Councilors Council Officers Glen Eira
residents and community members viewing
our meeting this evening I would like to
welcome you all to the 12th of December
2023 extraordinary meeting of council
there are a few items that I would like
to mention before we begin this evening
the first is a reminder to councilors
council officers and members of the
public that all mobile phones are to be
switched off or placed on silent for the
duration of the meeting we want our
councilors our staff and our community
to feel safe and secure when attending
council meetings it is a key part of how
we provide good governance for the city
and ensure good transparent decisions
are made for the foreseeable future we
will continue to have security officers
at council meetings as we always do we
have also introduced security screening
for people accessing the public gallery
of the council chamber we want to make
sure everyone feels welcome and safe in
this chamber with that said I want to
welcome everyone here tonight and
acknowledge that we have many community
members here with us in the
gallery although special council
meetings are open to the public please
note that there's no public
participation and these meetings are
held to deal with the items on the
agenda only just as councilors have
listened and responded to community
members with respect I would ask
community members to be respectful to
officers and councilor staff to ensure
everyone can hear the proceedings
tonight including those tuning in online
I ask to be please be conscious of
keeping any noise in the gallery to a
minimum during the meeting and refrain
from calling out our meetings are
held in person here at the council
chambers and are being live streamed to
the community rule 24 of council's
governance rule states where meetings
are held in person meetings can continue
if the live streaming of the meeting
fails where a councilor is participating
virtually and a technical problem occurs
the meeting will be adjourned for 10
minutes and then if the meeting cannot
be resumed within 30 minutes the me
meeting will be adjourned to be
reconvened on Thursday the 14th of
December at 7:30 p.m. council is not
responsible for any data usage charges
or technical issues that members of the
public may experience in accessing
council's live stream or recording of
meetings a copy of each of the live
stream meeting is placed on council's
website the day after the
meeting thank thank you councilors we
will now commence with the items on the
agenda acknowledgement of traditional
owners is item number one
Glen Eira City Council acknowledges
the peoples of the Kulin nation as
traditional owners and custodians and
pay our respects to their Elders past
present and emerging we acknowledge in
their continuing relationship to
land and waterways Council extends its
respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Straiot Islander peoples item two is
apologies CEO do we have any apologies
this evening um no Madame Mayor thank
you item three is a reminder to declare
any conflicts of interest in any items
on the
agenda councilors there is a requirement
for disclosure of conflicts of interests
to items listed for consideration of on
the agenda or any item that is
considered at this meeting in accordance
with Section 130 in Brackets 2 of The
Local Government Act 2020 and Rule 60 in
Brackets 3 of the Glen Eira Council
Governance Rules councilors if you have
a conflict of interest in an item please
state the item number and title of the
item as there does not seem to be any
conflicts we will move on I will now
move a procedural
motion that Council one where meetings
are held in person can continue the
meeting if the live stream of the
meeting fails as stated in the
governance rules two consider considers
the meeting to be adjourned for 10
minutes from the commencement of any
technical problem where a councilor is
participating virtually and three where
a councilor is participating virtually
and the meeting cannot be resumed within
30 minutes from the commencement of the
technical problem the meeting is to be
reconvened on Thursday the 14th of
December 2023 at 7:30 p.m. do I have a
second of that motion please councilor
Zmood I will now put this to the vote all
those in
favour this vote is carried
unanimously
item four officer reports
4.1 Council operated Early Learning
Center's final decision the
recommendation that Council one exits
the provision of services at its three
Early Learning centres and cease
operation of the Early Learning Centres
by Thursday the 28th of March
2024 to provides active support for
existing families to transition to
other early years services and support
staff to find a new role through
redeployment to another council role or
through career support do I have a mover
councilor Magee thank you as
printed and do I have a seconder for that
motion councilor Esakoff uh before
councilor Magee starts talking I'd like to
remind the gallery to please keep noise
to a minimum because um uh and be
respectful of the councilor who's
speaking thank you go ahead councilor
Madame Mayor thank you Madame Mayor
there is a a number
of portions or parts to this decision
tonight there's the financial part
there's the operational part there's the
the decision for councilors and
councilors it's a very easy decision the
decision you're being asked to make
tonight is should Glen Eira Council be in
the business of early
learning yes or
no the
recommendation is quite clear the
recommendation is that we exit we exit
in March but in wills as exiting in March
we also then go out to for an expression
of interest councils to see if there's
other group or other
organizations out there that are willing
to take over or take on the three
centres
now we've heard very clearly and I had
conversations with uh the member for
Oakleigh this morning Steve Demopolis who was
very clear that he wanted the
opportunity for government to um talk
with uh assist with any organization
that wants to move forward I made it
very clear to him that if the decision
tonight is as this motion is put and and
if it does get up it will be that
Council will not be the operator of
early learning in the City of
Glen Eira we have to look at
this step by step I'll talk about the
operational side of it before the
financial
side back in
the basically the late ' 80s early 90s
there was very very little in those days
called you know Child Care called Crash
called a number of different things
so through the late ' 80s and into the
'90s um there was very very little
um Glen Eira Council decided uh in the
'90s to operate three
centres owned operated and
opened at a time when there was very
little options and I remember very
clearly myself looking for places for my
two sons one of them had to go to
Dingley and the other went to a brand
new center that was opened in
Ormond and that Ormond Center is still
open today near the ?
and it was a very stressful time to find
those places I understand that but since
then we've come an awful long way the
report clearly states that there are now
58 centres there's another nine going
through planning which is another 9919
places uh right through for the next uh
number of years right up until I think
it's
2036 we would look at having about 1.5
places for every child under four
available in the city of Glen Eira so the
modeling suggests that we won't run out
of
places and I believe if the modeling
show that we would or the modeling show
that there wasn't enough places Council
may be in a different position but we
believe and I believe that the
opportunity um for families to
transition into non for-profit and
for-profit um organizations to provide
long day care or early learning is
certainly there and
available councils we also have a a
financial side of this to look
at we know quite clearly over the last
18 months this council has led a Statewide
um
conversation long-term local government
financial
sustainability I presented those papers
to the minister as part of the
ministerial advisory committee and I
presented those papers to every Mayor in
Victoria and we looked doing several
things this is an isolated case for us
early learning but there's 120 other
services that are impacted by financial
sustainability we look at where does our
finances come from for us to sustain
this ongoing the most of our the
majority of our money comes from rates
now rates is just a fancy word for
tax rates are a tax local government
collects 3.8 % that's all 3.8% of all
taxes are collected would you like an
extension five minutes if I could Madam
Mayor do you have a mover councilor Zmood
Council Esakoff thank you can we put that to
the
vote thank you go ahead councilors Magee
Madame Mayor while councils collect 3.8%
of all taxes we actually maintain
one third of this nation's infrastructure
and we do that with that money we've
seen over the years a what we call cost
shifting from state government to local
government and Madame Mayor it was
interesting yesterday to hear one of our
state politicians complaining about the
level of um cost shifting from federal
government to state
government and if I only had his phone
number I'd have rung him and said well
what about state government to local
government cuz Madame Mayoor to us that's
$19 million each and every year that's
$19 million that's out of the pocket of
rate payers in actual fact the rates in
Glen Eira today are 10% higher than they
need to be because of the cost shifting
from the state and federal government to
this
Council there are certainly grants
available for Kinder from state
government there are no grants available
from state government for early learning
now Steve Demopolis made it very very clear
this morning that he wanted to work with
any group that wanted to take on the
service and that'll be for if this gets
up tonight that'll be for any group that
shows an expression of interest for one
of our three centres or all of our three
centres we clearly heard from a lot of
people during the consultation um uh
time that that 4we time that um there
are organizations out there that are
willing to talk about that but first we
need to settle whether council is going
to be a part of whether we want to
continue to run and certainly be a part
of the The Early Learning Madam Mayor
I've talked with many politicians and
many Mayors around the state and they're
all facing the same issues they're
facing issues
around the amount of money they've got
to provide the services they need to
provide now I said before $19 million
was what was cost shifting to us one of
our neighboring councils it's nearly 30
million but at the same time Madame
Mayor as I've argued with politicians
and I did it with Demopolis today Steve Demopolis
and
to be open and transparent I've known
Steve since he was a a councilor at the
City of Monash as we all have and Steve
I'll consider to be a good
friend um but we had a very robust
discussion today and to say Steve was
pushing very hard for us to make a
different decision that I think we will
make tonight is is an
understatement but Madame Mayor as I
pointed out to Steve Demopolis that each
year each and every the state government
removes $332 million from the the City
of Glen Eira
that's just from our city $332 million
they take in land stamp duty and land tax
and then they come back and shift
another $19 million onto us their of
their cost now if that wasn't happening
I think we'll be having a a much
different conversation
tonight there's things
that we can't just accept we can't
accept just to delay 12 months or 2
years that is simply just pushing this
problem down the road onto other
families at another time when we will
reinvestigate the same thing over and
over
again I've been dealing with politicians
for over 15 years and I know talk is
pretty cheap lots of promises have
always been made lots of talk has always
happened very little has ever been
produced governments have got a very
good opportunity here now today because
this is a what I'm saying is probably
one of the first of our um strategic
move moves as far as our financial
sustainability goes we couldn't close
libraries no one else is building
libraries we can't close our ovals and
pavilions no one's building those for us
but here we have an area where there
is supply out there there is
non profit and profit organizations
providing those Services Madame Mayor if
we don't do this if we don't take very
strong moves now we will be really
putting our Council in the same
positions that many councils in New
South Wales are in and they're on the
brink of major um consolidating of
councils combining of councils in super
councils we look at the model that we
represent and we follow that's the model
of the English model there's 11 councils
within England at the moment that are
actually applying for bankruptcy I'm not
going to let that happen here in the
city of Glen Eira just because we fail to
be brave enough to have these
serious conversations about our
long-term Financial sustainability Madam
Mayor let others talk and I'll come I
would ask the uh gallery to please be
respectful of councilors Magee when he's
speaking have you finished councilor
Magee Madame Mayor I think we should
have a lot of um patience with the
children the children are here they're
going to do what children do um I've got
no problems with that
noise thank you councilor
Esakoff thank you Madame Mayor
as a councilor I always strive to speak
to as many people as I can who are
impacted by the decisions that we make
this is an important part of good
governance and part of the role of an
elected
representative unfortunately I wasn't
able to do that for this decision after
the threat of legal action in the lead
up to council's final
decision I want to apologize to the
parents I did not get to speak to
personally but I can assure you that all
your submissions have been read and
considered in the leadup to a decision
this
evening it's now 10 weeks since we made
our preliminary decision on October 3 in
relation to the three Council owned and
operated ELC child care centres in
Caulfield Murrumbeena and Carnegie with the
options being status quo exit service
provision or consolidate the services
onto one site in
Murrumbeena since that time consultation has
occurred with all affected amilies staff
and the wider community and I note that
council's obligations have been met
under the Glen Eira City Council
Enterprise agreement 2022 and the Local
Government Act
2020 as I said at the outset I have
listened to all feedback and taken into
consideration all the factors involved
in making this very difficult
decision not surprisingly the
consultation highlighted the fact that
current families value Council services
they value the exemplary staff we have
been blessed to have they prefer the
homely nature of our facilities to other
more modern facilities that are
available for these reasons among others
current families want to see the three
centres stay in
operation current families were also
concerned about the short notice or the
timing to close in December and the
impact of that in transitioning their
child or children to a new center and
made that very clear in their
submissions a view too from the current
families that Council should play a role
in providing Early Childhood Education
and Care Services even though it is not
a core business of council a few of the
families were even prepared to pay extra
fees so the centres would be less
heavily subsidized by the rate payers
? staff feedback acknowledged the good
reputation that Council Services have
mainly because of the the quality of
care provided by
them in assessing all the feedback it
has been found that there is no
additional information that
materially the assessment that the
combination of factors still present
unresolvable challenges to council such
as council's role and responsibility as
a local government and a service
provider in a highly competitive
market the financial viability of
operating the
centres
the opportunities and challenges of the
existing
infrastructure and the future service
delivery capacity of the local Child
Care Market to meet current and future
demand would you like an extension
Council Esakoff yes please 5 minutes
councilor Zmood to move that councilor Athanasopoulos
seconded may I put that to the vote
carried unanimously thank you thank you
thank you however you will have seen in
the office's recommendation that
consideration has been given to the
feedback on the aspect of timing and the
exit date has been moved from December
21 as stated in the preliminary decision
to March 28 2024 an extension of over 3
months which allows a longer transition
period for both families children and
staff the recommendation also provides
active support for existing families and
staff to make this transition and will
assist families with more than one child
all all all families but those with more
than one child in an endeavour to
collate them
together in relation to the role Council
has in supporting young children and
their families there are many things
that Council does in this area including
Council directly provides maternal and
child health childhood
immunization occasional care family
daycare Library Services sports and
recreation programs Council Partners in
10 Council buildings with other
providers to deliver quality early years
services such as Glen Eira education
kindergarten committees the East Bentleigh
Child Care committee toy library and
play group
committees council is working to support
and build the capacity of all early
years service providers to deliver
quality accessible Services across the
municipality through activities such as
providing local service directories the
kindergarten Central registration scheme
and support to non-council early year
services and professionals through early
years networks and training
initiatives Community Development
funding opportunities are provided
through our community grants
program and council is planning
facilitating and advocating for children
and families at a hold of Municipal
level for services and amenities such as
leading the municipal kindergarten
infrastructure and services plan in
respon government's best start best life
kindergarten reforms
when Council first started the service
of child care it was to fill a niche
market that had not been filled and I
know Council Magee already touched on
this there was also one that I'm aware
of in Oakleigh Road in Ormond uh I did
visit once when my children were tiny um
that closed many many years ago probably
back in the 80s I'd say that one closed
the remaining three small centres they
are only three of 58 in the municipality
provide 115 places a total of 2% of all
places and councilor Magee's already
talked about the numbers but I'll
reiterate them anyway currently there
are 5,731
places being provided in Glen Eira
with a further 919 in the planning phase
so that will bring the number to
6,650 projections show that there will
be an estimate of 1.57 places available
to each child from from 0 to 4 years and
that is without the inclusion of
council's three centres 115
places it's important to remember that
all Commonwealth approved services for
child care and ELC's and state funded
kindergarten programs offer specific
report support for families that are
experiencing vulnerability and who are
eligible for specific report the same as
council ELC's do Council three
facilities are low performing they
aren't flexible they have small rooms
they're unable to reach the economies of
scale that new centres can with a
capacity of 100 people or more 100
children or more their viability is
directly impacted by the fact that
they're established when the legislated
child educator ratios and space
requirements were different from the
current day
regulations they're lacking in many ways
including contemporary kitchen
facilities the lack of flexible space
limiting the ability I would like to
pause proceedings for a moment please I
explained at the start of this meeting
that it is important for everyone to be
able to hear the proceedings tonight I
must
insist that the members of the gallery
refrain from calling out during the
meeting thank you go
ahead I'll repeat that
paragraph they ELC in many ways including
contemporary kitchen facilities the lack
of flexible space limiting the ability
to provide a broad range of educational
and play
opportunities and places for staff to
rest eat plan and document their
work the result is declining utilization
rates and increasing financial losses in
a very competitive market Councilor Esakoff
your time is
up you got sorry sorry you've got 45
seconds it'll be up in 45 seconds I call
for another three minutes please 3
minutes
um thank you councilors Zmood councilors
Pennicuik can we put that to the ward thank
you thank
you the result is declining utilization
and increasing Financial losses in a
very competitive market despite the
center's exceeding National quality
standards the 2022 23 loss was
$58,700 and forecasting indicates that
even at a best case scenario of 90%
utilization the financial loss for the
next 5 years will be about 3.1 million
and that's with a $4 a day increase for
each of those
years in addition maintenance costs for
the three centres were just under
150,000 for the 2022 23 year and it is
expected that that will continue to grow
it's clear we cannot continue with the
status
quo the other option three is not
possible as Council has no budget
provision for major building investments
in relation to the
elc's the substantial costs associated
with major develop investment into
council's 3 ELC buildings would
significantly impact council's financial
position further deteriorating council's
performance against the Victorian
auditor General's Financial
sustainability indicators and increasing
council's risk around operating deficit
liquid
position and borrowing capacity it's our
duty as councilorsto keep glena in a
financially sound position and not put
council at risk it's our duty to in to
care sorry it is our duty of care to
ensure council's sustainability now and
into the future and you can laugh as
much as you like but it's all
true I'm going to pause once again and
I've already asked the gallery to be
respectful and considerated be
considerate of
others go ahead councilor Esakoff there
have been many questions as to why
Council has a nominal rent included in
the costings of running the centres this
is because we need to be cognizant of
the competitive neutrality Provisions
which are real and including a nominal
rent figures nominal rent figures
enables a fair true and accurate
comparison to be made otherwise Council
would have an unfair advantage over
other centres which puts us at risk of
breaching that policy this is more
important now than ever as the number of
places has grown over the years and it
is a much more competitive market than
in the
past while local politicians both state
and federal have offered to investigate
what they might be able to do in a
financial sense no guarantees have been
given therefore does not mean in any way
that they will contribute the funds
required to consolidate on one site
which would cost upwards of $10
million even if we thought the full
funding might come through one day it
would be years in the planning and
construction phase to achieve this you
have 10 seconds more Council Esakoff I'd
like another minute please councilors Zmood
councilors Pennicuik all those in favour
go ahead Council
Esakoff I've talked about the years of
planning and construction phase to
achieve this and then still begs the
question of whether Council should
remain in the business of operating
child care or concentrate on their core
business during that those functions
operate effectively which is the
priority of our residents if the surveys
are
accurate ? a decision tonight I have
had a look at all aspects including of
course our fiduciary duty and respons
responsibility on behalf of our rate
payers I've listened to the impacted
families and absolutely feel their pain
as a decision maker for all of glena I
must make decisions that are in the best
interest of the municipality as a whole
and I believe based on what we have read
and of all of the information received
that closing the three as printed in the
recommendation is the most sensible and
most judicious decision taking into
consideration all of these factors thank
you councilors Esakoff does anyone wish to
speak against this
motion councilors
atopis before I start to speak uh could
I please ask for an extension of time
just so that I can not have the flow
stopped halfway through my my speech but
um and if I could ask kindly to start the
time once this potential extension comes
through how many minutes would you like
I I'll ask for five I don't want to be
too
greedy councilor Zmood Mayor I have a second
for that councilors Pennicuik uh all those in
favour carried unanimously go ahead
Council ? thank you and I just want
to start really by not being
negative especially to my colleagues
because uh if we are to change course
tonight in my opinion we're going to
have to win the hearts and minds of some
people within this chamber so I do want
to acknowledge that for them regardless
of where they're going to get to tonight
it is a very difficult decision for them
to make but I'm hoping um because I'm
ever The Optimist that I might be able
to win some hearts and some
Minds
um the question really well a question
was posed to us earli is whether we
should or be in it but I'd like to
reframe that question question I'd like
to ask and for all the councilors to
consider is that should we have been
already operating at Cost neutrality
should we have secured funding to ensure
the long-term prosperity and investment
in the centres would this it even be in
front of
council and that's an important question
to ponder with what I'm about to propose
to
everybody if I just want to spend a
little bit of time just to explain how
this could work if it was to go the way
that I'd love it to go in my mind so to
right now we have a mover and second for
as printed in the agenda to everyone's
seen there uh it could not pass there
could be not enough councilorsin here
tonight that don't vote for that and
therefore it lapses and if it does lapse
they're could be an alternate that me
that is put forward I'll explain what
that alternate is in a second and then
we could argue about that we just agree
all of us on that one and and pass that
so at this point uh we don't know
whether that's going to happen or not
but that is a possibility if that was to
occur this is what I would propose to my
fellow counil is that Council continues
to operate corfield Cari and M be erc's
for a period of 4 years could be two
years I'll be happy to do that even with
the following conditions that a we take
up the offer to work with both state and
federal government to develop a
structure and funding model that
encourages small scale LC operations to
be financially viable B take up the
offer and work with the state and
federal government to develop a Works
funding program to fund GLC upgrade take
up C take up the offer and work with
both state and federal government to
develop ERC modeling of funding that can
be used across Ross the country and
finally by the end of 2027 or 25 it was
a 2-year extension if we achieve cost
neutrality we will continue operating
the three erc's if cost neutrality has
been achieved by that time or if cost
neutrality hasn't been sry achieved by
that time all three LC's will be closed
on the 31st of December 25 or
27 now I wanted to read that out so
everyone knows that that is a
possibility for councilorsultimately
and the reason why it's critical that
they know that that is a possibility for
Council is because ultimately it is it
is the within our power to make that
decision the next question you to ask is
have we absolutely exhausted all
possibilities to actually make that
happen and this is where I'll start
answering my own questions and in my
view I don't believe that we have
exhausted all
those if given enough
time oh if given enough time there is a
possibility that the creme Del creme
outcome is achieved we achieve cost
neutrality we get the money we needed we
operate in a a very uh amazing
environment that we currently have we
maybe even get some dispensation in
terms of how we operate with
coordinators so that we can uh spread
the load financially from a wage
perspective around the centres that
would be the Primm Prim and it goes all
the way down to kicking the can down the
road which would be just a closure in a
couple years time now that's the scope
of what we could potentially achieve and
I think both of those end of the scales
are worth it number one because if we do
achieve it then obviously that's an
amazing outcome on on the far end and if
we don't just kick the can down the road
this whole audience here and our
community know that we've done our darn
best to make it happen
fundamentally it's it's rare that you
have multiple levels of government and a
cross-section of parties including
Independents coming to your doorstep to
try to help you on something it is very
very rare for for those that have been
only been seven years but I can assure
you anyone that's been in politics for a
reasonable amount of time knows that's a
very rare situation and in my view to
give up that opportunity to work in that
environment to try and actually achieve
something which I I grant is is pretty
much quite a difficult thing to achieve
but to give it a crack why not I've
always been told when I was very little
including at the ages of some of the
kids that were in here that in order for
you to actually win something you
actually have to turn up and
participate tonight if you make a
decision as what's being proposed to
close that does not happen unfortunately
you're not at the starting Gates and
you're not in the
race now I know that it's I'm happy to
to sit in the corner with any one of my
fellow councilorsand point the finger
at other levels of government for not
doing what's necessary for the centres
to be running great no problem but I
can't sit in the same corner with
you if we don't give it a shot to
actually try and Achieve what I'm
proposing here tonight that's where I'll
step out of that corner and
unfortunately have to say that I don't
believe that this Council gave a fair
enough
crack
um
another question to pose is why start
here I get that when considering this it
wasn't just purely because I think Glenn
should be in ALCS or I just love the
ALCS I had to really seriously consider
like the other councilors did about the
financial implications of our
decision that's a serious thing to
actually
consider but I think to myself if we're
going to start somewhere about
addressing this issue why here on 580 or
grand a year I've been prop it has been
said to me that tree pruning is a
perfect example which cost about $1.9
million per year to cancel which is
actually real serious money of cost
shifting actual dollars being spent from
rats because we do agree that part of
this 580 Grand is a notional rent part
it's not real it's just money that's
been put into the equation okay 1.9 me
I'm not saying that it's not legitimate
by the way I'm just saying that that
that's not real actual dollars that are
being spent compared to the pro
dollar Why not start on that that would
have a much bigger impact on our on our
um bottom line immediately
effectively ultimately what I'm asking
everybody here tonight is to give this
an
opportunity I know why you would have
very little faith in other levels of
government because people in this room
have been done before I get it it's
happened but at the end of the day if we
vote tonight as what's been proposed to
close it is impossible for this group of
people to honestly hand on heart and
even with myself say that they believe
that Council gave it the best possible
chance for survival and the best
possible chance to actually fix a system
that we know that is broken the last
point that I'll make I'll ask for an
extension it will be one minute I don't
need more than that Council smood may
have a second councilors parasol can I
put that to the
W carried
unanimously this is probably I can't
shake this from my mind so I'm going to
say it and I I don't mean it to be
offensive but I just can't shake it from
my mind
but last month we were super excited to
elect an all female leadership team at
the city of King at the city of Kingson
I was about to say at the city of
G
and it is really doesn't sit with me
exceptionally well that the first most
significant decision that this council
is probably about to make is in a
service that directly can either
contribute or if it's taken
away be detrimental to the health and
well-being employment empowerment of
women in our
community
are there any other
speakers are there any other speak on
this
motion go ahead councilors
Jang thank you um Madame mayor first
clearly I'm also against the motion an
extension of the closure date by one
term is just not helpful to the families
at all when're not helping when're not
helping I'm very open to various
possibilities including letting others
WR it as councilors McKie mentioned but
the elcs should just remain open closing
at any time in one year is especially
unfair to families with children who are
completing 4 year old kindergarten in
2024 we are asking year old children to
make not one but two huge transitions
within a calendar year you don't need to
be an early childhood educator or a
parent of young children to know how
difficult this can be for the little
ones and this is unfair not just for
four year olds but for all children
currently in our ECS and their families
I don't think I need to talk too much
about this in the past couple months we
have been provided with lots of
firsthand information and feedback by
the
parents I also just want to make it
clear that my objection to the motion
does not mean that I agree with some
unfair opinions that Council officers
report is entirely groundless I
acknowledge all the difficulties and
challenges in council's ERC
Services I'm also with the officers and
my fellow councilorsin recognition of
serious ISS issues and the challenges we
are
facing I'm in no way trying to pretend
that I care more about residents than
those councilorswho support the
recommendation all councilorscare very
much about families and children and
sympathize with their
difficulties but as I have always
believed there are often no black and
white answers to items voted in voted on
in Council most of our items whether you
vote vote for or against have pros and
cons today I'm voting against the motion
of closing our elcs in three months not
means I don't understand the risks and
the difficulties of keeping the elcs
open I just hope that we can give
everyone some time as councilors esus
mentioned time means possibility means
opportunity means working together to
give things a
try I'm voting against the motion also
does not mean that I'm convinced by the
politicians who are keeping blaming
Council these days it's just
irresponsible to just condemn or blame
without coming up with any practical
offer or
help parents are well prepared to Lobby
state and federal governments how can we
not give them time and
chance and I have to say it's a shame
that the governments have to be lobbied
to to fund the well- needed ELC Services
run by Council for them I mean for the
governments counil would you like an
extension it's just maybe three three
minutes three minutes yes councilors SM
councilors penq can we put that all to
what carried unanimously go ahead
Council thank you so all all I just hope
that we can extend a possible closure to
um maybe December 2025 as councilor and
suggested um and use the next couple of
years to fully explore opportunities
including funding from governments
collaborating with not for-profit and or
private sections and improving Financial
sustainability Council should certainly
use rck payers money responsibly and
prioritize the provision of its core
Services that's why I agree that we
cannot continue operating the usfc at
loss forever so thanks to councilors
anopolis for raising the potential
alternative of pursuing cost of
neutrality by December 2025 I believe
that two years is a fair period of time
for governments Council families and
Community to work out a sustainable
future for those efcs thank
you thank you councilors
J
are there any other speakers to this
motion councilors
peniku uh thank you mayor mcade and
thank you to the previous councilorsfor
their remarks and I will try not to
repeat any of any of the points made big
pardon I want to start by thanking the
parents and relatives of the children
who attend the council elc's who have
contact Ed US during the consultation
process many of you have put a lot of
time and effort into your emails and
reports and I appreciate and understand
your genuine and heartfelt attachment to
and support of our elc's and in
particular our dedicated staff we all
know how good the centres are and how
exception exceptional our staff are this
is not in question but it is also not
the question before
us I also want to thank our c directors
officers and staff who have put an
enormous amount of work into collecting
information and providing it to the
community in a professional and timely
manner there has been a lot for all of
us to read and
digest I have read and responded to
every person who sent me an email
although not necessarily responded to
every subsequent email they sent as the
answer would be the same I am
considering all the information that I'm
required to consider under The Local
Government Act in order to come to a
decision that is in the best interest of
the whole
Community if I have mised getting back
to anyone please know that is
inadvertent I have spoken to many
parents as
well I will be supporting the
recommendation despite it being at odds
with my personal philosophy about how
Child Care should be provided in
Australia I believe that child care and
in the context of this decision before
us tonight I mean long dayare and
occasional dayare of children between
not to 5 years that is not
kindergarten I believe it should be
provided directly by government ideally
close to primary schools or by not for
profit
centres however the child care system if
you can call it a system is not set up
to lead to that
outcome there should not be any
for-profit providers in child care just
are not in school RS but in 2023
for-profit providers make up 50% or more
of the provision of child care in
Australia unlike the school sector where
schools normally cannot receive
Government funding if they are for
profit private child care providers can
be for profit and receive government
support as I said about 50% of the
private for profit of child care
providers are private for profit
approximately 30 5% are private not for
profit only 11% are managed by state or
local governments and 4% by
non-government
schools councilors pen would you like an
extension how many minutes two is
councilor smood councilors
McGee all those in favour carried
unanimously thank you thank you
councilors this is squarely the fault of
successive Federal governments who have
allowed the situation to infold to
unfold unchecked over many years
starting with the Haw government which
in instead of funding Supply started
funding
demand in some ways this was
understandable as in many respects Child
Care is demand driven as families need
or want different amounts of it and it
was primarily seen as a labor market
issue not about education of children
although this has changed in recent
years parents have talked about the
importance of early learning to all
children I agree but only 45% of
children attend any learning Early
Learning before kindergarten and if a
child's parent is not working studying
or volunteering that parent is not
eligible for the Commonwealth Child Care
Subsidy and so that child has no access
to Early Learning before kindergarten
that's the majority of children in
Australia the a c and the productivity
commission are making some
recommendations about getting rid of the
totally unfair compx and
administratively ridiculous activity
tests that decide eligibility but their
final reports are some way off and then
the federal government will have months
if not years to consider its response
all too late for
glenara but if this is done it will be a
big step towards achieving universal
access which is what we
need
um yeah every child should have access
the PC draft report states that every
child should have access to up to three
days a week of high quality Early
Childhood Education and Care um e ECU
Advocates have been asking for this for
years I believe that the only criteria
by which a parent or carer should be
assessed as being eligible for child
care is whether they have a
child I also personally believe that
child care as described earlier should
be handed to the states and territories
to run with funding similar to that of
the national partnership agreement for
kindergarten I could see a lot about
that but time does not
permit it is important to put the
situation of char Clair and Glenn in in
the context of the provision of child
care throughout
Australia research that I participated
in in
2122 found that the provision of child
care in Australia is very unequal about
36.5% of children a aged not to 4 years
live live in neighborhoods that we
classified as child care deserts where
there are fewer than .3 child care
places per child or in other words more
than three children per one child care
place our outer suburbs Regional and
remote areas are most likely to be Child
Care deserts councilor pen yes would you
like a further extension how many
minutes no four
councilors smoo can I have a second
councilors McGee all in favour thank you K
thank you councilorsI'm just trying to
outline the situation The Wider
situation we find ourselves in our most
disadvantaged communities have the least
access to child care about 1 million
Australians have no access to child care
at
all Glenn Ira is not in a child care
desert in 2021 there one there were 1.3
places per child and given that most
children donors tend 5 days a week
that's very good access compared to the
rest of Australia and this is set to
increase in coming years only about 12%
of Australians live in a child care
Oasis and glena is one of those
areas glena elc's cater for 115 child
cleare
places that is the care of children in
long day care that is not kindergarten
only 2% of the child care places in in
count or in Council centres and that
proportion will
fall become few less as the new centres
open I have heard very clearly from
families who have their children
enrolled in our centres do not want to
to move or have any to any of the other
options they see the other centres
particularly the private for-profit run
centres as inferior to the council run
centres this may or may not be fair to
absolutely all of the for-profit centres
but research has shown that this is
generally to be true in child care in
age care and in disability
services not for profit centres have a
better
reputation but the federal government
who holds all the responsibility and the
funding leevers is going down this path
this is not something local government
can solve nothing has been done to stem
the growth of for-profit child
care the increase in the Cher subsidy by
the current government while welcomed by
parents signal very clearly that the
current government is supporting the
current system and has no plans the
current marketized system and has no
plans to do anything
differently many parents have asked us
to consider the children we must and we
do do that but we must consider all the
children of glena there has been a lot
of to and foro about the costs and
losses to Council of providing child
care in the Aging centres but even in
the best case scenario the centres would
still run at a loss of
$143,000 per year which is a
$1,243 direct subsidy from Council to
each child in a council ELC which none
of the 98% of other children attending
child care in Glenn Ira
receive state and federal MPS have
inserted themselves into this issue and
the best that we can set said of that it
is not very helpful State MPS can't do
anything because Child Care is a federal
government
responsibility no grants are available
from the state government for child care
that is not
kindergarten fif Federal MPS in
particular government MPS have been
talking to parents and on social media
and the Airways criticizing an a ranging
Council but have offered nothing but
empty promises contrary to what many
parents believe no assistance has been
offered to council and I would be
extremely surprised if it was a letter
to council from the federal Minister
responsible for child care asked us to
reconsider but offered no help help if
help was to be offered now is the time
to be fair to the minister if I was in
her position and had responsibility for
the prision of child care across
Australia where almost 40% of it is a
child care desert I would not be priori
in Glenn Ira which in comparison to
other parts of Australia which have
little to absolutely no child care is a
wash with child care
options there is no imperative for
Council to provide child care
as there was 30 years ago the whole
system needs a complete overhaul but
there is no sign of that from the
government I hope that the members for
Higgins and McNamara instead of
attacking Council and using the issue as
a political football will take up this
this up as their Co cause to fix child
care as it is needed and it's
desperately needed and it is a federal
government
responsibility along with the require to
make decisions for Char councilor pen do
you need a further extension minutes
councilors councilors McGee all in favour
carried unanimously thank you councilors
along with the requirement to make
decisions which are in the best interest
for the whole municipality councils are
required to make fan financially
responsible decisions the Victorian
aitor general office monitors the
financial position of councils we all as
Glenn Ira Council know that we do not
have the funds now or in the foreseeable
future to make the capital Investments
that the cenes require or to continue
operating them at a loss more and more
councils are getting out of child care
because councils are not supported by
the responsible level of government to
provide it parents pointed to Kingston
ELC H but Kingston is in a very
different financial position from Glenn
Ira unlike the other councils unlike
other Council glena entered the of rate
capping and the pandemic as the lowest
rating Council and with little Surplus
cash post pandemic with the rising
interest rates construction costs Etc
existing projects have put pressure on
the budget we have to make savings and
work within our financial constraints
that is the situation facing us we are
legally required to do
this so I will support the
recommendation because it's the only
responsible option given everything I
said I have said even though it is very
far preferred vision of how Child Care
should be provided in this country what
weighs most heavily on me is the impact
on sta on the staff of the centres for
whom this will have the most longlasting
effects I know what is like to be made
redundant from a job you love it is very
hard page 19 of the Agenda Report
outlines how Council officers can assist
both staff and families with the long
transition period of the recommendation
it is very
comprehensive given the a large amount
of information and evidence and feedback
that Council have had to consider I
don't believe it would be responsible or
staff families or the rest of the
community to kick this can down the road
and leave the decision to others even
though I do truly wish things were
otherwise thank you thank you councilors
is p any other
speakers
I haven't
se
councilor coun M uh thank you can I
actually ask for an extension now please
yes and how many minutes would you like
how many can I have five
yes councilors P you councilors McGee can
I put that to the
bo can
unanimously uh thank you and um thank
you everyone for coming tonight at this
really busy time of the year uh I can
hear everyone's concern I think um this
decision is causing from what we've
heard stress for ESC families and staff
and I'm really sensitive to that I'd
like to thank everyone for their input
uh for the hard work of council officers
um the work that they do doesn't always
reflect their personal opinions um but
they do the analysis um they' responded
to councilor questions they've responded
to community questions I'd like to thank
all the family for their feedback the
surveys filling out the survey the
emails the phone calls the online
petition the parent initiated survey the
childcare services review report by some
of the ELC families and also the wider
Community feedback um and who from
family and friends um in the community
who are generally um call for feedback I
have someone I've known from almost my
entire life call me as soon as it was
announced to say ah Council tried to do
this however 15 years ago however long
it was and here it comes and shared
their opinion um and they don't even
have any children in school let alone
University their children are much older
um this is as another Council told me
difficult decisions and difficult to
make um and it does as uh councilor
Jiang has mentioned is that no one's
making these decisions lightly um I
wanted to make a few comments on on the
process the steps that were followed um
were according to the Local Government
Act our EA they were the steps that was
required however I have raised concerns
right from the beginning about the
timing of of when things happened uh
particularly in the fact that this was
announced um after people already had to
put in their applications for next
year's positions I have four children
each of them went to child care when I
went back to work one was at uh in Elon
Wick um Council um childcare or crash in
those days which is no longer there so
that's two um childcare centres that
glenara has obviously closed since I've
been a parent I didn't know about the
other one
um the timing I think was just it makes
it incredibly difficult the other aspect
of the timing is just the very short
notice uh and I know that based on the
feedback the officers have have um given
us their suggested closing at the end of
term one which I think um at least
should help people with a bit more time
to make changes
can you just please let me finish don't
jump to conclusions about what I'm
saying um I was never going to support
closing at the end of the year um that
made me incredibly uncomfortable we were
asked to make three well given three
options one was maintain the status quo
but possibly um increasing the cost
another one was Child Care Hub and the
third option was closing and the the
recommendation that's come to us tonight
is to actually close I want to comment a
bit on the community feedback because
and apologize the fact that I had a very
diff ult time in October and I wasn't
able to respond to people quickly um H
just for personal reasons and I do
apologize to anyone that I didn't manage
to return their phone calls or email
back um you will obviously with the
number of people here recognize we're
also facing a large number of of
communications um I know some people I
did manage to speak to on the phone once
or twice some phone calls I've still got
in my list of of phone calls to return
the feedback I got was that our
community quite clearly particularly the
families using them actually highly Valu
council's Child Care centres um we also
hear from the STA that they are great
places to work um we've heard that it's
actually not the physical facilities
that that families value it's it doesn't
bother them that the centres are old
style they repurposed homes um in actual
fact as I toured um the three centres we
have um the other week so corfield kegi
with many of my fellow councilorsI
might add
um actually felt like the child care
center that my children went to um very
much a home that had been repurposed um
at those time they didn't provide food
or nappies so the experience that you're
having is very much something that I
experienced um and for us it was about
the quality of care um the staff are
excellent I think everyone has
acknowledged that um it's a great place
to work staff are there longterm there's
low turnover much fewer agency staff
because we've actually got some casual
staff as well so there's that continuity
of care for for a child throughout the
year but also for a family members
when you go into the different rooms you
already know a lot of the staff um I
think also something that's really
really um clear is because of the
limitations of the physical structure of
our facilities the small rooms have a
small number of children in each group
we can't actually even put the number of
children that the ratios would allow
because of of the space um and I have to
acknowledge also having been a parent of
a child this is particularly beneficial
for some um children um who might be
overwhelmed by large modern centres who
might have disability
um audit processing deficits the large
cent is actually not going to be
functional and I think for one of my
children that would have absolutely been
the case um I think also what I've
sensed um from the communication that
our centres actually provide a building
of community for families that families
particularly possibly with their oldest
children their firsttime parents um have
managed to form close-knit support
networks amongst the people that the are
parents and this is very valuable we
obious spend a lot of thought and effort
into trying to build community glenara
um and I think this was very evident for
me um during Co when I heard so many
stories about neighbors helping
neighbors checking on people um you know
doing projects that fitted in with the
rules um and getting outside I think all
of this should be noted and it is being
recorded and going on record um as a
number of councilorsCouncil McGee
started with um how did Glenn ARA get to
this position of even having this DEC
decision before us and there are a
number of of leg Legacy aspects um the
federal government certainly even in the
time that my children and my baby um is
17 and just finished year 12 so we've
had a very exciting week obviously with
certificates and those things coming in
the mail so it's 14 15 years ago since
she was in child care but in the whole
time that my children in childcare over
10 year period the federal government
kept on changing the rules about the
ratios for educators space per child um
the reality that it creates now is it
actually makes small centres financially
unviable and I think this is something
as as
councilor penu was said is that the
federal government actually needs to
address that there is a gap in the
market that some people want for their
children that the current rules do not
allow enable very or certainly not very
easily um making small centres
financially unviable is not a problem in
the sense of it being a cost for Council
other than the fact that we have a
number of rules that we also need to fit
in with which is the competitive
neutrality policy as some of my fellow
councilors have said um we had a number
of St state and federal MPS contacting
us
um you're trying to exert pressure um I
won't go into my more cynical um
interpretations of their behavior but I
did ask one of the federal um MPS if we
could actually have a written waiver if
he could get us a written waiver before
tonight for competitive neutrality
policy um I've heard crickets um so it's
very nice to um say they're going to you
know that we're going to work together
um but I'm I'm not all that optimistic
other than maybe pre-election when all
of a sudden promises may or may not come
in depending again on I guess the the uh
boundaries within they have to operate
as uh Council penu said um we are also
and I'll thank Council mcge this we are
actually the lowest rating Council in
the mun Metropolitan Melbourne um what
that means is when we look at all of the
different things that Council might want
to do um we have some tough decisions to
make because we either say to everyone
we want to uh maintain or increase
services and to do that we need to
increase our source of income which um
it would be one aspect of that will be
increasing rates there'll be fees and
ser charges for all sorts of things
probably our parking findes would need
to go up and a range of things um there
are also I think and it's became really
clear to me and I I'll mention that
moment councilors do you need a further
extension councilors penu second
councilors McGee all those in favour Carri
unanimously thank you um
I think also quite clearly and the
question has been asked um and this
really struck me when I visited um one
of the Kingston centres is investment in
child care facilities has not been part
of the Strategic plan in glena right we
haven't been looking at how the
economics have been changing um and
trying to adapt for that so certainly
for the last decade if not to um I will
say the whole uh Early Learning and
kindergarten system I I believe and I
work in education actually needs and
overhaul these problems are decades in
the making there are structural issues
in early learning not just for
councilors but actually for for many
child careers hence we've seen a number
of big chains um some of them were for
profit and some of them not for profit
that have have gone under or changed
hands um and one thing that really
concerned me about all the quality
issues that parents are raising is 98%
of our children are actually not going
to council childcare centres and and
you're all telling us that those other
ones are not good enough so we've
actually got really significant issues
uh in early education and when you
actually look
at when you so this is something you
need to take back to both federal and
state politicians because we should I'm
going to pause again and request the guy
Valerie to please remain quiet while
councilor is speaking thank you thank
you um as well as visiting the council
Early Learning centres I went and looked
at Parkdale family and children's um
Center which is an integrated Hub it has
Maternal Child Health immunization
groups childcare kindergartens it was
absolutely amazing it was nothing like
um our Council centres it also doesn't
match this small family environment that
some of the many of the families have
told us that they actually value um so I
just want to kind of couch that in a
context of the different levels of
government and I know other Council
touched on this but the federal
government is responsible for child care
um they don't actually put money into it
directly to Providers it's all about
subsidizing the parents to keep the cost
down they set the Staffing RTI ratios
the indoor and outdoor area ratios um
subsidies are based on family not the
the actual Early Learning Center needs
um and as far as I know there's unlikely
to be any grants coming from the federal
government for that they certainly
haven't told us about grants uh and
they've certainly had two months to come
to us with very very specific
suggestions uh or even starting a really
detailed discussion state government is
responsible for kindergarten they do
have grants but as Council penu said the
chances of us actually getting them is
probably fairly low I want to talk about
what local government does uh and and I
guess how people make their decisions so
theara provides over 100 services to our
community they fall into four categories
there's statutary things things we must
provide things that all councils do
deliver things that we're expected to
deliver and things that are optional
examples of statutary services include
immunization and Maternal Child Health
example of things that all councils do
deliver even though they're not
statutary is our uh litter bin
collection our public Street lighting
things things that councils are expected
to deliver include graffi removal the
central scheme for Kindergartens school
crossing supervision supported play
groups in Youth Services there are many
things that are optional uh and that
many many councils either don't provide
or are choosing not to provide um one of
the things that when I think about what
government does it's about filling the
gaps for needs that the community has um
that are not being provided by other
sectors whether that's other levels of
government whether it's not for profits
or whether it is and I am almost at the
end um or or um the not for-profit
Community sectors
so I think as was outlined previously
when my children were young there
actually weren't enough Child Care
spaces you have about 5 Seconds
councilor SM one minute thank
you councilor penq councilor parasol all
those in
favour thank you I'll wrap up um so I
guess the question that and that this is
the the part about difficult decisions
being made difficult to make is um is
this actually filling a gap and now it's
to me it's clearly not uh the council
services are filling the gap of a
specific type of service um in terms of
that really um small Cent quality of
care close relationship with service PRS
but it's not filling so it's very much
about the people side of it rather than
the facilities side of it um what I will
say is that for me the timing of the
issue was just a really really critical
factor that um if the decision had come
to us in July or August this year before
the September I would probably be
looking at it somewhat differently um
I'm not going to support the
recommendation
tonight but I will I will ask that if
the majority decision tonight is to
close um that we do conduct as quickly
as possible strategic property review of
the site and uh hopefully that one of
the or the suggestion will be to take
our sites out for an expression of
Interest Community to see if any of them
will provide Early Learning Services um
but fundamentally to me it's not just
about whether this is the right decision
but but about it's not just about making
the right decision but it's actually how
we make the decisions and um I've always
been very very concerned about the
timing of when it was brought to the
community and the timing of the close so
that's where I sit thank
you
councilor
parasol thank you mayor
K uh I want to also Echo the thanks of
everybody that's been involved in this
campaign I think you did a fantastic job
really and uh I hope that things work
out for
you um I also want to thank all my
fellow councilorsfor everything that
they' have said and put forward to us
today I joined Council to help the
community and I don't have any personal
or political
agendas but I do want to do what I think
is best for all the
community and I'd have to say that I'm
very proud of our city and our
Council the offices led by Saunders
Angela meros our CEO Rebecca McKenzie
the directors and sta councilors have
all had a most difficult decision to
make the recommendation was not
taken
lightly a lot of thought preparation
feedback and consultation went into the
recommendation as stated before the
Early Learning centres were set up in
the '90s to fulfill Community
needs today I believe it is a government
matter both state and
federal and their responsibility the
members of parliament have met spoken to
councilorsfor many many
weeks but apart from talk and telling
Council to wait they have not come up
with any solutions or even offered
anything to
US government federal and state has had
the time to do
something action in a positive fashion
if they are really
serious they just want to blame the
council and we cop everything for things
that they should be helping
with and should be responsible
for ESC is not a council core business
but it's has been done really well has
been stated by everybody and councilors
as
well another 12 months as
suggested would be an ideal outcome but
to do that there are lots of
challenges keeping the staff
engaged
meaning the their supervision may not
necessarily be at of the standard that
you now have staff could leave and this
would impact on the quality of the care
of the children councilors parasol would
you like an extension thank you how many
minutes three councilors sh councilors MC
all those in favour carried
unanimously and then we'll have the
problem of the right mix of the
staff you need teachers with diploma you
need staff with certificate
threes so we could easily lose all that
in the time if we put a time limit on
it personally like many of you parents I
have had many many sleepless
nights thinking about this matter
weighing up what to do with the
preliminary decision of whether to close
the
elc's I really feel for the parents and
the children and I have heard and read
the impact it has had on many parents
and
families for us it is absolutely a big
decision for all involved the officers
the directors
councilorshave not been immune and
certainly are concerned and have taken
the
recommendation very
seriously as I
have but I
think sorry I repeat that we have not
taken the recommendation lightly and nor
have
I I just wish the federal and state
governments would have come and assisted
us right now
today I know that the council officers
and staff will do all they can in all
possible ways to assist the families and
children to transition and
move whilst I would love to keep the
elc's open for at least another 12
months with a heavy
heart I'll join my fellow councilors
that vote to follow the recommendation
to close the elc's on the 28th of March
224 as I think this is a decision that
is the best one for the whole community
of ganara thank you thank you councilors
parasol and I would ask the gallery to
please be respectful
of councilorswhen they're
speaking just so the gallery is aware
each councilor gets three minutes other
than the Mover who gets 5 minutes yet an
extension is in addition to that time so
since all my fellow councilorshave
spoken I have a few words to stay on say
matter as well thank you for your
feedback and the time and the effort you
have taken to engage with all of us and
offic on this issue I see the passion
with which you have engaged with Council
and the message is clear that you value
the service that Council provides and
also are appreciative of the commitment
of the Educators I also recognize that
this has been a challenging time for
parents and Educators alike I want the
Educators to also know that we have
taken on board all the feedback and
value the time that you have taken to
provide your views on the preliminary
decision to us we are truly appreciative
of your dedication and the wonderful
work you all do to make a difference in
the lives of the children who are in
your Care thank you as councilors Esakoff
has stated previously I too wasn't able
to talk to as many people as I would
have liked to after the threat of legal
action in the lead up to council's final
decision and I would like to apologize
to those residents I have not got back
to I want you all to know that this is
not an easy decision for any councilors
to make we have may had many lengthy
discussions well into the night on some
days deliberating over many aspects of
this
issue according to the Local Government
Act the role of council is to provide
good governance for the benefit and
well-being of the municipal Community
good governance means we must take into
account both Community priorities and
our long-term Financial
sustainability that's why we reviewed
our child care services and made a
preliminary decision to close our three
Early Learning centres the discussion
paper provided information about the
review We conducted to understand better
how the services could operate
sustainably into the future with its
aging infrastructure increasing
operating losses The Growing Child Care
Market in the municipality and the state
and Commonwealth early years reform
agendas these centres as you have heard
were established in the 1990s where
opportunities for child care services
were very limited child care places in
glena have doubled since 2010 and since
2019 there has been an increase of
44% the centres will continue to run at
a loss for of at least $3.1 million over
the next 5 years this loss is borne by
the rate payers of Glenn
Ira as a councilor I must consider the
current and future service demands of
our entire community and provide value
to the whole Community I must ensure
that rate payer funds are used
responsibly I have had many
conversations
with members of the community community
who have actually asked me questions
about why Council continues to subsidize
child care services when there is a
strong supply of child care places in
the
municipality as a council we are
accountable to over 150,000 residents to
use the rates they pay responsibly I
don't think that my gender has any
relevance to that issue at and as an
elected representative whatever my
gender I need to make hard decisions
sometimes to take the action that needs
to be taken and not Kick the Can down
the road the decisions we make as a
council May disappoint some in our
community sometimes but there are many
beting priorities and difficult choices
that we have to sometimes make as a
councilor that is the burden that rests
on my shoulders I need to wear up the
choices before me having taken into
account submissions made by the com
community and that is a responsibility I
don't take
lightly as you have heard Council
provides over 120 services to our local
community and costs have show soed in
recent times it makes it harder to
sustain these Services good governance
involves weighing up the competing
priori seeing what services are created
for by other providers in the community
and ensuring that we are providing
services and filling in the gaps for the
benefit of the broader and vulnerable
members of the community the report
talks about the Aging infrastructure of
the centres we have heard from parents
that the centres have a homely feeli and
that they value that aspect these
centres were built at a time when space
and ratio requirements were different to
what they are today this restricts the
number of children that can be enrolled
in the centres which in turn reduces the
level of income for these three centres
I have heard from parents that the space
is suitable for the small number of CH
children enrolled in each Center as this
is their preference Council has also
considered the needs of the staff in the
riew and noted that the centres do not
have contemporary spaces for the staff
to rest eat plan and document their work
comparisons have been drawn to child
care facilities in neighboring
municipalities which I would like to
address the city of Kingston has three
hubs with over 120 places in each Center
and Kingston City Council made a
significant investment a few years ago
when building these hubs what we have
heard from parents in the feedback
received is that they want our centres
to say stay the same as the preference
is for small rooms and limited numbers
Port Philip runs four Council owned and
operated centres and provides 33% of the
total number of child care places in the
municipality whereas
glena has three Council run centres and
accounts for 2% of the child care places
in the municipality there has been
reference made to centres run by Bayside
but they closed their centres in 2015
and there are no council run centres in
Bayside there have been many questions
too around the notional rent payment I
would like to reiterate that Council
operates in a competitive Empire
environment in respect to its child care
services the competitive neutrality
policy requires Council to adopt a full
costing methodology which includes both
direct and indirect costs and Council
must comply with this
policy may I have an extension thank
thank you
councilors thank you councilors Peno can
you put that to the word five minutes
thank you carried
unanimously the competitive neutral
neutrality policy ensures that Council
and government businesses compete on an
equal with non-government businesses the
commentary from other levels of
government on the issue has been
disheartening to say the very least the
there have been comments on the issue
which shows quite clearly that no
attempt has been made to understand the
constraints within which Council has to
operate and the regulations we are
required to comply with there has been
an attempt to simplify the issue to
merely whether the centres should stay
open or whether they should be closed
what has been missed is that there is a
level of complexity to this issue any M
was at least made to thoroughly
understand the complexities of the issue
I think we would have been able to have
better more productive
conversations rather the approach has
been to Heap blame on Council today we
have received no tangible offers of
funding and I repeat no tangible offers
of funding we I I must insist that you
respect the meeting process and remain
quiet we are regularly having
discussions with both our state and
federal members on a variety of issues
but no attempt has been made to address
the issues and provide funding that
would address the needs around the
long-term Financial sustainability of
council we will continue to work with
all members of parliament both state and
federal and my door is open and will
continue to stay open to explore
Creative Solutions but taking the high
road and heaping blame while offering no
funding is not the way to solve a
problem together we have heard from the
community that if Council makes the
decision to close these centres in
December they will find it difficult to
find new places we have taken that
feedback and on board and extended the
time frame for closing till March 28
2024 we also recognize the need to help
parents find Alternative Care and
Council will provide active support to
parents to manage that transition I
encourage you to engage and actively
work with family support
officers who are committed to assisting
families at this difficult time should
the decision to clothes be made this
evening finally our wonderful Educators
we will help you find a new role either
through redeployment in Council I'll
provide you with the necessary career
support so I encourage you to please let
us know what assistance you need thank
you I will now ask the Mover councilors M
to sum
up Madame May thank you and there's an
awful lot to unpack here this evening
and can I just start by saying we as a
councel group we did actually look at
extended periods extending the closure
time but most of that uh put up more
problems than it
solved the the the uh if you continue to
disrupt the meeting I may have to ask
you to leave the gallery thank you a few
um comments that were made and and I'll
just touch on the um Council of
thanopoulos is uh Power Line clearing
Council has no uh no option but to clear
those lines because if we don't we get
fined we get charged that's a statutory
requirement of government it we brought
in through the bush fire Royal
commission and imposed on us and you are
right it's costing US $ 1.9 million it's
disgrace that we have to cut our trees
to keep our trees away from someone
else's power lines that should be a
government that does that not
us councilors every Council that's
entered this chamber the first time
they've ever walked into this chamber
has done the same thing they've signed a
document that makes them the responsible
authority to act on behalf of the
citizens of glenara you take a pledge to
do your duty now that's not like being
on the board of a tennis club or a
soccer club this is a statutory
obligation both in planning in
budgeting in every aspect of council
business right down
to awarding contracts you are the
responsible Authority it' be so easy so
easy to each council meeting to come
here yeah that um yeah thank
you I would ask you to kindly refrain
from interrupting councilors McGee this
is like my fifth
reminder the time frame everyone M mayor
Madam mayor
we councilor unfortunately I have given
you multiple warnings I cannot continue
to tolerate any further disruption to
this council
meeting and in accordance with 52 in
Brackets one of the glena governance
rules I'm going to ask you to please
leave the chamber unless you can remain
quiet mam
mayor
Madam May moving for moving forward it'
be so easy for any councilors to stand up
here and be popular but popular doesn't
answer questions popular doesn't Advance
our city this has been by far the most
challenging decision that I've ever had
to make as a
councilor it has been a a decision that
has changed many times over the the last
couple of
months um I've heard everything from
disgraceful phone
calls to members of my own family
telling me you can't do
this um we have heard we've heard from
community members I hope you die before
you
vote and that just a couple of weeks
before Council has actually passed away
and I think that was pretty
disgusting Madame mayor we stand here as
the responsible Authority not the
popular Authority
there is no right or wrong vote tonight
councilors athos's vote is no different
to councilors esos none of them is Right
none of them is wrong none of them are
shameful none of them are
against they're all about who we are
each and every councilor in every
Council in Australia is elected by their
peers those who believe they have the
same values or they have the values of
those families and we stand here and we
stand by that
I don't want to see a family hurt I
don't want to see a child miss out I
don't want to see anyone go home upset
but Madame mayor my role here is when we
take that oath of office is to the
benefit of all Glenn Ira residents I
believe the the journey we have started
in our financial sustainability to look
closely at opportunities to benefit the
entire glenara Community is what's we
one of those reasons we're making this
decision tonight
I'd hate to be turning around and saying
we can no longer help um provide Meals
on Wheels I would hate to think that our
residential age care and we are the only
Council in Victoria that still runs
residential Age Care this was they were
talking about a little while ago I've
been I've been councilor Mig would you
like an extension thank you Madame
May sorry your time's up sorry your time
is Up 3 minutes
you can't have an extension thank you
for your patience thank
you I would now like to put this to a
vote all those in
favour councilors Esakoff councilors parisol
councilors peniku councilors McGee
councilors
Kate and all those
against councilor e
Tois councilors and councilor
Jen the motion is
carried item five urgent business
Neil just keep going item six closure of
the meeting
this oh wow that's it close the meeting
the meeting is closed