A CONTENTIOUS citizens’ panel aimed at helping shape the peninsula’s future at a cost of $150,000 to ratepayers has been given the flick by Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors.
The panel, established in 2022, has seen 150 members participate in “gaining valuable insights into the many challenges facing council” as well as developing a community vision to 2040. Through the forums panellists provided councillors with “a rich data source to assist them with their decision-making” as part of “deliberative consultation” as stated in the Local Government Act. Last year the budget allocated to the 2024 panel was $140,000 with each panellist receiving $800 in gift vouchers.
This year the council had planned to recruit 55 panel members to attend ten sessions starting on 12 February.
“If we didn’t run a citizens’ panel in 2025, we would still need to incorporate deliberative engagement components in our development of the council and wellbeing plan,” according to a council report published in December. It also noted the citizens’ panel format provided cost efficiencies as multiple projects could be discussed throughout the year.
But newly elected councillor Stephen Batty moved a motion at the council’s 18 December meeting calling for the council to immediately abolish the costly panel. The motion said in “the current environment, council needs to be transparent and cost conscious, given these are ratepayer funds”.
Batty believed the “significant dollars” spent on the panel should be diverted to “something worthwhile, outstanding maintenance or other expenditure items”.
“Supporting community engagement should be applauded and now we have 11 separate wards, surely the most important role a council performs is listening and following up the community’s concerns over the environment and infrastructure projects,” said Batty. He said he understood as few as 33 panel members attended some meetings and didn’t include local businesses and authorities.
Cr David Gill voted against the motion, arguing it “looks like a knee jerk reaction without experiencing the pros and cons of a citizens panel”. Cr Max Patton, who served as a former member of the panel, emphasised its importance, saying it was a “fantastic community engagement” program and that he saw first-hand how members shaped key decisions. “I appreciate Cr Batty’s intention to reduce spending but as we’ve seen in the officer’s report, it’s actually going to cost double to move into another system,” he said.
Cr Andrea Allen did not agree, saying abolishing a citizens’ panel “was definitely not saying no to consultation”. “There are different ways of doing deliberative consultation as well… my concerns about the citizens’ panel is one, having a random bunch of people give their opinions, I would prefer to have the people that are actually impacted by what we’re consulting on to be the ones to tell us what they think.” “My other concern is that all these people are paid $800 for participating. We have some other advisory groups where they’re not paid all, and they also contribute a lot.”
Speaking to The News, Mayor Cr Anthony Marsh said he agreed with Allen. “We have several advisory groups, whether they’re coastal or disability or arts and culture – none of those people are compensated or paid to come and give their advice, they do it out of the goodness of their heart and they want to contribute to the community,” he said.
“Secondly, we use the panel to ask questions on a whole range of issues and sometimes the panelists would not be the most informed or impacted or the best people to ask for these particular things. “On other things, there’s 170,000 residents. Why should 50 capitalise or monopolise the consultation on these issues?
“Some say it’s a bit anti-democratic. I think we reject that view and say, well, actually, it’s opening it up to a significantly large volume of people compared to just 50. “My argument would always be to give people the opportunity, if they choose not to participate or give feedback then that’s on them, but we have to give them the right to do so.”
Asked about whether it would be more costly without a citizens’ panel, Marsh said, “I don’t believe that’s the case at all – we consult for all our many issues throughout the year, and this is no different”.
First published in the Mornington News – 21 January 2025
