By Alesha Capone
THE Victorian Electoral Commission has announced a review of Brimbank’s boundaries and councillor numbers.
When the 11 elected Brimbank councillors were sacked in 2009, the State Government installed three administrators, who have overseen the municipality since then.
But they are set to farewell Brimbank in 2012 after the next round of council elections.
The reports into the former Brimbank councillors chronicled serious allegations against some of them, including challenging a parking fine, leaking confidential information and attempting to unduly influence an outside organisation.
However, as next year’s council elections approach, the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) has announced “an electoral representation review” of Brimbank.
The review will consider the appropriate number of councillors for the municipality, how many wards there should be, the number of councillors per ward and the ward boundaries.
Maribyrnong councillor Dina Lynch said the VEC should consider re-classifying some of Brimbank’s boundaries to become part of her council’s area.
Cr Lynch said with Maribyrnong’s small size, ageing infrastructure and proximity to the city, gaining more ratepayers could help the area in many ways.
“Brimbank’s pretty massive and Wyndham is pretty massive as well,” Cr Lynch said.
“They’re getting about $100 million in rates whereas ours is around $60 million.
“There’s quite a bit of discrepancy there which needs to be looked at.
“I think the whole thing is about economics and equality as well.”
Some Brimbank community representatives said that while they would like the administrators to stay on for another term, others said that the VEC needed to consider different matters.
Jason Rooth from the Cairnlea Residents Association said he would like future council candidates who all lived in Brimbank.
“It’s not the numbers of councillors I suppose, it’s how they engage the community,” he said.
“If they come from Brimbank that would be a better reason for them to fight for Brimbank.”
Albanvale Residents Association spokeswoman Clare Brennan said she believed having wards was a good system as “all little areas have their own wants and needs”.
“Brimbank’s gotten so big now with all the new shopping centres and developments, it’s getting bigger every day so they’ve got to sort out the wards, such as where Derrimut is all built up where there used to be paddocks,” she said.
Susan Jennison from the Keilor Residents and Ratepayers Association said last time the council area was reviewed, a model was adopted which had not been presented for residents to comment on first.
“Can we be protected from what happened last time?” she said.
There will be a public information session about the review on 25 July, at 7pm at the Errington Community Centre in St Albans.
See www.vec.vic.gov.au for more information.
