Wednesday, 3 June 2026

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (10:43): It gives me a great deal of pleasure to rise to speak on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s report on its inquiry into fraud and corruption control in local government, a follow-up of two Auditor-General reports. I chaired this inquiry last year and had the privilege of presenting this report in November last year to the house. The reason I bring it up today is that I am gravely concerned by some of the things that are currently going on with local governments within my electorate of Laverton, and I think I speak for a lot of locals on two of the most pertinent issues today.

To begin with, I was very concerned – appalled actually – that in the City of Brimbank, which covers my electorate, we recently saw our mayor and our deputy mayor attend a protest, which in and of itself is not the issue that I want to talk about. What is the issue, I have to say, is that they were standing side by side with One Nation – orange shirts, orange placards and everything One Nation. I just know that they would have done this against all suggestions from the council officers. We have a very multicultural community in Brimbank, a really important one, a great one, including a very vibrant and very proud Vietnamese community. In fact in Sunshine we are going to be opening Australia’s first and only Vietnamese museum in coming months, and I have no doubt that these councillors will attend the opening of the Vietnamese museum. But what they do not realise is that this is the same community that 30 years ago Pauline Hanson and One Nation said were swamping Australia. How the mayor of our community and the deputy mayor –

Cindy McLeish: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I think the member on her feet has strayed significantly from the committee report. It is very difficult to work out which committee report she is even talking about. I ask you to bring her back.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you. The committee report you were on was a PAEC report, was it?

Sarah CONNOLLY: Yes, it was – probably out of the depth of the member who raised the point of order.

Cindy McLeish: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I am offended by the comments made by the member for Laverton, and I ask you to (1) counsel her and (2) ask her to withdraw.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Does the member withdraw?

Sarah CONNOLLY: Withdrawn.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: To continue, member for Laverton, on the committee report.

Sarah CONNOLLY: The report is on an inquiry into local government fraud and corruption control. How the mayor of the community and the deputy mayor, both community leaders, can stand side by side with One Nation and endorse that kind of rhetoric speaks absolute volumes to our local community, and I stand here proudly to condemn that kind of behaviour. The community deserves better. But of course Brimbank is not the only council in my electorate. I have four local governments that intersect, and what I do want to talk about today, naturally, is what has been happening with Wyndham City Council, and Wyndham City Council was certainly mentioned in this report.

As many people in this place would know, two municipal monitors have recently been appointed to Wyndham City Council, and rightly so, after a series of concerning revelations – serious revelations – over the span of many, many months. Indeed some of this goes to the contents of this inquiry, and I know that my colleagues the member for Point Cook and the member for Werribee have been quite vocal in this place about some of the issues that have been going on with Wyndham City Council, such as their major cost blowout on upgrading their IT services. But to top it off, I do want to stand here in this place and join my community in Wyndham in calling for the embattled mayor of Wyndham to do the right thing and resign. In my view he should not just resign as the mayor of Wyndham but from council altogether. He is an elected ward councillor in my electorate, representing the majority of Truganina, a great suburb. It is Truganina locals, sporting clubs and businesses that are being let down by their elected representative failing time and time again to read the room.

To conclude, I do want to acknowledge the remarkable work of the committee, including my fellow members who served on this committee inquiry last year, as well as all of the committee secretariat who have worked tirelessly to prepare the report. As I say time and time again here in this house, without the committee secretariat many of the reports that are tabled could just not be prepared in the first place, so thank you to Igor and the team. I am happy to commend the report to the house.