"As a former councillor and Mayor in the only municipality not amalgamated by the Kennett government, I feel somewhat out of place speaking on reform of local government for an amalgamated municipality. So I have decided to speak on issues that affect the Borough as well as the City.

My views on local government reform are coloured by a number of factors:

* My dislike for the forced amalgamations of councils across the state and a belief that this process disenfranchised communities.

* My belief that communities are still reeling from a process that was forced on them.

* And my concern that the process of reform was planned and enforced from above and the focus and process of reform as we see it today leaves community out in the cold.

I am not saying that local government was perfect before amalgamation it certainly wasn’t, but have the changes made given us the improvements we were promised ?

We were promised substantial savings and reduced rates, were we not? Rates were caped, but at what cost to services and community facilities.

Rates are now on the rise after the rate cap was lifted by the Bracks Government. Under the rate capping system, Councils could not continue to provide some services or to increase spending in some areas of need. Rates may have been down but so was service delivery.

We were told that the new format planning schemes would provide the Victorian community with a more consistent approach to planning issues and certainty for the applicants, developers and decision-makers. What has it given us so far - a homogenised code, multi unit, medium density housing, loss of privacy, confrontation and even longer queues at VCAT.

We were told that CCT would also provide cost savings and better services. In the Borough of Queenscliff the cost savings never materialised. In fact it cost the Borough to prepare for CCT and it achieved no cost savings. It caused staff problems and community unrest. The Borough set up an independent committee to assess tenders, these were people draw from the community. This was also an added cost as members expenses were paid by the ratepayers. The enforced targets saw Councils across the state in turmoil and local workers out of work.

The new reinvented Councillor was in the terms of the then Minister "to behave more like a member of a board" rather than be responsive to community needs; that was to be handled by Council staff. This translated into confusion for community, Councillors and staff.

Yes, there is a need for the big picture outlook and focus on policy development, but there is also a need coming from the community for their elected representatives to respond to their everyday concerns. Therefore the board of director model isn’t one that fits with the community expectations.

Currently the city has a system of ward and regional Councillors. In the eyes of many this system is not effective. Firstly we need to address the issue of Councillor numbers. In my view the number of Councillors should be increased (12). The Bellarine Ward has one councillor for a ward the size of the state seat. The workload is too big and the demands on the individual are draining. How often do you thank your councillors if the do a good job, it’s often a thankless task.

I would suggest that the balance of ward & regional should be changed. With and increase in the number of ward representatives from 4 to 8 and the regional rep to be reduced from 5 to 4. This would give each ward two representatives, and the regional Councillors role should be developed to focus around a whole of government approach to issues. With an emphasis on establishing and maintaining the links between the wards, and mediating on ward issues.

Councillors should be paid more; a real salary. This would encourage a broader cross section of people to stand for positions at election time.

Mayors elected for a two-year term this should give at least 18 months of stability to the Mayor in her/his leadership role.

In regard to the commonly held view of tension and infighting, a process of dispute resolution needs to be developed by the regional Councillors and acted on as part of normal council meeting practice.

We need to remember that with some issues you will never get all to agree. The procedures of a council meeting are adversarial by design and the participant’s role adversarial by nature. That’s politics, and local government is political, it’s all about the numbers and who has them.

Council also needs to develop open processes of communication and consultation. Part of doing that this is ensuring that the community understands and agrees to the ground roles before a process starts.

The establishment of community committees or advisory committees to council should provide community with an opportunity to work with Council on the big picture issues. Council needs to provide opportunities for pro-active contributions from community. This new structure hopefully will do so. Contrary to some people’s opinion community groups and individuals don’t want to fight for everything, most of us want a quiet life, our participation recognised as valuable to the process and welcomed.

I thought I’d finish with my favourite reform topic, that of boundaries.

Firstly I believe the City of Greater Geelong is too big and outlying communities are not given the attention they need.

In relation to the Borough of Queenscliff border with Geelong, the ridiculous boundary down the centre of Pt Lonsdale needs to change. All Pt Lonsdale should be in the Borough. Pt Lonsdale is part of the Borough community, using local schools and services for their needs. I would like to encourage both councils to develop a strategy to canvas the community of Pt Lonsdale for their views.

I would also suggest the towns of St Leonard’s, Indented Heads, and Portarlington have more in common with the Borough than they do with Geelong.

I say expand the Borough it has proved its ability to survive and its ability to be successful in its pursuit of excellence in tourism events and community activities. I say the Borough should grow too, at the very least, to include all of Lonsdale and consideration should be given to other coastal towns becoming part of this successful municipality.

I urge you all to make submission to our new Minister, his openness to reform in local government is refreshing to say the least. It is up to us to put forward how we see local Government operating for the Geelong Region in the future. I encourage you to participate."