Mildura ratepayers taking council to task on key issues

Ratepayers asked everything from the cost of rates to the impact of mosquito spray at the January council meeting. See the responses.

Mildura’s council meetings are usually a pretty quiet affair but lately more ratepayers have been showing up to find out what their hard-earned dollars are being spent on.

The public gallery was packed with locals keen to ask questions of their councillors at the January meeting.

Most of the questions related to the mosquito spray council has been spraying in the wake of the Murray Valley Encephalitis outbreak, but others were about rates.

Locals are trying to keep Mildura Rural City Council on its toes.

One ratepayer, Tina Grasser, asked how the spray would affect wildlife and businesses that depended on insects, like bees.

“Has council been spraying some form of insecticide through the district to reduce the mosquito population?

“If so, shouldn’t the general public be notified of this? Will those that support beneficial insects such as bees be compensated?”

General manager for development, Daryl Morgan, confirmed council was taking “precautions”.

“Yes, we have been taking some precautions to reduce the mosquito population, in terms of fogging,” he said.

“It’s not targeted to bees or other insects – the process is undertaken by trained and qualified staff, and it’s an approved product.”

Other residents then questioned how the council could justify keeping rates so high, to which general manager for corporate, Mark McMillan, pointed them to Google.

“It’s enabled through legislation, so you’ve got the local government act 2020 … it is the legislation that enables local government in Victoria and that does discuss raising rates,” he said.

“You can actually Google that and look it up.”

The increasing presence at council meetings is partly due to the creation of a social action group called My Place Mildura.

Founding member Kylie Elizabeth said the group was formed to hold the council accountable and keep it honest.

Kylie Elizabeth and Jeremy Mathew, two of the founding members of my place Mildura

“Keeping council on their toes, just make sure they are actually working for the people,” she said.

“There is a lot of government overreach, on every level … we just want them to understand that they are representing us, and the things we actually want.”

Ms Elizabeth said the ultimate goal was to set up a people’s council.

“With My Place the goal is to set up our own people‘s council, they’ve already done that in Frankston and that’s working really well.”