a. Increase the detail in the Capital Works 15 Year Program to previous level as in 2019- 2020 Budget Document 

b. Remove Splash Hydrotherapy Pool from the future Capital works program.  

Council refused to increase the transparency in the 15-year capital works program to previous level in their response as follows: 

The Local Government (Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2014 require that the budget contain a detailed list of capital works expenditure in relation to non-current assets by class. This is how capital expenditure included in the Agenda – 24 June 2020 South Gippsland Shire Council Meeting No. 446 – 24 June 2020 16 15-year long term financial plan is presented. The detailed budget for 2020/21 breaks down capital works into individual projects. 

So basically, they will now follow the procedure as implemented by the Administrators of only showing the details for the next 12 months. It is now no longer possible to see where they have hidden the Municipal Office Return Project. This was removed by the previous Councillors in 2017 and reinstalled by the Administrators/Officers in the 2019/20 budget one week after dismissing the Councillors on June 19th, 2019. Way to go with section 58 of the new Local Government Act!! Yes folks, its back and you cant see it anymore.

The second submission was to the removal of Splash Hydrotherapy Pool for 2024/25. This detail is actually no longer able to be viewed since it falls under the detail that is now hidden as per submission “increase the detail in capital works program”. 

Their response was to say that “this project is not in the 2020/21 budget and refused to even discuss the merits or say a straight out no! 

Now, this project has actually had money spent on it in the last two years. $93k spent in 18/19 year and 30k spent in 19/20 year so it is a project in the budget. 

If Council are saying that the project has no costs or works in the next 12 months, then why are they allowing discussions and submissions and responses to submissions on all manner of submissions and projects from others in the community? 

Many examples of this so what is the real reason they are picking and choosing what they discuss or entertain from the public? 

And how does their actions comply with the new local government act on transparency?

The local government act on transparency is here for your viewing. 

The public transparency principles 

The following are the public transparency principles— 

        (a)     Council decision making processes must be transparent except when the Council is dealing with information that is confidential by virtue of this Act or any other Act; 

        (b)     Council information must be publicly available unless— 

              (i)     the information is confidential by virtue of this Act or any other Act; or 

              (ii)     public availability of the information would be contrary to the public interest; 

        (c)     Council information must be understandable and accessible to members of the municipal community; 

        (d)     public awareness of the availability of Council information must be facilitated.