Geelong council to vote on sending mayor Trent Sullivan overseas for $12,500

Geelong council wants to spend $25,000 to send the mayor and a staffer to four countries during an 18-day trip. Should this happen? TAKE THE POLL.

The city could spend $12,500 to send mayor Trent Sullivan overseas. Picture: Supplied

Geelong council will pay about $25,000 to send the mayor and a staffer overseas, if councillors tick off on the move at next week’s council meeting.

Councillors will on Tuesday vote whether to send mayor Trent Sullivan and a city officer to Changwon in South Korea; Istanbul in Turkey; Kortnijk in Belgium; and Dundee in Scotland as part of meetings and tours to grow trade and investment in the region.

The proposed trip, from September 4-21 paid for from the 2023-24 budget, is expected to cost $25,000 – $12,500 each for the mayor and city officer.

READ THE COUNCIL VOTE OUTCOME HERE.

The council has pitched the trip as a fact finding and idea sharing mission but one source said it was a “bad look” due to its current budget issues.

The trip’s first leg is to Geelong’s sister city Changwon where Mr Sullivan will visit the Hanwha’s aerospace facility, meet with Korean baseball representatives and attend the World Smart City Expo, a showcase of emerging technology.

Hanwha has operations stretching across green energy, defence, finance and space research.

It’s building a $170m facility at Avalon where military guns are due to be manufactured.

The Geelong-Korea professional baseball team play in the Australian Baseball League at Grovedale.

Council is proposing to send the mayor and a council officer to Turkey from September 11-15 for the UNESCO Creative Cities Network conference. Council has been a member of the network since 2017.

According to a council report the main objectives of this part of the trip is to offer a “key platform of dialogue” on culture and development; agree to priorities of the network for the next year; and exchange information about activities completed by the network.

Mr Sullivan was invited to present at the conference about Geelong’s design history, projects and clever and creative ambitions, council said.

Between September 16-18 the mayor and city officer are due to be in Belgium. No details were provided of that leg of the trip.

The proposed trip finishes in Scotland where the mayor and council officer are due to visit the Dundee Waterfront Development Project, the 4J Studios where the Minecraft game was created, an industrial regeneration development and a creative co-working space.

A council source, with knowledge of why the trip is proposed, said it was a “bad look”.

“Generally speaking I don’t support spending money on this kind of activity, with no clear outcome or return to the residents of Geelong, and at a time when we have cut the heart out of our community with the most severe budget cuts that the city has had to make in recent times.

“We cut $20k from Give Where You Live on the basis of tightening our belts. Now they’ve been forced to make staff redundant on the basis of funding cuts and shortfalls (because of the council and state government decisions).

“While the UNESCO City of Design conference is an important commitment, I’m not convinced we should be spending money on that given the financial situation of council and the decisions made about priorities.”

The Geelong Gallery, advocacy group Committee for Geelong and the Geelong Chamber of Commerce have written to council supporting the trip.

Council’s customer, community and economy acting director, Bryce Prosser, said: “The City is exploring future international trade opportunities and we have interest from Korean companies interested in establishing here. While the costs of the overseas delegation need to be weighed up, this investment has the potential to lead to further economic and social outcomes for our region. We’re already seeing tangible economic benefits for our community from our UNESCO designation and strong relationship with Korea in design, manufacturing, engineering, hospitality, accommodation and sporting sectors through delegation visits to Geelong and collaborations.”

If the trip is not approved, the council report noted, there could be implications to the UNESCO City of Design position, and a potential reputational risk with Korea due to multiple invitations being made to the council to visit Changwon.

Council became a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2017 in the field of design.

One of the obligations of this is for the mayor, as council’s lead representative, to attend the UCCN annual conference.

Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding with South Korea’s City of Changwon on March 31, 2022, formalising an agreement to collaborate on trade, education and cultural exchanges, to “promote investment and employment opportunities for the two cities”.

Deakin University, Geelong Performing Arts Centre, Design Institute of Australia, Creative Victoria, Geelong Manufacturing Council and Gordon TAFE are involved in a working group about the trip.

Originally published as Geelong council to vote on sending mayor Trent Sullivan overseas for $12,500