Meeting with Melissa Horne MP (Local Govt Minister)

Hot on the heels of our State Conference it was our pleasure to meet with the new local Government Minister - Melissa Horne MP.

We were keen to share with her our issues across the sector, they included:

• The current inequity in the rating system

• Hardship provisions

• Poor governance practices in Councils

• Conflicts of Interests

• Councillors weaponising and politicising code of conducts and arbitration complaints

• The effectiveness of monitors in some councils like Yarra

• Poor Budget and community consultation processes

• Planning overlays that destroy owner value

• 79 Councils all wasting time on their own versions of policies that could be standardised (e.g. governance)

• Councillor expenses not being in annual reports (transparency issues)

• Quality of Services delivered to the community

• Council staff, CEO's and their lack of Community engagement

We look forward to working with Melissa on a regular basis.