Liam McNally
Three community members have made submissions for Melton council’s electoral structure review.
Currently, 39 Victorian local councils including Melton and Moorabool are undergoing electoral structure reviews conducted by an Electoral Representation Advisory Panel appointed by the Local Government Minister.
Following the review, Melton council will be restructured to a single-councillor ward electoral structure before the 2024 local government election.
A preliminary report proposed three different single-councillor ward structures for Melton, which currently comprises two Watts ward councillors, three Cambridge ward councillors and four Coburn ward councillors.
Models one and two would keep the current number of councillors in charge of Melton, but split the council area into nine wards, while model three would also add a 10th councillor and ward. A final report is due to be presented to the local government minister later in December.
The report said introducing single-councillor wards represents a large electoral structure change for Melton and each model addresses the challenge of balancing the two centres of growth at either end of the council area in a particular way.
Model one attempts to keep suburbs together in wards as much as possible, resulting in five urban-focused wards among the number of wards.
Model two uses the freeway as a continuous boundary in the west, with two wards extending north and two extending south. Each of these wards combine urban and rural areas almost evenly.
Model three with 10 councillors provides six wards confined to the main east-west transport and growth corridor, with each roughly equal in size by area.
In the submissions, Diggers Rest resident Shaun McKerral said he supports model three.
“All options present an opportunity for our town to finally have some representation and I look forward to reviewing the feedback, selected option and the proposed implementation,” he said.
Eynesbury’s Garrick Oates said model three gives a somewhat better boundary delineation including those areas west of the river and south of the railway line as a whole.
Rockbank resident Kaitlyn Menhennet said in her submission that model one is the best suited as it groups the suburbs in the middle area that is in between Melton and Caroline Springs.
Melton mayor Kathy Majdlik said the council is looking forward to the VEC’s final report.
