OPINION
NEWS DESK
Peninsula misunderstood Council election year in boundary changes plan ‘satisfaction’ survey By David Gill* HAVING one person in charge of boundaries and names for wards on the Mornington Peninsula leads to the possibility of the first political gerrymander in Australian history. The electoral structure review panel which is about to announce details of 11 wards on the peninsula was appointed by and is accountable only to the Local Government Minister, Melissa Horne. The new wards will replace the six existing wards and be in place for the October council elections. There is no apparent way of splitting the shire into 11 wards that improves the existing boundaries in the best interests of the general community, including small businesses and farmers. The naming of wards should be put on hold until properly investigated. I object to the process but understand that the minister moved the independent powers away from the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) onto an appointed panel and that the minister will make all final decisions without the usual early or acceptable community consultation. The panel is answerable only to the minister not to the community. Feedback is basically limited to several choices made by the panel on important shire ward boundary and naming decisions in a regional municipality unsuited to the newly mandated (with no consultation) one
councillor wards. The lack of thought put into naming the 11 wards disrespects the communities of the peninsula’s 42 towns and villages. The VEC has previously stated that single councillor wards are unsuitable for council’s like Mornington Peninsula. The panel is also contemplating splitting areas to have large population centres join with sparsely populated rural areas. This would create a disaster for these mainly farming areas - 70 per cent of the shire is in the green wedge zone - as the likelihood of a rural representative being elected in such a population imbalance would prove too difficult for most candidates, leaving the rural sector unrepresented. A councillor elected by large town populations would find it difficult to represent a small minority when prioritising services and projects, and in understanding rural issues. The panel has clearly not understood the peninsula and the cultural, demographic and geographical issues when naming wards in this forced and rushed exercise. The recommendations are crude and lack careful consideration and ignore democratic traditions and laws of fair distribution including the plus or minus 10 per cent "maximum" average variation in the number of voters in each ward. The naming of wards, which are
likely to remain for many years, received little consideration and the government should be ashamed that consultation was non-existent. The panel recognises that proper examination was not possible. Consideration of First Nations language names has been shelved, apart from several off-handed suggestions with no evidence provided of the historic or other meanings of the words, except if they were used by European pioneers. Altogether this is a cheap and nasty outcome based on political engineering to do with metropolitan councils in which Mornington Peninsula Shire is unfortunately caught up, as we are designated metro not rural by the state government. None of the choices for one councillor ward boundaries should be used but, as they are the options in the 11 ward scenario, then the option with least change keeps some integrity of mutual interest for our segmented communities. There is no apparent way of splitting the shire into 11 wards that improves the existing boundaries in the best interests of the general community, including small businesses and farmers. The naming of wards should be put on hold until properly investigated. * David Gill represents Red Hill Ward on Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, one of three single-councillor wards.
Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au THE first quarterly community satisfaction survey for 2024 will be held across the Mornington Peninsula late this month and in early February. Residents will be phoned and visited door-to-door and asked to answer questions about Mornington Peninsula Council services by Metropolis Research. The outcome of the survey could influence the election campaigns and voters’ opinions of candidates in the October council elections. The elections will also be notable as the shire will be then have 11 singlecouncillor wards, with five new ward names being added to the existing six. The mayor Cr Simon Brooks said “feedback” from the survey was “integral” to how council services were delivered across the peninsula. A news release from the shire stated that survey “has been designed to assess our ongoing performance to identify areas of service improvement”. The 400 interviews in the 15-minute survey would be conducted with a “representative sample of residents”. Metropolis Research officers would carry an ID card and Metropolis Research shoulder bag and “will not enter your home, nor will they ask to use your toilet, ask for a drink”. “The survey will take up to 15-minutes to complete and we will use the feedback to assist us in improving our
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services to the community,” the news release stated. Council’s decision to appoint Mertropolis followed two consecutive years of poor satisfaction survey results. This month’s survey comes on the heels of widespread opposition to councillors agreeing to allow an interactive Harry Potter-based event in the wildlife sanctuary at The Briars, Mount Martha and their debates over establishing a costly “transparency and integrity hub” (All clear for transparency hub, The News 8/1/24). The surveys which showed the poor results for the shire were made on behalf of the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (Shire again misses survey satisfaction, The News 21/6/23). The results of the next four surveys - including the one starting this month – will be sent to the department for its annual municipal perfortmance report. The shire was rated at an “all-time low” in 2022, with the following survey registering an overall performance score of 50, three less than in the previous one. When appointing Metropolis in mid-2022 then mayor Cr Steve Holland said it was “simply a new provider using a slightly different methodology to do the same annual survey” (‘Satisfaction’ surveys start this week, The News 11/7/23). Previous results for the shire at: mornpen.vic.gov.au/communitysurvey
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