Tuesday, 17 March 2020
Bills
Local Government Bill 2019
Local Government Bill 2019
Council’s amendments
Message from Council relating to following amendments considered:
1. Clause 2, page 2, line 12, omit “42” and insert “43”.
2. Clause 2, page 2, line 17, omit “Division” and insert “Divisions 6 and”.
3. Clause 2, page 2, line 30, after “45,” insert “45A,”.
4. Clause 2, page 2, line 31, after “63,” insert “63A,”.
5. Clause 2, page 2, line 32, after “69.5,” insert “70A,”.
6. Clause 2, page 3, line 11, omit “42” and insert “43”.
7. Clause 2, page 3, line 12, after this line insert—
“(ca) section 52;”.
8. Clause 2, page 3, line 28, omit “to” and insert “, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and”.
9. Clause 3, page 8, line 17, after “committee” insert “, other than a Community Asset Committee,”.
10. Clause 13, page 30, line 3, omit “divided.” and insert—
“divided; or
(c) subject to subsection (5A), an equal number of Councillors elected to represent each ward into which the municipal district is divided.”.
11. Clause 13, page 30, line 9, after this line insert—
“(5A) A Council must not be constituted in accordance with subsection (4)(c) unless, by notice published in the Government Gazette, the Minister specifies that the Council, or a Council that is a specific type of Council, may be constituted in accordance with subsection (4)(c).”.
12. Clause 15, page 31, line 34, omit “district.” and insert—
“district; or
(d) if a notice has been published in accordance with section 13(5A), specifying—
(i) the specific Council or the specific type of Council to be constituted in accordance with section 13(4)(c); and
(ii) the number of wards; and
(iii) the number of Councillors that are to represent each ward.”.
13. Clause 16, line 11, omit “or (c)” and insert “, (c) or (d)”.
14. Clause 16, page 34, line 31, after this line insert—
“(ca) subject to the Minister first publishing a notice under section 13(5A) in relation to a Council, or a specific type of Council, whether the municipal district of the Council should be constituted in accordance with section 13(4)(c);”.
NEW CLAUSES
15. Insert the following New Clauses to follow clause 20—
“20A Office of Deputy Mayor
(1) A Council may establish an office of Deputy Mayor.
(2) If the Council has established an office of Deputy Mayor, the provisions of this Act relating to the office of Deputy Mayor apply.
(3) If a Council has not established an office of Deputy Mayor, section 20B applies.
20B Acting Mayor
(1) A Council may appoint a Councillor to be the Acting Mayor when—
(a) the Mayor is unable for any reason to attend a Council meeting or part of a Council meeting; or
(b) the Mayor is incapable of performing the duties of the office of Mayor for any reason, including illness; or
(c) the office of Mayor is vacant.
(2) An appointment under subsection (1) must be for a period specified by the Council.
(3) If—
(a) an appointment has not been made under subsection (1) or has expired; and
(b) any of the circumstances specified in subsection (1)(a), (b) or (c) apply—
the Council must appoint a Councillor to be the Acting Mayor for a period specified by the Council.
(4) An Acting Mayor—
(a) must perform the role of the Mayor; and
(b) may exercise any of the powers of the Mayor—
until the circumstances specified in subsection (1) no longer apply or the period of the appointment expires, whichever first occurs.
(5) If an Acting Mayor has been appointed, unless inconsistent with the context or subject matter, a reference in this Act (except in sections 20 and 23, Division 4 of this Part and sections 61(6) and 236(4)) to the Mayor includes a reference to the Acting Mayor.”.
16. Clause 43, page 55, lines 23 and 24, omit “and member of a delegated committee” and insert “, member of a delegated committee and member of a Community Asset Committee”.
17. Clause 60, page 71, line 25, after this line insert—
“(da) the appointment of an Acting Mayor;”.
18. Clause 224, page 196, line 18, after “made” insert “in respect of a Councillor to which paragraph (b) applies”.
19. Clause 224, page 196, lines 21 to 23, omit “the subject of the complaint specified in paragraph (b)”.
20. Clause 224, page 196, lines 25 to 27, omit “the subject of the complaint specified in paragraph (b)”.
21. Clause 224, page 196, lines 30 to 32, omit “a Councillor the subject of the complaint specified in paragraph (b)” and insert “the Councillor”.
22. Clause 224, page 197, lines 4 and 5, omit “the subject of the complaint specified in paragraph (b)”.
23. Clause 224, page 197, lines 6 to 8, omit “a person has made a complaint to the Minister in respect of a Councillor that alleges” and insert “the Minister has reason to believe”.
24. Clause 224, page 197, lines 18 to 21, omit all words and expressions on these lines.
25. Clause 225, page 197, line 22, omit “complaint” and insert “Councillor”.
26. Clause 225, page 197, lines 24 and 25, omit “complaint specified in section 224(1)(b)” and insert “Councillor to which section 224(1)(b) applies”.
27. Clause 225, page 197, line 29, omit “complaint” and insert “Councillor”.
28. Clause 225, page 197, lines 32 and 33, omit “or the complaint under section 224(1)(b)”.
29. Clause 226, page 198, line 4, omit “referred complaint” and insert “referral”.
30. Clause 226, page 198, line 6, omit “complaint” and insert “referral”.
31. Clause 226, page 198, line 17, omit “referred complaint” and insert “referral”.
32. Clause 226, page 198, line 22, omit “complaint” and insert “referral”.
33. Clause 226, page 199, line 1, omit “complaint” and insert “referral”.
34. Clause 226, page 199, line 8, omit “complaint” and insert “referral”.
35. Clause 226, page 199, line 25, omit “complaint” and insert “referral”.
36. Clause 227, line 6, omit “complaint” and insert “referral”.
37. Clause 256, page 234, line 15, omit “(c)” and insert “(b)”.
38. Clause 256, page 234, line 24, omit “(c)” and insert “(b)”.
39. Clause 262, page 240, lines 18 to 20, omit all words and expressions on these lines and insert—
“(b) attendance voting.”.
40. Clause 326, page 294, line 14, after “including” insert “the fixing and payment of any fees by candidates and”.
41. Clause 363, page 317, line 2, after this line insert—
“(1A) In section 181A(1) of the Local Government Act 1989 after “that rateable land” insert “, including climate change adaptation works on the building”.
(1B) After section 181A(1) of the Local Government Act 1989 insert—
“(1A) For the purposes of subsection (1), adaptation and climate change have the same respective meanings as they have in section 3 of the Climate Change Act 2017.”.”.
42. Clause 363, page 317, line 3, omit “(b) and (c)” and insert “(a), (b) and (c) and (4)”.
43. Clause 363, page 317, line 30, after this line insert—
“(5) Section 181H(2) of the Local Government Act 1989 is repealed.”.
44. Schedule 1, page 340, line 18, after this line insert—
“45A Gender Equality Act 2020
45A.1 In the heading to Division 1 of Part 9, for “Local Government Act 2019” substitute “Local Government Act 2020”.
45A.2 In section 55, for “Local Government Act 2019” substitute “Local Government Act 2020”.”.
45. Schedule 1, page 345, line 18, after this line insert—
“63A Local Government (Casey City Council) Act 2020
63A.1 In section 3, after “Local Government Act 1989” insert “and the Local Government Act 2020”.
63A.2 In section 10, after “Local Government Act 1989” insert “or section 257(1) of the Local Government Act 2020”.”.
46. Schedule 1, page 345, lines 21 and 22, omit all words and expressions on these lines and insert—
“64.1 In section 3, after “Local Government Act 1989” insert “and the Local Government Act 2020”.
64.2 In section 10, after “Local Government Act 1989” insert “or section 257(1) of the Local Government Act 2020”.”.
47. Schedule 1, page 347, line 12, after this line insert—
“70A Melbourne Strategic Assessment (Environment Mitigation Levy) Act 2020
In section 3, in the definition of Council, for “Local Government Act 1989” substitute “Local Government Act 2020”.”.
That the amendments be agreed to.
I would like to commend the bill as amended by the Legislative Council to the house. The government welcomes the opportunity to make changes to the bill that reflect the views of members of the Legislative Council. The bill as it stands will enable the government to meet its commitment to improving democracy, accountability and service delivery in the state’s 79 councils. I would like to take a moment to outline for the house the amendments made to the bill since it was passed here. The amendments to the Local Government Bill 2019 can be grouped into two sections: technical amendments and clarifications and then changes which respond to the debate in the Legislative Council. I would like to take a moment to acknowledge my colleague the Minister for Local Government, Adem Somyurek, in the other place, who stood on his feet for 25 hours and who took questions, comments and observations from a range of colleagues that helped put these amendments together.
The technical amendments include changes to improve the administration of environmental upgrade agreements by councils, cross-referencing and ensuring regulations relating to electoral matters allow the fixing of fees for nominating as a candidate for a council election.
The second set of amendments include the removal of the requirement for councils to have a deputy mayor, the expansion of the electoral structure types for councils to include uniform multi-councillor wards in areas outlined in regulation, an amendment of the power of the minister to recommend a councillor be stood down to remove the condition that a complaint also be made to the minister, the removal of the power of the minister to determine that a voting system be by a means other than postal voting or attendance voting, and the provision of an indemnity for members of community asset committees along the same lines as the indemnity provided to councillors and members of delegated committees.
In conclusion, I would like to note that it is just over 31 years since the 1989 act was presented to this place, and it is clearly time for a new set of laws that reflect the current practice and provide a better basis for this important tier of government to serve its community over the next decades. Many of us in this place were elected under the 1989 act and served in local government under the 1989 act, and during—
Mr D O’Brien interjected.
Ms KAIROUZ: Well, we were not born then, but we certainly worked under the 1989 act. We have seen lots of changes being made over the course of the last several years when amendments have been made. During my time as Minister for Local Government I heard firsthand from the local government sector how confusing the Local Government Act 1989 was to read, to understand and to navigate. There had been hundreds of amendments made and nobody really understood what those amendments meant, so hopefully now under this new act we can finally get a better understanding of how it works and community leaders and members elected by the community to become councillors can navigate their way through it.
On behalf of the minister and myself, as a former Minister for Local Government, and on behalf of another former minister, the member for Sydenham, who all had carriage of the legislation over the last four years, I would like to thank the team in Local Government Victoria for their enduring work. There were lots of discussion papers out there, there was lots of consultation going on out there and everybody had a range of ideas, so I am pleased to see that we have all come together and all agreed on a piece of legislation—of course with the assistance of the upper house, who helped us navigate through this complicated piece of legislation—and finally come to something that we all agree on. I would like to thank the local government sector as well for their advice and their ideas and the community of Victoria for their involvement in the Local Government Bill 2019. I commend the bill to the house.
Mr T SMITH (Kew) (14:46): I rise to also support the amendments to the Local Government Bill 2019. I do so largely because most of them are ours, and it was a very good exercise in the Westminster system working as it ought to, with suggestions back and forth with regard to the best way forward with the bill as first brought to this Parliament, which the Liberal-National opposition voted against because there were some obvious shortcomings in it. We were happy to provide our advice as to how it could be bettered, and we did that through the usual mechanisms of amendments in the Legislative Council.
Some of the glaring issues were around indemnity for members of community asset committees and indeed audit and risk committees. I want to put on record that I am still concerned that members of audit and risk committees for local governments around Victoria will not be indemnified. I think they ought to be, because I am not reassured that these people cannot be sued if their advice is relied upon by councils and incurs loss for others. But I am very happy to see that community asset committees are now indemnified.
I am very happy to see that there is no compulsion for councils to elect a deputy mayor. I know my country colleagues on behalf of their local councils were very concerned about that impost on small country councils.
I was concerned that clause 262 of the unamended bill was going to give the minister the power to determine the voting system by any other means in addition to postal and attendance voting. That raised some serious alarm bells with me and a number of my colleagues. I want to thank Mrs McArthur in the other place for raising that issue with me. I refer members to Hansard and the upper house debate. I was in the advisers’ booth for the entire debate. We went until 3.30 in the morning I think on the Wednesday of the previous sitting week and then 10 o’clock on the Thursday. I have to say that was just ridiculous. I have heard the crossbench described in a number of very unfavourable ways. I can only say with the greatest respect that some of them proved some of the less than flattering observations that members on both sides of this place have made of them in the spectacle that they undertook in terms of ensuring that this bill went way into the night against the wishes of the government, the opposition and most other rational observers. There is a point at which you need to give up and realise that you do not have the numbers. For whatever reason, that did not occur, so the staff had to remain there until 3.30 in the morning. It was completely ridiculous.
I am pleased to see that the government at the very least has accepted some of our concerns around compulsory single-member wards in rural councils. I note my two National Party friends and colleagues at the table, the members for Lowan and Gippsland South, and obviously Liberal Party colleagues from the bush, did lobby me and indeed the minister most vociferously with regard to the inappropriateness of a compulsory single or no-ward structure on small country councils, because frankly, comparing the cities of Boroondara, Stonnington, Casey and Maribyrnong to Buloke, South Gippsland, Hindmarsh and Ararat is not comparing like with like. They are fundamentally different in size, scope, budget and population in particular, and when you have a number of very different population centres, as we said all along, having compulsory ward structures and the like is not something I support. I very much support it in metro Melbourne—having single-member wards—which I think is the most appropriate and accountable way for councillors to be elected. And that is where I agreed with Minister Somyurek from the outset because I do believe as someone who represented a ward with two other councillors who were elected by proportional representation that it is a very unsatisfactory way of electing councillors and ensures that some councillors do work and others do not, particularly where some councillors are elected with literally two men and a dog supporting them—or two women, can I say.
It is a good thing that this bill is going to pass. It is a good thing that the Legislative Council, in its role as a house of review, improved the bill with suggestions from the Liberal and National parties. We support the bill as amended. I repeat that we voted against it in this place when it was initially introduced because we thought that there were some serious defects in it. They have been improved, so as a consequence we are happy to support it. On that note, I will sit down.
Mr HIBBINS (Prahran) (14:52): The Greens will not be opposing the amendments put forward by the Legislative Council. We supported all but one of the amendments. The one amendment we did have concern with was around the provision of multimember wards only now being made available to rural and regional councils and not being applied to metropolitan councils. It seems to me that the fix is in, and I think it is very instructive that these amendments are coming just after we have dealt with the business of having to dismiss yet another council. This is around the fourth or fifth council that has been dismissed in my time here in this Parliament. In one of the councils that we dismissed, Geelong council, specifically one of the reasons that contributed to the poor governance and the reasons behind that dismissal was single-member wards. It creates an atmosphere of parochialism where councillors are not making decisions for the whole of the council but are making parochial decisions that lead to poor decision-making and poor governance and, ultimately, in the case of Geelong council, the dismissal of Geelong council.
The evidence for proportional representation for multimember wards in terms of greater representation and greater diversity has been made over and over again, yet the minister has dismissed all the evidence before him. It is also incredible that we have recently just dismissed Casey council, where you have got a developer running absolutely riot out there between councillors, using finance and influence to influence that council. Yet this bill is coming back without any amendments to do with banning donations, limiting donations, banning donations from property developers or the gaming industry or even just replicating the sorts of donations reform we have at a state level. The fix is in. Labor and Liberal, the government and the opposition, have teamed up to have this fix. They have brought back a bill, brought back amendments and have ultimately seen through a bill that will go forward. We have dismissed councils multiple times now in this Parliament and in the previous Parliament, and I suspect if we go down the track of having single-member wards and without donations reform there are going to be many other councils that are going to be back here again being dismissed by this Parliament because this reform simply is not up to scratch.
Motion agreed to.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Ward): A message will now be sent to the Legislative Council informing them of the house’s decision.