There is a growing outcry about the legitimacy of state government processes in separating Sunbury from Hume municipality.
An increasing number of Hume councillors are questioning the government’s mandate to force the separation on the basis of an ‘‘ill-defined’’ election promise, which will result in significant rate rises in both Hume and the new Sunbury shire.
Cr Helen Patsikatheodorou said she was concerned the government had overstated last year’s poll of Hume voters as an “overwhelming” result in favour of Sunbury standing alone.
“I think the vote and count was misinterpreted,” she told the Weekly.
Meadow Valley ward colleague Cr Geoff Porter agreed. “People voted on a given scenario put forward by the government and, in my mind, there’s no reason why there should be any deflection from that.”
Cr Porter said Tullamarine residents did not vote to be included in a new Sunbury shire, with the poll stipulating Deep Creek as the boundary. Diggers Rest residents, who pay rates to Melton council, were not even included in the vote and yet might be subsumed into the new Sunbury shire.
Last year, Hume council wrote to then local government minister Jeanette Powell, asking her to confirm that boundaries would accord with what was put to voters at last October’s poll. Ms Powell deflected this decision to the three-person panel she appointed to oversee the division.
“The panel will undertake extensive community consultation and consider growth projections, communities of interest, distribution of council assets and potential boundaries in making its recommendation to the government,” she said in December.
Community consultation began last Friday in Diggers Rest and Sunbury. There’s a listening post at Tullamarine from 10-11am today at the neighbourhood house and another public forum at Sunbury Memorial Hall at 2-4pm.
Tomorrow, there’ll be a listening post at Sunbury community health centre,1 -3pm, and a forum at Sunbury Football Club, 7-9pm.
Three more forums will be held after receipt of public submissions.
