Sunbury split from Hume Council delayed one year

STAUNCH Sunbury advocate Jack Ogilvie says the government “haven’t got the guts” to go ahead with the town’s promised split from Hume.

n31sr900 z1 Australia Day Kiwanis Breakfast on Sunbury Village Green. Cr Jack Ogilvie makes the point to be proud to fly the Aussie flag.

SUNBURY’S long-awaited split from Hume Council will be delayed 12 months.

Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins visited Sunbury this morning to announce the decision, saying the initial time frame of the split has been “rushed”.

The new council was supposed to begin on July 1 this year.

It will now begin on July 1, 2016.

Hume Council chief executive Domenic Isola will seek further details from the State Government about the deferred Sunbury split to see what it means for council staff and the community.

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“We have held serious concerns about the process undertaken by the previous government, including time frames imposed, the process of asset distribution, the obligations and costs imposed on the community and the significant impact to staff,” Mr Isola said.

He said they appreciated the “more reasonable deadline” but urged the government to treat the process as a significant priority.

“We have operated in a period of speculation and uncertainty for more than two years and it’s important that the issues we have raised are resolved in a timely manner,” Mr Isola said.

“Our commitment, as always, will be to ensure that the transition required to create the new Sunbury Council is undertaken in a fair, honest and respectful way so that our community, stakeholders and staff are not disadvantaged.”

“We have held serious concerns about the process undertaken by the previous government, including time frames imposed, the process of asset distribution, the obligations and costs imposed on the community and the significant impact to staff.” Domenic Isola

Opposition Local Government spokesman David Davis said the government was walking away from its stated ​commitment to set up the new council.

“This is a clear breach of trust to the residents of Sunbury who have fought so long to establish their own local government area,” Mr Davis said.

“Daniel Andrews is thumbing his nose at the local community which voted for this change. ”​

Hume councillor and staunch Sunbury advocate Jack Ogilvie claims the government “haven’t got the guts” to go ahead with the town’s promised split from Hume.

Cr Jack Ogilvie says there is no logical explanation for the delay.

Cr Ogilvie said the State Government had broken its promise by announcing the spilt would be delayed by 12 months this morning, despite confirmation from Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins they “would not walk away” from their commitment.

“Why are they delaying it for 12 months? There’s no logical explanation,” Cr Ogilvie said

“It’s been two years in the making … There’s no reason they can’t go ahead with it.

“There’s been a two-year process that’s been through a panel hearing.

“It’s an absolutely ridiculous situation.”

The veteran councillor said the decision would “mess things up”.

“It’s not going to go away. I can tell you — the people of Sunbury aren’t going to be very happy,” he said.

“In the next 12 months it’s going to cause so much angst in the community.”

“Why are they delaying it for 12 months? There’s no logical explanation.”— Cr Jack Ogilvie

Sunbury Residents’ Association president Bernie O’Farrell agreed the government had broken its promise following last year’s gazettal of the new council.

Mr O’Farrell said Ms Hutchins’ decision to defer the process by 12 months was an insult to the three local government panellists appointed last year to report on Sunbury’s viability as a stand-alone council.

“You can only conclude ... that they’re trying to find a way to worm out of it,” Mr O’Farrell said.

“I assume that they’re going to go back to the reports done by the panel and then basically, no doubt from the point of view of the government, hopefully come up with something contradictory to what the views of the panel are.”

“You can only conclude ... that they’re trying to find a way to worm out of it.” Bernie O’Farrell.

ASU branch secretary Richard Duffy. Picture. Norm Oorloff

He claimed the government had simply backed the Australian Services Union.

But ASU Victorian and Tasmanian branch secretary Richard Duffy said more than 7000 people had signed their petition to stop the move from going ahead.

“I think that (the decision) has gone partway to addressing our concerns about the process,” he said.

“As we’ve been saying all along, we thought the process was rushed. It was a political decision to try and win the seat of Sunbury.

“We’ve said that there’s huge concerns about the financial viability of the new council. You don’t want to set something up to see it fail.”

Mr Duffy said the union was happy the government would take another look at it and hoped for a “good outcome” for members and residents of both council areas.

“Our members who work at Hume Council are ecstatic with the decision to delay the split,” he said.

“I think that there’s group of Sunbury residents who will never be happy until they have their own little kingdom — those people are by far the minority.”

“As we’ve been saying all along, we thought the process was rushed. It was a political decision to try and win the seat of Sunbury.” Richard Duffy

Sunbury councillor Ann Potter said she had always felt the process had been “deplorable” and was sure things would be “open and transparent” from here on.

Ms Hutchins said she was confident she’d made the right choice and the delay would be in the best interests of both Sunbury and Hume residents.

Minister for Local Government Natalie Hutchins.

“The time frames were rushed through in the dying days of the last government and I am not confident about some of the questions such as who will be collecting the rubbish and who will be manning the phones after July 1,” Ms Hutchins said.

Two independent transitional auditors have been appointed — John Watson, the current chair of administrators at Brimbank Council and first chief executive of Hume Council, and Frank Vincent QC.

Ms Hutchins said previous reports had suggested a range of rate rises, but “nothing had been settled”.

“There was a risk of a rapid rate rise if Sunbury residents had expectations of all services being maintained.”

She did not rule out another vote being taken.

“The time frames were rushed through in the dying days of the last government ...” Natalie Hutchins

It’s expected a report detailing service delivery and costings will be presented by the auditors about October.

Sunbury state Labor MP Josh Bull acknowledged part of the community wanted the split to happen quickly, but said it was an important decision.

“The previous government had four years to do it,” he said.

“Splitting our council is a big job and an important job and the government has no apologies in wanting to get that right.”