Yarra Ranges Council locks out public from council meetings after “verbal abuse, intimidation”

Yarra Ranges Council is set to push for statewide measures for all 79 councils to combat an “increasingly aggressive cohort” of people disrupting meetings across the state.

Police removed about 120 people from the gallery at Yarra Ranges Council's meeting on Tuesday, January 31. Picture: Google Street View.

Community members may have to present photo ID to attend council meetings, as councils consider a range of new security measures to prevent “disruptive and unsafe behaviour”.

Yarra Ranges Council, which recently closed its meetings to the public after an increasing pattern of verbal abuse from some in the gallery, spending more than $12,000 beefing up security, is set to ask the Municipal Association of Victoria to support its push for statewide measures to be introduced for all councils to manage disruptive behaviour.

It comes after police were called to a City of Monash council meeting as opposing groups of protesters faced off over plans for a drag story time event.

Yarra Ranges councillors will be asked to support a motion at Tuesday night’s council meeting that council endorse a motion to be submitted for consideration at the MAV State council meeting on May 19.

It would see the MAV call on the state government to actively work with the local government sector and other relevant stakeholders to:

• develop statewide measures that support councils to manage and prevent disruptive and unsafe behaviour, particularly at council meetings, and

• co-ordinate a response to the expanding and increasingly aggressive cohort in the community that have been targeting local councils in recent months.

Victoria Police officers had to stand between two groups of protesters inside the City of Monash council building on Wednesday night as tensions flared over the council funding a drag queen reading to children at the local library.

Yarra Ranges Mayor Jim Child said it was committed to reopening the doors of the public gallery at its meetings.

“But we can only do that if we have that co-ordinated support across the whole sector,” he said.

“That this is the way we’re going to manage these agitators in the future.

“I’m hearing that there are municipalities that are going to have photo ID registration, more security, but we’re all doing different things.

“But I think it is time, we want to engage with the state government, and the sector broadly, and other agencies including Victoria Police, we want a consistent approach across the whole sector.”

Cr Child said he was supportive of community members having to show ID to attend meetings.

But he said there were complexities around it, such as should it be done manually, or in a similar manner to sporting clubs and RSLs.

“I think we’ve all got to get on the same page so we’re all doing the same thing,” he said.

“If we go off on different tangents we’re going to create more problems because it’s different issues that get this group of people coming to council meetings.

“It might be a 5G tower, it might be gender issues which Monash dealt with last council meeting which was horrific how that played out, so we’ve got to get a more common approach to how 79 municipalities across Victoria are going to come together to manage this serious problem we’ve got at the moment.”

Cr Child said Yarra Ranges had dealt with problems in its gallery by closing meetings to the public, although community members could still watch online.

“I was reluctant to (close meetings) but we just couldn’t progress with the disruptions we were having,” Cr Child said.

“The whole intent (of this motion) is to engage the whole sector with the government about what is the best way forward with this.

“We want to maintain this great institution we’ve got as local government and to engage with residents, and there is a broader cohort of the community who want to do that in a respectful manner.

“But at the moment we’ve got this body of people who come along to council meetings purely to disrupt it and to put a point of view in regards to nothing more than what I call conspiracy theorism, and that’s being totally disruptive at the moment.”

The Council Watch group recently released a statement saying it wanted to see council meetings remain open to the public.

It advocated for changes that would see all attendees required to produce photo ID to enter, with council staff permitted to take a record of the ID used to confirm attendance.

The group said these records should only be used by the council internally and should never be disclosed publicly.

“We must ensure that our council meetings are run in a safe manner, protecting all parties involved, and ensuring that bad behaviour is not tolerated,” the group said.

Council’s big bill to beef-up security

Yarra Ranges Council has spent more than $12,000 beefing-up security at its council meetings after a “consistent and increasing pattern of verbal abuse” from some in the gallery.

In response to a question submitted from a community member at Wednesday night’s meeting, the council revealed it had spent about $12,600 since January engaging security guards and upgrading the security cameras in the public gallery area of its Lilydale headquarters to ensure the safety of councillors, council staff and members of the public was maintained during council meetings.

Changes to the configuration of chairs and tables in the area have been delivered by internal staff.

It comes after police were called to a City of Monash council meeting on Wednesday night as opposing groups of protesters faced off over plans for a drag story time event.

Yarra Ranges Council’s meeting on Wednesday night was closed to the public after the council announced last week it was taking the drastic step of locking out members of the public from its meetings after an increasing pattern of verbal abuse, intimidation and anti-social behaviour from some in the gallery.

It’s believed some of the crowd members at recent meetings were from the My Place Yarra Valley Group, one of at least eight My Place groups in the state, based in areas such as Frankston, Rosebud, Pakenham, Whittlesea, Cranbourne, Phillip Island, Sunbury and Wantirna.

My Place Frankston describes itself as a “Pro-choice event space to support one another and build a tribe of like minded people that can forge a better future together where we all prosper.”

One of the groups’ main concerns is the idea of 20 Minute Neighbourhoods, described as a plan to allow people to meet most of their daily needs within a 20-minute return walk from home, with access to safe cycling and local transport options.

At Wednesday night’s meeting Mayor Jim Child acknowledged all the community members watching online.

“We made the decision to close our gallery in council meetings for the foreseeable future due to a constant and increasing pattern of verbal abuse, intimidation and anti-social behaviour from some members of the public,” he said.

“This behaviour threatens the safety of our staff, of our councillors, and our community members in attendance and it is completely unacceptable.”

Mayor Child has been forced to adjourn two council meetings this year, with police called to escort about 120 people out of a rowdy meeting on January 31, after Cr Child feared for the safety of councillors and staff.

The council released a statement last Thursday announcing the public gallery at meetings would be closed until further notice.

“Over recent months, there has been a consistent and increasing pattern of verbal abuse, intimidation and anti-social behaviour demonstrated by some members of the public gallery during council meetings,” the council posted.

“This type of conduct is unacceptable, and we cannot continue to allow these situations to occur.

“In recognising council’s obligation to provide a safe workplace, and to ensure that council meetings are a safe place for all in attendance, effective immediately, the public gallery for council meetings will be closed until further notice.”

The council said it was disappointed to have to make the decision but given the “recent and reoccurring abusive behaviour” displayed during council meetings the change was necessary to uphold health and safety and to maintain the integrity of council business during the meetings.

“This decision is supported by the Local Government Act 2020 (Act) which allows council to close a meeting to the public for security reasons or where it is necessary to do so to enable the meeting to proceed in an orderly manner,” the council posted.

The council will continue to livestream its meetings.