CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillors, Council officers, members
of the public gallery and the broader community following
the meeting via live streaming, welcome to the 19 September 2023 Council meeting.
In accordance with Council&apos;s Governance Rules, members
of the community were afforded the opportunity
to provide a written statement or request to speak in relation
to eligible agenda items for tonight&apos;s meeting.
This meeting is being recorded and streamed live on the internet
to enhance the accessibility of Council meetings
to the broader Bayside community.
The recordings are archived and available on Council&apos;s website.
All care is taken to maintain your privacy.
However, as a visitor in the public gallery,
your presence may be recorded.
A reminder also to Councillors, officers and members of the public gallery
to check that your mobile phones are switched off or placed on silent
during the meeting.
Thank you, Councillors.
We will now commence with the items on the agenda.
Item 1 is the prayer.
Thank you, Councillors.
I would like to invite Councillor Castelli to read the prayer.
Could all present who are able to stand please stand.
Thank you, Councillor Castelli.
CR CASTELLI: Oh, okay.
I did have
- oh, here they are.
Sorry, I need to get my glasses out.
It&apos;s too exciting.
Okay.
O God, bless this City, Bayside, give us courage, strength and wisdom,
so that our deliberations may be for the good of all.
Amen.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Please remain standing.
I would like to invite Councillor Samuel-King
to read the Acknowledgement of Country.
Councillor Samuel-King.
CR SAMUEL-KING : Bayside City Council proudly acknowledges
the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional owners and custodians
of this land and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging
as well as any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community members with us today.
Council acknowledges the Bunurong&apos;s continuing relationship to the land
and waterways and respects that their connection
and spiritual identity is maintained through ancient ceremonies, songlines,
dance, art and living culture.
Council pays tribute to the invaluable contributions
of the Bunurong and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders
who have guided and continue to guide the work that we do.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillors and members of the public,
I ask that you remain standing to observe a minute&apos;s silence
for the recent passing of two former Mayors of the former City
of Sandringham over the past few weeks, namely, Lesley Falloon OAM
and John Moller OAM.
(A minute&apos;s silence).
Lesley Falloon OAM was elected to Sandringham Council in 1978
and continued to represent her constituents through
to 1992.
Lesley was elected Mayor in 1982/83 and again in 1991/92.
Lesley was a strong community activist, an advocate for women in leadership
and had a strong passion for the community.
Lesley was instrumental in the establishment of Fairway Aged Care
in Bluff Road, Sandringham, which is where Lesley lived out her last days
at the age of 103.
Lesley also commenced the Mayoral Golf Day in 1982 at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club
which has continued to grow over the years, raising much needed funds
for the community.
To this day, over $2 million has been raised.
Our deepest sympathy goes out to Lesley&apos;s daughter, Janet,
and her children during this time.
John Moller OAM was elected to Sandringham Council in 1984 through
to 1993 and was Mayor in 1989/90 and represented his constituents
with great passion and was a strong advocate for veterans
and the Beaumaris RSL.
Following Council amalgamations in 1994, John was appointed by the Government
as the Chief Commissioner of Hume City Council for a period
of three years, where his good governance skills
and local government knowledge was put to good use setting up one
of Melbourne&apos;s largest municipalities.
Our deepest sympathy goes out to Trish and her family during this time.
Thank you.
Please be seated.
We&apos;re moving to item 3, apologies, and there are no apologies for tonight.
Item 4, declarations of interest.
I understand that there are some conflicts of interest this evening.
Councillor Samuel-King.
CR SAMUEL-KING: Mr Mayor, item 8.2 and 10.3, I have a general conflict
of interest.
For 8.2 and 10.3, it is that my partner, Marcus Gwynne, is the strategic consultant
for the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve Master Plan development and also,
in addition for 10.3, he has been appointed
to the judging panel.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, and you have filled out the red form?
CR SAMUEL-KING: Yes, I have.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Also, we do have a personal statement.
I understand, Councillor Martin, you wish to make a personal statement
to the meeting.
CR MARTIN: Thank you very much, Mr Mayor.
At the 15 August ordinary meeting of Council I displayed behaviour
that was not in keeping with our Councillors Code of Conduct.
I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to the Mayor,
my fellow Councillors, officers and Bayside residents.
Being elected Councillor is a privilege.
Ensuring constituents are represented all the times is paramount.
I make the commitment to you tonight that this lapse of control
will not happen again.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Martin.
I accept your apology.
We&apos;re moving to item 5, adoption and confirmation of the minutes
of the previous meetings.
5.1, confirmation of the minutes of the Bayside City Council meeting held
on 15 August 2023.
Do we have a mover?
CR EVANS: Move.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Evans.
CR DEL PORTO: Second.
CR EL MOUALLEM: And we&apos;ve got a seconder by Councillor del Porto.
Would you like to debate?
No.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, against, and that is carried.
Section 6, public question time.
In accordance with Councillor&apos;s Governance Rules,
there will be a maximum of 15 minutes allocated
for public question time.
The questions and responses read out during this time
will be published in the minutes.
All questions, even those not read out in the time allocated,
will be responded to in writing.
No more than two questions with a maximum of two parts
to each question are permitted per individual.
The reading of each question will be limited to the question only.
Any associated preamble will not be read out unless required for clarity.
It should also be noted that on occasion the CEO or Mayor may determine
to redact or disallow a question on the basis that it does not comply
with Council&apos;s Governance Rules.
There were 14 public questions received tonight, and we start with question 1
from Mr Jeff Naylor.
Mr Jeff Naylor submitted a question related to accessibility at Cerberus Way
and Mr Naylor asked: &quot;How do Council think that providing extra
wheelchair accessible car spaces at the bottom
of Cerberus Way an appropriate response to the challenging terrain
for pedestrians moving from Beach Road along Cerberus Way without a vehicle.&quot;
A response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: The accessible parking spaces in the lower car park
in Cerberus Way allow opportunities for those with a disability to park
and use the facilities and the beach.
It is acknowledged the physical geography of Cerberus Way creates challenges
for people with mobility issues.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
We do have another question from Mr Jeff Naylor.
Mr Jeff Naylor submitted a question related to accessibility
at Gardenvale Train Station and Mr Naylor asked:
&quot;Does Bayside Council consider the pedestrian ramp
from the Gardenvale Train Station to Martin Street safe
for mobility impaired including people in manual wheelchairs?
Which of our Councillors would be willing to give us a demonstration
in a manual wheelchair? &quot;Response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: The railway track and infrastructure,
including station buildings and land, are owned by VicTrack on behalf
of the State Government and is leased to Public Transport Victoria.
Public Transport Victoria is guided by disability standards
for accessible public transport.
Council, through its Disability Action Plan,
aims to ensure Council facilities meet Disability Discrimination Act requirements
, incorporate universal design, and have inclusion at the heart
of operation and management.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
Question 3, from the Honourable Mr Timothy Wilson.
The Honourable Mr Timothy Wilson submit a question related
to infrastructure grants and Mr Wilson asked:
&quot;Before or following our federal MP, Zoe Daniel, voted to repeal $100 million
in infrastructure grants to Bayside and Glen Eira, did Council write
to our federal MP and ask her to support these essential grants Council
had previously submitted documentation for and were granted in previous Budgets?&quot;
Response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: The Department of Infrastructure notified Council
following the release of the October 22-23 budget that the commuter car park program
is not continuing and therefore funding for the Hampton commuter car park
in Thomas Street will not proceed.
Council resolved in December 2021 to only proceed with the project
if it was funded through the Federal Government
Urban Congestion Fund.
Council has not written to federal MP Zoe Daniel
regarding the Australian Government&apos;s withdrawal of its funding commitment
to the Hampton commuter car park upgrade.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
We do have one other question from the Honourable Mr Timothy Wilson.
The Honourable Mr Timothy Wilson submitted a question related
to the Federal Government&apos;s energy price cap plan and Mr Wilson asked:
&quot;With our federal MP, Zoe Daniel, voting for nearly $1 billion in new subsidies
to coal companies as part of the Federal Government&apos;s energy
price cap plan, has Bayside Council done an analysis of its additional share
of emissions that would need to be offset to take account of this subsidy
to fossil fuel companies?&quot;
Response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: The Australian Government manages and delivers policies and programs
to underpin the supply of reliable, secure and affordable energy.
Council has not analysed the emissions offsets, but does recognise
and understand that a rapid transition out of fossil fuels is required in order
to meet net zero emissions.
Council made a declaration of climate emergency in June 2019,
firmly recognising that the people of Bayside are at risk of climate change.
We are working with the State and Federal Governments
to encourage material support for rapid emissions reduction
and community transition out of the use of fossil fuels,
which are the primary cause of climate change in Bayside.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
Moving to question 5, from Mrs Alysia Regan.
Mrs Alysia Regan submitted a question related to bike lanes
during school transit hours on Balcombe Road, Beaumaris
and Mrs Regan asked: &quot;Can Bayside Council advocate on behalf
of the community, specifically students from Mentone Girls Secondary College,
Stella Maris Primary School, Beaumaris Primary School,
Beaumaris North Primary School and Beaumaris Secondary College
to VicRoads for safer cycling bike lanes during school transit hours
on Balcombe Road, Beaumaris?
Example: No parking 8am-9am and 3pm-4pm in the bike lanes
on Balcombe Road.
&quot;Response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: Along Balcombe Road between Charman Road
and Beach Road there are wide parking lanes that function as a shared space
for cyclists and parked vehicles.
An alternative riding route to Balcombe Road is Cloris Avenue
and Folkstone Crescent in Beaumaris to access Reserve Road, which
is a lower traffic and speed environment compared
to the Balcombe Road and may be preferred over the arterial Balcombe Road route.
On-street parking is managed by Council, so advocacy to the Department of Transport
and Planning (DTP, formerly VicRoads) would not be necessary,
but any changes to on-street parking would require detailed
consultation with the affected community.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Moving to question 6, from Mr Geoff Leigh.
Mr Geoff Leigh submitted a question related to footpath maintenance
and Mr Leigh asked: &quot;For each of the financial years 2020/2021,
2021/2022 and 2022/2023 (a) what was the estimated cost of repairing damaged or
in need of repair for footpaths in the City of Bayside
for each of the years listed above; (b) what funds were spent
on repairing damaged or in need of repair for footpaths in each of the City
of Bayside for each of the years listed above.&quot;
Response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: For the three financial years in question, 2021, 2022 and 2023,
the budget for footpath reactive maintenance was $1.3
million per year.
The funds were fully spent in 2021 and 2022.
In 2023 we spent $2.1 million.
The increased expenditure was due to addressing specific issues
in activity centres.
Council also runs a footpath renewal program
to address footpaths that are approaching end of life.
The budget for this program was $1.42 million
in 2020/2021, $1.6 million in 2021/2022, $2.0 million in 2022/2023,
with expenditure of $1.25 million, $1.96 million
and $2.1 million respectively.
The budget was increased to carry out more reconstruction works
on activity centre footpaths.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Moving to question 7, from Mr Geoff Leigh,
Mr Geoff Leigh submitted a question related to claims as a result
of accidents involving footpaths and Mr Leigh asked: &quot;(a) For each
of the years 2020/2021, 2021/2022, 2022/2023,
how many complaints has Council received regarding accidents on footpaths?
List by each year listed above.
(b) What if any funds of council or insurance claims have been
paid to any person or persons?
List by the years listed above.
Response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: In relation to claims as a result
of accidents involving footpaths for the year 2020/21 there were 18 claims,
in 2021/22 there were 21 claims, and in 2022/23 there were 15 claims lodged
In response to part (b), insurance claims paid out
in 2020/21 totalled $3,855.00, in 2021/22 the amount was $1,000,
and in 2022/23 the amount was $2,915.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
Moving to question 8, from Mr James Newbury MP.
Mr James Newbury MP submitted a question related to Council&apos;s Reconciliation Action
Plan Advisory Group and the matter of Australia Day and Mr Newbury asked:
&quot;Can you please outline in detail the exact type
of public consultation, including metrics, that Council&apos;s Reconciliation Action Plan
Advisory Group took before taking a position
to recommend changing the date of Australia Day?&quot;
Response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: The results of the most recent Community Satisfaction
Survey were discussed with the advisory group.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
We&apos;re moving to question 9, from Mr Greg Plumb.
Mr Greg Plumb submitted a question related to infrastructure in Bayside
and Mr Plumb asked: &quot;Can council provide the details,
either the dollar amount or percentage breakdown, of funds going
into art infrastructure in comparison to sporting infrastructure in the
past five years?&quot;
Response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: Council has spent $208 million on capital expenditure
over the last five years, of which $69.7 million was spent
on sporting infrastructure and $921,000 on arts infrastructure.
The projects included in Council&apos;s capital program are
determined based on Council&apos;s long-term asset plans and prioritised based
on service need, condition assessment, and available funding.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Question number 10, from Mr Nicholas Healey.
Mr Nicholas Healey submitted a question related to reconciliation action plans
and Mr Healey asked: &quot;Are reconciliation action plans mandated
by State or Federal Governments or is it a council choice to adopt one?
Response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: The Equal Opportunity Act plays an important role
in promoting equality and freedom from discrimination for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people.
In 2019, Council committed to developing its Respect RAP and
in 2022 adopted a two-year Innovate RAP.
Bayside&apos;s RAP, while not legislated, responds to clear expectations
of our community through Our Council Plan and Our Promise, &quot;we promise open
and accountable civic leadership&quot;.
The RAP aligns with the Bayside 2050 community vision
in leading the way demonstrably as a diverse, healthy and liveable place.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Question 11, Ms Colleen Harkin.
Ms Colleen Harkin submitted a question related to Council&apos;s Reconciliation Action
Plan Advisory Group and the matter of Australia Day and Ms Harkin asked:
&quot;The RAP advisory body recommendation seeking to move Australia Day
without considerable community engagement is in breach of the terms of reference.
ABS census report shows 169 households in Bayside identify
as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Please provide evidence of the due diligence the RAP advisory body
has undertaken to engage the other 43,103 dwellings and the statistical results
that underpins the advisory body&apos;s recommendation.
&quot;Response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: The Reconciliation Action Plan Advisory Group considered the results
of the most recent community satisfaction survey
and no other consultation.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
Moving to question 12, also from Ms Colleen Harkin.
Ms Colleen Harkin submitted a question related to costs pertaining
to Council&apos;s Reconciliation Action Plan and Ms Harkin asked:
&quot;Can Council provide a complete fiscal account of the cost of the RAP
and any activities undertaken, including but not limited
to paid staff attending meetings, resources provided, materials created,
et cetera?
What is the total cost of the RAP to ratepayers since its inception in 2019?
If this information is not at hand, will Council give commitment
to make this information publicly available by the next meeting? &quot;Response
from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: Council expenditure on the Reconciliation Action Plan
since its inception to date has been $149,740
on employee salaries and $34,715 on implementation costs.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
Question 13, from Mr Angus Morrison.
Now what I would like to say is that it should be noted that part
of this question was not read out given it was in part preamble and
in part deemed to be objectionable in language or substance in accordance
with Council&apos;s Governance Rules section 57(9)(b).
And the question from Mr Angus Morrison is: &quot;Bayside Council has openly stated its
preference for electrification including the purchase and use of electric vehicles.
Why is Council both prioritising the purchase
of environmentally polluting vehicles ...? &quot;Response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: Bayside City Council endorsed a declaration of a climate emergency
in June 2019 firmly recognising that the people of Bayside are at risk due
to climate change.
We are working with the State and Federal Governments
to encourage the community to transition out of the use of fossil fuels,
which are the primary cause of climate change.
The global and local transition to electric vehicles is part
of that change.
Council is not in a position to comment on a specific manufacturer&apos;s track record
on human rights or environmental standards
CR EL MOUALLEM: And the last question, question 14, from Mr Angus Morrison.
Mr Angus Morrison submitted a question related to Council&apos;s Reconciliation Action
Plan Advisory Group and Mr Morrison asked: &quot;What is the split of members
by association with Bayside in terms of 1, living; 2, working; 3, studying; 4,
volunteering (aside from the RAP advisory group); and 5,
has a connection with Bayside and for those with only a connection
with Bayside what is their connection as this is a vague and broad term?&quot;
Response from the Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: The RAP Advisory Group has eight community members.
Six live in Bayside, including two who are also local business
owners and one works in Bayside in a community organisation.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
That concludes public question time for this evening.
We&apos;re moving to section 7, reception and reading of petitions,
and there were no petitions submitted to the meeting.
Section 8, minutes of advisory committees.
8.1, records of meetings held under the auspices of Council.
Do I have a mover?
Thank you, Councillor Martin.
CR MARTIN: Happy to move.
CR EL MOUALLEM: And a seconder?
Thank you, Councillor Stitfold.
Would you like to debate?
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, and it is carried.
Moving to item 8.2, minutes of the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve
Committee of Management held on 16 August.
I understand, Councillor Samuel-King, you have a conflict of interest.
CR SAMUEL-KING: Yes, I will leave.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Can you please tell us again the conflict of interest
before you leave?
CR SAMUEL-KING: So my partner, Marcus Gwynne,
is the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve Master Plan development strategic
consultant.
CR EL MOUALLEM: And it&apos;s a general conflict of interest
- CR SAMUEL-KING: It&apos;s a general conflict.
CR EL MOUALLEM:-
- and you have filled up the red form.
CR SAMUEL-KING: Yes, I have.
CR EL MOUALLEM: We&apos;ll give you a call when we&apos;re done.
CR SAMUEL-KING: Great.
(Councillor Samuel-King leaves the chamber).
CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillors, I&apos;m in your hands.
Councillor del Porto?
CR EVANS: Second.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillor del Porto, would you like to say
- CR DEL PORTO: I&apos;m chairman of the committee.
The committee looked at the following matters considering
community edge and wildflower meadows on the reserve, the signage strategy
for the reserve, action arising, and an update on the rezoning
of the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve.
Thank you.
Councillor Evans?
CR EVANS: Yes, I just went up there the other day
and I noticed that the fence is around the wildflower meadow,
so that looks as though it&apos;s about to get going, so happy to second it.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
Councillor Evans, any further debate?
No further debate.
Would you like to close, Councillor del Porto?
CR DEL PORTO: No, thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: I&apos;ll put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Stitfold, Councillor El Mouallem, and it is carried.
And we are at 8.3
- can we call Councillor Samuel-King back, please?
(Councillor Samuel-King returns to the chamber).
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Castelli.
Okay.
We are at item 8.3, minutes of the Reconciliation Action Plan Advisory
Group meeting held on 30 August 2023.
Councillors, it has come to my attention that a quorum could not be
reached throughout the meeting of the advisory group and on that basis,
there are no recommendations submitted to Council from this advisory committee.
Do I have a motion or an alternate
- Councillor Stitfold?
CR STITFOLD: The alternate motion is on the screen.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Do you mind reading it, please?
Just turn on your microphone and please read it.
CR STITFOLD: The alternate motion is on the screen, &quot;that Council receives
the minutes of the Reconciliation Action Plan Advisory
Group meeting held on 30 August 2023; 2, affirms its commitment, practice
and support for Australia Day celebrations on January 26; 3,
informs the community via an article in Let&apos;s Talk Bayside
and Council&apos;s communications channels.&quot;
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Stitfold.
Have we got a seconder?
Councillor Samuel King.
Councillor Stitfold, would you like to debate?
CR DEL PORTO: I&apos;ve got a question of the mover, Mr Mayor.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Yes, please go ahead.
CR DEL PORTO: The question is would they be happy to include point 4,
&quot;that Council writes to the federal member for Goldstein advising
of Council&apos;s decision to maintain Australia Day celebrations
on January 26&quot;
as part of your motion?
CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillor Stitfold
- just please in the microphone.
CR STITFOLD: Thank you, no, I&apos;m not happy to include that.
CR EL MOUALLEM: You&apos;re not happy.
CR DEL PORTO: I&apos;ll move an amendment then.
CR EL MOUALLEM: You&apos;re moving an amendment
Can I have a seconder for the amendment.
CR EVANS: Second.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Evans.
Councillor del Porto.
CR DEL PORTO: Thank you, Mr Mayor.
Mr Mayor, the motion that we have before us
- CR EL MOUALLEM: Can you read the amendment, please?
CR DEL PORTO: Yes, &quot;writes to the federal member
for Goldstein advising of Council&apos;s decision
to maintain Australia Day celebrations on January 26&quot;.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
CR DEL PORTO: Okay.
Mr Mayor, it&apos;s very simple.
I mean, point 2 that&apos;s been moved by Councillor Stitfold
and Councillor Samuel-King &quot;affirms its commitment and practice
and support for Australia Day celebrations&quot;,
so it seems to me it&apos;s only logical that we let the local member know what is
on our minds and I think that&apos;s the very formal way
to do it.
So I think it flows logically from point 2 and point 3.
Point 3 talks about having Let&apos;s Talk Bayside have
an article there and Council communication channels.
I have absolutely no problems with adding point 4 to it
and I think it&apos;s quite consistent with points 2 and 3,
so that&apos;s why I&apos;m interested in moving the amendment.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor del Porto.
Councillor Evans.
CR EVANS: Thank you, Mr Mayor.
Yes, I&apos;m happy to support.
It&apos;s a federal matter, so I think it should be delivered
to the federal member, it&apos;s only courtesy, and the federal member should know
as it&apos;s a federal matter.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
Any further debate?
Councillor Castelli.
CR CASTELLI: Yes, I would prefer that fourth point to be put
in.
I think it just makes it complete because we all love the day,
it&apos;s Australia Day, it is a special day.
It brings people together.
So I&apos;m quite happy to support point 4.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Castelli.
Councillor Martin?
CR MARTIN: Just a question.
CR EL MOUALLEM: A question to the officers?
CR MARTIN: Yes.
Is this the right place for such an amendment to be tagged on
to an advisory committee set of minutes?
CR EL MOUALLEM: Probably Governance or Acting CEO.
ACTING CEO: Yes, through you, Mr Mayor, I guess that&apos;s a matter
for your consideration as Councillors.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
CR SAMUEL-KING: May I ask a question of order?
Councillor Stitfold moved the motion and she hasn&apos;t had a chance to debate it.
CR EL MOUALLEM: And we&apos;ve got a seconder, but we&apos;ve also got an amendment
and the amendment received a seconder too.
Would you like to debate?
Councillor Martin.
CR MARTIN: Look, I get it, but I just sort of think it just seems a bit unusual
with the context of those three things.
I&apos;ve got no problems with the member being advised,
but there was no change tonight anyway, there was no possible change,
so I&apos;m just not sure why we&apos;re writing and expending Council resources
on something like that.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Martin.
Councillor Samuel-King.
CR SAMUEL-KING: Also, point 4 is a complete shock.
It hasn&apos;t been discussed or debated until
- well, not at all.
We are making no change, no decision, so I see no reason to write
to our federal member.
I don&apos;t know what we&apos;re doing and I&apos;m a bit concerned that I&apos;m surprised
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
Any further debate?
We&apos;re debating the amendment and if the amendment gets the numbers,
it becomes a motion.
CR STITFOLD: And I&apos;d just like to debate the point that it feels
redundant.
We already have advised that this is the practice and it seems
to me that it&apos;s a duplication of process.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Stitfold.
Now, you&apos;ve all had your turns.
I might say a couple of things and probably a response to why do we need
to add point 4, if you can pay attention to item 6.3 in the agenda,
where the advisory group is actually asking us to write a letter
to the federal member for Goldstein.
So I&apos;m not sure why it&apos;s good enough for the advisory group to ask us to write,
but not good enough for us to write without them asking us to write.
It is a federal member.
I 100% support Councillor del Porto on this amendment.
I&apos;d just also like to say that this created lots of tension
in our community and I&apos;m going to be honest with you,
I don&apos;t lose sleep often, but that is one item that kept me awake
for the last couple of days.
It stirred up lots of emotions.
I thought that we do have an agreement as Councillors that we&apos;re not changing
the date because we have consulted with the community when we went
out previous, a couple of months ago, and the community was, I believe,
came to us to say no, we want to keep Australia Day, we want
to keep the celebrations, we don&apos;t want to see any changes,
and that was the majority of responses.
So I was taken back, I was gob smacked when I saw this
recommendation specifically because it did not come
to us in a briefing.
It just came into the agenda and I was first made aware of it
by Councillor Castelli when I was on a Saturday evening and I&apos;ve read it
and I just wasn&apos;t sure how it came along.
But now I&apos;ve asked some questions and it seems to be there was a meeting
of the group, advisory group, which I absolutely have no problem
with the advisory group putting recommendations out.
I&apos;m on board of probably another three or four groups
and lots of them put recommendations out.
They come to Council and sometimes we support them,
sometimes we don&apos;t.
In this case, this recommendation that goes
against a decision of Council, I absolutely am not supporting that.
I migrated here 23 or so years ago.
I love this country, I appreciate everything that it&apos;s given me
, and I absolutely have no intention to change anything, especially
regarding Australia Day.
So I&apos;m in full support.
Councillor del Porto, please, you can close.
CR DEL PORTO: I don&apos;t think I&apos;m allowed.
It&apos;s an amendment.
CR EL MOUALLEM: You&apos;re not allowed, so I&apos;ll put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor El Mouallem.
- Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold, Councillor Martin
and it is carried, so it becomes a motion and it&apos;s carried.
CR EVANS: No, hang on, we&apos;ve got to debate the motion.
CR EL MOUALLEM: So we&apos;ll now vote on it as a motion.
CR CASTELLI: Oh, can we debate this motion?
CR DEL PORTO: We&apos;re now debating the motion.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Yes.
CR DEL PORTO: Thank you for that, Mr Mayor.
Mr Mayor, I think this motion makes it clear
that Bayside Council is not, I repeat not, changing the date of Australia Day and it
will be 26 January next year and in the future as well.
Mr Mayor, we support advisory committees.
I support them, I voted to create them, and I&apos;m very happy and appreciate the work
that volunteers that work within them contribute.
I have no issue at all.
Advisory committees don&apos;t make Council policy or change Council practice.
The motion before us on page 20 of the agenda, instead of talking
about Council considering its position regarding Australia Day actually requests
that Council seeks support from the local member to get in touch
with the Government to actually change the date
as a matter of urgency.
Now, as you&apos;ve said yourself, the current practice is
to retain Australia Day.
We have not had a formal vote on it and this is the first time we&apos;ve had
an opportunity to have a formal vote.
We&apos;ve had informal discussions and those discussions indicated
that there didn&apos;t seem to be enough support for any change.
So I think that we have agreed
- we&apos;ve never agreed as a body of Councillors to change the date
of Australia Day, so I think tonight we&apos;ll just reaffirm it.
And in the future I think what we should do as my humble view is that officers
and even Councillors like myself present at meetings,
if there are motions that are ultra vires, which means beyond the powers
of that committee, then they should be nipped in the bud there
and then, or the wording could be changed.
If the wording had been more like the one that I just read,
will Councillor reconsider, absolutely, there&apos;s no issue
with advisory committee saying that, but to instruct Council to get in touch
with a local member as a matter of urgency and for that wording to come to us
without any briefing and for the wording of the recommendation tonight to talk
about Council adopt the following recommendations completely bypasses
Council and actually is contradictory, inconsistent with what we have.
So, for those reasons, I just feel that it&apos;s a complete beat-up,
in actual fact it&apos;s a complete beat-up, Mr Mayor.
I read the Herald Sun and I think, you know, they can say what they like,
but we&apos;re not going to change the date of Australia Day tonight.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor del Porto.
Councillor Evans.
CR EVANS: Thank you, Mr Mayor.
Yes, I support that.
Mr Mayor, as Councillor del Porto has said,
there&apos;s been informal discussions amongst the Council
and there&apos;s been general agreement with the Council that the day would stay
the same and I support that.
And I do support the fourth one of advising our federal member.
I just think that&apos;s courteous.
I think it&apos;s a courteous thing to do and I don&apos;t see why some Councillors
mightn&apos;t think that a courteous thing to do.
It is a federal matter, it is a federal matter
about Australia Day, so the general consensus that we had
during discussions amongst Councillors was to keep it the same day.
I supported that and, again, I see no reason and I see it courteous,
and I&apos;m a courteous person, to advise our federal member, whoever
he or she may be at the time
- it happens to be Zoe Daniel
- and I think it&apos;s the right and proper thing
to advise our federal member as a federal matter.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Evans.
Any further debate?
Councillor Castelli?
CR CASTELLI: Yes.
I&apos;d just like to say what Australia Day has meant to us
in particular as Europeans came here and settled, you know, across our country,
Australians celebrate this public holiday with great enthusiasm.
We&apos;ve seen it, we&apos;ve seen it on that day.
Australia Day is also a time for honouring the contributions made
by many individuals, including migrant Australians and
all our many ethnic and Indigenous groups within Australian society.
This acknowledges Australian military
- well, it also acknowledges Australian military
service, recognises the accomplishments of professionals every day,
ordinary Australians, and commemorates the rich
and multicultural cultural heritage of this country.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Castelli.
Any further debate?
Councillor Samuel-King?
CR SAMUEL-KING: Mr Callant, can you pop up some slides?
CR EL MOUALLEM: You&apos;ve got some slides?
CR SAMUEL-KING: Yes.
The answer regarding moving the date of Australia Day or even advocating
in relation to that for me is no.
It&apos;s no, Mr Mayor, for three reasons.
The first is timing.
Mr Mayor, we stand on the eve of a potentially historic decision.
Our First Nations people have spoken from the heart and
they have asked us two simple questions: will we acknowledge them
as the traditional owners in the Constitution,
and will we give them a voice on matters that relate to them?
For me, it is a question of love and it is a question of heart to heart.
Will we love or not?
Will we live in hope or fear?
Will we listen or shut our ears and turn our backs?
Next slide, please.
And will we acknowledge the oldest continuous living culture on our planet?
And it was for this reason I was very upset
that this matter was brought up now in the way that it was.
Next slide, please
- just one of the heart.
The second reason
- and next slide, please
- is I really do not believe the majority of Bayside residents want us to muck
with the date.
And the third is about national identity.
Australia Day matters, as does the date, as does our identity.
Let&apos;s not muck with it.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Samuel-King.
Councillor Martin?
CR MARTIN: Yeah, look, I became very, very confused around yesterday or Sunday,
when all this sort of kicked off.
Down in my community we are represented by an MP as well
and I&apos;ve canvassed this issue down there and no-one really knows
about it at all.
I&apos;m sorry you&apos;ve lost some sleep on it, Mr Mayor, but down my way no-one
actually knew anything about this, that this was so controversial,
that an advisory committee that was put together to give us advice
on reconciliation action plan matters came up with the idea that
they thought it would be a good idea to advocate to change the day,
and I would suggest that they are giving us that advice
because the day has become incredibly divisive.
It&apos;s not a great day
- it used to be, I agree, I used to get out there and put the hat on
and have some fun, but when I saw the sorrow
and the pain that was emerging in the community over Australia Day,
I took some time out in my own personal journey
- you know, spending 10 years in the Navy and seeing a lot of hurt and pain
and working out why we&apos;re fighting for the country, et cetera, et cetera,
I thought well, if not everyone is happy with the day, this is a great country
and we can work through it and try to find a day that does make everyone
happy.
In relation to this matter, everything comes to this Council.
It&apos;s a recommendation.
Page 20 of the report says, &quot;It is recommended that it adopts&quot;.
We change things all the time.
If this had come up, we would have just changed the words
tonight and made sure that we weren&apos;t
going to be doing something that we were against.
That&apos;s what we do.
But what happened over the last 24, 48 hours, someone went off and wrote to
all their constituents sort of like
- like some constituents have actually thought that we were going
to change what we do on Australia Day tonight.
That&apos;s what they actually think because the local member went
and told them that&apos;s what we were doing tonight.
You know, the other member, who&apos;s the Shadow Treasurer,
he knows a few things, he didn&apos;t do it, but this member did.
I got an email saying that 2,500 people have seen this
and they&apos;re not very happy with what we&apos;re doing tonight.
We&apos;re governing their municipality under the local act,
that&apos;s what we&apos;re doing.
So it&apos;s really disappointing to see people mobilising community members
over matters that aren&apos;t
- I think Councillor del Porto said, it was a beat-up
and I&apos;m really disappointed that we&apos;ve lost some time over that
because there&apos;s some really important things to talk about tonight,
some really fantastic things that this Council has achieved
over the last 12 months in relation to climate change, in relation
to our environmental standards, and many, many other things.
This is an administrative matter.
I don&apos;t know why we&apos;re writing to Zoe, but look, it&apos;s always good to catch up
with her.
She&apos;s a great member.
So I support everything that (bell sounds) Councillor Samuel-King
has said tonight, everything.
So yes
- look, I don&apos;t get right up about Australia Day anymore.
I go to the citizenship, but I don&apos;t celebrate it.
I don&apos;t stick it up in people&apos;s faces anymore
and I&apos;m looking forward to the country moving on.
Hopefully we&apos;ll get a yes vote and once we get that yes vote,
we can have a proper debate on how we treat our Indigenous Australians
, my brothers and sisters.
That&apos;s how I treat them.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Martin.
Councillor Stitfold?
CR STITFOLD: During the August meeting of the Reconciliation Action Plan Advisory
Committee a report was presented with regard to the findings
of the community satisfaction survey which asked &quot;should Council continue
to hold events such as citizenship ceremonies
on January the 26th, Australia Day?&quot;
Of the 714 respondents, 37% supported Council continuing
to hold events on Australia Day, 21% opposed, and 42% did not provide
a response.
The results were therefore largely inconclusive.
In response to the briefing, the RAP Advisory Committee suggested
the matter be referred to the federal member
by a letter seeking consideration for change.
All advisory groups are constituted to provide advice and feedback to Council,
whether it be the RAP Advisory Committee, the Disability Access
and Inclusion Advisory Committee, the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve
Committee, the Audit and Risk Committee, and so on.
It is important and it is right that these committees provide
suggestions which we should take into consideration when making decisions
within the broader context.
We will continue to conduct an Australia Day ceremony
in conjunction with the citizenship ceremony,
including respectful acknowledgment of what January 26 means
to First Nations people.
While there are differing points of view, we also have much in common,
including the right to express our views with respect and without doing any harm.
We also agree that consultation should be broad and inclusive.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Stitfold.
I&apos;ll just say a couple more points and then I&apos;ll hand over to you,
Councillor del Porto, to close.
I&apos;ll probably disagree that the community consultation we&apos;ve done is inconclusive.
We received 263 in support and 153.
So if you add them together, at 416, and you divide them,
you&apos;ll find that there are 63.2% in support of keeping Australia Day.
So we&apos;re talking about 263 people versus a committee of three people.
So we want to say
- 263 people is not inclusive, but a committee with three people
with no consultation is
- so I&apos;m not buying this.
But also the fact that I received also an email
from James Newbury telling me more than 2,500 people replied
to his survey in around 24 hours and 76% of them support keeping Australia Day
on 26 January.
I&apos;ve been receiving emails, letters, SMSs, people walking to me.
I&apos;m so sorry, Councillor Martin, you didn&apos;t hear about it in your ward,
but earlier today, this morning, I met actually an MP and he&apos;s a member
of the Legislative Council eastern region Parliament of Victoria who lives
in your neck, probably not in your area, but it was
in probably the shadow minister or the shadow finance, and he wrote to me and
he said Australia Day is a day when we should be celebrating our
wonderful country for what we have in common and not
for how we are different.
I also believe that Bayside Council should be concentrating
on local issues rather than being sidetracked
with identity politics more suitable to a higher level of government,
and that&apos;s Jeff Bourman MP.
So I&apos;m sorry you didn&apos;t hear it yourself, but I&apos;ve been getting emails
from your area about it and people calling me also and that
is one of them.
So Councillors, as I mentioned earlier, this really stirred up some emotions
in my community and I am glad that we are now confirming
that we are not changing anything for Australia Day at least, you know,
for this Council term, for the next Council term.
If they want to change things, I really recommend they go out
to the community and tell the community that, you know, we don&apos;t believe in it,
put it out there on their corflutes and let&apos;s see how the community act to it.
So I personally
- I love absolutely everything about 26 January.
My son was born close to that date and I do celebrate it and I&apos;m very proud
of it.
I&apos;m not going to keep going on and on, I probably would say the wrong things now,
I&apos;m a bit emotional about it, but for someone who migrated here
from a different country and get given all these opportunities, I only owe it
to this country and I am not willing to change it.
Councillor del Porto, back to you.
CR DEL PORTO: Yes, look, very quickly, I am surprised that people
in Councillor Martin&apos;s ward haven&apos;t heard it.
They clearly don&apos;t read the Herald Sun, which is probably not a bad thing really,
but the Herald Sun had quite an article and it was on the radio as well.
Mr Mayor, Australia Day is a federal issue.
When you, Mr Mayor, tomorrow will swear another 100 citizens
as Australian citizens, you will read the speech from the article
from the Immigration Minister and you will explain,
like every Mayor has done for the last 25, 26 years, that you&apos;re doing it on behalf
of the Federal Government.
You&apos;re not doing it on behalf of the local council.
So, strictly speaking, if they want to
- it&apos;s got to be changed, it&apos;s got to be changed from up there, not from
down here.
So, you know, I think what we&apos;re doing is absolutely proper.
I don&apos;t have an issue with putting point 4.
Point 2 talks about reaffirming our position,
so I don&apos;t see why some councils have an issue about point 4 at all, at all.
So as you said yourself, point 4 was going to be reflected
with the wrong wording for the motion in the original
recommendation anyway to get in touch with the local member.
So I just hope everybody can support this.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor del Porto.
Now I&apos;ll put this motion to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, and it&apos;s carried unanimously.
Thank you.
Moving to 8.4, I understand, minutes of the Audit and Risk Committee held
on 28 August 2023.
Can I have a mover?
CR CASTELLI: Yes.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Castelli.
CR EVANS: Second.
CR EL MOUALLEM: And seconder Councillor Evans.
Would you like to debate, Councillor Castelli?
CR CASTELLI: I&apos;m fine with this.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillor Evans?
CR EVANS: No, Mr Mayor, I wasn&apos;t there.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Any further debate?
No further debate.
I&apos;ll put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, and it is carried.
8.5, minutes of the Audit and Risk Committee meeting held
on 6 September 2023.
Can I have a mover?
CR EVANS: Move.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillor Evans, and seconded by Councillor Castelli.
Would you like to say
- CR EVANS: Mr Mayor, I just wanted to highlight in the risk
and audit committee meeting just the sensational report from the aged care
and disability services under 9.8.1.
Again, this came up in the risk and audit, but again, it&apos;s one
of the things that I just think we should be highlighting all the time
as much as we possibly can to tell our community
about the wonderful stuff that we&apos;re doing in our aged care that Joan and Tiller
and their group are doing within our services.
Just read those things, and the community can&apos;t read them
because they&apos;re confidential, but again, most of the stuff is about the aged care
and the services that we&apos;re doing that we&apos;ve taken up and a lot
of councils haven&apos;t done it.
We&apos;re leaders in this field and I&apos;m so proud.
Every time it comes up, I like to have a little yarn about it, Mr Mayor.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Evans.
Councillor Castelli?
CR CASTELLI: (Inaudible).
CR EL MOUALLEM: Any further debate?
No debate.
I&apos;ll put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, and it is carried.
Moving to section 9, reports by special committees,
and there were no reports by special committees submitted
to the meeting.
Section 10, reports by the organisation.
Councillors and members of the gallery, there was one written statement received
to tonight&apos;s meeting.
In addition, there was one request to speak received.
Registered speakers have 2 minutes to make their presentation.
The time will be electronically displayed on the screen above and
after the time has expired, you will hear this sound (buzzer sounds).
A reminder also to the speaker to please contain your presentation
to the subject matter.
Please also ensure your comments are respectful and refrain
from making any derogatory or defamatory comments of any Councillor, member
of Council staff or member of the community.
Should you be in breach of this requirement, your presentation
will be immediately terminated and you will be asked to return to your seat.
Should you have any documents or pictures to be circulated to Councillors as part
of your presentation, please indicate when you approach
the speakers table and the Governance Manager
will review the documents first and assist in distributing them to each Councillor.
To ensure the best audio experience for the gallery
and those following the meeting online, if speakers, officers
and Councillors could also remember to speak directly into the microphones.
Moving to item 10.1, Climate Emergency Action Plan annual
update, and there is no request to be heard received.
Do I have a mover?
Councillor Samuel-King.
CR SAMUEL-KING: I&apos;d like to move an alternate.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Would you mind reading the alternate, please?
CR SAMUEL-KING: Can it be put on the screen, please?
So I&apos;m reading the extra three points, or would you like me, Mr Mayor,
to read the whole?
CR EL MOUALLEM: No, please read them.
CR SAMUEL-KING: Yes, point 4, &quot;reports annually and communicates
to the public on Bayside&apos;s community emissions and how
they are measuring up to our target&quot;.
Point 5, &quot;liaises with state and federal local members
to develop advocacy strategies for the rapid reduction of emissions
through regulatory change and associated initiatives&quot;.
And point 6, &quot;continues with our existing advocacy priorities
through SECCCA&quot;.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
And do I have a seconder?
CR DEL PORTO: I&apos;ll second that.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor del Porto.
Councillor Samuel-King, you can debate.
CR SAMUEL-KING: Mr Callant, I&apos;ve just got a couple of slides.
So I&apos;ve said previously that climate change is the single greatest challenge
of our time.
A stable climate is the fundamental basis of a stable civilisation.
It&apos;s something we&apos;ve had the privilege of having as a species, I suppose,
for a few thousand years and it is at risk and Australia is particularly vulnerable.
The State of the Climate 2022 is a Federal Government document authored
by preeminent climate scientists, some of whom are Bayside residents.
They speak of a grim reality that is that not only is our climate warming
and changing, but that Australia is particularly vulnerable.
So next slide, please.
Here&apos;s just some of the extracts from that report.
Our climate has warmed by an average of 1.47 already
since national records began.
Sea surface temperatures have increased by an average
of 1.05 degrees centigrade since 1900, and this has led
to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events over land and sea.
This has already happened.
Next slide, please.
There&apos;s been a decline of around 15% in April
to October rainfall in the southwest of Australia and across the same region.
From May to July, rainfall has seen the largest decrease.
In the south-east of Australia, there has been a decrease of around 10%
in April to October rainfall since the late 1990s.
With this, a decrease in stream flow and an increase in extreme fire weather
and a longer fire season across large parts of the country
since the 1950s.
And I picked out perhaps some of the least scary parts of this report.
The next slide, please.
So we now have a choice.
What do we do in relation to this, to one of the most vulnerable countries facing
what is probably arguably the biggest challenge that has ever faced humanity?
Do we take our time?
And we&apos;ve already decided no, we&apos;re not going to take our time, we have
to radically reduce our community emissions and we&apos;ve got to do it now.
Next slide, please.
This is a graph of the targets we have set ourselves,
and for good reason, it&apos;s because the scientists told us we had to.
And if you look at the top words here, we find that it is technically feasible,
albeit very challenging, to accelerate emissions reductions
beyond the reference case, which was the one before,
and to the degree required to meet the city&apos;s emissions targets
for the community.
So we can do it, it&apos;s technically feasible,
it&apos;s just going to be incredibly challenging.
And as I read deeper into the report that our officers wrote,
what came up again and again and again is we need the State Government
and the Federal Government to be working with us if we&apos;re going to succeed
in our targets and we need to not only know what we&apos;re doing,
how we&apos;re going, are we actually meeting our targets,
but we need to work with SECCCA (bell sounds) and we also need
to work with our local members.
We can do it.
It&apos;s just going to be incredibly tough.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Samuel-King.
Councillor del Porto, you seconded?
CR DEL PORTO: Thank you, Mayor.
We have a range of information tools to assist residents
to reduce their carbon footprint.
Council&apos;s web page includes tools to enable residents
to create an energy-efficient home, install solar with solar savers,
make the switch to green power, electrify your home,
increase sustainable travel, improve waste and recycling outcomes, circular economy.
Bayside has committed to transition Council buildings to
all electric gas free by June 2030.
On advocacy, we actually are working with SECCCA partners
through Councillor Martin, I think Councillor Stitfold as well,
on areas including legislating targets to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees,
committing to strategic investment to support access to renewable energy,
develop a state and national roadmap to map the path to net zero emissions,
develop a network of electric cars charging infrastructure,
and we&apos;re doing that at Council as we speak,
develop a gas transition fund, develop a community resilience fund,
increase investment in Victoria&apos;s household energy savings
package, support for the development of an advanced waste processing
alternative to landfill for Bayside and other Councils
for Melbourne&apos;s south east.
Bayside Council has successfully delivered 90% of actions as outlined in year 3
of the Climate Emergency Action Plan.
Council I think should be very proud of its performance.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor del Porto.
Any further debate?
Councillor Martin.
CR MARTIN: Yeah, look, we&apos;ve done a lot of work and it&apos;s absolutely brilliant
and I really do tip my hat to the officers that have got all
of this done.
In fact, it must be an exciting role to be involved
in Bayside implementing changes that are going
to make our community safer, particularly around the emissions.
But I want to talk about adaptation.
We&apos;re going to have to do two things at the same time.
I saw this little boy on the TV two days ago, three days ago,
and he was sucked out of his apartment in Derna in Libya, washed out to sea,
and then miraculously washed to shore.
He lost his entire family.
CR EVANS: Mmm, I saw that.
CR MARTIN: And there was other people, the survivors that were talking
about what had happened that day.
This was a Mediterranean storm.
I did a bit of research on it and they&apos;re pretty standard across there,
they whip up like a cyclone, but nothing like this has ever happened on the planet.
You know, I&apos;m talking about a whole city was just washed away.
You would have all seen the images.
So Bayside does have to electrify and do all that sort of stuff
to keep the emissions down.
But one thing I thought about was are we doing enough
to protect our citizens?
Are we doing enough to make sure the ones that are in the low-lying
grounds are protected and are given the proper tools
to make an assessment of where they live and what they do?
We&apos;ve got some big decisions to make, I think, as a community, not just
at Bayside.
The biggest one coming up for us, of course, is Elsternwick Park.
You know, we&apos;re about to put $80 million in a culvert
to just push it out into the Bay.
We&apos;re waiting for the modelling.
I&apos;ve asked questions about that.
It better come up to nearly 100% or I&apos;m not even sure
if I&apos;ll support that anymore because we&apos;re going to have
to have serious conversations with people who are living in flood zones
and do we spend $80 million to give them an 80% protection?
I&apos;m not sure.
There&apos;s other ways to do it.
So adaptation, preparing ourselves for ice storms where you could wake
up or walk out of your office and in 15 minutes what happened in the western
parts of Sydney, 2,500 roofs were smashed to pieces
- hospitals, municipal buildings, ambulance, fire stations, the whole lot,
those types of storms.
Is Bayside ready for that?
Are we ready to mobilise and protect our community on something
like that?
The heat waves
- have we got a grip on what heat could do to all of our vulnerable?
We&apos;ve got the oldest
- one of the oldest populations.
Do we know where they all are?
You know, I heard today that if we had a period of heat
above average that we&apos;ve had just in the last six days in the peak of summer
for six days, we&apos;re talking 50 degrees plus for
- like have we got line of sight of all of those folk?
And even if we have, have we got the buildings to put them in
to keep them cool and safe for six days?
So I&apos;m starting to think this climate change piece
is really good, but the adaptation piece and protecting our community, is it going
to happen this summer?
I don&apos;t know, but looking overseas, looking at Greece, even looking
up north when we saw Lismore go under twice.
So this is really good work, but unfortunately, we&apos;re going to have
to do more, in my opinion, and I&apos;m up for it, but we have to work with State
and Federal Government.
We&apos;ve got to ignite the fire to say look, is it really going
to take a boy getting washed out to sea until they start listening to us?
So we&apos;re just not doing enough adaptation and protecting our communities.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Martin.
Any further debate?
Councillor Stitfold.
CR STITFOLD: Yes, I want to thank the officers
for the significant amount of work that they&apos;ve done, working
and making connections at all levels of government, both the State
and the Federal.
There are very good liaison points with the federal member, but also
at the state level they work with DEECA and also with Sustainability Victoria.
One of the pieces possibly missing there is greater connection with ministers,
so it&apos;s good to see that that is in there.
Things that have been achieved is the home efficiency expo,
which was incredibly well attended.
There is also all of the work that is being done through CASBE,
so there&apos;s also all of that liaison and work with different Councils.
So I think at many levels we have all of that.
We also need to remember there&apos;s the individual level
and that is so incredibly important if we&apos;re talking
about a holistic approach and a systems-based approach.
Every action has an onward action.
We need to think it through from the beginning of the piece
until the end of the piece.
And I can see that there is a lot of work going into that thought process
and I hope that it continues and that we do understand that
if you interfere with one piece, and we&apos;ve seen this because climate change
is an anthropogenic caused effect, then we will have continuing issues.
We can reverse that, we can think about what we do every single day,
and that is equally important that we take that responsibility
from an individual level and not rely on necessarily Council&apos;s efforts or
the State or the Federal Government.
It&apos;s a whole of planet action.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Stitfold.
Councillor Evans?
CR EVANS: Thank you.
I&apos;ll be brief, Mr Mayor.
I actually supported the officers recommendation, but I do like point 4.
I really think it&apos;s one of the things that Councillor Samuel-King,
and supported by Councillor del Porto, reporting back to our community
about what we&apos;re doing.
I think sometimes we forget who we represent, but it&apos;s always good that
we can go back and tell them about what we are measuring.
We tend often to just go along and do our thing and think that
- we don&apos;t tell the public and I know we try to on all occasions,
but this gives a sort of direct thing of reporting annually and also community
- catering to our public about the emissions
and how they&apos;re measuring up.
Maybe we should do it a little bit more than annually, but if we start
off annually, I think that&apos;s a really good start.
So I think that&apos;s one thing that I really do support, so thank you,
Councillor Samuel-King and Councillor del Porto
for including that.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Evans.
Any further debate?
Councillor Castelli?
CR CASTELLI: Okay, I&apos;m going to take this into another perspective, another view,
and I don&apos;t think it&apos;s surprising how I feel about this 2035 net zero emissions
coming up so pretty close.
It&apos;s pretty good, pretty fast, but anyway.
So this is my perspective of things.
Look, I do agree that carbon dioxide emissions
could be problematic with population growth,
but punishing people isn&apos;t the answer here
Grasslands, crops, rangeland and forest, soil and water are being destroyed
in the name of renewables, impeding their ability
to absorb carbon dioxide.
So moving towards a green economy may lead to job losses of course and grass
and gas sectors which could negatively affect communities that depend on them.
While there are opportunities for new jobs in green industries,
the transition might not be smooth, anyway,
and some workers may face displacement for certain periods.
So wind and solar (inaudible) and take away land
from its existing users such as farming and an extraordinary amount of land
will be needed.
Okay, so look, I&apos;ll go to
- I won&apos;t go all of this, however, because I&apos;ve written quite an extensive
note.
However, with turbines, for instance, nobody talks
about the impact that turbines do.
This does not align with the environmental claims as
they heavily rely on coal.
It&apos;s difficult to defend the notion that large turbines, which harm birds
and marine life and contributes to oil spills,
are environmentally beneficial.
Solar panels release lead, selenium, chemicals that can pollute soil
and water posing risks to farmland, the turbines appearance built are ugly
and, yes, I&apos;ve seen them and I&apos;ve actually stood under them.
So I can go on to batteries, landfill, solar panels,
land fills can potentially harm the environment.
Solar panels contain heavy metals, such as cadmium and lead.
They can leech out of the panels and enter soil and into groundwater.
If they are not properly contained in the landfill, this can lead to soil
and water pollution.
This is a negative effect on plants, animal life and also on human health.
And another thing, what happens when it blacks out?
It doesn&apos;t really give us an idea that it&apos;s going to be very smooth running
at all.
So if the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine, what will have
to power our lives?
There will be no heating or cooling or cooking for your family.
We have more resilient options available, so why should we solely rely on one source
from the climate?
- sorry about that
- not use the grid, why not use the grid for other sources of power?
Clean gas and nuclear power is my view are safer alternatives
to relying on our climate to power us in the climate crisis
and the alternatives to climate wind and solar power
will still help achieve lower harmful emissions.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Castelli.
It&apos;s probably my turn now to say a couple of things.
Before I to do so, I&apos;ve got a couple of questions.
We just heard from Councillor Castelli about green gas and nuclear power.
Is there any mention of these technologies for us to achieve the net zero by 2035?
Is there anywhere in the documents that&apos;s covered?
MS JILL COLSON: Through you, Chair, no, there&apos;s not.
CR EL MOUALLEM: No, there&apos;s not.
So we won&apos;t achieve it without the green gas and
without nuclear power.
Another question, I read somewhere here in the document
that we&apos;ll be phasing out the use of gas at some stage, especially I think
- CR DEL PORTO: Sorry, Mr Mayor, I didn&apos;t actually follow what your
question was and what the answer was.
CR EL MOUALLEM: If we are to achieve net zero emission by 2035,
Councillor Castelli mentioned green gas and nuclear power, so I&apos;ve asked if there
is any
- in this document if we are relying on these technologies
- CR DEL PORTO: To achieve it.
CR EL MOUALLEM:-
- to achieve it and the answer is no.
CR DEL PORTO: So can I ask Ms Colson to explain it again?
I&apos;m a bit confused.
MS JILL COLSON: Yes, through you, Chair, no, we&apos;re not making any reference
to nuclear power in the document and we are
in fact encouraging our residents to move off gas to clean electricity,
in particular solar energy.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
So my next question was I&apos;ve read somewhere about phasing gas,
so I received a question from one of the operators who&apos;s got a hospitality
business with gas heaters on the footpath and he claimed that
at some stage we&apos;ll be phasing the use of gas on this infrastructure.
Is that correct?
MS JILL COLSON: Through you, Chair, I believe that was part
of a local law conversation that Council had.
I&apos;d need to take that on notice around the gas.
CR EL MOUALLEM: No problem.
I think it&apos;s on
- there&apos;s somewhere on page 96 something to say business community to commit
to phasing out gas.
Nevertheless.
I&apos;ll say a couple of things on this.
I&apos;ve heard the debate
- sorry, Jill?
MS JILL COLSON: Oh, through you, in terms of referencing page 96 in particular,
so that report is just really providing a bit of a sector overview
of a whole range of opportunities at a much broader level.
Council isn&apos;t committing to anything in the report that&apos;s
referenced on page 96.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
So Councillors, I heard both sides to it and I actually
- the one thing that I believe we should be doing is more adaptation, so I agree
with Councillor Martin on that 100%, but I&apos;ve also heard some comments here
tonight that we need to radically reduce community emissions,
so that was mentioned tonight.
Now I&apos;m hearing that
- I&apos;m reading things about gas.
There is no mention for alternative, so green gas or nuclear power, in there
and I&apos;m just torn.
So on one hand, I&apos;m all in support of the adaptation
and seeing what we can do to protect our residents, but also I am
- you know, it&apos;s possibly right, the comment about the biggest challenge
we have is climate change, it&apos;s possibly globally,
but in our community here I believe we have other concerns, so safety,
the cost of living, the rental and housing issues.
To me that&apos;s what the residents are telling me are more important.
So what I&apos;m seeing here in the earlier debate on the Australia Day,
I&apos;ve seen a bit of resistance for us to just write to the federal member
about it to confirm our decision to stick with Australia Day
and there was a bit of resistance, but here in item 5 we are hearing that
we need to liaise with the state and federal to develop advocacy strategies
for rapid reduction of emissions through regulatory changes
and initiatives.
Then I&apos;m going back to some of the pages here in the report
and I&apos;m reading things like advocate for changes to strata titles
and then advocate for minimum rental standards that include
PVs.
I keep on reading them and there&apos;s advocate
for minimum rental standards to include heat pumps, and it goes on and
on.
So I&apos;m actually now starting to get a bit worried.
As much as I like us to do the right thing,
I believe we are probably just taking it a bit too far in my opinion.
So I&apos;m all for the right thing and all for the adaptation, but when I&apos;m looking
into some of the details in these documents and I&apos;m looking
into the recommendation here, it seems that we are ignoring the cost
of living, for example, and the housing crisis
and the rental crisis in favour of just reaching the net zero by 2035,
but that is without any reference to nuclear power.
Like I seriously am not sure if we can achieve this.
It&apos;s great, but at this stage I cannot support this,
as much as I&apos;d love to support the adaptation piece to it,
but as a whole document I cannot support it.
I&apos;ll put it back to you, Councillor Samuel-King.
CR DEL PORTO: Mr Mayor, I&apos;ve got
- I know I&apos;ve spoken.
I&apos;ve got a question.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Yes, go ahead.
CR DEL PORTO: Mr Mayor, through you, just the debate that Councillor Martin
was involved with, regarding Elsternwick Park
and Melbourne Water, can I ask a question about what happens
if Councillors are not convinced there&apos;s enough benefit for Bayside Council
with the works?
CR EL MOUALLEM: Jill, I believe we&apos;ve asked you this before.
CR DEL PORTO: Can Council block this, or are we just going to be able
to be told, &quot;Well, look, thank you very much, we noted your issue,
but we&apos;re going to go ahead with it anyway&quot;?
How much power do we have?
CR EL MOUALLEM: Jill, do we have a response to this?
MS JILL COLSON: Through you, Chair, we are continuing discussions
around the design for Yalukit Willam.
CR DEL PORTO: I didn&apos;t get that.
I can&apos;t hear.
MS JILL COLSON: Oh, sorry.
Through you, Chair, we&apos;re continuing discussions
with Melbourne Water around the design for Yalukit Willam and that will come up
to Council once it&apos;s been
- CR SAMUEL-KING: I need to declare if it&apos;s about the nature reserve,
but I think the question is about the head street diversion.
CR DEL PORTO: It was, but Elsternwick Park was mentioned as well
- CR SAMUEL-KING: Then shall I leave?
CR DEL PORTO:-
- but it&apos;s the head street.
CR EL MOUALLEM: So we&apos;re not debating this any further.
CR DEL PORTO: I&apos;m asking whether we have the power to block or just
to be
- CR EL MOUALLEM: Sorry, Jill, do you mind just replying by an email
to Councillors and we can keep Councillor Samuel-King
here?
CR DEL PORTO: Yes, just an email.
CR EL MOUALLEM: So just take it on notice, please.
Okay, Councillor Samuel King, would you like to close?
CR SAMUEL-KING: Our entire civilisation and I believe country stands
on a precipice.
We can boil or we as a civilisation may survive,
and not just that our way of life, our coast, our capacity
to live where we want to live and our elderly vulnerable people
surviving the heatwaves, our farming communities surviving.
This is not a small matter.
And of course we want to work with our local members.
Why wouldn&apos;t we?
We&apos;ve already decided we want to reach these emissions.
They were the targets we set.
And one thing I love about the officers, and you absolutely have to be commended,
is we gave you those targets and the officers have had a can-do
- &quot;Okay, these are the targets, let&apos;s go for it, it&apos;s going to be challenging,
it&apos;s going to be tough, but we can do it.&quot;
But one thing they said is we&apos;ll need to work with our local, federal,
all levels of government and the community and yes,
absolutely adaption to climate change, particularly
if the most vulnerable members of our community are going to survive.
Our mums, our dads, are they going to make it through the next heatwave?
Is my mum going to make it through the next heatwave?
I don&apos;t know.
This stuff matters and I think it&apos;s incredibly important that
we really do what we&apos;ve got to do and make the tough decisions we&apos;ve got
to make.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Samuel-King.
I&apos;ll put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans, Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King.
All those against, Councillor Castelli, Councillor El Mouallem, and it is carried.
Moving to item 10.2, Bayside Environmental Sustainability
Framework Annual Progress Report.
Do I have a mover?
CR MARTIN: Happy to move.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Moved by Councillor Martin,
and seconded by Councillor Samuel-King.
Councillor Martin?
CR MARTIN: Look, this is a piece of work that&apos;s been in progress
for a long time and tonight&apos;s report sets out what we&apos;ve achieved
over the last I think it&apos;s 12 months and it&apos;s very, very important.
As you mentioned just before, you know, trying
to ensure people who rent apartments can get heating and cooling at a rate that
they can afford, making sure the buildings are built so
they&apos;re easier to cool and easier to heat, it&apos;s all kind of connected.
And there&apos;s a whole range of other things that I really recommend
people to get their
- you know, to get informed about.
There is a lot of things.
Like you said, you read and you start getting overwhelmed and that
is a reaction that can happen.
But don&apos;t get overwhelmed, get informed, and we can work through this
and we can make sure that we can get our infrastructure,
our built environment, our natural environment in the best shape
it can be through good governance, good regulation,
orderly so it doesn&apos;t happen overnight, so it doesn&apos;t catch people out.
That&apos;s what the sustainability design framework is all about.
I&apos;ll just finish with just one example of the circular economy, which
is what the goal for a lot of this sort of stuff is about,
and that&apos;s the continued purchasing of materials and product that contain
over 10% of recycled content.
So in the report timeline that accounted to 3,112 tonnes of asphalt, 1,228
reams of paper, 46 tonnes of crushed rock, and 42,000 of our municipal bins.
It&apos;s just one example of the progress we&apos;re making
in the recyclables.
But you can go through sustainable transport,
sustainable water, waste management, procurement, and the list goes on.
So we&apos;re really making a lots of headway and it&apos;s almost
like a superannuation account.
It takes you sort of 30 years to make sort of 10 grand, but the next year it&apos;s 20
and then 50 and 80.
So we&apos;ve done the hard yards and now we&apos;re starting
to see the benefits come through very quickly.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Martin.
Councillor Samuel-King.
CR SAMUEL-KING : It&apos;s a rare evening that I don&apos;t have
an alternative motion to something like this and I take it as a measure
of the officers&apos; success.
So thank you.
I&apos;d just like to highlight some of the wonderful things that we are doing.
I&apos;m particularly excited to see the Gardens
for Wildlife program flourish and continue and I&apos;m very interested
to see how that goes; the planting of almost 3,000 trees,
and I&apos;ve seen those trees, many of us have, go in
and it&apos;s absolutely fabulous; the removal of almost all barbed wire across Bayside,
fabulous to see; the ecological burns.
It&apos;s just been a really lovely thing to watch and I hear from members
of the community so many times how they love what we&apos;re doing across Bayside
in this space.
I just have one little question for officers, and you can take it
on notice if you like.
Back when I first came to Council, I spoke about the importance of water for wildlife
and I know that must be somewhere buried deep, if not in here somewhere else.
How are we going with that?
MS JILL COLSON: Through you, Chair, yes, it&apos;s part of the annual action plan
for the Biodiversity Action Plan, the water for wildlife, so officers are
in sort of preliminary discussions about how that might get scoped up.
So it&apos;s something that we&apos;re keenly wanting to progress
over the next 12 months.
CR SAMUEL-KING: Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Ms Colson.
Any further debate?
No debate.
I&apos;ll say a couple of words.
This is slightly different to the 10.1.
In my opinion, what we&apos;re doing here is actually some really good work
and I refer to, for example, the review of the existing occupancy
of Council buildings and how we&apos;re going to in our property strategy improve
the utilisation of these buildings.
So in my opinion, this is a great action and one that I fully support.
So we don&apos;t really need to go out there and keep building the new buildings,
we need to utilise them a bit better.
So something like that I am 100% in support.
We&apos;ve got another action that is continue to work with community to assist
in establishing community gardens.
I&apos;ve heard a lot from our community, specifically the elderly, downsizing
into apartments and how important it is to them to have these community gardens.
So the environmental sustainability framework, in my opinion,
is something we need to concentrate a bit more on.
I come from a place where we were forced to be sustainable, so we can live
and here we&apos;re very lucky and just to see a progress report like this,
you know, I feel very proud of the work we are doing in Bayside
and I fully support this 100%.
Councillor Martin, would you like to close?
CR MARTIN: No, I&apos;m alright.
CR EL MOUALLEM: I put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, and it is carried.
Item 10.3, design assessment panel for the Yalukit Willam Nature
Reserve Gateway Building.
I understand we&apos;ve got a conflict of interest.
Councillor Samuel-King, do you mind declaring the conflict
of interest, please?
CR SAMUEL-KING : So I have a general conflict of interest.
My partner is the strategic consultant for the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve
Master Plan Development.
He&apos;s also been appointed as a judge on the panel.
So I have filled out the red form and I will leave.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Samuel-King.
We&apos;ll give you a yell when we&apos;re done.
(Councillor Samuel-King leaves the chamber).
CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillors?
CR DEL PORTO: I move the motion as printed.
CR EL MOUALLEM: We&apos;ve got a mover.
Thank you, Councillor del Porto.
CR MARTIN: Happy to second.
CR EL MOUALLEM: And thank you, Councillor Martin.
Councillor del Porto.
CR DEL PORTO: Mr Mayor, we are appointing you and Councillor Evans
to the Design Assessment Panel for the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve
Gateway Building and looking at the motion that started this
- I think I moved it, actually, 15 September 2020
- &quot;that when the funding for the proposed Gateway Building
at Elsternwick Park Nature Reserve is confirmed, Council undertake
to restrict the design competition to ensure that the building delivered
design excellence in this important location&quot;.
So looking forward to it.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor del Porto.
Councillor Martin.
CR MARTIN: Yes, I think you&apos;ll do a good job, Mr Mayor
and Councillor Evans, and hopefully this new building will meet
all the ESD requirements and make sure it&apos;s a nice presentation
from the entry into Bayside from Nepean Highway there.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Martin.
Any further debate?
Councillor Evans.
CR EVANS: Yes, thank you, Mr Mayor.
Yes, I have asked the Governance people that I am allowed to vote on this,
to vote for myself, but yes, I&apos;m really happy to
- well, thrilled to be appointed as the Council.
It&apos;s one of the buildings I think that we&apos;ve been looking forward to for a long,
long time and again
- I have a few ideas myself, so again, I hope you and I might work
out those ideas, Mr Mayor, and I hope we also get a really fantastic
architect out of the group and a great design.
I think it&apos;s one of those buildings that should reflect
what Bayside is all about, and Councillor Martin, you&apos;re quite right,
it should reflect all the ESD attributes that we aspire to as a Council and again,
I think you and I will be doing our darnedest
to make sure that that building represents what we believe to be a great building
and an icon for Bayside.
So delighted to be part of the panel.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Evans.
Any further debate?
I&apos;ve got a couple of questions for you, Jill.
I sent you an email earlier in the week about the cost that was allocated
to this project.
In my opinion, I felt it was a bit light, specifically considering the cost
escalations that we are currently seeing.
I would just like your opinion on this.
MS JILL COLSON: Through you, Chair, we undertook a QS probably
about three months ago and so the costs were from that QS.
This is in regard to the application that we&apos;re making to the Federal Government
for funding relating to this building.
So I think for the purposes of the application that will be fine,
but obviously, as we work our way through the process, you know, we may need
to alter that depending what comes back with tenders and the like.
But we&apos;ve effectively got the construction costs and then there&apos;s effectively
the cost plan associated with that which brings it up to about a
between $6 million and $8 million bill.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thanks, Jill.
Did you advise the QS that Councillor Evans is going to be on it
and specifically in light of what we&apos;ve seen on the arts
in Beaumaris, did they take that into account?
MS JILL COLSON: No comment, Mr Mayor.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Okay.
I&apos;ll just say a couple of words.
Thank you very much for including me.
I hope it&apos;s not going to create a conflict of interest for us later on
and then we&apos;ll be asked to leave the room.
We&apos;ll wait and see.
It would be my pleasure to basically be on the panel alongside
of Councillor Evans.
He&apos;s a very well established
- retired architect I assume now and I&apos;ve heard a lot about him, actually,
before even my days on Council from some of my own colleagues
in the project management industry.
They spoke very highly of you, by the way.
So this Gateway Building, it is the first building you&apos;re going
to see as you enter Bayside coming from the city,
so I&apos;m really looking forward to basically an outcome where
we&apos;re going to design, yes, a building with a high ESD, but also an attractive
and worthy building of the site, a site that is strategic to Bayside,
Glen Eira and also Port Phillip.
So it would be my pleasure to be on board of this and I&apos;m looking forward to it.
Councillor del Porto, would you like to close?
CR DEL PORTO: Yes, just to point out that I&apos;m not sure we want
to build something that high as to be seen from the highway.
It&apos;s sort of set down a bit, so let&apos;s keep those ideas
within your limitations.
CR EVANS: Absolutely.
Spot on.
CR EL MOUALLEM: I put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Stitfold, Councillor El Mouallem and it is carried.
Can we please call Councillor Samuel-King?
(Councillor Samuel-King returns to the chamber).
CR EL MOUALLEM: And we are on item 10.4.
CR DEL PORTO: Move as submitted.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor del Porto.
Do I have a seconder?
CR EVANS: Second.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Evans.
Councillor del Porto?
CR DEL PORTO: Mr Mayor, I note that the following individuals
will be appointed for a two-year term
- Scott Mitchell, Natalie Boston, Andrew Monotti.
I know Mr Monotti and I&apos;m sure the other two are just
as qualified as he is and I think we&apos;re very lucky
to have the quality of volunteers that we do get
for committees.
The other members are being reappointed as well.
It&apos;s a top-notch, quality group of people and I know that you were saying
to me how well they work together.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor del Porto.
Councillor Evans?
CR EVANS: Thank you, Mr Mayor.
I didn&apos;t know a number of them personally, but certainly Mr Monotti has come
across my path on a number of occasions and is a really great asset,
a Brighton person that lives just on the beach down
by I think it&apos;s Kinane or one of those, so he knows the area very well,
he knows what the tourist network is all about, so I was really delighted
to see him.
He&apos;s a very high-calibre, very good man.
I do see Stephen Le Page has been reappointed and Peter Brearley,
but I don&apos;t know a number of the others, but certainly an outstanding one
in Mr Monotti.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Evans.
Any further debate?
I&apos;d just like to also mention the high calibre
of the existing members, but also the new members.
I&apos;ve met Andrew in a couple of the Bathing Box Association meetings,
I believe he&apos;s associated with the bathing boxes, but I believe also
from what I heard from our team, Natalie Boston
and Scott Mitchell also come in from professional backgrounds, you know,
in I believe shopping centres and tourism.
So I&apos;m really excited to work with this group
and I&apos;m hoping that together we can come in with some solutions
to basically the tourism issues we&apos;re facing now in Bayside,
specifically the lack of accommodation.
Councillor del Porto, would you like to
- CR DEL PORTO: No.
CR EL MOUALLEM: No further debate.
I&apos;ll put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor El Mouallem, and it is carried.
- CR EVANS: Oh, here she goes.
CR EL MOUALLEM: It looks like we&apos;ve got a block.
CR CASTELLI: Now we&apos;ve come to the best part, which is where the queen
of block happens.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Four items?
CR CASTELLI: Okay, so I propose that we block 10.5 to 10.10.
CR EL MOUALLEM: 10.5.
CR CASTELLI: Officers are fading out, so we need to
- CR EL MOUALLEM: 10.10 we do have a speaker, so it needs to be
- CR CASTELLI: 10.9, okay.
CR EL MOUALLEM: So 10.5 to 10.9.
CR DEL PORTO: I&apos;ll second that.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Okay.
Would you like to debate any of the items?
Councillors, would you like to debate any of the items or we move them
as the recommendation as written?
Okay, I put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, and it is carried.
So we are moving to item 10.10 and that is regarding the draft annual financial
statements for the year ended 30 June 2023 and we&apos;ve got one written statement
from Mr George Reynolds and we do have a request to speak also
from Mr George Reynolds.
Mr George Reynolds, do you mind coming forward?
MR GEORGE REYNOLDS: Good evening, Councillors.
We&apos;ve extracted from your draft accounts a statement of unsourced revenue
and the adjusted comprehensive income statement as required by schedule 3
of the Local Government Planning Reporting Regulations 2014.
There are no audit paths available which allow a full income
and expenditure statement.
However, we&apos;re able to find the income and expenditure making
up own source revenue and by difference total rates and charges.
As can be seen by the spreadsheet which I forwarded
with my written submission, the rates and charges levy raises $108 million
and the expenditure that you can work out from it is only $59 million.
In other words, the $49 million surplus which results is not under the control
of Council because it was not included in the budget
and must be held in trust until returned to the ratepayers.
However, the surplus is misappropriated before this by Council adding it
to the $12.5 million adjusted underlying surplus to produce the $62 million
to fund the capital works budget which it is under the control of Council,
so you have money which is not under the control
of the Council supporting the financial aspirations of the Council.
Concealing financial statements for OSR and expenditure statements for rates
and charges is an essential step in this misappropriation and this
is the first time (buzzer sounds) we&apos;ve been able to see it.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you very much, Mr Reynolds.
MR GEORGE REYNOLDS: Could I give you the last two lines?
CR EL MOUALLEM: Do we have any questions?
Are there any questions to Mr Reynolds?
No questions.
A question to the officer.
Mr Reynolds, you may take your seat.
MR GEORGE REYNOLDS: Alright.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Martin.
CR MARTIN: Yeah, look, I&apos;ve just heard Mr Reynolds.
Have we misappropriated funds in this budget?
OFFICER: Through you, Mr Mayor, Mr Reynolds continues to make these claims
over a number of years.
These claims have been investigated by our esteemed Audit Committee
and rejected.
They&apos;ve been investigated by the Ombudsman and rejected.
They&apos;ve been investigated by CPA Australia and rejected.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you very much.
CR SAMUEL-KING: I have a question for officers.
It&apos;s one of governance.
My understanding is if a member of the public
is making defamatory statements, they can be asked to take their seat.
Is that something that can be done as a matter of permanence in this case?
CR EL MOUALLEM: Mr Callant, do we need to take it on notice?
The speaker concluded his statement, so he&apos;s now sitting.
So I&apos;m not sure if it&apos;s relevant, but we can probably provide you some
advice in writing.
CR SAMUEL-KING: It&apos;s in the case that if a speaker over a period
of years continues to make false allegations that are
derogatory.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Okay, so we&apos;ll probably take it on notice
and we&apos;ll discuss it in a briefing.
CR MARTIN: Just one further question before we move it.
Could you just name one or maybe two members of the Risk
and Audit Committee&apos;s qualifications?
OFFICER: Yes, the Chair of the Audit Committee
is I understand an ex-partner of Ernst &amp; Young.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you.
No further questions?
CR CASTELLI: Just to say that Councillor Evans
and I are members of that committee and we only receive praise
from the members and they&apos;re doing a great job.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Castelli.
We&apos;ll probably mention this in your debate later.
Do I have a mover and a seconder?
Moved by Councillor Castelli, seconded by Councillor Samuel-King.
Would you like to debate, Councillor Castelli?
CR CASTELLI: Just to say that, as I mentioned, Councillor Evans
and I are members and we don&apos;t
- and we sit there and in awe of these people, they are financial gurus,
and they only sing praises and they say that Council
is doing a really great job aligning their budget.
It&apos;s very, very difficult and they&apos;re doing a great job.
They only praise them.
Thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Castelli.
Councillor Samuel-King?
CR SAMUEL-KING : I echo Councillor Castelli.
I&apos;m in awe of how Bayside&apos;s finances are managed.
If only my own finances were half as beautifully managed it wouldn&apos;t feel
like quite such a mess.
CR EVANS: Second.
CR SAMUEL-KING: Well done.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Samuel-King.
Councillor Martin?
CR MARTIN: Yeah, look, tip my hat off to Mr Reynolds to come down.
This is my seventh year on council.
I&apos;m pretty sure he&apos;s at nearly every meeting.
And I do recall I think it&apos;s section 3 of the Act, or something, and then we go
off to the spreadsheet.
But I am aligned to what Councillor Samuel-King
has said tonight because I sit here and I think hang on, it&apos;s a lot
of people&apos;s time here and, you know, vexatious speakers drive us
to the same discussion each time and it&apos;s getting to the point where I&apos;m
- I think it&apos;s time that we decide what we do about this matter.
It&apos;s disappointing, but after seven years of the same thing I don&apos;t know what else
to do.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Martin.
CR DEL PORTO: Mr Mayor.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillor del Porto.
CR DEL PORTO: My view is that if Councillors felt offended by some
of the words
- and I have in the past called Mr Reynolds out of order
- they should have got up and do it at the time.
My view is that everyone has a right to free speech.
Get them up there.
If the behaviour is not acceptable, that&apos;s when you call them.
But to be able to say let&apos;s now ban people for the future just in case
they say the wrong thing, I think that&apos;s not democratic or correct.
So you know that I&apos;m one of the first ones to call point of order when it comes
to people talking out of turn.
I was thinking about it, but I just let it go this time,
but I mean, other Councillors heard the words.
They should have got up and called a point of order there and then.
But I don&apos;t want to go any further than this.
I don&apos;t think it&apos;s right.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor del Porto.
Any further debate?
I&apos;ll just say a couple of words.
I believe we did get distracted with the speaker there, but we forgot
to mention how good it is looking, especially the operating surplus,
34.75 million, and in specific I&apos;ve seen an uplift of
around $3.4 million in the open space contributions,
which I&apos;m really looking forward to seeing where we&apos;re going to be spending
that.
But also there is a 3.6 million favourable to budget in interest rate increases.
How good is that?
So overall I believe we are doing an exceptional job here and I just heard
from our finance manager there that the Audit Committee is looking
into these accounts.
We&apos;ve also been investigated by the Ombudsman at some stage and,
you know, there is nothing that&apos;s concerning.
I fully support the Audit and Risk Committee.
They are professionals, they know what they are looking for, but what I&apos;m looking
at here is a budget that&apos;s extremely healthy
in comparison to other councils, specifically our neighbours.
So I am hoping sometime down the road in the future years
- you know, keep going as good as this one, we might be able
to tell the residents guess what, we managed the budget so bloody good that
we don&apos;t need to increase the rates.
That&apos;s a dream of mine.
Councillor Castelli, would you like to close?
CR CASTELLI: Yes, thank you.
Yes.
Well, they do a great job, that&apos;s definitely for sure.
We had an increase, wonderful.
But as far as Councillor del Porto has mentioned
about Mr Reynolds, he&apos;s been coming for seven years.
I would be surprised that ever he will ever stop,
I would be asking why isn&apos;t he here definitely for sure.
We&apos;ve listened to him and I think we can kind of stop him
from saying defamatory things, but I&apos;m not going to stop him from coming.
It&apos;s not what I do.
It is freedom of speech.
We allow people to come and have their say, but we can call them
up on things.
Look, it comes to about this time and I think the budget comes to
about the end of the night and then I&apos;m sure that people have
actually dropped off by now.
So I don&apos;t think anyone is really listening in to this,
so hopefully
- well, like I mentioned, I&apos;m not going to stop someone from coming even if
they have been speaking for seven years.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Castelli.
I&apos;ll put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, and it is carried.
Moving to item 10.11, the June 2023 quarterly financial report.
No requests to be heard.
Do I have a mover, Councillors?
Mover Councillor del Porto and seconded by Councillor Samuel-King.
Councillor del Porto, would you like
- CR DEL PORTO: No, thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillor Samuel-King?
CR SAMUEL-KING: No, thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Any further debate?
No further debate.
It&apos;s a bit too early in the night, Councillors,
so I might ask some questions.
CR DEL PORTO: You don&apos;t have to.
CR EL MOUALLEM: I&apos;ll ask some questions.
I notice somewhere in here, and especially on page
- specifically page 298, capital works budget summary,
that there are 63 projects complete.
I&apos;d just like to see is that accurate?
And just the timeframes, when did they get completed?
Is it this year, last year?
OFFICER: This represents projects that were completed
during the year that were ongoing through the year.
So it&apos;s last year&apos;s projects that were completed last year.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Okay.
And 63 of them, so that&apos;s
- OFFICER: Yes, so 63 projects completed last year.
CR EL MOUALLEM: That&apos;s great work.
Also, I&apos;ll say a couple of words.
I understand there&apos;s a bit of headwind here specifically
regarding our capital works budget and the cost
of materials being unfavourable to this and nevertheless,
we are still doing exceptionally well.
We&apos;re tracking very good.
There is a few issues unfavourable on page 301, including the cost pressures
and the footpath maintenance and also we managed to find some savings
in regard to kerbside recycling and I would just like to know a bit more
about the savings and the kerbside recycling.
How did that come along, on page 301?
And that&apos;s $286,000.
MS JILL COLSON: Through you, Chair, I believe that refers
to the savings that occurred as a result of the implementation of FOGO, which did
in fact save Council money in terms of the recycling.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Okay, thank you.
So overall, I&apos;m pretty comfortable with that.
Nevertheless, if I can get a list of the 63 projects, that would be great.
Thank you.
Back to you.
Councillor del Porto, would you like to close?
CR DEL PORTO: No.
CR EL MOUALLEM: I put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, and it is carried.
10.12, performance statement for year ending 30 June 2023.
No requests to be heard.
Do I have a mover?
CR CASTELLI: I&apos;ll move.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillor Castelli moved.
And a seconder?
CR EVANS: Second.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillor Evans.
Any debate?
No debate?
CR EVANS: No debate.
CR EL MOUALLEM: These are the exciting bits.
I&apos;ll just ask a couple of questions, one of them regarding on page 320,
the expense for property, I&apos;d just like
- I&apos;d like to understand this expense per property,
how does it compare to adjoining municipalities?
OFFICER: I have to take that one on notice, actually, and just check it
against the Know Your Council website, but I can certainly report back how it
compares.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Okay, no problem.
Now, what about the efficiency expenditure
- oh, that&apos;s the same one.
The revenue level average rates per property, I&apos;m hearing or I&apos;m seeing
on page 320 that the average rates there is 1,950
and I did ask our CEO this question, so I hope he passed it on.
I heard in Brighton that there are some residents paying up to $28,000 in rates.
I&apos;d just like first clarification that we do have ratepayers paying $28,000
on a single property, but also why is this all variance between $1,950 to $28,000
and what are we doing different to these people?
OFFICER: So we calculate
- the rate in the dollar is applied to the value of each person&apos;s property.
So the higher the value of your property, the higher the rates that you pay.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Okay.
So I understand that $28,000, we do have properties paying up
to this much?
OFFICER: I physically haven&apos;t seen those, but I&apos;m happy to take a look
at which property is paying $28,000.
But I would not be surprised by that based on the value of properties in Brighton,
particularly close to the beach.
CR EL MOUALLEM: And just the last question , I promise,
do we do anything else different to these properties that pay this extra
rate or do they get the same treatment, the red carpet treatment
like everybody else?
OFFICER: They would consume our services as every other resident consumes our
services.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Okay, thank you.
That&apos;s it.
I just wanted to clarify these things.
No debate from me.
So would you like to close, Councillor Castelli?
CR CASTELLI: No, thank you.
CR EL MOUALLEM: I&apos;ll put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, and it is carried.
Moving to 10.13, Council action awaiting report.
No requests to be heard.
Do I have a mover?
CR EVANS: Moved.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Moved Councillor Evans, and seconded?
Councillor Stitfold.
Councillor Evans?
CR EVANS: No, thank you, Mr Mayor.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Councillor Stitfold?
No debate, and Bill left the chair, so I&apos;ll let him go.
I&apos;ll put it to a vote.
All in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, and it is carried.
Item 11, reports by delegates, are there any reports by delegates,
starting with the Association of Bayside Municipalities,
Councillor Stitfold?
CR STITFOLD: Just to report that we have had a number
of meetings to progress the recruitment of the executive officer who recently
vacated the post.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Stitfold.
Metropolitan Transport Forum, I understand, Jill, you&apos;ve got something?
MS JILL COLSON: Through you, Chair, the Metropolitan Transport Forum held its
monthly meeting on 6 September.
The MTF AGM was conducted immediately prior to the September general meeting,
with the 22/23 annual report and financial statements being adopted
and the subscription fees for 24/25 and meeting dates being set.
John Burke, from the UK, provided a comprehensive presentation
on the principles of radically reimagining the public realm of cities.
Mr Burke presented on low traffic networks and discussed how the objective
is that cars can still access all roads, but cannot rat run returning
streets to residents.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Ms Colson.
And on Inner South Metropolitan Mayors&apos; Forum, there is nothing to report.
South East Councils Climate Change Alliance, Councillor Martin?
CR MARTIN: Yeah, we had the chair of the alliance come up,
Councillor Michael Whelan, the Mayor of Bass Coast Shire, and the CEO of SECCCA
and the administrative officer to meet our CEO and myself and a number
of other officers detailing the achievements
of the SECCCA work plan 2018 to 2022, it might have been 2019/2023,
a very good read, and particularly their strengthening their
advocacy over the recent state election which has achieved some significant
traction within the elected State Government.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor Martin.
Do I have a mover for this item?
CR DEL PORTO: So move.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor del Porto.
A seconder?
Thank you, Councillor Martin.
I put it to a vote.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, and it&apos;s carried.
Item 12
- there is no urgent business for tonight.
And moving to 13, notices of motion, and there were no notices
of motion submitted to the meeting.
Item 14, confidential business.
Councillors, may I have a motion that the remainder of the meeting be dealt
with in camera?
CR DEL PORTO: So move.
CR EL MOUALLEM: Thank you, Councillor del Porto,
and Councillor Samuel-King.
All those in favour
- Councillor Castelli, Councillor del Porto, Councillor Evans,
Councillor Martin, Councillor Samuel-King, Councillor Stitfold,
Councillor El Mouallem, carried.
Council has resolved to close the meeting to the public at this stage to deal
with an item of a confidential nature.
Good evening and thank you for those following the Council meeting
tonight.
Officers, please switch off the web casting.
(The remainder of the meeting was held in-camera)