Call to sack councils
Council Watch has started a campaign for the local government minister to sack the Darebin Council and potentially Merri-bek as well.
A Victorian local body watchdog group wants Darebin Council sacked for its involvement in the Gaza conflict.
Dean Hurlston, president of Council Watch, has appealed to the Jewish community for help to get councils to stop taking sides in global conflicts and geopolitical issues.
He said inner Melbourne councils are being used as battering rams to tear down social order and cohesion.
“We felt that the [Jewish] community was being vilified and that some of the motions that councils like Merri-bek and Darebin and potentially Yarra … went further than just simply saying we support Palestinians and Israelis or the Jewish people and said we will target we will shame and vilify [people],” he said.
Hurlston said Council Watch has 15,000 members across the state and acts as the people’s voice in holding councils to account, and this issue is of concern to all Victorians.
He said, “There are Jewish and Palestinian people and Muslims across the state who get along just fine and have been getting along just fine. What we don’t need is a group of people in councils thinking to pull that social fabric apart – that is absolutely against what the intention of local government is.”
Council Watch has started a campaign for the local government minister to sack the Darebin Council and potentially Merri-bek as well.
“We are working with the ombudsman, the auditor general, the local government inspector and the state local government minister and we are demanding that councils need to serve the local community, don’t inflame tensions, and promote social cohesion, peace, order and good governance. If they don’t do that, they should be sacked and replaced,” Hurlston said.
He said actions by individual councillors in relation to the situation in Gaza could see action taken against them under their code of conduct.
“You cannot make disrespectful, vilifying statements about any group of people. And unfortunately, what we have seen on social media from a number of particularly inner Melbourne councillors is statements that breach their code of conduct and are unacceptable in the state of Victoria,” he said.
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