Brimbank Council shamed yet again

By Alex Schlotzer
09/05/09

There’s not much that hasn’t been said about the nepotism, corruption and
outside political influences and retribution. Brimbank is well known to be a
basket case of branch stacking and ballot stacking. Each local government
election has an extraordinarily high number of candidates, most of which are
never seen (even on polling day), and when you ring them strangely defer to
another candidate (ie the “real” candidate). Indeed, I’ve blogged about
Brimbank Council’s failure to deliver for the community, councillor nepotism
and corruption and the lack of transparent governance on a number of
occasions. And much of which has been confirmed by the recent report into
Brimbank Council’s corruption by the Victorian ombudsman.

Sadly the focus continues to be on the political fall out for the Victorian Labor
Party, especially for Premier John Brumby, Attorney-General Rob Hulls, senior
ALP MP George Seitz, (factional warlord & longest serving MP in Victoria’s
history) and Sports Minister Justin Madden. The real focus should be on the
long suffering citizens of Brimbank.

For too many years the elderly, the youth, local small businesses and families
have had to put up with a Council that only catered to football clubs and
personal interests. There’s been no improvement in access to the community
bus service; shopping jeeps are still banned. Community health, parks and
gardens continue to be ignored; and let’s not even talk about tackling big
issues like climate change.Talking local politics in the pub reveals lots of stories
about all kinds of allegations of corruption and criminal activity in Brimbank
Council (and Sunshine Council before amalgamation with Keilor Council under
Kennett’s reforms). A friend mentioned to me that it was like reading a story
for a grubbier version of “Grassroots” (classic ABC political satire of affairs in
local governments).

I for one sincerely hope that the Brumby Government does something about
the mess; and skeptically I think they’ll do nothing and try to ignore it. I feel
let down that in the face of overwhelming evidence and condemnation that
state government remains too weak to take appropriate action. While I don’t
necessarily support the current lot being sacked, I do think Brumby has to go a
lot further. Although I would be in favour of sacking the current lot and holding
fresh elections. Brumby could even go so far as to introduce an anti-crime &
corruption commission with the powers to investigate and prosecute these
issues specifically. There’s systemic (almost institutionalized) problems in a
number of public departments; let alone local government. It would also
illustrate his commitment to fighting corruption.

I sure hope that more Brimbank voters have a long memory.