By Cara Waters and Sophie Aubrey
A squad of security guards to patrol the CBD will be a third the size originally promised, despite being lauded as the biggest change to public safety in Melbourne since the introduction of PSOs.
The City of Melbourne on Tuesday unveiled its draft budget for the 2025-26 financial year with a cornerstone $4.5 million boost to public safety.
Lord Mayor Nick Reece flanked by security guards in March. Credit: Penny Stephens
Lord Mayor Nick Reece said $2 million would go towards 10 boots-on-the-ground officers to be delivered next financial year – down from the 30 he promised in his election campaign.
Reece conceded the officers would have limited powers, only able to make a citizen’s arrest, but he said they would be trained in dealing with hostile situations and create a visible safety presence.
The draft budget also includes $2.1 million to expand the city’s CCTV by installing more than 100 new cameras, supported by an additional $3.5 million from the state government, as well as $1 million in council funds to light up the city’s laneways at night.
“This is the biggest change to safety and policing in Victoria since the introduction of PSOs on train stations a decade ago. It’s a very big undertaking by the City of Melbourne, but it is a much-needed initiative,” Reece said.
“Melbourne is a safe city, but we have problem areas and behaviours and we need to do more.”
Reece declined to say if he’d requested funding from the Allan government to hire more guards, a job opposition leader Brad Battin said last week should be left to police.
“I am not in the business of discussing private conversations I have with the premier or others, but I’m very pleased that there’s an investment there from the state government in CCTV across the city,” Reece said.
The tight budget saw the council with a $150,000 surplus and a repayment plan to reduce the council’s debt from $212 million in the 2025-26 financial year to zero in seven years.
Lord Mayor Nick Reece unveiling the draft budget on Tuesday.Credit: Wayne Taylor
The budget is silent on many of Reece’s ambitious election promises, with no mention of the $12.6 million to be invested in Chinatown, and only $150,000 set aside to fulfil his pledge of $10 million for a Little India precinct in Docklands.
There is no cash for his $4 million pledge to turn underused office buildings into apartments, nothing for a seafood market in Docklands and no mention of halving parking permit costs, while funding has been slashed for the ambitious Greenline project.
Reece defended the missing money for many of his election promises, arguing Tuesday’s budget was just the first in a four-year term.
“We can’t deliver everything in the first year. It would be irresponsible for us to do so,” he said.
The council is set to lose $10.3 million in income by implementing a 12-month rate freeze – an election commitment some councillors urged the Reece to ditch.
Drivers are expected to be slapped with more infringements, with the council forecasting an 8.8 per cent increase in revenue from fines to a total of $40.2 million next financial year. Income from parking fees will stay relatively stable at $55.7 million.
“It gives me no joy that there is an increase in parking fines, but it’s a reflection of the fact that our city is getting busier,” Reece said.
More than $26 million will be spent on over 80 events, from sport and food festivals to New Year’s Eve and Melbourne Fashion Week. The council will spend $2.1 million on Christmas decorations.
Cleanliness remains a priority, with almost $60 million allocated for street cleaning, graffiti removal and rubbish collection. “We are winning the war on taggers and graffiti in this city,” Reece said.
The Age revealed on Sunday that the council was pulling funding from the $316 million Greenline project, an ambitious plan for a linear park along the Yarra River devised by Reece’s predecessor, Sally Capp.
After $14 million was reallocated to delivering a Southbank library and a North Melbourne community hub, the Greenline project is left with $18 million in council funding in the 2025-26 budget, plus an additional $10.3 million in external funding.
More than $44 million will be spent carving out new green open space, including six new parks and designs for an additional 10.
Councillor Owen Guest, who heads the city’s finance portfolio, said the new budget marked a “turning point” in the City of Melbourne’s finances.
“I have little doubt that part of the council’s debt issues have arisen out of the former approach of unrealistic budgets being tabled,” he said.
“We must be one of the first governments to start the process of unwinding unsustainable COVID expenditures.”
Guest said it was important to pay down the council’s current $275 million debt as quickly as possible because the council was “touching against” its legal debt ceiling.
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