Wednesday, 2 April 2025

Wyndham City Council

Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (19:20): (1110) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Local Government, and the action I seek is that the minister inquire of Wyndham City Council whether developer contributions derived in Point Cook are being invested in Point Cook. There are no council-run swimming pools, indoor sporting facilities of significance or substantial community indoor spaces in Point Cook – the largest suburb in the country – and these facilities are the responsibility of council to provide. Even before I was elected I was asking council why these facilities did not exist in Point Cook and why the community had to leave our suburb to access such facilities. The response was consistent: we do not have the money. What they did not tell me, what they did not tell you and what they did not tell members of the Point Cook community is that there was $36 million sitting in their bank account, seemingly for decades, as unspent developer contributions. They decided not to tell anyone about it. Seemingly not even councillors knew about it for much of that period, and then Cr McIntyre, to her credit, told the community. The council went into damage control. Here is what they said publicly:

Recent legal advice confirmed that Council is not limited in the type of infrastructure this money funds but that it must be reinvested in the area in which it was collected.

Later in their budget, which was approved, they said:

Council has received legal advice confirming the availability of $36.167M in legacy Developer Contributions to be spent on infrastructure projects in the Point Cook area.

How wrong we were to believe what council had to say, because council have now decided that Point Cook developer contributions can be spent anywhere across the municipality, not in line with the legal advice, not in line with their agreed budget and not in line with council practice. If the legal advice was wrong, then was it maladministration or improper conduct to allow this advice to the community to stand for almost a year in a key document to council? When we all voted for a new council at the municipal elections we were under the assurance that these funds would be spent appropriately. I wonder: would mayor Mia Shaw have been elected – she represents part of Point Cook – if they had known that she was going to vote for these funds to leave Point Cook?

What is council doing behind closed doors in confidential meetings? Are these decisions being made formally or informally by a majority councillor grouping to carve up these funds? We will not know, because we will not be told. There are agencies to look into this, and they should – the Local Government Inspectorate, council monitors, the Victorian Ombudsman and more. I will have more to say about this in the future, and I look forward to the minister’s response.