Mr Hayes, independent member of Parliament, in the upper house asked the now disgraced Ex-Minister for Local Government Adem Somyurek on March 17th, 2020 the following question which was tabled in Parliament. In relation to the dismissal of the South Gippsland Shire Council:
Document released under FOI shows Ex-Minister Somyurek intended making public Councillors response to Monitor’s report.
Mr Hayes, independent member of Parliament, in the upper house asked the now disgraced Ex-Minister for Local Government Adem Somyurek on March 17th, 2020 the following question which was tabled in Parliament. In relation to the dismissal of the South Gippsland Shire Council:
(1) Did the Minister receive the two Council submissions made by the Shire Councillors and the Mayor prior to the dismissal.
(2) Did the Minister, on 2 April 2019, indicate that the submissions would be tabled in Parliament.
(3) Can the Minister table the submissions or advise when they will be publicly released.
This question was answered 5 months later on August 7th by the new Minister Shaun Leane as follows:
On 2 April 2019, the former Minister for Local Government wrote to South Gippsland Shire Council providing the council with a copy of the final report from the municipal monitor. The report recommended the suspension of the council for a serious failure to provide good government. As required under section 219(1A) of the Local Government Act 1989, the former Minister sought a response from the council about what actions it had taken to address and remedy the difficulties underlying the failure to provide good government. It is not appropriate for me to release correspondence that has not been endorsed by a council. It is a matter for the former councillors whether they wish to make their correspondence public.
The Minister clearly failed to answer question 1 or 2 but did answer question 3.
This newspaper obtained a copy of the April 2nd letter from Ex Minister Somyurek under Freedom of Information and the contents clearly indicate the Minister informed the Council that he welcomed submissions from Council and individual Councillors, and that the submissions would be tabled in Parliament. The letter did not say that submissions had to be endorsed by Council, in fact, it stated that all submissions would be made public.
Here is the excerpt from the April 2nd 2019 letter.
“I will make the monitor report and any council or councillor responses public once any submissions from the Council have been duly considered”.
Yes Minister or No Minister?
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