Tuesday, 21 March 2023

Local government accountability

Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (17:13): (115) My adjournment matter today is for the Minister for Local Government. The state government has axed the council watch website knowyourcouncil.vic.gov.au and replaced it with a spreadsheet with thousands upon thousands of rows of unsorted data, making it impossible to orientate and compare the information. So the action I seek today is for the minister to reinstate the council website knowyourcouncil.vic.gov.au to its original form.

The website was originally designed to allow residents to make comparisons of 66 council services, including waste collection, libraries, animal management, maternal health, local roads and key financial and governance indicators. It provided a service that was transparent, with easy access for all residents. It brought transparency back to local government and allowed residents to get some indication of how their local council was performing and how ratepayers money was being spent.

When the minister originally launched the website, she claimed it would act as a one-stop shop for all things local government information, and it was part of the Andrews Labor government’s commitment to ensuring councils are transparent and accountable to their community. Well, it looks as if transparency and accountability only matters when it suits the Labor government. So today I ask if the minister could please honour and deliver on the commitment that was undertaken by the Labor government and reinstate the original website knowyourcouncil.vic.gov.au so residents can understand and know what their money is being spent on and to give transparency and accessibility to residents so they can compare the rates and the money being spent.