elsewhere
um
and also you know it'll allow for
parking on either side and plenty of
room three metres or more in the middle
for cars to actually um go down the
center of the road so look it's a really
good compromise the second meeting we
had on the 21st of the 10th we actually
put forward the the proposal there was
very strong support for it and so let's
proceed with this
and
get a really good outcome for the local
area they've been surveyed as well and
there was a much stronger support for
the reconstruction as compared to the to
the staggered parking
thank you councillor coast council
morgan would you like to speak oh thank
you man i'll speak um
this this proposal has been quite
fraught and there's been a lot of
tension and stress in the community but
it's worth going back to why it's
happened in the first place because if
people sort of think about the cost and
what's being
suggested it it could sound that it's
unreasonable but it's actually really
necessary
this street has
genuine safety issues it is very
concerning the state of the street
when there are
cars parked on the street at the moment
if they're large suvs
or
large sedans
at certain pinch points in the street
fire trucks can't get down the street
other emergency vehicles can't get down
the street so there's genuine safety
issues with this street there's traffic
coming straight off punt road
and
pedestrians are having to walk down the
street as council coast mentioned very
people who've been injured one woman had
to go to hospital it was a few years ago
but she was hit by a car when she was
forced onto the street i've visited the
street many times
there are huge issues
for people with wheelchairs and
depending on what type of wheelchair you
have
you will not be able to get down the
street at certain points
there are people who haven't been able
to get out of their home because there
are cars parked up on the curb and
blocking pedestrian access which is what
the issue is
it's a
a really serious issue now what was
originally proposed and because of the
formal complaint that council
you know received from a resident of a
well not a resident but a person who is
affected by this um someone who's using
the street
uh they also went to the human rights
commission it's a disability access
issue here as well
stated parking was originally
proposed to us and both myself and
councillor lou in dude moved a deferral
to look for other solutions and to
consult more with the community and one
of the issues was in kobe
it was very difficult to get a
structural survey done to look at where
all the pinch points and find that this
other solution was available and council
officers had to get permission for the
state government because we were in a
state full lockdown
so hence the delay there
but what they have come up with is a
much better alternative static parking
was going to reduce the amount of
on-street parking by 16 spaces
and it was also going to result in a
loss of nine trees which is more than
half a trees on the street currently
it would fix the disability access
issues and that was very important
however the solution by reconstructing
the street which would need to happen in
the future anyway as part of our renewal
cycles or roads
uh is is a better outcome in the long
term and what we're doing is we're
bringing that work forward so although
there is a cost eventually council would
need to reconstruct the street in the
future anyway
and what this will do is it will mean
we'll have a fully compliant path on one
side
we'll have uh pinch points um
where we can't have parking can i just
cause you there can you just ask for
another minute oh sorry yes i'll ask for
another okay
sorry thank you for that appreciate it
um and uh i missed the bells right
um but yet the uh
what what has uh
what has happened is is that with this
street with um there are some pinch
points where with the 1.2 meter footpath
uh there will be um there won't be space
for a car space but we could have more
birch planting more tree plantings
plantings and also some potentially some
spaces to put the bins because all the
bins on the road still block the
footpath no matter how wide it is and
it's very difficult to manage
development through the street and the
disability access too
finally although the south side is not
a compliant footpath it's very narrowing
points what will happen is they will
reconstruct around the entrances to
properties so people with wheelchairs
mobility issues can actually access all
the properties on the street and i'll
also rebuild some of the curves that um
do not have cram crossings currently
which would also
need to be done i wanted to acknowledge
uh some residents had suggested that we
go to staggered parking until we
reconstruct the street however that's
disruptive
and we'll um you know cause some expense
and disruption anyway and then we're
just going to do this anyway so i think
this is the right solution for the
street in the long term thank you thank
you council morgan
opened it up for discussion any further
comments on this council is council
healing thank you
um i think again i just have to say
congratulations to officers for being
able to find this outcome after quite a
fort
period
i think it's really pertinent that we've
got an engagement policy that we're
discussing later on in tonight's meeting
because i think one of the learnings
that i had from it was
really understanding their expectations
of community as far as what kind of
engagement they wanted
and this is something that we're
evolving our understanding of as well
um so i acknowledge that for those
residents that this was a very difficult
process
i'm really glad that we got to the
outcome that we did and that's fantastic
but i think we're also going to take
away some learnings as far as other um
how to interact with them and to ask
your feedback in the right way at the
right time
thank you council
any other comments on this country
counselor thank you matt one very small
point to add because everything's been
covered beautifully is that just because
we're doing this to albion street
doesn't mean we're doing it to all of
the narrow streets across domington and
there has been some information shared
by our emails and facebook and other
other means and nano and southpaw we've
certainly received a lot of
emails from residents saying are you
going to do this to us too so it'll be
done on a case-by-case basis but this
was a really really good outcome for
albion street and that's really all
we're looking at at the moment
very important point to make thank you
councillor balagol any other comments
excellent we'll go back to
council coast would you like to summer
yeah just very quickly i think
everyone's made really good points and
in particular councillor beta goal you
know where informal arrangements are in
place and they're working you know i
think they should be retained we
wouldn't change them in this instance it
was a clear you know public interest
reason
for change
it was was a genuine reason that there
was accessibility issues for people on
serious accessibility issues and also
as councilor morgan said emergency
vehicles often couldn't get down the
street
we had someone rushed to the alfred
hospital because they were hit in that
road because of the situation they
couldn't use the footpath so it was a
serious matter it had to be dealt with
officers needed to respond quickly given
it went to the human rights commissioner
so they acted professionally and
appropriately all the way through and
councils were able to show some
discretion in terms of taking it through
to further consultation we're just
really fortunate in this instance we're
able to get a win-win for everyone we're
able to get a really good outcome
sometimes that's not possible but on
this occasion we could and you know it's
expensive that people pay their rates
and they'll get a really good long-term
outcome from that investment we're
making in the street and just like to
thank um the residents for their
engagement the officers for all their
work and all my council colleagues as
well for engaging on this issue we're
able to get a really good outcome on
this one i can't wait to see the project
concluded
thank you councillor coast
so councillors can i please see your
shoulders a division has been called so
all those in favor
councillors healey badagul lou
coast scott morgan and cyrus that's
carried unanimously well done
counsellors and to all the officers who
have been heavily involved in that
so we'll just wait until councillor
griffin comes back into the chamber
before we move on to item 8.7
welcome back councillor griffin so we
moved to the central park john landy
oval lighting project are there any
questions for these item counselors
no i please seek a mover
councillor morgan and the secondary
thank you council battlegoal council
morgan
thank you matt this is a basically a
project to
put lighting around john landiogle both
to allow extended use for sports during
potentially after consultation on the
final hours on weeknights and also to
have passive lighting to allow
recreational use of people who might
just be walking in the park or
exercising jogging that sort of thing
it's gone out to community consultation
where there was extensive support for
moving to this
the lights itself
really have been studied and they're not
going to impact beyond
what you would get from street lighting
on the neighboring road so the impact on
residents is minimal and there's been
consideration of what's appropriate
in terms of
how many nights should be used for sport
and they're keeping it clear for weekday
of weeknights sorry weekend nights in
the evening and only used for
weeknights for sport it's not going to
go very late
and
it will allow much bigger use of the
park central park is a hugely loved and
popular park in eastward and i know that
some residents from outside of eastward
also do use it it's been
really important to people in eastward
to have central park and being able to
use it more during cobed when council
with restrictions did you know in other
parks have been able to extend lights
we've seen that too so it makes sense to
look at whether this is worth doing in
such a popular park it's been
overflowing with people and it's
continued to see heavy use it might i
don't know what stats we have on
popularity of parks but it's clearly one
of the most popular parks at least in
eastwood if not all of sunnington it's a
beautiful park and much treasured of
value by a whole community and allowing
more use of it while not
negatively in any significant way
impacting on neighbours and residents of
that area is a really good thing for our
community
and so i think that i'd urge your
council is to support this
because it will allow more use of this
path there will be more consultation on
the final hours and how exactly it's
going to work with the community but we
can get we're going to get some funding
for this as well as a grant so it's
really a very low cost investment in
what is a wonderful asset for the
community
well so thank you councillor morgan
councillor
secretary would you like to speak thank
you mayor um
this has had really extensive community
consultation and we'll let you can
actually see some of the results of that
later on when we talk about
communication and engagement within our
community so there has been really
extensive engagement there's been
extensive participation and what i
really like about the way that these
results have come back to us is a
different differentiates between
recreational users and sporting users
because if we actually just ask
everybody the same question the results
get a little bit mixed up and so by by
creating that differentiation we can
actually see that overwhelmingly there
is support for this obviously as you
would expect more support from sporting
clubs but there is still strong support
for the resident from the residence as
well and i was just looking at the
report it said that the park survey
review conducted in 2019 had central
park as the most visited and regularly
used park within the municipality so
very very strong
support very strongly used park but i
think there's another important point as
well which is that
the design of the timing and the use has
been created but it's going to go back
to the community for final feedback to
firm up the days and the times for use
before it actually comes back through
council so we're actually just proving
the next step excellent that's right
thank you councilman any further
comments on this one councillor griffin
may i just see this as a total win-win
it's maximizing our space it's the
residents are happy the sports users are
happy people will feel safer and it's a
fabulous park so to know that it will
get even more use is great i think this
is just a very good outcome
absolutely thank you anyone else
all right council morgan did you want to
sum up
um
uh thank you mayor i think that really
what the speakers have said covers it
all except that to just reiterate to uh
people who may be watching that there
will be further consultation on the
exact uh hours and usage and how this
will work but
this is what this is really going to do
is allow better use and improve the
safety and amenity of the park and allow
more people to use it for longer
thank you councilman morgan i'll put it
to the vote all those in favor shawl
carriage thank you councillors
let's move to item 8.8 the volunteer
support framework the first right to
seeking the mover for this one is the
remover for this councilor griffin and
mrs
thank you council scott council griffin
thank you well this has been something
i've been very passionate about for a
long time so i'm very happy to speak to
it because i think volunteering
is absolutely a critical part of
recovery from the covered isolation that
we've gone through
but also as more and more people retire
and our population ages which is what's
happening our people are looking for
something local where they feel they can
contribute to the community and it's
interesting just last week i had someone
ring me and say i've just i've just
closed down my business after 36 years
martial what can i do
so i'm often asked this question what
can i do in stonington so i'm really
delighted about this proposal
that we're going to facilitate a
networking forum for community groups
and organizations as peer support and
local collaboration opportunity promote
the benefits of volunteering which is so
important
build a volunteering hub of information
which was one of the things i was
passionate about because as this woman
said well
where do i go to find out information
so i'd like to think that we have on our
website a fantastic
hub of information
where it's easy to connect with
organizations in our city because we've
got some fantastic organizations and
we've all done some volunteering and we
know how rewarding it is particularly uh
councillor scott those breakfasts
at seven a.m in the middle of winter
we've all done some of that and it's
it's an amazing thing to do are you
offering i knew i could again um
so i really just want to support this i
don't want to go into the details about
the consultation it was all done as per
our normal very efficient consultation
process and there was great support for
having council not get overly involved
but become a link
a network centre for people looking for
volunteering and for those organisations
very importantly looking for volunteers
so i commend this to you
thank you councillor griffin council
scott
thank you man
i'd like to start off by congratulating
council officers
um
and the community covert recovery
committee
for developing uh this proposal or this
suggestion that's come to us tonight um
it came about to support organizations
who have struggled to retain and also
recruit new volunteers
and as councillor griffin said as a
volunteer myself and also
where i work in spaces of
recruiting volunteers i know the
benefits that volunteering has for
people
and also the benefits that it brings to
our broader community as well it's not
just about social isolation but
connection
um that sense of giving back there's a
whole range of reasons why people
need to or should choose to volunteer
and i think having a process in place
that's available to people through our
council is
a wonderful way of recognising and
celebrating our volunteers
we also know that volunteer-run
organizations need support
through training in areas such as
governance and recruitment
and this proposal aims to meet the needs
of volunteers and the organizations they
support
thank
on deciding you healy thank you um just
concurring with with council government
council scott that really volunteering
is an important part of building
stronger and healthier communities
and
when i got to meet some of the
volunteers from the volunteer roles they
also said the same thing that you know i
get more out of volunteering than i put
into it
i feel like people understand the
benefits of volunteering but in talking
to volunteer organisations they're
really struggling at the moment to find
the right people to help them
and it's really impacting their ability
to help our community so for instance i
heard today about how
an organisation like central park play
group which had been around for 40 years
set to close because they didn't have
enough volunteers
so we all know that volunteering is
great and that's important but we're
really struggling at the moment to get
people in a post-cold environment still
in private environment to to sign up and
to keep going and even because of the
covet environment having volunteers
having to stop working that day etc
because they've come across close
contact etc so all these things are
compounding
issues that um that volunteering's got
within our community even though we know
it's really important though one of the
great things about this office
recommendation as well is that
officers went in with a few hypotheses
about what the outcome could be
and then what they've actually presented
to us is quite different to their
hypotheses so i think that's a good
indication of again how we're listening
um we're going in with some theories but
we're being very open to what our
community is telling us in order to come
up with what the final recommendation is
and i see this again as another layering
of the work that officers have done to
build um our uh the sense of importance
of volunteering with stollington so
we've got volunteer awards we're going
to be doing more in volunteer work um so
this is all really good but
again we just need to do more to realize
that at the moment volunteering is a
really difficult area that needs a lot
of love and support
thank you councillor any further
comments
counselor thank you man i won't repeat
anything that's already said because
it's been covered very beautifully but i
i just there's a few points which is
that we have so much talent in our
community and we have so many incredible
volunteer organizations and just to
create that match can be difficult and
so if council can play a role in
creating that match i think that we're
going to create some magic and the
communities can benefit as a result
i also know probably involved in a
number of volunteer based organizations
that capacity building is really really
challenging as well because all of the
money has to be
services so sometimes you don't actually
put the money towards building capacity
building capability so this
recommendation i really like too because
it's council playing a role in in peer
support and working together and
building that capacity and capability
and the third part i really like about
this is that it's going to give us an
opportunity opportunity to share and
promote the incredible work that our
community does and we're going to be
telling their stories and we're going to
be highlighting and
putting putting these great stories and
giving them the
promotion that they thoroughly deserve
so and interestingly it's not my option
that i wanted but it's actually the
right option so when i came in here with
an idea when the three options were
presented and i had my view and we've
gone out and tested it and and the
community has actually come back with
something better so it's actually it's
one of those really interesting times
when you listen to the community and you
get you get a good result a better
result
okay
in the other comments
council griffin would you like to sum up
about five words thank you because the
thing about volunteering is it's not
just for older people who have closed
their businesses or you know out of the
employment area it's also for young
people it's an amazing pathway to
employment
and i know having looked at so many cvs
over the years when i've seen young
people who've volunteered they've always
have a little step up above
those who don't have any volunteer work
on their cv so you know i'm really
encouraging of this and i'm excited
about what council is going to do to
bring the organisations and volunteers
together thanks man fantastic thank you
councillors so we'll proceed to the vote
all those in favor show of hands
carrie thank you
and we move to item 8.9 community grants
21 22 quick response and request for
variation
um given the nature of this i will see
if there are any questions for this item
first
all right we'll go straight to a move if
they're moving for this
thank you council battagal in a second
up
thank you councillor griffin councillor
balco
uh i won't talk very much to this
because it really is a small approval
for a small grant and a recommendation
from the offices and it's all very
clearly written out in the in the report
news thank you council better goal
thanks mayor look this is really for a
few hundred dollars and i agree with uh
we want the meeting to move on i think
we just should accept the council
officers report on this excellent it is
pretty administrative in nature um well
councillors are learning i prefer the
comments on this one
i'll go
so now we move to item eight
point ten the cobia recovery fund the
recommended expenditure
again due to the nature of the item
first i will ask other questions to
officers on this
great all right is there a mover
thank you councillor healy for reminding
so there's no mover for the white so
that lapses the alternative
is requested by council between the
council healey who would like to move
that
account for healy and councillor driven
to second council really can you begin
just by letting us know what the change
is sure so this is just an addition to
the office recommendation so the office
of recommendation i'll talk about as
well so it's approving a drawdown 160
000 against the remaining covert
recovery fund budget
and the remaining budget will be
about six hundred thousand dollars an
update on initiatives um and knowing
that the covered
environment continues to evolve and will
consider new things the only thing that
we've added is that we will note that
officers will bring back reports to
councils in the second half of 2022 that
will evaluate the return on investment
of the proposed marketing campaign
thank you
so
essentially this is um again a
continuation of the covert recovery um
fund which we um set out in our in our
current budget um this is a and it's
really about making sure we keep
investing in our communities resilience
so this is in addition to the existing
recovery programs that we already have
underway which include a waiver of
almost six hundred thousand dollars in
permits and fees for businesses we've
got youth programs a headspace pop-up
family programs and a nighttime economy
support program
but what this also does is adds
a marketing campaign worth 150 000
to stimulate local economy so that's
really looking to attract people to
stillington's retail shopping precincts
and further initiatives to support
outdoor dining and training programs so
overall
festival and event programming and
exciting new place based
activations and again this alternate
recommendation is just making sure we're
looking at what the return on investment
for that marketing campaign is
the second part of it is also that we've
got a twenty thousand dollar volunteer
program um which we just talked about um
in the last promotion um two motions ago
so that's about capably building events
networking forums and skills development
so that's fantastic i think it's all
united in the importance of volunteering
um but i think
what's worthwhile putting out is that
this is just we one of many ways that we
as a council are looking to help build
resilience
coming through and out of covert so
we're also working with
m9 which is the metro nine councils to
collectively advocate to stay federal
government for initiatives to help our
community recover from the covert and
particularly in regard to
community safety and mental health
um and while i was in the m9 within
stonington along with economic
development this is a key area of focus
i want to see addressed and the two
really clearly intertime because
community resilience positively impacts
the community's ability for economic
development so essentially this is again
about how we're continuing to listen to
our community to understand how we can
support them to recover and then thrive
post impacts of coben
excellent thank you councillor healey
councillor griffin that's the second job
uh just a few words councillor healey's
covered this very extensively but just
within context council agreed to 1.89
million in its recovery program
and uh
of that 1.89 million uh there is a
balance now of 757 000
uh the crown market has benefited
traders have benefited we've had some
fantastic concessions for footpath
training permits health registrations
traded directional signage i won't go
through the whole lot
but what we're talking about tonight is
as councillor he said 150 000 from
marketing campaign and as she and i know
from our marketing backgrounds you could
always there's never enough money for
marketing
uh and marketing to get people back into
the city we could of course spend a
fortune but we also know with marketing
campaigns that you need to measure
outcomes
otherwise money is simply wasted so that
was our purpose behind this yellow
and as you mentioned twenty thousand
dollars for volunteering so i commend
this to you
thank you councillor griffin we'll open
it up any further discussion on deciding
councillors
all right councilman did you need to
sign up excellent we'll put it straight
to the vote all those in favor show of
hands
thank you councillors that's carrie so
we move to it item 8.11
fy2241 september 21 council financial
report
um first i will ask are there any
questions to
this officers
no so move straight to the motion can i
please seek a mover
that's the group that we've got to work
out tonight is there a second guy thank
you
thank you council morgan councillor
griffin
thank you mayor um
look scalachias always puts together
really clear figures but there is one
tiny error in this paper and i don't
like pointing out a tiny error but i'm
sure people will see it when they get to
it
the operating income is 5.17 unfavorable
not favorable we've already had that
conversation
but this is really an update on what is
happening financially in the council
and i'll just read a couple of things
from it without
going too far into it this is for the
period ending the 30th september which
is projecting a full year surplus of 25
million
which is 7 million unfavorable compared
to the budget which was intended to be
33 million and of course we all know
we've had a loss of income due to
parking all sorts of reasons so that
explains that
the financial report for the period 30
of september is projecting an adjusted
surplus of 2.96 million
which is also unfavorable to the budget
for the reasons that i've just mentioned
we should note that the council has
recently noted was notified by the state
government of an additional 1.57 million
in funding from the victorian government
which is great news
and of course the council expects to
continue to meet the victoria auditor
general's financial sustainability low
risk requirements so we will have a
slightly lower surplus and if that is to
be expected i don't think there's an
organizational business in victoria that
wouldn't have that but we are still
looking very sustainable very positive
um and we certainly have a good group on
figures thank you mr lunch
well thank you councillor griffin
council morgan do
green has done an excellent job of
summarizing this and uh just i think
there'll be no fad perhaps relative to
some other organizations council is
still doing very well
and we're meeting all our
victorian audience general office
financial sustainability requirements to
keep um
being classified as being low risk um in
the medium to long term thank you thank
you councillor griffin uh sorry
councilman morgan council griffin no
need to sum up no thank you straight to
the vote all those in favor sharp hands
excellent carried thank you councillors
item 8.12 engagement policy the
six-month review
um i'll move straight to the motion for
this one so councillors are there is
there a room for this
thank you councillor badabal and the
second up thank you councillor healey
councillor
thank you man i think this has come back
because of me actually because i created
an alternate recommendation six months
ago when we developed the engagement
policy and said i'd like there to be a
review process so
i'll be on the appropriate those doesn't
mean there's
i think this is great for there's been
internal workshops with 100 participants
there's been external surveys with
external responses as well and you can
see all the different uh findings from a
few of the reports with some very very
tiny minor changes to the policy and
what it shows us is the policy actually
has set the standard for engagement so
that's great
but what's really wonderful about this
is the operational initiatives that have
come through from the view and the and
the improvements and the changes that
are going to happen and sometimes you
have to stop
reflect and look back in order to
actually do a better job looking
forwards and i think that's exactly what
this one does so there's there's some
really great initiatives uh about
creating uh internal community of
practice where our teams are going to
talk together and receive ongoing
training uh regardless of whether
they're in the comms engagement team or
in any any one of our departments that's
actually engaging directly with our
residents or great place which is which
is many of our staff
we've got toolkits being developed we've
got changes to the way we do newsletters
to our community we've got some pop-up
and face-to-face engagement
opportunities that we're going to look
at for targeted projects
and we're also going to do closing the
loop after engagement and i think that's
actually really critical is we go and we
ask our community what they think
we build a recommendation we come up
with an idea we decide and we implement
it but we don't always go back and close
the loop so so i think that's actually
really exciting as well
and
by implementing all of these
improvements we're only going to get
better outcomes for our communities so
it's very exciting thank you councilman
councillor healey
do you want to see it thank you
um so again like council better goals
saying that this is almost like part of
what we have to do but at the same time
it's now our community expects us to do
and it's how we're going to start we'll
continue to make
better decisions so i think people just
have a generally a greater expectation
for engagement for their voice to be
heard and treated like it matters and
this is true of all areas of business
and in politics
it's something that i feel um really
strongly about because i have a research
background as well but um in my
campaign brochure i talked about how i
wanted to make sure new ways to
encourage better participation council
decisions um and it's one of those
things where you're going yeah that's
all gonna champion and then get into
council and go oh they're already doing
it that's great
this is about encouraging it to to keep
on happening um and as council battagal
said as well i can already see
an internal change as far as how council
is um
uh working and the way that even i went
to harold holtpool and there was a big
thing on the wall saying
something about being customer-centric
and so there again you see
the demonstration of how all areas of
the business of council as an
organisation are starting to think about
how we can better engage with with our
community so i see that as a really
positive sign
when we think externally about how our
community engages with us i think we
still got a long way to go i think that
people don't yet realize that they can
engage with us and it was really wanting
to hear from them so i think it's a big
slower cultural change that will happen
over time as people realize that that
they can give us their opinion and that
there are certain engagement
opportunities and so forth so i think
that will take time we've got a
fantastic
simulation tool on our upcoming budget
that's available online right now you
can check it out
which again is a wonderful way we're
inviting and encouraging people to give
feedback on something that we know is
really important to them
um so basically it's just going to
continue to help us make better
decisions i think one of the suggestions
that i've given to staff this week as
well is that
that we can do even better with closing
the loop um and potentially on the
connect stongton site demonstrate post
engagement that this is what people said
because we get this in our reports
anyway this is what the people said and
now this is what we've done in response
to what you've told us and that's part
of really valuing what people have
people have given us their time to give
us their opinion and we're respecting
that opinion by telling them the
decision contained as a result of it
so thank you thank you councillor healy
we'll open it up any further discussion
on the engagement policy counsellors
thank you mayor i think um this policy
is fantastic i think it's great that it
came back for a review
i think it's going to
open the floodgates and there will be as
councillor haley said a demand almost a
demand from our community now that they
participate in many decisions i only had
a phone call on the weekend someone not
so happy about our christmas decorations
who wants to know how she can get
involved in making sure next year's
christmas decorations are much better
than what we currently have
i said we'll hold this space but i think
even tonight we've seen through albion
street through the uh covert recovery
response committee that our community
wants to be involved they do want to
have
a space and a place to be heard
and we know that there is always more
opportunities for engagement to take
place
now that we're coming out of covert i'm
very hopeful that as councillors we'll
be able to get out there and meet and
greet our community out on the street um
at the front of wherever it might be at
france where what have you to listen and
hear what they have to say i think
that's another element that we need to
consider as part of this policy which i
think is in there too so i totally
endorse this
thank you council scott would anyone
else like to speak on this
um just to say look engagement is
absolutely critical and it's also the
hardest thing we have to do in a way we
have a very large diverse community
they're very poor they're live so we
have to find ways to effectively
efficiently and simply connect with them
and get their opinions back it's a it's
a huge challenge it's an ongoing
challenge but i think this council is
showing that it is really keen to hear
from people and for me that is
absolutely key as council laws and as a
council so well done to you asking for
some changes and review that's good
thank you thank you councillor griffin
any other discussion
all right council about a goal would you
like to sum up no i think we're all on
the same page with this so we'll put it
straight to the vote by show of hands
can i see all those in favor
that's carried thank you
we moved to item
8.13 procurement policy
so given the nature of this item i will
see if there are any questions to
officers councillor scott
thank you mayor i just want to bring up
my notes
i recall that at the briefing we were
talking about this policy coming back
within six months
and i thought when i could be wrong that
we were going to add that in as a
recommendation
to say that we'll be bringing the um
procurement policy back for council
consideration in six months so council
scott mara suggests you move it as a
procedure
after your questions thank you
any other questions on this item
okay so council scott would you like to
move it with that amendment as in his
weather all very well
absolutely thank you mayor it's a minor
amendment so
um
did you want to say it again for our
minutes takers it's just that the um new
procurement policy will be
brought back in six months
to review its performance
is there a secondary for that motion
councillors councillor says so regarded
the debate thank you scott
thank you mayor so i support this
procurement policy um
as it stands at the moment especially
given that it's going to come back in
six months i did have some concerns with
regard to the focus around
our climate emergency response and how
we support our climate emergency action
plan goals in meaningful ways
and i'm talking with regard to
areas that i believe are currently
undercooked so i'm glad this is going to
come back within six months because it
will help us go back and review what
we're doing
in terms of
as a couple of examples reducing our
environmental impact
through our purchasing activity and
influencing our supply chains
i think
we can do more in regard to encouraging
suppliers to commit to recycling
programs
i think that we can engage with
suppliers that are accredited carbon
neutral
i think that there is
an opportunity for us to commit to
working with suppliers who use materials
that have low levels of carbon dioxide
emissions such as recycled concrete
i think that there
are other opportunities around
supporting a safe and fair workplace
including recognizing equality and
diversity children's safety
observing core labor standards and
ensuring fair work conditions
thank you councillor scott councillor
sarah's the secretary
nothing to as a matter now
excellent all right we'll open it up for
discussion counselor healey
um i there's a couple of things of this
policy that i think are fantastic to
highlight one of them is definitely the
collaborative nature of how it's
developed so it was developed
collaboratively by the southeast
regional human excellence network
that are mouthful but um
[Music]
what that enables is that we're working
together to form a best practice
way of working with all these different
councils so i think that's fantastic to
see that happening
because obviously it's more efficient
and it makes sure that we we do reach
that um
best class um and then as council scott
talked about that this is great because
it's also putting sustainably
sustainability and social is responsible
procurement
into our procurement policy but also
supporting local economies
because that was something that our
local traders asked overtly for us to
consider so it's really fantastic that
we can see that happening within here as
well
um there's lots of really fantastic i
mean i never thought that i'd say this
there's lots of really fantastic things
about this procurement process
but there really are and even the sense
that
there's an integration of a supplier
code of conduct which maybe can address
some of the things that council scott's
talking about potentially down the road
because i think when we have suppliers
that we're utilizing they're really
representing us as a council
so we need to make sure that their
behaviours and their ways of working
match with what our expectations are as
well so
um i think just congratulations to the
team that worked on this um you know i
think it should be good to see what it
comes what we'll come back with in six
months time but this is really positive
moving forward excellent thank you
councillor healey any other discussion
on this item counselors
counselor scott would you like to sum up
nothing to add great we'll go straight
to the vote show of hands always in
favor
that's carrie thank you councillors
item 8.14 flag protocol
can i please speak a mover
question oh sorry
councillor griffin question thank you um
and i guess it's to mrs limpens my
question was living does this i note
that the recommendation states that
there was no requirement for community
consultations
given that the protocol mostly
replicates government guidelines
i'm just i'm focusing on that word
mostly so what part of the proposed
protocol is outside of government
guidelines
ah thank you madam mayor through you
councillor griffin the protocol sets out
for the government days the australian
cloud is flowing um the areas of
difference within this protocol that is
at council's discretion is in relation
to flag flying with the flags that
commemorate local community members and
to recognize lgbt i'm sorry i'll get my
letters in my order lgbtqia
plus france they're the only two areas
that are at the discretionary
thank you
any further questions counsellors before
we go to the motion
so council morgan to move and the second
up
thank you councillor keeley councillor
morgan ah thank you for you matt i
wanted to just uh give a little bit of
background to this flag protocol and why
it's come back to council uh one of the
primary reasons
this has uh come back to council it's
really administrative is it's
implementing a decision
of council to fly the appropriate flags
on lgbt iot
be
a plus days
including uh
the international day against um
homophobia biphobia and transphobia
we're at purple day uh mid-summer
festival and on a trans visibility day
and a trans
uh remembrance days and our council uh
unanimously with all councillors present
supported this
uh after a meeting or at the meeting on
february 15th 2021 earlier this year
that we do fly the appropriate flats
on these days and all councillors
president herald councillors unanimously
supported that notice of motion that was
brought by council spot myself and
council hosts
so that's the main reason the other
thing to address is that we have had
requests for um from community members
to potentially fly flags at half-mast
and we didn't have a clear protocol on
this and it just led to some confusion
earlier this year and so in order to
clarify what council's policies would be
the amount of notice we might need
to then
uh check that that's an appropriate
request to be made and in line with
what we would want to do to recognize
perhaps a community member who have
passed away or some other reason that a
community member might make
a request to do that that we have really
clear guidelines and a pro poll in place
so it just is becomes an administrative
function of council and there's no
confusion or lack of clarity over what
requests will be approved or or what
might be approved and that's based on
earlier
issues in the year and it's about making
sure that we're also transparent to the
community and that
there might be very good reasons to
perhaps uh honor someone
if needed if um
if there's a request from a community or
recognize a
an unusual or important community event
and this allows us to do so and it
allows the ceo to make a decision on
that basis
thank you
thank you council morgan councillor
healey is the second would you like to
speak thank you um
i never thought that flags would be such
a major part of
council but they they sort of are and um
and when you think about flags as i've
thought about a bit this year a flag
really represents this idea or an ideal
it's neither like a a mere piece of
decoration or this item to be honored
unto itself it's honored for what it
represents and flags are held in high
esteem for their history for the
sacrifices made by people for the
qualities of which people stand for and
their giving of respect
and we now have a flag policy which
includes many flags and many days to
acknowledge respect and remember the
values that we have as a community
and when i hear emotional debate about a
new flag to be introduced or an existing
flag to be lowered
i feel that what i'm actually hearing is
debate about the evolving morals and
values of a community
and i see that debate is a really
positive thing
so while this is our flag policy for
today
i do expect that we will keep evolving
over time as we respond to the evolving
ideals and values of our community
thank you healing will open it up for
discussion
any comments on the slime counselors
thank you yeah um and i must have been
in attendance on that day
uh however i guess it can also change
your mind as a counsellor and when i
look at the detail of this
i do change my mind and i can't support
this policy because i believe that flags
can either unite us or divide us
i believe that the council flag brings
us together as a community the victorian
flag the state flag brings us together
as victorians and the australian flag
brings us together as australians and
the aboriginal flag is a flag of respect
for our first people
i believe identity politics causes
exclusion not inclusion
inclusion is a key part of our council
plan
a flag reminds us of the things that
bring us together
and i think the things that bind us
together are more important than the
things that divide us
my primary school experience was such
that every monday morning in this tiny
school with 20 students in six classes
we raised the flag and we sang the
national anthem and there was an amazing
sense of pride being in australia
regardless of where those 20 kids came
from
or you know what they did or anything
about their lives it was a very uniting
experience so i don't want to see this
breakdown of flags
and you know i know yarrow council was
flying the a flag and that caused
enormous discussion and disharmony in in
the district in the uh city
um i think united we can celebrate
diversity
united as a community
and i can't support this proposal and
i'm sorry if i seem to have changed my
mind but that's where i stand on this
proposal at the moment
thank you council griffin any further
discussion councillors
councillor
thank you madam matt um there's one
thing that i really like about this flag
protocol and i like that we haven't
followed
the
unpatriotic call of senator lydia
thought to fly our flags at half-mast on
australia day
so to the extent that this flag protocol
celebrates or cements australia day as a
day of celebration where our flags will
be flying high it represents
it represents the views of the
mainstream members of the scottish
community
however
i agree with councillor griffin that
this flag policy is too divisive and as
i've said before it represents a
takeover of this council by the green
left
there are only three flags that should
be flown on our civic buildings the
australian flag the victorian flag and
the stonington flag
if our traditional owners had a standard
i'd support flying but that's not what
the aboriginal flag designed in 1971 is
flags were brought to this country by
white settlement in fact i can think of
nothing more colonialist than the flying
on the flag the first flag that was ever
flown in this country was the union jack
put up by the british
now that's not necessarily a bad thing
madam mayor because we've got a very
we've got a very proud history and we've
got a history in this country we're a
great country we're a free country and
our flags remind us of that
with the rainbow flag the transgender
flag they're not universal they
represent a subculture
and they represent a particular group
they have their place and they have
their time but that's not on our civic
buildings
our community as we see in our national
anthem is a community that is one and
free
unlike other parts of the world we've
never been plagued by tribalism and
civil war
but
we start to wander down this path and
it's a destructive path towards identity
politics we're not a community of
separate life of separate tribes our
flags on our civil civic buildings must
represent all of us each and every one
of us every day every day of the year
um nobody should look up
should walk past their
um their town hall and see a flag and
say that's not my flag
so we need to have flags that unite us
um and because of that i'm
going to vote against this protocol
thank you councillor lou
any further comments counselors
i'm going to move the procedural motion
i think this is as as um
councillor hillary said i didn't realize
this would be so divisive
um so i'd like to
move to uh deferral to next year so that
we can actually look at this properly
and try and reach a common ground for
councils because i don't want a
situation over the next three years
every time a flag goes up it creates
it creates a situation in the chamber
with different views
we have had a lot of discussion and
there was a notice of motion so i don't
think anyone's questioning getting out
of discussion
did you still well i'm not comfortable
to vote on it um
to come back when
when we council resumes next year
happy for it to be the first thing i've
been generating there i don't know why
what's the rush
i know there's been a lot of discussion
about it but tonight sorry
there's the community pride is in the
morning because yeah emotion and you
will get it sorry
then is there a specific issue is there
a specific reason to raise the flag
between now and then
yes well i'm happy
for for that to occur
um but the actual adoption of the actual
protocol the council to discuss this
more fully in the new year so i
certainly don't want to miss out on an
occasion where flag needs to be raised
over the next six weeks
while counseling some recess
but um but the actual pro protocol
itself let's get it right because if
someone would be debating this i just
didn't realize it would be so
contentious
yes
and the reason i want to second this is
um we just
spoke about deliberative engagement at
length
and um it feels to me that we probably
haven't gone through that deliberative
engagement process sufficiently it
wasn't at briefing i don't remember this
discussion having taken place to this
extent so it's come as new
new debate to me i haven't heard that
perspective that council or griffin had
made so i'm willing to support a
deferral um
if it has the numbers
in a second
all right so council's on the table is a
deferral and to the first council
meeting of 2022 which i believe
is the sixth of february um
so we will debate the deferral
um
however madam mayor as a as part of
this was administering promotion then
maybe move that
i don't want to miss out on an event
that needs to be acknowledged with the
flag racing in the meantime so i'm sort
of how do we deal with that given
yes the australian day would just be as
we already do yeah um council morgan's
mentioned the 13th of february but then
there is the 31st of march which is for
annual transgender visibility today and
pride i think is in by the end of
january february norway it was only in
may because of covered yeah so it might
be back in february again
and it's not actually on the table in
it's called the melbourne pride do we
know what date that is 23rd of may
no that was this year only okay
sorry
oh you have a council resolution for
those dates all right i believe that was
the most emotion so i think regardless
yeah it's a good point yeah yeah
so we need to debate the deferral um we
need to keep the views around the table
on that um so maybe just so i'm clear
don't hear correctly that that any
events that happen between now and when
this matter comes back in relation to
transgender that we will be raising the
flag we've got that signed off is that
correct
right so that's not going to impact
those events council more than you have
you read that we will have debate on our
okay all right so we'll open it up for a
discussion councillor morgan just to
just just a bit
yeah um i really respect um
uh councillors there and council coaches
intentions in seeking a deferral
um however i
um and i'm really glad that um
the motion that we all agreed to in
february earlier in the year will mean
that the flags will be flown on
appropriate community days until we've
had further engagement or consultation
or deferral discussion on this issue
however i'm i'm voting against deferral
motion because this
um
you know involves uh
recognizing members of our community
have often faced a lot of discrimination
and
prejudice and we saw
even though we didn't move for instance
in a marriage equality debate to
supporting marriage equality that was a
huge amount of homophobia and
transphobia directed at the community
and i think that given we've had a
unanimous
support for this policy previously
that most councillors um i think with
the exception of council griffin and
councillor who um i think didn't respond
but there was a rainbow pledge during
the election campaign and
i believe every other council here
including council who had signed on to
that
um pledge that also called for
flags to be flown as part of a package
to address
the discrimination and ongoing
lack of inclusion that is occurring
affecting a significant number of
residents in our community
um that to further have more
consultation and debate
really under something that was very
important and very powerful to uh
important part of our community
and potentially subjects members of our
community to more homophobia and
transphobia because these debates do
generate this and particularly for
lgbtiq youth
to um have this occur in our community
i'm quite concerned about the impact and
i know that's not what's intended by
anyone here at this table and everyone
is putting forward
um very sincerely health views on on
this issue and no one wants that to
happen but i am concerned by it so i
would prefer to
decide this um today if possible but i
do understand why it's been moved and
respect the intent behind moving it and
even uh councillors who have changed
their view on this i do not think that
they are in any way
uh
trying to have this happen or will
appropriate but this is what does happen
in circumstances quite uh routinely
unfortunately in our community
thank you councillor morgan any other
discussion on the referrals
just on discussion really uh you know i
did ask that question that about the
protocol mostly conforming to government
policy and that's why i asked the
question what was outside of that um and
it seems to me that really we should be
consulting with our community
there are a lot of people who feel
prejudiced and
feel
outside a community and not fully
engaged with the community
not just people with gender differences
so
i just wonder if we really should uh
consult with our community this is
really quite an important matter flags
matter flags are a simple i think they
should be a symbol immunity
and i think there should be a symbol of
one community so that's where i come
from
are we discussing the deferral or are we
discussing our opinion i know i'm just
actually discussing a deferral because
i'm thinking the deferral might even be
longer
if we actually consult with our
community that's sorry council scott
that's where i was coming from okay
thank you councillor uh thank you
councillor griffith i saw councillor
heal his hand first i'll come to you
councillor luke thank you councillor
healey
thank you
i don't feel like we have a need to
defer this i think the policy sensible
is in line with the prime minister
notion that we don't need to be
unanimous
and i also
keep hearing the feedback that council
morgan has about the impact of
prolonging this for the lgbtiq community
thank you councillor healey councillor
lou i'm supporting the deferral madam
mayor and i'm speaking here on behalf of
members of the lgbti community who don't
want these flags quote who don't want to
be part of this identity politics and
who don't want to go down that path i
mean we don't know
there may be members you know there'll
be members of the um they'll be members
of all sorts of communities that may
want or may not want their national
flags float on particular days and once
you start um once you start uh going
down the the path of dividing us up into
different sub-communities um it may be
that some communities say hey we want
our flags float and it may be that
others that people in community in
communities whose flags we're flying
purportedly on their behalf might say
that they don't want their flags played
on civic buildings
so consultation is important here
consultation will help
we are a very tolerant very respectable
community and i'm confident that
consultation will not lead to an
outbreak of homophobia transphobia in
stonington
thank you councillor lou um
are there any
other speakers in relation to the
deferral
council
thanks me um
so excuse me if i'm a little bit um
triggered and sensitive
about this topic because it is very
personal for me
um we
most of the councils are on this table
signed a pledge
that we would support
um
[Music]
the flying flags
when
we were
in the process of being elected
most of us made that publicly known
so therefore the community were
completely aware of where we stood with
regard to flags being flown
some of us chose not to
sign that pledge
some of us weren't aware of it
which i can understand it was a very
busy time for us to campaign
this
argument or debate is not a new debate
we have had this debate previously
um i don't support the deferral because
we have already committed through a
notice of motion that three councillors
at this table put to the council
and i think we need to decide on it
tonight
[Applause]
although i am in the chair i will speak
on this because
the deferral has clearly become quite a
divisive
issue
i think given the fact that we have
signed a pledge that the pledge was
actually had a list of what you were
pledging to and you could select the
kind of moment which says incorrectly
what you agreed to and didn't agree to i
remember agreeing to everything and that
did include flying with flags and other
councils around the table i would assume
selected all of them if you didn't
that's of course okay as well we have
discussed this many times at council
i've not had any negative communication
in fact i had a few positive messages
about the write-up we had in the
newspaper today about the protocol
coming to council tonight
um and so i think the time to ask for
consultation or to flesh this out
further has come and gone
and it you know it would it would not
seem right to do that that doesn't stop
anything from coming back for review
whether we look at it this time next
year and see how did we go
did we upset anybody do we miss out a
day and whatnot
but i think that we've done we've gone
through quite a substantial process
we've been very open
about our intentions it's not something
we've been doing in confidential
business or anything like that so on
that basis i won't be supporting the
deferral
so counselors i'll put it back to
counselor staff and move to the deferral
would you like to sum up council said so
many mayor i'm actually
a bit disappointed because i feel like
i've been criticized for not signing a
pledge that quite frankly i wasn't aware
of um i've always been very supportive
of all different
um
members of our community but my point
goes back to in fact what triggered me
was counsel these comments about the
indigenous community and whether that
flag should be flown it has nothing to
do whatsoever with transgender
that's my concern in this whole debate i
don't know why it needs to be rushed you
might say that we've had all these
discussions i haven't been previously
when counselor posts has said the same
thing um that
let's get that we had an incident
earlier this year where we put a flag at
half mast when we shouldn't have there's
more than just which flags we fly it's
about when we fly them
um and i don't feel that we've resolved
that issue properly now counselor posted
say to me well let's let this go through
and let's review it i don't want to wait
12 months i think it needs to come back
in six months time as far as
deliberative engagement going i'm not
talking about communicating with
everybody in the community but i'd like
to hear from the
from a reconciliation action group i'd
like to hear from representatives for um
the different diverse groups in the
community there might be more flags we
should be fined i don't know council
will make some really valid points we
may be excluding members of our
community that want to be represented or
we might be recognizing those that may
not be i don't know that's the only
reason i'm asking for this there's no
distraction or attempt to undermine
particular people it's just about
getting this right because it can be
very just divisive and as councilor
griffin said it should be uniting your
community not dividing your community
and the debate i've heard around here
tonight was it's dividing your community
because it's dividing the nine of us
and that that is not what we want to be
achieving and it is really important to
acknowledge that um there should be no
negative comments towards each other
about whose psyche didn't sign and what
that means i don't at all think that you
moving the deferral is about anything
negative it's more about process right
and i understand that and thank you for
clarifying that so that's clear to
anybody listening tonight councillor
seth
um
we'll deal with the deferral now so all
those in favor of the deferral please
raise your hands
councillor lou councillor griffin
councillor saying council coast and all
those again for deferral
councillor healey councillor badagal
councillor scott council morgan
councillor cyrus the deferral fails to
counsel as we move back to the motion
which is that council approved flag
protocol i've got a question yeah you
can ask a question councilman i wanted
to check with um councillor said did she
want to move an amendment to have the
flag protocol if it is passed i was
going to ask you someone else we can
just bring it back in six months just as
you pointed out in man thank you again
yeah just see if there's any hiccups
that happened along the way that we have
a chance to review are you comfortable
to move a procedure that we add a second
no council more than canada is a
amendment to promotion i'm happy to
accept maybe i'm sorry i'm sorry um yeah
no because because councillor morgan
moved the original motion all right so
here we seconded it okay so i'll move an
amendment
protocol before back
six months time in june and june yeah
let's say june 22 22.
and that gives us
time to go through a lot of um important
events where the flags will be raised
and then we can see how that worked and
we can get feedback because we'll have
actually applied the protocol okay
i won't allow debate on that because i
think that's that's fine
um can we put the amendment to the vote
which is just to confirm that we will
bring the policy back for a review in
june of 2022 so all those in favor of
doing that please raise your hands
so that's just sorry that's just the
amendment to bring it back to bring it
back in june to add it to the motion uh
so that's carried unanimously so
councillors and now we've got a two-part
motion so we are still approving the
flag protocol but we will be bringing it
back in june of 2022 for review
um councillors morgan healey griffin and
lou have spoken
and councillors say have spoken on the
flag protocol already
and council scott you might have as well
i can't remember that's okay yes
would any other councillors like to
speak on the protocol and the motion
no it's okay but it is open to
counselors if they're if any further
comments
say very brief i think it's been a
really constructive debate and
discussion and it'll be really
interesting to see
how things pan out in six months time
and
that's it thank you councillor coast um
so we canceled about a goal i found it
really interesting too to be honest and
quite surprising but i've it's always
interesting to hear everybody's
viewpoints and that's really caused me
to reflect do i consider
different flags to be divisive or do i
consider different players to be uniting
and i actually consider them to be
inclusive and accepting
and giving people who don't actually
necessarily
have an affiliation with the flag that's
flying for 360 days of the year to have
their flag represented so maybe just one
or two three however many days of the
year it is where we can actually show
you know what we are one community or
one community with a lot of difference
and we respect that difference and we
value that difference and we honor that
difference and if that means putting a
flag up a flagpole to all of
but um pretty much everything's been
said and council valuable pretty much
stole the words out of my mouth that
flags are about unity flags are about
a symbol that women are flown people are
drawn to them they look at them they
question them they wonder what they're
there for so they might choose to go and
explore and understand a little bit more
about what that flag represents and that
can only bring us together when we
understand we seek to look out
for differences
we then begin to understand and once we
understand we then accept
thank you councillor scott now all
councillors have spoken so we'll go back
to council morgan who was the original
member of the motion
uh thank you
yeah i would like to sum up briefly and
i realized that um this debate's
probably taken a
you know
different um perhaps um
track compared to perhaps what many
people would have considered but it's
raised some
issues that people have the right to
raise here at council and and as council
griffin said um people can't change
their minds and when i raised people
signing marango puede or maybe not
having signed it it wasn't to show any
disrespect if someone hadn't seen it or
it was to acknowledge
that perhaps for people who hadn't
signed it
if they then didn't agree with it they'd
be perhaps it's quite different to
someone who may have signed on to the
full pledge and then now change their
views on it
to the community given that that was a
very import you know it got a lot of
publicity it was in the media on social
media at the time um that people had
signed that so in that sense that was a
public commitment to the community that
if someone had not signed it at all
which is not a problem
you know at all if they had not signed
it they have not made the same
commitment to the community and so i
think that's
an issue um that is worth noting when um
you know and people do have a right to
change their mind um but you know
there's also some transparency there
that people in the community might be
interested in why they've done that and
when council griffins could have used
them so does council rule on why they
don't support this
i know that um some concerns were raised
about whether it's appropriate to fly
the aboriginal flag by council i do know
that this is something that has been
done for many years and stonington is
done on every day and i'd be quite
surprised if
council
would stop doing that and um how that
might be received or perceived if we did
just suddenly decide to stop finding the
aboriginal flag um
and you know we could obviously consult
on that if we wish to but i do think
that would be
something that would be
unprecedented in in australia to do that
for councils who do like the flag
already
i also wanted to urge people that
to support this motion now because it
does provide clarity and because we are
reviewing this and we have made it a
member to review it this provides more
clarity on when we should consider
particular community requests to fly
flags and that was a big gap we
identified earlier here and until this
you know the sensor provides more
structure whereas if a display protocol
isn't approved we do have our notice of
motion that is what council will do that
was passed unanimously back in february
however we don't have that clarity over
flying community flags and i think it's
important that we have a policy and we
can adjust it if we need to but we have
some sort of
guidelines and frameworks on when we
agree to fly flags for community members
and when we don't because we didn't
earlier in the year
thank you thank you very much councillor
morgan so we will put it to the vote
division and the division has been
called so all those in favor please
raise your hands
so councillor healey councillor
battergold councillor said councillor
councillor scott council morgan and
councillor casares are always against
councillor lou and councillor griffin
thank you councillors for a very robust
debate
and let's move to our last item of
general business
8.15 the percy trobro multi-sports
multi-purpose sports and recreation
facility groundbreaking site
uh given we've had some questions on
previous items i will ask are there any
questions on this item councillor
griffin thank you mia um i just want to
ask mr classic is it normal for us to
have ground breaking bikes did we for
example with brown square which is a
much larger project than this have a
groundbreaking bar
through you there um
it's not a common practice to have
groundbreaking although with large
projects it's not uncommon around
breaking with france square we had a
ground breaking ceremony
we actually had two ceremonies as part
of groundbreaking so there was an issue
uh celebration of the
project commencement and then there was
a groundbreaking celebration
but it's not you didn't have a price
sorry just to clarify i hear you're
answering you're not exactly answering
my question we didn't have a plan for
friends square that was well
thank you
any other questions counselor scott i'm
through may uh also too mr quasik
um
i'm assuming
that we would also
be
designing a plan for when the project
has finished
that's correct
any other questions counselors
no you go to the motion can i please
second mover thank you counselor and a
seconder counselor thank you council
close yeah thanks mayor and if we
in my time in council we haven't really
done
many clarkson ground openings there's
been a lot of um
a lot of foundation stones around the
city and there's one on this building uh
alfred deakin was part of the opening of
this building a great prime minister and
leader of federation
so it's not uncommon
but it's something we haven't done over
recent times and i think it's a great
tradition to bring back
it provides an opportunity to
acknowledge also um other levels of
government that have contributed towards
this project particularly the federal
government and katie allen and
kelly o'dwyer who proceeded to do or
also did a lot of work um we've got to
remember that the federal government's
putting four million dollars into this
project which um you know there's only a
small amount in the scheme of the whole
project but is a large amount of money
when you consider federal government
grants it's actually quite a significant
sum of money for a million dollars it's
an opportunity to
bring all the sporting clubs together so
you know tennis netball basketball
cricket lacrosse
the local park users etc had a
celebration of the breaking of the
ground getting this underway
it's been a long time in the making this
project
and it is a very big project as well
it's going to deliver a very big
benefit to the local community probably
one of the biggest benefits of of any
project we've ever done so i think we
should celebrate it i should we think we
should be really proud of that we've got
to this point where we're breaking the
ground
it's going to be just a wonderful
facility and it's also going to really
lift the park lands in that area and
it's an opportunity to give you know our
colleagues in other levels of government
a pat on the back and say you know we
really appreciate your support
um you know that four million dollars
the federal government is bringing
should be welcomed and we shouldn't just
have kdl in there we should have you
know a federal minister there as well
responsible for that funding that the
federal sports minister perhaps should
come and do that groundbreaking and it'd
be wonderful to see that happen in sort
of january of february the prime
minister would be could be even better
so um let's try and get the pm so i
think we should go ahead with it and i
think we should have another um clark
ceremony when it's all completed at the
end of the project as well it's going to
be some time before that's that that
happens
thank you council first council morgan
would you like to speak
um pms yes i would like to speak now i
wanted to support
what council costa said and just go into
a little bit more detail about the
history of foundation stone ceremonies
and um there's a there's a lot of
historical precedent for foundation
stone ceremonies and although this is a
groundbreaking park it's it's basically
the same kind of thing where you lay a
foundation stone with a marker to
celebrate breaking ground and starting
on a significant um project now this is
my understanding is the biggest single
investment in infrastructure in one
location in eastward and so it's it's
very historically significant and i mean
eastward doesn't quite go up to going
for a road except for a tiny bit now
that borders eastward because of the
the small boundary change at the start
of this year so um the past projects
that i've been made aware of after
asking about this at our steering group
meeting uh or in north and southward
where we've had these in the past so it
might be why there isn't the same
awareness of it in eastward previously
because we just have not had this level
of infrastructure put there and it's
hugely significant and i i know there's
been a lot of
uh controversy about the location of
this project and camper has now decided
where it's going to be
but it is it is a massive piece of
infrastructure where you know whether
people agree for location or not it's a
huge investment in our community in
eastport in sports and i also wanted to
acknowledge uh that we've done this in
partnership with the federal government
and i wanted to thank the former member
uh the higgins kelly o'dwyer for getting
and really advocating for that funding
when she was the mp representing higgins
and of course katie allen continuing to
make sure that money is available for
the project as a local member um i know
that we also when we do get money from
state governments it is really important
and significant to recognize that too
notwithstanding but you know whether
people are in political parties or not i
think this goes above that politics
because this is benefiting our whole
community and it's a non-partisan
decision to invest in our community that
i think
should be a uniting thing in our
community and recognised whether whether
people have other views on government or
not and it's really important to give
credible credits due
and to
acknowledge our partners finally i think
it's really important because we've had
a huge
inequity and we still do in our sporting
facilities in how they're allocated for
women and girls teams and this is a big
step in redressing that we also have had
a shortfall
in nepal and basketball competition
grade courts and this is also redressing
that so it's a significant course for
celebration
uh a groundbreaking ceremony also gives
closure because it is showing the
project is now finally starting the
project was first approved in 2019 and
conceived of even in 2015 i believe
after um there was uh
um i would just take an extra minute
yes councillor scott and councilman
thank you and this was originally
because the disparity in sporting
facilities for room girls is huge at the
time when this project was first
considered and first um
uh by
two terms of coda council back then it
was only eight percent of our sports
grounds were used by women's and girls
sports and despite a huge commitment
from multiple councils to try and prove
that we're still only at 16 when i ask
this question earlier in the year and so
it's this is a huge course for
celebration because it will it will be
used by people obviously um
our teams and junior teams will use it
too at some at some points but this is
going to really uh secure the future of
nepal competitions within stonington and
there are thousands of people who play
netball thousands of people who play
basketball
and this is redressing that imbalance
and finally i think that it's worth
celebrating uh because
through kobe through all what we've been
through in lockdown and where people
have not been able to play competition
sports for nearly two years in some
cases
being able to build more facilities to
allow more people who enjoy sport who
love playing as part of a team to be
able to get out there and actually play
sport
and that is very important for our
community it's it's been sadly held for
lack of that by parents and families as
well as adults and so i think it's a
force of celebration and a great
positive for our community thank you
thank you councilman morgan i'll open it
up for discussion councillor griffin
thank you
mayor um i started off thinking this was
a duplication why do we need two plugs
you know this is a waste of council
money so i have a little speech around
that
council morgan you've won me over on
this i think this could be a really
great idea because what i'm thinking as
you were speaking it is
eastward which hasn't had a lot of this
type of investment that's really
important for your award but also for
those people who oppose the location i
think it could be very good for them to
be invited and i would expect and assume
that all those local residents would be
invited to this so i think we could turn
this ceremony into a bit of a turning
point around that whole conversation so
i've changed my mind and thank you
council morgan you've done that
i'm supporting this
wow
let's just go to the vote
for changing minds
would any other councillors like to
speak on this councillor healey um so i
agree with what fellow my fellow
counselors have said as far as the
importance of the project and influence
of celebrating the project in the
beginning of the project and it'd be
wonderful to have kelly o'dwyer there
and to have katie allen there and i have
all the sporting teams there and to go
woohoo we've started
um but this is actually a motion for a
plaque and i feel that there'll be
adequate
hoarding and signage around the site and
we can make connection with the um of
the federal involvement in that as well
um and i don't think we need to have a
park in order to do that to do that but
i'm all about going here with the
celebration though
loud and clear thank you councillor
healy would any other counselors like to
speak on this
councillor scott thank you may um so a
lot of has been said tonight
already about um
a plaque
um and i similar to council hillary
don't necessarily support not just this
club but i don't support having two
plugs i suppose um
but i do support some form of
recognition
um of the next phase of this significant
project and let's remember that this is
just another phase as councillor morgan
said this started back in 2015. we
haven't had a plaque at every point of
making a decision or doing something
different so why should we put a plaque
in now i totally support having a plaque
at the end of the project where we can
bang our pots and pans and jump up and
down and do with our cartwheels to
celebrate
the end of this project
maybe streets have tried to
shoot some some netball hooks um
but yeah i i just i don't see the
relevance in putting a plug in place now
and
i
was a little bit unsure to start off
with so i asked some people within my
networks what they thought
and it came back loud and clear that
this doesn't pass the pub test
they really don't see the value in
putting a plaque in place they did say
we do need to
recognize the funding agreements that
have been made with the different levels
of government and wouldn't it be great
to celebrate that we are starting this
next phase in the project
but once again i i'd support
um
the
placement of the plaque at the end of
the project once it's up and running and
we've got this magnificent facility in
front of us that we can all go in and
enjoy at the same time thank you council
scott would any other councillors like
to see
councillor gold
thank you mayor i hold similar views to
councillors government healey on this
one i've started by going back to the
policy and i know there's a bit of
interpretation in there the way that i
interpret the policy
is that it's used to acknowledge the
opening of new council facilities and
redevelopment of existing facilities
there's nothing in there about
groundbreaking it's it's actually once
it's been completed so i don't really
see how this fits into that definition
of our own policy
i looked i was asking about precedent
the closest example was 48 years ago and
the
the one after that you know that goes
back for it even longer
so back back in those days it took a
little bit longer to build things than
it does now so i can see that it might
be a bit more justification
i want to celebrate i want to be
standing next to katie allen and kelly
o'brien and
all the different sporting clubs but but
i think it'd be great to be sitting
standing next to them in hard packs with
a shovel rather than actually putting up
a class with a more stifling ceremony i
think there's just a different way that
can be do it there's a different way
that we can celebrate there's a
different way that we can recognize
people
um
and
yeah
thank you
any other speakers for this item council
um
thank you um thank you there and look i
think the plaque is a terrific idea um
because i think this is a really
historic moment in the city of stonyton
this has been a journey where we started
talking about women's sport and putting
the right and finding a good location
for living sport and boy did we have a
battle about you know where we're going
to put the right location and i think
when um historians look back on
startington and look back on that period
they will look through
that journey and the plaque i think
as a groundbreaking part will give it
the historical significance that it
deserves i do think the prime minister
will come down for it
i really do
he likes coming to higgins and so i
think we will get him and i think that
will
uh
also give a lot of um
kudos as that's the good thing to the
project
and the other reason i really support
this plaque is because it demonstrates
the hard work that's been put into it
particularly by
you madam mayor as my colleague
eastwood councillor it is
appropriate and
it has
you know some level of
um
of justice that you be the one who
opens to who
um
is there at the ceremony and who who
lays the foundation stone because
everybody around this everyone in this
chamber knows how hard you've worked
with this project over so far such a
um so many years and how hard you fought
for it against such
uh vigorous often quite unpleasant
opposition
um and you've earned it quite frankly
you've earned it for the battle that
you've put um that you fought for us
for girls sporting for women's sport for
always putting that first so i think
it's only fair that you have this
ceremony and that we commemorate
we commemorate the building of it and we
commemorate
your role as mayor in getting this
project
up and running
so
great idea for the plaque not quite sure
why there's such a vigorous opposition
to it it doesn't quite make sense to me
it's not going to be an enormous expense
certainly
compared to some other items which we've
spent money on over the last 12 months
so
um i think it'll be really good for
stonington and it's my pleasure to
support promotion thank you council lou
any other speakers
we did receive a couple of emails from
the prank netball association and that
that apart from what council morgan said
who was very convincing and said
everything plus ten times more than what
i thought of but look i thought about it
it's a two thousand dollar cost the
significance of it to the netball
association is massive
the journey that they've been on that
was mentioned um and this is really that
stake in the ground like this is this is
gonna happen
you know and we're gonna celebrate that
and i think for a small amount of money
the good will that comes out of setting
the scene and letting them know that
that journey is now it's paid off that
hard work has paid off it was a
tumultuous journey for everyone involved
and i think it's a time to now go
it's here let's celebrate it we are
moving forward with this and that's that
commemoration and it is that history
when down the track they look back and
go wow they fought over a netball
stadium for a thousand girls um and it
is going to be a great asset to the city
not just for netball but for all the
high court um
sports and so forth so um i think it's
it's a no-brainer so i'll be getting i
will be definitely supporting the motion
thank you councillor sarah i believe
everyone has spoken so we'll go back to
councillor coast if you'd like to sum up
i won't say much because it's been a
long night and i think everyone's spoken
really well on this issue um i see this
as a as a beautiful kind of bringing
together of the community a beautiful
opportunity to bring everyone together
and to market with a historical plaque
so i think we should absolutely do it as
councillor said it's a no-brainer and
i just hope this motion is successful i
think it's a it's a very positive thing
if you counselor okay we'll go to the
motion can i see all of you with a show
of hands a division has been called so
all those in paper thank you councillors
councillor lou councillor griffin
councillor said council of coast council
morgan and councillor cyrus orders a
guest
councillor healey councillor vatigol and
council scott the motion is carried
thank you councillors we are at the end
of general business very well done we
moved to item nine correspondence uh do
counsellors having to table this evening
um and if you are tabling just very
briefly mention what it's in relation to
councillor morgan
uh thank you mayor i'd like to tape with
some correspondence from an eastwood
residence um adrian pirello which was
about
um
seeing if council could actually work
with also city of glenaira to address uh
potential safety issues on danielle road
between boyd park and the urban forest
and so there's quite a few people who
cross there
with no actual crossing the crossing is
actually further up the road
near the school
and and our very own destination so
that's that's the
table that correspondence thank you
council briefing um thank you mayor
very quickly um we've had
quite a bit of correspondence about the
possibility of council putting a
temporary loading zone into our road
there's
works going on there that are really of
great concern to the retailers so i
wanted to bring that to council because
it's an important issue and also i've
had further correspondence on putting a
fence on the surrey road park
to protect path goers and dogs and
children it keeps coming back to me this
request and i've had more correspondence
on that thank you
thank you councillor griffin any other
correspondents table
council battle thank you man very
quickly um
correspondence from um on two matches
one is parking restrictions on grebel
street and the other one is an email
noise concerns from the college law and
whether we could have good options to
protect residents
thank you for that
no further correspondence
councils are moved to table in the
petitions and joint letters and eastward
resident uh
oh was that not in relation to
okay so eastwood council has received a
petition uh in relation to
i won't read it all out because there's
a lot of detail the corner of
chesterfield avenue and glen ferry road
in relation to uh sightlines not being
clear very dangerous so we've received
it hard copy there's 21 signatures we
also received a 20-second signature
electronically which i've already
forwarded to the offices
um so we tabled that are there other
petitions councillors council healey
yeah i've got a petition to table from
16 residents surrounding sam's way who
are concerned about the traffic
management off the street in relation to
the maneuvering of trucks thank you
council healey and castle coast yeah
i've got a petition as well it's
actually i've actually noticed in the
italics it says addressed to me kate
healy so i'm not sure if you've tabled
it or not it's regarding
on-street parking for falkland street
south yarra speed limit issues speed
cameras and parking inspectors look our
old table that then it's got um four
signatures on it
it's dealing with traffic matters thank
you councillor chris i'm just sorry on
the one over overtable hypothesis could
bring a report to consult on this in the
first quarter of 2022. that would be
great so can i seek a move and a second
to accept
three petitions councillor post
secondary council
declare that morgan
carrie we're just accepting the
petitions
all right councillors we don't have any
notices of motion this evening so we
move to item 12 reports by councillors
other ending councillor healey um this
is a bit of an unofficial one but many
councillors around this table had the
privilege of going to the piranha arcade
recently which um resides when i was
building that is the jv high five
building which has had lots of
scaffolding over it for the late so that
girl since the beginning of the year
august i think was when they started it
um and we have just been um i'll speak
on behalf of everyone blown away by how
amazing the restoration work has been um
it's a really passionate owner and his
wife which has worked really hard to
reveal a hidden legacy
for the city and have been in contact
with us throughout the years with me as
far as the progress that they've made
this is a really important building for
stonington because it's one that i
remember hearing through campaign period
that people just love the building and
can't wait to see it exposed
um
and it was originally the first dan
murphy's shop as well um they're hoping
this is going to be an inspiration and
challenge to other owners down chapel
street around stonington to really
remember the beauty of the heritage that
we've got
and it really speaks to the power of
beautiful design to to lift the spirit
of the street as well so
on behalf of everyone i hope you don't
mind i really wish to congratulate the
um the owner who has really put this in
as a
a passion project um which i think the
whole city will be able to do it thank
you council healing on my tour today the
owner did actually give me a massive um
book with images of the old building
with horse and cart and whatnot so i'll
leave that in the counselor's lounge
that anyone would like to see it's
really really incredible any other
reports by councillors councillor morgan
thank you man i'd just like to briefly
report that i attended uh the opening on
international um day of people
disability which is uh december 3rd
the opening the official opening of job
codes disability employment service
office in parade it was really fantastic
event uh josco
uh had 16 offices throughout victoria
just opened this one in paran and
they are assisting uh um
people with disabilities to find work
and to also get skills to help their
work and it's a really fantastic project
it was great to be there um and you're
really glad to have the opportunity to
go
thank you thank you council morgan any
further reports
councillor bargo i i attended unpacking
the man box which is a event a
project that we've supported as part of
the community recovery fund and it was a
beautiful presentation and it's an
incredible program
and i just wanted to mention it because
we're accepting expressions of interest
at this point in time to join the
modeling respect and equality program
which is
the mall program and it's really looking
for members of our community who work
with or who are interested in taking on
a position to act as a role model for
behaviours to admit to our men and our
boys and it's really about gender
equality and healthier identities and
it's quite extraordinary so i'm going to
be approaching some of the schools and
principles that i know and i'd encourage
other councils if you know some people
that might actually like to
submit an expression of interest that
this is an incredible program that will
actually change
uh how we deal with gender identity
within stellington
excellent thank you council bargain
and although not technically a report
but it's the last meeting of the year
i'll give one anyway just to highlight
some awards that council was nominated
for and was successful in actually
winning over the last couple of weeks
um so council in february of last year
moved a resolution to declare climate
emergency
and as we implement our recently adopted
action emergency action plan i'm
delighted to update councillors and the
community that stunnington was highly
commended in four award categories of
the 2021 keep victoria beautiful
sustainable cities awards the
nominations recognize these four
programs our environmental champions
program
efforts to improve energy and efficiency
and to reduce emissions at chapel off
chapel the sustainability vision for the
master plan for gardeners creek and our
program to support sustainability and
nature play in edu and early education
services so thank you to all the staff
for their incredible involvement in
developing those programs and
implementing them to clearly a very high
standard where we are now being
recognized at a national level and
additionally i'd also like to
congratulate our director of environment
and infrastructure rick clarcek i'm
receiving the public works leadership
award at the institute of public works
engineering australasia's
2021 engineering excellence awards last
friday night the environment and
infrastructure team under rick's
leadership delivers a range of projects
initiatives and works including
startington's open space environment
transport and parking city operations
asset management and planning and urban
infrastructure projects for those
dominant community so congratulations
very well deserved
um
council has been moved to questions to
council officers uh councillor griffin
first thank you thank you i've got a
question for mrs batista
um i'm interested to notice batista how
many businesses have closed down in
stonington since the start of covert and
how many new businesses have opened
um thank you
griffin
[Music]
according to economy iv
stonington's records and also the
australian business registry data sets
from march 2020 to june 2021
2810 businesses have been registered in
stonington
and
1829 businesses have cancelled their
business registration which leaves a net
figure of 981 business opinions
um
there's a lot of information and context
around those students but they're doing
more figures thank you
thank you very much um and to you miss
weather all
i'm very aware of the fact that we're
possibly heading in to supply all sorts
of supply shortages in australia next
year um are you aware of this
possibility and its possible impact on
council yeah three numer um certainly i
think it's in the national dinner at the
moment in the news in regards to urea
around
diesel fuel um councils can be reassured
that we have adequate suppliers at
council we've got approximately four
months for our waste trucks and street
sweeping trucks but we are concerned
that works for next year as to whether
or not there'll be supply chain issues
so we'll continue to monitor the
situation and advise council thank you
oh there were your questions counseling
yes thank you thank you sir uh thank you
madam mayor i'm i'm going to email this
to mrs batista and to mr kwasik but
there's a
telstra
box um digital box that's promoting
um new smart cities yes smart cities and
right this one's got great plans on it
i'm right at the front of the town hall
on chapel street it's literally in the
middle of the walkway so so far so much
for disability access
so i don't know where that's popped up
if they're allowed to do it so can i ask
that be investigated in councils please
be advised yeah can we get an email on
that well it's this week please yes
it's a proposal i don't know whether
they need our approval to do it but
anyway if we could just get some clarity
on why it's there for how long and
yeah
okay i've got offices to take that on
notice any other questions counselors
no wonderful uh any urgent business to
raise this evening
no just under other general business i
would just raise one other thing so
under uh julia galachi's team we have
got the budget simulation engagement to
the 2022-23 budget out moment that was
originally going to close on the 20th of
january and councillor griffin raised me
that that you know the full holidays
people often
busy with their kids and being away and
what not could we extend it and uh mrs
confirmed that we have extended it until
the 5th of january so it's open now
i'm sorry fourth of february thank you
it's open now so lots of time for
residents to participate in that so
distribute that amongst your networks
counsellors that'll be very exciting to
see the analysis out of that any other
general business that anyone wanted to
raise
[Music]
any other general business
okay i will wish everyone a very
wonderful christmas holiday period new
year it has been an extraordinarily
challenging year i think for everyone i
don't know who would say otherwise
but i think we are on the road to
optimism and i think 2022 is really
going to be an incredible year
certainly for the stunnington community
but hopefully for the world so thank you
councillors for all your incredibly hard
work your passion and commitment to
council this year and as always to
officers
for putting up with us
and i'm doing thank you doing amazing
work we look forward to continuing to
work together in the next year and thank
you to the community who tune in who
participate within council and who get
involved and if you don't please do we
want to hear from you so
thank you councillors we don't have any
confidential business so on that basis
i'll close the meeting at 9 15 pm well
done everyone