MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors have united in imploring the state government to immediately ban all donations from property developers, gambling businesses, and politicians to candidates running for local councils.
Councillors voted unanimously in favour of the move at their 28 January meeting after Cr David Gill led a motion to end the three streams of financial contributions for candidates, as well as set a cap of $500 for all other donations ensuring the process is “transparent and it is accountable”.
“The state government has the power to make these changes,” said Gill, who has made similar pushes in previous years. “It’s not about individuals. People who have accepted donations in the recent election have done so legally, and I’m not arguing with that. “What I’m saying is the process needs to improve and asking the state government who are the only ones that can make the improvement to act. “And it needs to come from lots of councils and from the Municipal Association [of Victoria] so we get to the stage where it is transparent, and it is accountable.”
In supporting the motion, councillors also voted that disclosures of donations are to be made “in real time” up until election day, which Gill believed was only in “fairness to the voter” so “people know about it when they’re voting”. This included the period up to “councillors being sworn in and that all donations to councillors be banned from the time of being sworn in”. Additionally, the shire will also call on the state government to set up a statewide donor register so all donations are tracked by name “and not just by company or any other mechanism that may conceal knowledge about the donor”.
The Victorian Electoral Commission has a campaign donation register, which lists donations made to political parties, candidates and members of parliament for state elections. But there is currently no statewide register for local government elections, which Gill said was needed. “What we’re asking for is a level playing field for local government also”.
Cr Kate Roper said transparency was critical, noting Operation Sandon, which held public examinations in 2019 and 2020 into allegations of serious corrupt conduct in relation to planning and property development decisions at the City of Casey, had “really caused a lot of mistrust to the public about councils and what goes on in the background and how people can influence them”.
Deputy mayor Cr Paul Pingiario said he “wholeheartedly” supported the motion to improve transparency and “to make sure that everyone is playing with the same rules”. “We need to make sure that when we do put these things forward and we do lobby for policies that they are integral to our integrity and they play a massive part in how we move forward as a democracy,” he said.
The shire will now write to the state government calling for all measures to be acted on in the motion.
The move comes as just over $30,000 was donated to four Mornington Peninsula Shire candidates, including two who were elected, by a private organisation called the Friends of the Peninsula, which is run by a property developer Ari Lakman, according to records from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.
As reported by The News last month, Friends of the Peninsula gave donations to newly elected councillors Cam Williams ($5055.16) and Bruce Ranken ($7136.12) while unsuccessful candidates Peter Clarke and Susan Bissinger received $14,065.72 and $8873.31 respectively.
Under the Local Government Act council candidates have 40 days after election day to complete a campaign donation return including a record of donations and gifts for the Local Government Inspectorate. Failure to submit a return or providing false or misleading information can result in prosecution and fines exceeding $11,090.
Council Watch president Dean Hurlston welcomed the push by the shire, saying the “key is getting to the source of donations, not the web of companies or associations that they are hidden through”. “As far as we’re concerned, all donations should be real time so that voters, when they vote, know who’s funding candidates,” he told The News.
Hurlston added donations of more than $500 from political parties should also be banned “because a political party is the ultimate hidden funding source; you don’t know who’s donated to that political party and what those funds are made-up of”.
First published in the Mornington News – 4 February 2025