Mr DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh)—The matter I raise is for the Minister for Public Transport, and the action I seek from the minister is that she produce any documentation she may have that will clarify the position of Glen Eira Council in relation to consultation on the Andrews Labor government’s proposed design to remove all nine level crossings between Caulfield and Dandenong. There have been recent pieces of misinformation being spread by one particular Liberal Party member of the Glen Eira Council. As I said in this place yesterday removing level crossings is the no. 1 priority for the residents in my community. It took the Andrews government and a very active Minister for Public Transport to get on and do this—and the government will be doing it all by 2018.
I take this time to refer the minister to comments that I have been reported and that have been provided to me from media outlets in my community about a meeting held at the City of Glen Eira between councillors and the Level Crossing Removal Authority. They are sourced from a councillor at the City of Glen Eira, who has suggested amongst other things that rail lines on the ground will stay there for years, councils will have to pay to develop the new parkland and—here is a cracker—councils will get into the business of shopping centre development and the government will be gifting them a whole lot of land to do it. What absolute scaremongering nonsense. Yet more nonsense being peddled and organised directly by those opposite.
I have it on good authority that these comments are from the Liberal Party member of the Glen Eira City Council, Karina Okotel. We may remember Cr Okotel from when she campaigned for my opponent at the last election. We may also remember her as a prospective Liberal Senate candidate for the next federal election, which was mentioned in the media recently. If this is conduct that she thinks is appropriate, God forbid that she gets elected to the national Parliament. You might also know her from the protests in my community recently, despite the fact that we keep hearing that these protests are not political. Not political? The last protest had no less than five Liberal members of Parliament, including the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.
I recognise that there are people in my community who have genuine concerns and from day one the Premier made it clear that each affected resident would have their own dedicated case manager. I understand there will be a range of things provided for each resident, but this will be done in a calm and considered way by a caring government, one by one with all residents. What I do not recognise is the scaremongering, misinformation and out-and-out lies spread by those opposite. I have even heard that staff members of those opposite have been out doorknocking my community and staff members of the Leader of the Opposition have been canvassing shoppers in Koornang Road, Carnegie, about their views on sky rail without identifying who they are. I have also heard that members of the Leader of the Opposition’s staff have been doing other activities to coordinate this anti-campaign. I look forward to welcoming the minister to my community again through the duration of this project and I look forward to her clarification on these matters.
RESPONSE
MS ALLEN (Minister)…..Finally, the member for Oakleigh has raised a matter with me. It is quite a concerning matter because it does go to some misinformation that has been produced in his local community for purely political purposes. I know the member for Brighton is shocked. She is shocked at what is going on in the Oakleigh community. The member asked for me to produce documentation that would clarify the position of Glen Eira council.
I am looking to read into the record comments that I have in a letter. I am prepared to make the letter available to the house this evening. I received this morning a letter from the office of the mayor, Cr Neil Pilling, in response to an issue that was raised in the Herald Sun today about some claims about a meeting that was held with the Glen Eira council and the level crossing removal project team on Tuesday evening. Sorry, it was not to me. I should be clear. It was to Kevin Devlin, the CEO of the Level Crossing Removal Authority. I would just like to make that correction: it was to Kevin Devlin. He indicated that the discussion was, and I quote:
robust but productive, and it was helpful to gain a greater insight into not only your plans for further consultation with the community …
He goes on to say, and I quote:
It has come to our attention that one of our councillors has distributed her personal interpretation of matters discussed at the meeting to a wider audience … I would like to emphasise that this communication is neither an official record nor an accurate record of the discussion, nor does it represent the views of the collective council group.
I apologise that this has occurred as it is inconsistent with both the intent of the briefing and the courtesy that council seeks to afford to guest presenters.
As I have said, I appreciate the mayor taking immediate steps to correct the record from his council’s perspective following the reports in the media today. Is it not such a shame that the mayor has had to write a letter apologising on behalf of his council for the actions of a renegade councillor who is choosing to put her own party political interests above the good of the council and the good of the local community? It is incredibly disappointing. I hope for the member that that clarifies the position of the Glen Eira council. I appreciated the opportunity to briefly meet with the CEO and the mayor this afternoon as they were meeting with members in Parliament.
I also just want to mention too that we really look forward to working with the Glen Eira council on both the project and the opportunities that come from removing nine level crossings in the way that it is going to be done, creating those 11 MCGs worth of open space. The Glen Eira council has the least open space of any municipality in Melbourne, so this presents a unique, one-off opportunity not only to get rid of level crossings but to run more train services, to reduce road local community. It is going to be an opportunity. The Andrews Labor government has already said that we look forward to funding new facilities—they will be municipal facilities but new facilities along this corridor—and then providing funding to the councils in the longer term for them to maintain the upkeep of these facilities. That is why we want to work constructively and proactively with councils like Glen Eira and others along this rail corridor as we deliver an incredibly exciting infrastructure project for this community.
Glen Eira Debates 
February 12, 2016 at 9:26 AM
That girl is about a bright as as a broken light bulb
February 12, 2016 at 9:46 AM
Would love to have been a fly on the wall when this letter was written and signed. Pilling would have been having conuptions ditching his recently acquired Liberal mates. That’s not to say that other councillors knew it was being written. Could there have been a vote on this? Another illustration of keeping ratepayers in the gloomy old dark dungeon. Not one single official peep from council as yet to let people know what’s going on and council’s official position.
February 12, 2016 at 10:56 AM
Interesting response from Council particularly when balanced against the allegation of “widely viewed as false” and a request for a report.
Methinks the vengance of Council has found a new target (even though that person comes for the same party and the vengeful)
February 12, 2016 at 12:29 PM
Pilling is in support the sky rail, the Lib would secretly want this sky-rail as well. However revenge over East West tunnel is more important than progress to these little people Just watch the cost blow outs over all this bickering, and who get all these blow-out dollars ….. their mates …… a perfect storm of transferring public wealth into private hands …. once again all noses into the trough
February 12, 2016 at 12:45 PM
The politics surrounding the proposed removal of level crossings on the Dandenong line are ugly. None of the players are devoting their energies to the real matter at hand, making decisions in the best interests of Victoria including those whose amenity are directly impacted by the proposed elevated rail line. So little information has been published that a true technical and financial assessment by interested members of the public is not possible.
Steve Dimopoulos is a bit reckless in labelling comments “misinformation” when they’re actually personal opinion. Misinformation would be something contrary to the facts—very different to making wildly speculative predictions about the future. Wild speculation is something that both major parties embrace. Misinformation could certainly propagate when there isn’t information to contradict it.
Residents of Glen Eira know that our council is disfunctional and that the relationships between councillors are rapidly deteriorating. Four years is too long between elections when so disfunctional. The current incumbents are ill-suited to the demands of the position, which requires integrity, ability to comprehend complex information, and the need to show respect to people holding radically different views.
Our state MPs may not care much for governance standards, but I do. I note that the letter Jacinta Allen quotes from, although described as coming from the office of the Mayor of Glen Eira, is not from Council. It represents the views of one, possibly more, councillors self-described as “the collective council group”. The letter doesn’t describe which councillors are members of that group, whether they all participated in the drafting of the letter, whether it truly reflects their views, whether there were any opposing voices to the use of council resources for the political agenda of this group. Jacinta Allen specifically equates the view of this group as being the position of Council. I hope the Minister for Local Government does her job in educating Jacinta what a council is.
Cr Pilling’s comments that “this communication is neither an official record nor an accurate record of the discussion” is classicly unhelpful. What official record of the discussion is there with which one could compare Cr Okotel’s interpretation? At least Cr Pilling did implicitly acknowledge that official records are not necessarily accurate. [That’s something else we’re very familiar with here in Glen Eira.] Cr Pilling hasn’t provided evidence that his views are any more accurate than Cr Okotel’s.
A pox on the lot of them.
February 12, 2016 at 4:57 PM
Indeed a pox on all of them. I would think that this boils down to Okotel earning her stripes as a Liberal and gearing up for election. Pity that if she doesn’t get preselection we could be stuck with her as a councillor for another 4 years unless she is voted out.
February 12, 2016 at 6:23 PM
Incumbency has undoubted advantages but doesn’t guarantee success. I’m tougher than some: I clung to election pamphlets from 2012 despite the waves of nausea I experience when reading them. Jamie for example stated as an achievement “inappropriate development opposed”. He also claimed that he would work hard to “take advantage of the new government planning zones to achieve maximum protection from overdevelopment for our neighbourhoods” and “improve the way Council consults with the community”. Margaret’s achievements back in 2012 included “protecting you from overdevelopment: preserving your neighbourhood amenity”. When looking at the empirical evidence for 2012-16, I wonder if they’ll dare repeat the claims.
February 12, 2016 at 5:03 PM
Pilling’s a goose on the loose
February 12, 2016 at 5:21 PM
I am so frustrated and tired of all this politics. We pay our ever rising rates whilst my property is devalued in real terms. I vote for someone who is supposed to be a Green only to discover that he is a dyed in the wool Liberal. I ring councillors and only get a phone call back from two of them. I send letters and all I get back is a script that comes not from my elected person but from the unelected officer who in all probability hasn’t even bothered to investigate my claims or my cause properly. I am not satisfied with a councillor hiding behind the phrase “I have been advised”. That is shirking their responsibility to make sure that change, where warranted, does happen and that residents are given a fair go. I am dismayed that my street is now full of four storey apartment blocks that look like they won’t last out the decade.I am dismayed that neighbours I have had for 30 years have been forced to sell and get out of the area. They are friends and our kids grew up together. The difference is that they were far more cynical than we were and saw what was coming and didn’t want to have a bar of it. I don’t blame them. When someone knocks on your door and offers you an amazing price to sell together then the temptation is too great particularly if they tell you that others have already sold. My council has failed and the state has also failed.
February 12, 2016 at 6:35 PM
As long as Councillors continue to protect the administration rather than represent the residents that is what’s going to happen. The huge juggernaut that Councillors have unleashed will just roll on and anyone and everyone other than themselves will be blamed.
You can see it in both Carnegie (currently beseiged) and Murrumbeena (next to topple ie. developers are already snapping up lots in the growth zones). Councils zone map shows it all crystal clear, from Dandenong Road to at least 300 metres south of the railway line (whether elevated or not) and from Grange Road to Poath Road it’s all to be 3 or 4 storey multi-unit developments.
February 12, 2016 at 7:58 PM
Once we started paying councillors we started to attract the money hungry bludgers. I would say to a person that’s what we have now, some of them even expecting a long life on taxpayers tit. Pilling is basket case of just making things up as he goes, that way he doesn’t have to stress his tiny intellect. The man never follows through on anything
February 13, 2016 at 9:01 AM
Well, well, well, Karina Okotel, a civil lawyer, a Councillor, a mother, and most recently a candidate for a Liberal Party Senate ticket, ‘bought a pup’ or ‘pig in a poke’ and swallowed ‘hook, line and sinker’ to become the ‘fall guy’ for the actions of a desperate Liberal Party to attack Labor Party on the issue of level crossing removals (first Glenhuntly and now Carnegie/Murrumbeena). I doubt that Karina Okotel will survive the onslaught of public and Party pressure after the gaffes she made.
It reminds me quite a bit of another Glen Eira Councillor, Oscar Lobo, whose off the cuff comments lend him into hot water, and generated an attack by the major ethnic and religious group in Glen Eira, Jews. Now, it seems that Karina Okotel will suffer a similar fate from the other large religious Glen Eira group WASPs. For as long as I remember, first in Caulfield and now in Glen Eira there was an undercurrent of racial and religious prejudice and discrimination by WASP and Jewish communities against others. Interestingly, both Oscar Lobo and Karina Okotel are from the same Indian Subcontinent but from opposite political spectrum. Because of their gaffes and background the Parties from which they draw support from are likely to drop them like a hot potato.
The upshot of all that is that come next Glen Eira Council election we’ll end up with a more common racial mix of people on the Council of WASPs, Catholics and Jews. That spells the end of the recent experiment with a multi-racial representation on the Council.