A BID to revoke the council’s new planning matters policy has failed in a tied vote after concerns were raised about its last-minute release and lacking proper scrutiny.
The policy, which sets out a framework for “consistent, lawful, efficient, transparent and best practice approach” to decision making in both statutory and strategic planning matters, was endorsed by Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors in an 8-3 vote at their 5 November public meeting.
The council had previously been without a policy for about four years, and it will now replace the now discontinued planning services committee and its terms of reference.
However, concerns were raised at the time that the policy’s late publication had undermined transparency and could erode public trust in council decision-making.
Among those to vote against the policy at the original meeting was Cr David Gill, who subsequently moved a notice of motion at the shire’s 2 December meeting calling for the policy’s revocation, arguing that it was rushed through with little time to review and was “a policy that is much more restrictive on councillors” to raise planning matters with the community.
“This is an important planning policy that has repercussions related to the elected representative role in raising planning matters on behalf of our community yet there has been no real opportunity for the public to see and scrutinise or raise questions about the proposed changes,” Gill said in his motion to the council.
“The marked-up changes were confusing, and it was difficult to understand or amend alterations to the existing policy. The public were not aware of the alterations until the day of the council meeting which is a lapse in governance and transparency requirements.”
But opponents of the revocation including deputy mayor Paul Pingiaro maintained that the policy was urgently needed to provide a stable framework after years without any planning policy.
The motion ended in a 5–5 deadlock, prompting Pingiaro, who chaired the meeting in the absence of mayor Cr Anthony Marsh, to cast the deciding vote against the revocation, leaving the revised planning matters policy intact.
“I have debated on this, and nothing has changed my mind as to the original 8-3 [vote], though I’ve had no further information come forward to me that has changed the position of that vote and that is why I’m casting against the motion,” Pingiaro said.
Earlier in the meeting, Pingiaro said councillors had received at least two council briefings. He also said, “we’ve had no policy for approximately four years” and that consultation had occurred in February, but “we’re still here; it’s December”.
“We really need to think of what has changed. Continually revoking motions and council policy is really hard on our officers. They’ve worked hard on this,” he said.
Cr Bruce Ranken also voted against the motion, saying it “just fathoms me as to why this has been brought back up” after the policy was adopted just weeks earlier.
“The motion effectively scraps the entire policy in one go, all done very quickly… this then questions transparency in governance and its entirety,” he said.
Cr Kate Roper, who supported the motion, said, “I have had people contact me about the changes to policy and complaining about the restriction of their elected representatives to discuss planning matters one-on-one”.
“I just think it needs more scrutiny, and I think it would be more appropriate to adopt it when you get more detail about planning changes that will impact our planning policy.”
First published in the Mornington News – 9 December 2025
