‘Gamed by councillors’: How gag orders and secret arbitrations are stifling local councils - The Age

Allegations of councillors “gaming the system”, restricting ratepayer questions, fewer council meetings and preventing councillors from talking to the media are making councils more opaque than ever, critics say.

Ratepayers’ unhappiness with municipal leaders reached a flash point on Friday at the City of Yarra, when residents took to the streets outside the Richmond Town Hall and called for the Greens-led council to be sacked after it voted to slash the frequency of council meetings to just one per month.

Residents from the City of Yarra protest the reduction in council meetings on Friday at the Richmond Town Hall.Credit:Eddie Jim

Things were meant to be different. In 2020, in a bid to overhaul local government, the state government introduced the Local Government Act, butcritics claim transparency has worsened.

Residents are increasingly forced to submit questions for council meetings days in advance, and need to submit freedom-of-information (FOI) requests for information that was once freely available.

Local Government Minister Melissa Horne declined to comment on whether council transparency has worsened under the act.

But she did say: “We’re serious about improving culture in local councils and encouraging strong levels of community engagement, public transparency and financial management.”

Reduced public meetings

But at the City of Yarra, meetings will now be held at half the frequency of two years ago. Councillor Stephen Jolly, who failed to have the motion rescinded on Friday, says the move is undemocratic.

“Can you imagine if federal or state parliament unilaterally decided to only sit half the time?” he says.

But with no standard schedule for how often council meetings should be held, Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) president David Clark says the outcry over Yarra’s move is a “storm in a teacup” and reflects the time pressures councillors face.

“Most of those councillors out there are working for, if they’re not working too hard, $30 an hour, if they are working hard doing their job, probably they are getting paid $20 an hour,” he says. “So I don’t blame them at all if they think they can do the business of the council in less time.”

Questions

Restrictions on questions from members of the public to councillors at meetings are now commonplace. A majority of councils require written questions that must be submitted in advance.

First-term councillor Daria Kellander is surprised by the restrictions imposed on councillors and members of the public in Hobsons Bay.

Questions for monthly council meetings have to be submitted 1½ days in advance. And if the resident isn’t at the meeting, the question won’t be read out.

“It’s almost like it is scripted in advance,” Kellander says. “As a councillor, I want to know what a resident thinks, whether it is good or bad. It’s a restriction on freedom of speech and freedom of thought.”

Freedom of information

Councils are increasingly requiring FOI requests from members of the public and journalists who wish to access information.

“Many councils still don’t publish committee minutes, council expenses and copies of reports the community would want to see,” says Dean Hurlston, head of Ratepayers Victoria. “This has resulted in an absolute mind-blowing amount of FOIs and councils hiding behind this system to avoid disclosure.”

Last year, councils across Victoria received 1482 non-personal FOI requests and 390 personal requests, according to analysis by The Sunday Age of the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner’s annual report.

Of these requests 550 were granted, 665 were partially granted and 103 were denied.

Lengthy delays in providing information are frequent, with the City of Melbourne still working on its reply to an FOI request made by The Age in February.

“It’s just a dog’s breakfast,” Hurlston says.

Codes of conduct

Councillors are increasingly gagged by councillor codes of conduct – the most extreme versions prevent councillors from saying anything that brings a council into disrepute.

City of Hume councillor Jodi Jackson says there needs to be one simple-to-understand code of conduct across councils. “At present each council can write its own code and some of those can be unnecessarily onerous,” she says.

City of Hume councillor Jodi Jackson warns councillor codes of conduct can be too onerous.Credit:Joe Armao

Hurlston says councillors are stopped from raising criticisms of council, which is their job.

“The definition of bringing council into disrepute is terrible,” he says. “It stifles political debate and each councillor’s right to freedom of political expression and opinion. The entire system is being gamed by councillors to hatchet-job each other.”

Horne declined to comment on the use of gag clauses on councillors, and says the legislation sets out a “clear framework” for the management of councillor conduct issues.

“All councillors are expected to abide by the standards of conduct under the Local Government Act and to uphold a standard of behaviour that their community expects and deserves,” she says.

Local Government Minister Melissa Horne says the legislation sets out a “clear framework” for the management of councillor conduct issues.Credit:Joe Armao

Councils are increasingly using arbitration hearings to solve minor issues and disputes between councillors.

At the City of Hume, just one council conduct matter has cost ratepayers $76,080 so far, with the matter still not resolved.

Ratepayers Victoria wants the government to open all hearings to the public, and Clark says the MAV is in “active discussions” with Horne about fixing the system.

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‘Gamed by councillors’: How gag orders and secret arbitrations are stifling local councils - The Age
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