Winds of change are blowing through Yarra Council

Cover of the latest Yarra Council Mayoral Report

It is hard to deny that feeling of joy you get when you are hit by a refreshing breeze that changes the staleness of the air, especially when said breeze appears to brush away a distinctively unpleasant sensation. Now that the dust has settled from last year’s Council election and Councillors are releasing their plans for these new terms, some winds of change have started to permeate the decaying Melbourne air, and Yarra Council seems determined to lead the charge.

The latest report from Yarra Council’s Mayor Stephen Jolly reminds me of that “Yes We Can” message and feeling people in America got out of Obama nearly twenty years ago – that feeling that everything was possible, if you only tried hard enough and had enough political will. I am certain I am not alone: the reaction of many people on the ground appears to echo the sentiment as the report touches on the true woes of the locals – rather than on those concocted for political purposes – and effectively communicates a plan of action to tackle them. Earlier surveys conducted by Council Watch show that rates, roads, rubbish, and basic day-to-day infrastructure are indeed the most pressing matters for locals, and the aforementioned report touches on nearly all of them, delivering a plethora of plans to make even the most sceptical observer hopeful for a better Yarra, and enough to make locals swell with excitement.

Footpaths and roads are set to receive over $7 million in funding for improvement, with many pedestrian crossings and road changes planned. Importantly, there will be a road safety review of Rowena Parade which will be led by locals. In light of the mounting piles of top-down approaches to road safety, a local-led initiative to road safety is easily one of the highlights of the report.

Many roads will also have free one-hour parking trialed on them, and the report additionally highlights changes to parking rules, meaning investigating options to make parking cheaper and more available to more people – a stark contrast to other inner-city initiatives geared towards making car parks less available to reduce reliance on cars.

When it comes to stormwater drains and waste management the report holds no punches against the previous Council. It declares the new Yarra Council will spend $4.3 million to fix these drains, “instead of making it [the locals’] problem by declaring a flood overlay for much of Yarra”, for example. It also declares that they have capped two Bin Taxes to the exact same level of rates (3% raise), which “will stop what happened last year when the previous Council jacked up waste charges by 15%”. This last point is critical, because in the past Waste and Fire Services Levies were all part of the rates total, and therefore also subject to rate capping. It has only been recently that Councils were given green light by the State government to charge for these items separately, and thus escape the capping. The move by the new Yarra Council sets a critical precedent, showing that bringing Waste charges and spending back under tight control is indeed possible where there is political will to do so. The importance of this move cannot be overstated, as it also marks a landmark moment for other Councils to hopefully follow.

Nonetheless, and while the move of the new Yarra Council to expand Council waste to include apartment dwellers as part the “world class” 4-bin service currently provided is commendable for many a reason, perhaps the administration would be interested in reviewing whether they really need the purple bin. Perhaps they can join the coalition of Councils pushing back against it and give the residents of Yarra further reprieve from waste charges as part of the full review of waste services announced in the report. Having the locals participate in and guide said review would also be something that I believe most locals would highly appreciate and reward Council for.

Finally, the announcement of housing for low-income local workers next to Collingwood Town gave me mixed feelings. Make no mistake, I am an advocate of housing affordability and housing availability and thus I commend Yarra Council for looking into this, but I cannot help but to have too many questions about how the policy will be implemented to deter bad actors, to ensure fairness and transparency, and prevent problematic unintended consequences – equity is not the only metric to strive for, after all.

The report announces that the new apartments “will be well below market rents and explicitly targeted for lower paid local workers in hospitality, nurses, etc”. What will be the threshold to be considered “lower paid worker”? Will it be indexed? What will happen when said workers increase their salary above the threshold? Will they receive an eviction notice? How will Council deter the creation of the almost inevitable welfare traps in which people do not strive for higher incomes so as to not lose their benefits (in this case the apartment they have secured)? How will Council ensure the system is not gamed, for example, by a couple in which only one of them is a lower-income worker but that can otherwise afford a different place further out in Melbourne, or by a parent using a kid as the applicant? Considering that whatever income threshold is set to qualify for these apartments is also unequivocally a bar for discriminating those who earn more than said threshold, why should those who earn more be barred from applying to live in the highly desirable Yarra Council just for the sin of earning a bit more money? It’s not as if anyone who does not qualify can indeed “afford” rent in Yarra, whatever this word means in practice – many will also rightly feel that they’re struggling, thus generating resent for earning just above the imposed threshold. Or will these apartments be more “social housing”, with all the issues they entail? This appears to me a policy marred with issues that I hope Yarra takes time to mitigate, as I am more than happy to be proven wrong in this regard.

Concerns and suggestions aside, the latest report by Mayor Stephen Jolly is unequivocally a breath of fresh air in what many feel is a decaying State. It radiates positivity, hope, and the promise of a better tomorrow. Yarra, along with other Councils pushing back against unpopular State policies and bureaucratic overreach, represent a bright and renewed light of hope for every Victorian wishing to live in a place that is safe and clean within the constraints of common sense and without breaking the bank – and I will definitely count myself amongst them. I wish Mayor Jolly and the Yarra Council the best in implementing all the policies that reflect the needs and wishes of the locals first and foremost. May other Councils follow suit to the best of their abilities, as I cannot help but to feel envy for Yarra locals that now have the opportunity for real change, and enjoy a Council that is happy to champion it.