Council Watch has gone line-by-line through the Draft Budget… not the glossy summary, but the actual numbers. And what we found should make every ratepayer stop and think. They are spending MORE on computers and IT than they are on roads. Yes. Seriously. FIRST – THE OPERATING MONEY PIT Before a single road is fixed or project delivered, this is where your money disappears: • Materials and services: $252.720M • Employee costs: $234.131M • Depreciation: $78.534M That’s HALF A BILLION DOLLARS...

Melbourne’s push to flood established suburbs with high-rise apartments is running headlong into a problem no planning map can wish away: the numbers are not stacking up. Across 60 designated activity hubs, zoning changes now permit towers up to 20 storeys and beyond near major transport investments. On paper, the housing yield is immense. Capacity runs into the hundreds of thousands of dwellings. In reality, only a fraction of those homes are commercially viable under current conditions....

While the engines roar at Albert Park and the government celebrates a multi-million-dollar spectacle, Middle Park residents say they are the ones left paying the real price - and they’re pointing the finger squarely at City of Port Phillip. For four days each year, nearly half a million racegoers descend on the area. Locals say what follows is predictable: footpaths buried under dumped e-scooters and e-bikes, driveways blocked, cars crammed into every available strip of asphalt and nature...