General News
24 April, 2023
Council makes ward restructure submission
The Central Goldfields Shire Council has made its submission to a review of the municipality’s electoral structure, supporting the proposal to split the Maryborough Ward into four sections. An Electoral Representation Advisory Panel has been...
The Central Goldfields Shire Council has made its submission to a review of the municipality’s electoral structure, supporting the proposal to split the Maryborough Ward into four sections.
An Electoral Representation Advisory Panel has been reviewing the shire’s electoral structure, along with 38 other Victorian councils, after the Local Government Act 2020 outlawed certain types of electoral structures.
Under the revised Act, the Central Goldfields Shire’s current structure of four wards with seven councillors is no longer valid.
The advisory panel handed down its preliminary report last month, proposing three options moving forward — that the shire be unsubdivided with seven councillors, the ward number be reduced to three with six councillors or that the existing Maryborough Ward is broken into four wards with seven councillors to remain.
At a special meeting last week, councillors moved unanimously to write to the Electoral Representation Advisory Panel in support of the third option, meaning the shire’s Flynn, Paddy’s
Ranges and Tullaroop wards would remain, with the addition of a central, north, east and western Maryborough ward.
Speaking at last week’s meeting, councillor Wayne Sproull noted options one and two were not favoured by councillors.
“Previous discussions around option one, an unsubdivided structure, has been reported as unpopular which has also been supported by the lack of submissions to this option,” he said.
“Option two was seen as having serious disadvantages and would see the total number of councillors reduced from seven to six and would also effectively see Maryborough councillors reduced from four to two and with a focus on growth around Maryborough, this goes against what council believes should occur.
“The council submission to the electoral advisory board is therefore in support of option three, which supports the continuation of seven councillors and Maryborough to be split into four sections — Maryborough Central, Maryborough North, Maryborough East and Maryborough West.”
The shire’s current electoral structure sees seven councillors representing four wards, with councillors Liesbeth Long, Anna De Villiers and Chris Meddows-Taylor in the Flynn, Tullaroop and Paddy’s Ranges wards, while councillors Sproull, Grace La Vella, Geoff Lovett and Gerard Murphy represent the Maryborough Ward.
According to the Electoral Representation Advisory Panel’s preliminary report, one resident argued against multi-councillor wards, suggesting the number of councillors be reduced to five, while another resident argued for increasing the number of councillors to eight — with four representing the Maryborough Ward and four representing the remainder of the shire.
The Electoral Representation Advisory Panel, in its preliminary report, found maintaining seven councillors or decreasing to six would be appropriate given modest forecast population growth.
The report for the shire is similar to neighbouring municipalities, with the Mount Alexander Shire receiving the same three proposed models, with the inclusion of an additional councillor.
The preliminary report for the Central Goldfields highlighted a shire-wide approach to council dealings, which Cr Meddows-Taylor said is already the approach of existing councillors.
“One of the advantages of option one with an unsubdivided shire (according to the report) is that we would have a shire-wide perspective,” he said.
“This council has always had a shire-wide perspective, that is the open affirmation we take and this present council will always put the whole of the shire first.”
During last week’s meeting, councillors also moved that Cr Meddows-Taylor and the mayor, Cr La Vella, represent council at an upcoming public hearing, scheduled to be held online tomorrow, Wednesday, April 26, at 2 pm.
For information on how to join the public hearing and for more information on the next steps of the review, visit vec.vic.gov.au.
The final report is scheduled to be published on Wednesday, May 24. If the recommendation is accepted, any changes will apply from the October 2024 local council elections.