By Charlene Gatt
MARIBYRNONG City Council mayor Michelle MacDonald was left puzzled last week after two councillors moved an 11th-hour amendment on the East West Link Needs Assessment submission.
Cr MacDonald said six of the councillors – excluding Saltwater Ward councillor Janet Rice – had agreed on a amendment to the submission before entering the chambers.
The motion acknowledged the future need for an east-west road link but did not support the report’s recommended options due to a lack of information about the suggested road routes.
The council was also concerned about the impact the proposed routes would have on City of Maribyrnong residents. During debate in the chamber, Bluestone Ward councillor Catherine Cumming proposed an alternative recommendation after Cr Rice noted the Municipal Association of Victoria’s (MAV) stance on the proposed road.
Cr Cumming suggested the council implement the same opinion. In their Eddington report submission, the MAV said further consideration of the road should depend on:
– An assessment of the impact of rapidly rising oil prices and congestion and transport outcomes;
– Further analysis of climate change impacts on transport outcomes;
– The status of the state’s debt in 2011-12 and beyond; and
– The future appetite for a congestion tax, which would provide a new funding source.
Councillors Dina Lynch and Rice supported the motion, which was lost 4-3. The council’s original motion was passed with the same margin.
Cr MacDonald said although she wasn’t surprised with Cr Rice’s behaviour, she could not understand why Crs Cumming and Lynch would support an alternative motion.
“I worked really hard to get councillors to the point where six of the seven of us could go in with a motion that we agreed to,” she said.
“Catherine and Dina were supportive of – and in fact, lobbied and were actively involved in developing – that motion to acknowledge the need for a road connection.”
Mr MacDonald said the lost amendment was delivered too late for proper consideration, and she was not going to make a snap judgement on an issue that affected the municipality on so many levels.
“Janet had never raised any of that stuff with us, ever,” she said. “If she had of come to me two weeks ago with her suggestion, we could’ve actually discussed that.”
Cr Rice said she hadn’t proposed the amendment herself because she didn’t think it would be supported.
Meanwhile, Cr Lynch accused the mayor of trying to push a Labor party line.
Cr Lynch said she had not agreed to the council’s motion before the meeting, and was sceptical that the tunnel would be beneficial to the municipality.
“I can understand Michelle, because she and her fellow Labor councillors are pushing the Labor agenda, or have been told to,” she said. “But I’m an Independent; I can do what I feel is the correct thing for my community.
“We as a council have taken a direction, and that direction is sustainability and carbon neutrality.
“You cannot go back and say ‘oh, okay, well, we’re going to build more roads’. That’s not going to help our position.”
Cr Cumming said it was great to see genuine, open debate happen in the chamber. The submission was sent to the Department of Transport after the meeting.
