GEELONG’S city council has been a “plaything” of State governments ever since amalgamation 20 years ago, according to mayoral hopeful Anthony Aitken.
Repeated changes to the council’s structure by Liberal and Labor governments alike had undermined Geelong’s democratic system, he said today.
And a furore over reported Liberal attempts to return former mayor Ken Jarvis — plus reported claims by Frank Costa that the Napthine Government could sack the council if Jarvis didn’t win — were just the latest in a sorry catalogue of bids to undermine the democratic process, Mr Aitken said.
Mr Costa has rejected the reports as incorrect but Mr Aitken, a former deputy mayor himself, said Mr Costa “should have learned from the Costagate scandal of 2004” not to try influencing council elections.
Mr Aitken said structural changes to the Geelong council by Kennett, Bracks-Brumby and Baillieu-Napthine governments reflected repeated responses to personal and political self-interest.
“Since 1993, we’ve had Kennett Mk1 in 1995 with 12 wards, then Kennett Mk2 in 1998 for five regional councillors and four ward councillors,” he said.
“Then we had the Bracks-Brumby 2001 model where we went back to 12 ward councillors. We’ve had the 2012 model by Baillieu with 13 councillors, including a directly-elected mayor, and now we have lobby groups calling for only regional councillors to be implemented by 2016.
“All one can observe is that local government in Geelong is a plaything of State governments to continually change, modify, for interests not of Geelong but personal and political interests.
“We need bipartisan agreement by both parties on the local government structure in Geelong _ and for them to leave it alone.”
