By Bianca Hall
The Greens’ longest-serving member of Yarra City Council has quit the party, after her colleagues restricted public access to council meetings to once a month.
Councillor Amanda Stone, first elected to the council in 2008, will now sit as an independent for Nicholls ward, which covers the suburbs of Carlton North, Fitzroy and parts of Collingwood.
Amanda Stone, pictured outside Fitzroy Town Hall in 2020, soon before the Greens took control of Yarra City Council.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Stone let her party membership lapse late last year, soon after opposing the bid by other Greens councillors to reduce public meetings to once a month. Before the Greens took control of the council in 2020, public meetings were held every fortnight.
While Stone made her decision in December, her colleagues only learned the news on Sunday when the Greens emailed branch party members, a day before Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe announced her resignation from the Greens.
Stone declined to comment on her resignation from the Greens, but it is understood she was angered by the decision in early December when Greens councillor Edward Crossland filed a motion to change the frequency of meetings.
Crossland revealed his plan to colleagues less than an hour before the meeting, blindsiding councillors and residents.
Stone and independent councillor Stephen Jolly were already listed as apologies for the meeting, which nonetheless voted in favour of Crossland’s motion: Stone was overseas at a conference representing Yarra Council and Jolly was on leave following the birth of his twin grandchildren.
The next morning, Jolly filed a motion to rescind the decision to restrict council meetings to once a month.
In a rare move, Stone supported Jolly’s motion, although she was still overseas and could not vote when that bid was put to council days later.
Stone’s resignation from the party further erodes the Greens’ presence on the inner-city council, where the party held a working majority of 5-4 before former mayor Gabrielle de Vietri stepped down to successfully run for the seat of Richmond in November’s state election.
Left-leaning independent Michael Glynatsis was elected in her place.
Two years after Yarra was described as the most left-wing council in Australia, the Greens now only hold three of the nine councillor positions.
A Greens party spokesman described Stone’s record on the council as having been “good”.
“Amanda Stone has been a good councillor and representative for her local community over the years,” he said.
“It’s disappointing that she has left the party, but we wish her all the best as she continues her important work in Yarra.”
In November 2021, a year out from the 2022 state election, the Victorian government appointed a state monitor to the high-profile council.
In June, monitor Yehudi Blacher described a culture of dysfunction at the council, saying a combination of reduced revenue because of the COVID-19 pandemic and structural budgetary problems that have built up over years had left the council with a problematic legacy that needed to be addressed.
Blacher said a number of elected representatives struggled to distinguish their role as councillors from their party-political allegiances and would use media outlets to feed public controversy.
“[There are] a number of highly articulate community groups and individuals with strong connections to mainstream media outlets and active use of social media which amplify normal differences of views between councillors,” he said.
“Some councillors actively encourage, and indeed use, these outlets to create a false impression of controversy and indeed crisis in relation to certain matters.”
During the state election campaign, De Vietri described the government’s appointment of a monitor as a political attack.
“It’s one in a series of attacks that have been made because our political opponents are terrified that there has been the first-ever Greens majority government in the world here in this electorate,” she said. “And that can be pretty confronting.”
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