Donation conflicts disrupting Melbourne Council meetings

Melbourne City councillors are being forced to abandon scores of votes and debates over conflicts involving election campaign donations.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp has made six declarations. Picture: David Caird

Melbourne City Council meetings have been disrupted by nearly 150 cases of councillor conflict of interest issues over the past five years.

Councillors have had to absent themselves from debating and voting on various issues mainly for conflicts involving election campaign donations.

Last week, a meeting agenda item involving sunlight to public parks had to be abandoned when seven out of 11 councillors declared conflicts of interest relating mainly to donations from affected organisations or individuals.

A loss of quorum ensued when Lord Mayor Sally Capp’s four-councillor election team left the meeting, as did Green councillors Rohan Leppert and Dr Olivia Ball, and ALP member Davydd Griffiths.

The sunlight issue will be considered next week by a delegated committee comprising the four councillors who didn’t have conflicts.

Since the current council term started last November, at least 20 councillor conflict declarations have been made.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp has made six – five related to donations and one involving her position as a Shrine of Remembrance trustee.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp and Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece have both made declarations. Picture: Jason Edwards

Ms Capp is also a board member of real estate firm Nelson Alexander and a director of The Sport Australia Hall of Fame, according to personal interests information lodged with the council.

The Lord Mayor is also chair of the investment committee for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute.

Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece has made five declarations since November, with three involving his paid position as director of Strategy, Policy and Projects at Melbourne University.

Mr Reece’s declared interests also include chairman of health charity Movember, and income from appearing as a presenter and panellist on Sky News.

Team Capp members Kevin Louey and Roshena Campbell have declared four conflicts related to campaign donations.

Greens councillors Dr Ball and Mr Leppert had three conflict of interest declarations.

In February and March, councillor Philip Le Liu had to excuse himself from two meeting agenda items involving his directorship of an aviation start-up.

In the last council term between November 2016 and October 2020, 124 councillor conflict of interest declarations were made. In October 2018, a meeting lasted only 13 minutes after only six out of 11 councillors turned up, with two of the councillors excusing themselves due to conflicts.

City of Melbourne CEO Justin Hanney said conflicts were not unusual.

“What is most important is that they are declared, and the matter in question can be considered appropriately, which is what we have done in this instance (involving the sunlight to parks meeting item),” he said.

“We believe in transparent and open governance – publishing election donation returns ensures information about the financial and in-kind support given to candidates by individuals and organisations is available to the public.”

Election campaign donations and conflicts of interest are governed by the Victorian Government’s Local Government Act 2020.

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