Extraordinary scenes erupted at Geelong council’s meeting on Tuesday night after Mayor Trent Sullivan refused to hear questions concerning the ongoing libraries furore.
After the council’s draft budget left Geelong Regional Libraries Corporation (GRLC) with a $762,000 funding shortfall, GRLC announced it would need to close three libraries.
GRLC has since stated no libraries will close, but that cuts to operating hours and services will be spread across most of the libraries in the region.
Mayor Sullivan, who has often extended Question Time in past meetings, closed it without hearing a single question related to libraries, instead delivering a general response to all 22 pre-submitted questions concerning the issue.
Some angry residents were ejected from the chamber by security after voicing their frustration at not being able to pose their questions directly to councillors.
Shouts of “We have a right to have our questions heard” and “You should be ashamed of yourselves, every single one of you” echoed through the chamber.
Residents then gathered outside the meeting, chanting “Shame, council, shame”.
The Friends of the Barwon Heads Community Library spokesperson Kate Molloy said its members were disappointed.
“As a community group, we were outraged that council did not allow any of the pre-submitted questions relating to public libraries to be asked,” Mrs Molloy said.
“The fact (so many) questions related to library funding shows it’s an issue the community feels strongly and passionately about.
“Silencing the community on the key issue of library funding is not in line with the Council’s detailed community engagement policy. The Council are doing a great job of portraying themselves as the villain in this story.”
Former chief executive of GRLC Patti Manolis OAM, who attended the meeting, said it was “a deflating experience”.
“It was awful to see the depth of disappointment and anger in the room,” Ms Manolis said.
“If the mayor and council had intended to crush the gathered community members’ spirits, they certainly succeeded.
“CoGG (City of Greater Geelong) should fund the operational costs of its new libraries as it has always done and in accordance with the Library Agreement,” Ms Manolis said.
CoGG acting chief executive Kaarina Phyland declined to say who was responsible for the decision to disallow those present to voice their questions.
“No questions submitted to last night’s council meeting were disallowed,” Ms Phyland said.
“Mayor Trent Sullivan verbally provided a long and detailed answer to the issue of funding for Geelong libraries. A decision was made in line with Council’s Question and Submission Time policy to answer the… library questions in bulk.
“This prevented repetitive questions and answers, and enabled other submitters who raised a variety of other issues to be heard within the time allocated. Individual written responses were still provided to each submitter.”
