MAGEE moved to accept. Delahunty seconded.

MAGEE: said that the document sets out council’s ‘reasonable expectations’ on the use of Crown Land. Went over the history and that the reserve was set aside for ‘racing, recreation’ and park. Stated that racing is ‘well and truly catered for’ and that recreation and park isn’t.

Didn’t think that trustees should be in control but a committee of management since it was gazetted in 1886 as a committee of management but this was abolished in the 1920’s. Went on to talk about the Guidelines put out by DSE on committees of management and that the trustees are seen as such a committee. But these trustees don’t produce an Annual report, nor a financial statement, nor publish their minutes. Members of the public are also excluded. Went on to explain composition – ie 6 members of the MRC, 6 government appointed members and 3 councillor representatives. Said that the 6 MRC members can basically ‘adjudicate’ on everything. Gave the example of the trustees ‘about to lease the racecourse to the MRC’. Said he wanted to clarify that the trustees are ‘very honourable’ people but that perceptions from the community are ‘hard to’ argue against when 6 trustees aren’t just members of the MRC, but on the ‘committee’ of the MRC. The Chair of the Trustees  is vice chair of the MRC and the Chair of the MRC is also a trustee (McDonald). Stated that there’s therefore the situation where the trustees are leasing land to themselves for $71,000 per year. ‘The court of public opinion is what matters here’. Magee said that he ‘raised a lot of these concerns’ last year and that conflict of interest is ‘something that’s very dear to us’ and that council has to abide by these rules. Said that he asked for 3 things: advice from Auditor General, valuer general and DSE. He wanted to know the ‘value of the racecourse and what we’re leasing’; also wanted legal advice on conflict of interest and solictor general’s advice ‘came back….you have a conflict of interest’ and the ‘trustees said No I don’t’.

People also raise issues about ‘business’ running on Crown Land. The trust leases this to the MRC ‘for about $10,000 per year’. That’s then leased to the Aquinita stables. The people who run these stables (Symonds etc.) are MRC people. So question people might ask is ‘is it right or is it wrong’? Wants Napthine to ‘answer these questions’. Said he’d written letters previously but got no answers. He thought that some of these people have ‘conflict of interest’ and people want this looked at.

DELAHUNTY: said that it’s important that ‘council speak in one voice’ and that she thought it is ‘the biggest issue’ that the council would have to ‘deal with’. Said that the current governance ‘arrangements’ are ‘an absolute insult to us as citizens’. The 3 purposes for the land (racing, park, recreation) ‘is paramount’ to ‘restoring supply issues’ (ie sport). Getting rid of training is important for this to occur. The creation of the synthetic training track ‘seems to be at odds with their statements of 2009’ where the position then was quite ‘collaborative’ – read bits from the statement especially the bit about the MRC providing council with an annual update. ‘Well I think we just got our update!’  ….’2.8 million dollars says that training is there to stay and that’s not good enough for the people of Glen Eira’. The money spent on the training track is ‘one million more than they managed to scrape together’ for the centre and that in their media release they ‘use a comparison to sporting grounds’ explaining to people ‘just how big this bloody track is’…’65 tennis courts they say….(this is their version of) ‘flicking the bird at the people of Glen Eira’.

Getting rid of parking is a necessity ‘because it’s a public park’. She agrees with the position but that’s irrelevant because when passed the resolution becomes ‘our position as councillors’ and ‘this is a position I will uuphold, even though it might be difficult’ (family functions). Said that whomever she speaks with that this will be ‘my position’ whether it’s speaking with local MPs or perhaps attending the fun run and ‘I know this might be difficult for some of my council colleagues’ but they understand that ‘they must uphold this position at every reasonable opportunity’. This puts ‘what the public’s position is’ and isn’t ‘asking for anything that’s unfair’. Saw this as a ‘rebalancing act’ which has been ‘tried in the past’. Mentioned Esakoff being here for 10 years and ‘putting up with these issues’ but with no ‘resolution’. Supports the motion and will support it fully at fun-runs and any liberal functions even though she doubts she’ll get an invite and if she didn’t fully advocate this position that she would have to ‘seriously consider’ her role as a councillor. Asserted that ‘to do her job properly as a councillor’ she’ll use all the ‘political influence I can muster’. Challenged other councillors to ‘do the same’. Said that unless all councillors were willing ‘to advance this position’ that they would not be ‘acting in the best interests’ of those people who elected them.

PILLING: endorsed Magee’s ‘passion’ and acknowledged that the issue ‘has been around for a long time’. Thought that this position was better than previous ones because it’s ‘more defined’ and ‘appropriate’. Said that the issue was a result of both sides of politics not ‘addressing’ the issue and that the new council was committed to this. Removing horse training was a ‘key part’.

LOBO: Spoke about the lack of open space in Glen Eira and that population increase as predicted would put further stress on Glen Eira’s lack of open space. Said that ‘extensive developments’ had occured at the racecourse ‘resulting in the exclusion’ of residents to land that ‘have been legally accessible’ for ages. Said that much of the  2 billion dollars of land is now behind fences and people are excluded. ‘Even Berlin got their wall down 23 years ago’ but the MRC are just continuing to ‘put their walls up’. With high rise and increasing population the need for more open space is crucial. This means that people are turned away from sporting clubs. Called ‘upon the MRC to release the grounds to the rightful owners’. Said he hoped that the new councillor trustees would ‘put up a very passionate fight’. Stated that is the government wanted more people in Glen Eira that they should ‘stop shaking hands’ with the MRC management.

Went on to talk about the money the MRC makes from gambling and how this isn’t shared with the community.

OKOTEL: said it was ‘exciting’ to see council taking the issue on ‘so seriously’. It was ‘wonderful’ to see how ‘committed’ the council is to ‘advocate’ for the position put in the motion and how the views of residents are ‘being considered for the use of the land’. Asked a question about whether the stables are on crown land or freehold. Was told that the Aquinita was on crown land. Hyams said that she might have been thinking about the heritage stables and not Aquinita.

HYAMS: said as a new trustee he wrestled with the question of whether there’s a conflict of interest and ‘came down on the side’ that he doesn’t have a conflict of interest. Reason was that there’s a law about ‘conflicting duties’ which says that if you’re an officer that has a ‘direct interest’ then there’s an ‘indirect interest’. Said that ‘direct interest’ means that there’s a possibility of benefiting the opportunities (in this instance the Trust) ‘would be directly altered’ if decisions were made in a specific way. (Hyams cited the Local Government Act on all this). Said that he ‘would love it’ if circumstances could be altered by their decisions because then the trust would be doing ‘what it was meant to do’. But didn’t think that council taking this decision would have ‘a direct affect’ on the Trust and therefore he didn’t think that he’s got a conflict of interest.

Said that his position on the MRC is different because their job is to ‘promote racing’ and that’s what they’re doing. The ‘scandal’ is that the ‘MRC has been allowed to do this’ as a result of trustees ‘abrogating their duty’. The trust gave control to the MRC and that ‘should no longer’ go on. Said that he’d been ‘invited to speak at the opening’ but wasn’t sure whether ‘after tonight’ the invitation would still be there. Said that ‘there is a park in the middle of the racecourse’ and that’s a ‘good first step’ but that ‘people will expect more’.

Referred to Delahunty saying that this has been ‘going on for a long time’. He then mentioned the Select Committee hearing of 2008 and how council ‘articulated’ their position through Esakoff as Deputy Mayor. Said that that position was ‘very similar’ to this motion and even the Select Committee’s report ‘was very similar’. Said that when Magee asked all councillors to support that Hyams is sure that Magee ‘in no way intended to infer that this was not the position of all councillors’ nor that ‘any of us needed to be persuaded’.

Stated that the existence of racing is ‘accepted’ but that it’s time that ‘other uses had equal acceptance’ and that he wouldn’t have any problem putting this position forward as a trustee. Said that the trustees are an ‘anachronomism’ and would like to see a committee of management and the MRC charged a commercial rate.

MAGEE: started to ‘defend’ the MRC because ‘they do what they’re allowed to do’. The trustees haven’t got any ‘guidance’, ‘rules’ or ‘policies’. The only thing that’s in place is that the public are excluded from meetings, no annualj report, no minutes, etc. Said he asked for documentation on the ‘rules’ and was told by one trustee ‘think I saw a little red book once’! So a ‘2 billion dollar asset being run by a little red book’ that ‘may or may not exist’. Stated that he wanted the Caulfield Cup ‘run there for the next 100 years’ but he also wanted to see the place opened up.

Talked about the land swap and how the role of the trustees was to protect the land and they decided that it was no longer needed and the MRC bought it and last year the Minister ‘announced a 1 billion dollar development on that land’ and that the developer is the MRC. They are now ‘one of the largest commercial developers in Victoria’. Also that the Minister ‘decided that I’m not worthy of being a trustee anymore’ and that it could have ‘something to do with the letter’ he wrote to Baillieu. The MRC is classified as ‘non-profit’ but here they are as a major developer. They own 11 hotels, 3 racecourses, tabarets and are ‘into gambling’….’all we want is some land in the centre of the racecourse which is ours’. Said that at the trustee meetings he argued against the landswap because the trustees ‘were getting nothing’ because ‘the land never came back to the trust. It belongs to the DSE’. Said their, the trustee’s  land is now 8,500 metres smaller and the trustees themselves did this. They did this because there isn’t any documented policy. Wanted to know how the trustees ‘could give this land to the MRC….not knowing that there is conflict of interest’ and how could the 6 MRC members buy the land and then ‘announce a development of 1 billion’ without seeing this conflict of interest. This happened because ‘there are no rules’. The result is that residents are locked out and that whenever something is on they need the land for parking so people are again losing out.

HYAMS PUT THE MOTION. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

PS: THE LEADER VIEW!

Champion mare Black Caviar with strapper Vanessa Bartlett at Caulfield. Picture: Michael Klein Herald Sun

Councillors voted unanimously to adopt a 10-point position statement that commits all councillors to advocating for horse training to be phased out so the Crown land is open for more public use.

Should the reserve be used for different purposes? Have your say below.

The nine-point statement demands massive change, including phasing out all racehorse training.

Other key demands:

• Equal land for community sport and racetracks;
• Leases or licences put in place for each of the reserve’s three main uses;
• Horse training to be phased out;
• Public use to take precedence over car parking;
• Commercial rent charged for all commercial activities; and
• Governance by committee of management.

Glen Eira has the smallest amount of public open space of any Melbourne council.